News & Lifestyle
Posted on 1 December 2008
An Interview with Mazin Al-Khafaji from the RCHM Journal
Posted on 24 September 2008
Acupuncture could boost the chances of a woman becoming pregnant after IVF by more than half.
The effect is so significant that just 10 women needed to combine the treatments for one to conceive who would not otherwise have done...
Posted on 24 September 2008
Acupuncture could help women undergoing fertility treatment become pregnant, new research has found.
Posted on 24 September 2008
Chinese food has a bad reputation in the UK. The rice-heavy meals and fatty meat dishes are thought to lead straight to obesity and heart disease. But properly prepared, says Chinese food expert Lorraine Clissold, the very...
Posted on 11 June 2008
Spring and Chinese Medicine
The beginning of Spring is March 21st, the time of the Spring equinox when day equals night. For the next 6 months daylight, the sun and yang principle will be dominating our lives. Spring is a new beginning – the time of year to rise early with the sun and take brisk walks, yang activities, which reflect the ascending and active nature of Spring. This is nature’s birthing season – the time of creation, development and a new start. Like nature, we flourish in this season - it is the time for new growth in our lives, relationships and work.
Wood Element.
In the Chinese system of the Five Elements (Five Phases), the Spring season is correlated with the element Wood, which governs the gall bladder and liver. The Wood element refers to living, growing entities: trees, plants and the human body. They grow simultaneously out and upward, down and inward. The colour associated with this element is the predominant one of Spring – the green of young plants.
Posted on 11 June 2008
In a study of 497 men and 540 women, 30 years and older, those with a history of tea consumption of between 6 and 10 years showed higher bone mineral density of the lumbar spine than non tea drinkers, and those with over 10 years history of tea consumption showed the highest bone mineral density in all measured regions of the body. (Arch Intern Med. 2002;162:1001-1006).
Posted on 4 June 2008
Cocoa, a key ingredient in most chocolate products, is rich in flavonoids - a natural plant substance that has antioxidant properties. Some flavonoids may have anti-inflammatory effects similar to aspirin. Low concentrations of these flavonoids can reduce platelet activity in the blood, thereby lowering the risk of blood clots. In a study of healthy, nonsmoking adults with no history of heart disease, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that platelet activation was inhibited 2 hours and 6 hours after ingestion of a cocoa-enriched beverage. These results suggest that for healthy people, moderate intake of chocolate over the long-term may inhibit platelet activity and ultimately reduce the risk of heart disease.
Posted on 4 June 2008
Drinking small quantities of alcohol at least three or four times a week could protect men from having a heart attack. Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard School of Public Health Study have found that men who drank moderate amounts of alcohol three or more times a week were up to 35% less likely to have a myocardial infarction than non-drinkers. The researchers tracked the drinking habits of nearly 40,000 men over a 12-year period and looked at the effects of drinking red wine, white wine, beer and spirits. They found that no single type of beverage was better than the other, and drinking with meals made no difference. Frequent consumption was thought to be more effective because alcohol"s effect on clotting and platelets was short-lived. (New England Journal of Medicine. 2003 Jan 9;348(2):109-118)
Posted on 4 June 2008
According to the great Chinese physician Sun Simiao (581 to 682 CE) people have illness "because they do not have love in their life and are not cherished". Now Dr. Dean Ornish (author of Love and Survival), a surgeon who gave up traditional approaches to heart disease in favor of a holistic programme of low-fat diet, exercise and support groups states "those who feel lonely, depressed or isolated are three to five times more likely to suffer premature death or disease. I don't know of anything else across medicine that has such a broad and powerful impact."
Posted on 4 June 2008
According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association written by a team led by Bruce Pomeranz, adverse drug reactions (ADR) have become the USA's fourth-biggest killer. The results of 39 studies of adverse drug reactions suggest that they could affect as many as 2.2 million hospital patients a year, causing 106,000 deaths. This is equivalent to 4.6 per cent of all recorded deaths. An average 6.7% of all hospitalised patients experience an ADR every year, according to the investigators. And these incidence figures are probably conservative, the researchers add, since their ADR definition did not include patient outcomes linked to errors in drug administration, overdoses, drug abuse and therapeutic failures. Another US study has estimated that the overall cost of treating ADRs is up to $4 billion per year.