Does Eastern medicine (acupuncture and herbs) really work?

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Permalink Reply by Greg Anderton on April 27, 2009 at 12:57pm

Hi Will,

Again, thanks for you recent contribution. I don't see anything there to qualify the statement I questioned you about originally: "Generally speaking diabetes and cancer are not diseases acupuncture or herbs are going to cure." Again you mention western biomedical etiologies of diabetes and cancer but nothing about Eastern medicine and the treatment of diabetes and cancer with Eastern medicine. You are outside of this discussion topic. Still, your input is very welcome.

Diabetes Type 2 is very easily treated with Eastern medicine. Along with common sense dietary and lifestyle recommendations similar to allopathic doctors, herbal medicine has shown to be very effective in combating diabetes. I have had success with many patients using herbs and acupuncture.

Chinese research has shown the formula "Diaquell" to be 16.3% more effective in lowering blood glucose than the antidiabetic drug glyburide (Micronase) in a comparison study involving 73 patients (42 in the treatment wing, 31 in the comparison wing). [He Nan Zhong Yi Za Zhi (Henan Journal of Chinese Medicine), #5, 2001, p. 19 & 28]
The herbs contained in the formula are:
Huang Qi (Radix Astragali) 68 mg
Xi Yang Shen (Radix Panacis Quinquefolii) 52 mg
Sheng Di (uncooked Radix Rehmanniae) 52 mg
Shan Yao (Radix Dioscoreae) 52 mg
Dan Shen (Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae) 52 mg
Ge Gen (Radix Puerariae) 52 mg
Xuan Shen (Radix Scrophulariae) 52 mg
Chi Shao (Radix Rubra Paeoniae) 52 mg
Mai Men Dong (Tuber Ophiopogonis) 34 mg
Fu Ling (Poria) 34 mg

Working together with a common goal of helping patients is my ideal relationship with Western docs.
Particularly, I'd like to see a little more HEALING in HEALTH CARE.

Thanks,

Greg










Will Hunziker said:

Hi Brian,
Generally speaking diabetes is not a disease acupuncture or herbs is going to cure being either 1) an immune response that kills your beta insulin producing cells in the pancreas or 2) and inability to properly respond to and produce enough insulin. In either case an immune response (acupuncture) is generally not going to help you unless it is with opportunistic ailments accompanying your primary problems. I.e. short term gains from NO O2- vasodilation effects etc... (any acupuncturists can feel free to fill this out a little:) which is good in its own right... however, the cause of the problem is still hard at work.

Otherwise, for Diabetes; first regulate your blood sugar and exercise to stimulate the enzymes Phosphoinositide 3 kinases and Akt which regulate the insulin uptake receptors. Data on antioxidants generally hasn't been gained from people with diabetes (those who have the highest levels of reactive oxidative species) so it's a little inconclusive but much of the data shows that your enzymatic pathways nullify most of the benefits you gets from antioxidant like vitamin e at supplement levels (your body already has amazing antioxidant systems that work much better than antioxidants, and you would need to take much much much more than the daily recommended amounts to have significant effects), otherwise alpha linoic acid has shown some positive results for diabetics in one of the rare good trials.

For enzymatic treatment there has been some promise in epalrestat to divert hypoglycemic conditions from causing a buildup of sorbitol and downstream products in the polyol pathway (AGES, etc) in cells that cannot regulate their sugar intake, epilthelial, etc... reducing osmotic and oxidative stress... a study of 5,278 Japanese showed a 75% improvement ratio in objective symptoms and a 36% ratio of improvement in nerve function. If you have type 1 diabetes they should be coming out with C-peptide to add back into your regular insulin, which should help regulate you blood sugar levels.

Something like cancer, which is a collection of genetic mutations causing unregulated cell growth should be dealt with by doctors, it is not going to be cured reliably by an immune response stimulated by herbs and acupuncture, typically, you need serious, possibly lethal drugs; although you do occasionally hear stories about it working by itself... the body can be amazing. Acupuncture and herbs should more properly be used in conjunction with chemo. In that case, stimulation of the immune system will help it kill the unwanted cancer cells through apoptosis, and speed recovery from symptoms of your primary care. I suppose acupuncture could be more easily adapted to stimulate a response in the necessary regions to spur a healthy immune response.

As far as herbs, typically herbal uses are based on traditional knowledge and cancer or diabetes are traditionally lethal, so really, there is not a good foundation of experience developed over the ages for how to treat things like this. To have a reliable reason to take herbs for cancer or diabetes I would want a strong foundation of western medicine (enzyme product pathways in particular) to supplement my eastern medicinal knowledge; if you can combine the two (an MD and holistic doctor...??? maybe in Boulder:); you may not always be able to because of a lack of knowing exactly how many eastern herbs work... not that that would be a good reason not to take herbs if your ailment was something where we know the herb helps from cultural experience. Otherwise, some basic immune herbs would probably help in a general way.

Anyway, that's all I got:)

Hope that fixes my response for Greg:)

Will

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Permalink Reply by Christopher on May 23, 2009 at 7:26am

I would suggest that one examines why they would assume that so called 'allopathic' medicine which is basically limited to surgery or toxins (drugs) works. It is mainly because that is what has been sold by mainstream media and not necessarily because that is the best option in every case. The Chinese have been practicing acupuncture for far longer than western medicine even existed...why do you suppose that is?

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