Homeopathy as treatment for India's Dengue Fever gains popularity.

From India / the Hindu Paper: 

The Government Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital at Tirumangalam near here has been organising special camps to distribute ‘Eupatorium Perfoliatum,’ said to be an effective pill for dengue prevention. On Saturday, the college conducted its 31st dengue prevention camp after obtaining the permission of Madurai Corporation which too is encouraging more homoeopathy and Siddha medical camps to prevent dengue.

“We are witnessing a huge response everywhere owing to increased awareness among the public. There is an adequate stock of medicine and more orders will be placed to meet the demand,” said A.Gopalakrishnan, Principal in-charge of Government Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital.

He told The Hindu that homeopathy medicine for dengue control was becoming popular day by day and voluntary organisations and local bodies were coming forward to sponsor the camps. ‘Eupatorium Perfoliatum’ must be taken in an empty stomach consecutively for three days by adults while the children must take a lesser dose. The dosage should be taken only as prescribed by homoeopathy doctors.

Meditate your way to a better sexual experience?

Many outlets have been touting Meditation as something of a cure-all and a life enhancer. While this can be true, the headline "Meditate Your Way to A Better Sex Life", along with the current era of "all enhancing pills" just seems almost too good to be true. 

But then Yahoo has a top headline that leads a reader to the following: 

According to researchers at Canada's University of British Columbia and Israel's HadassahUniversity Hospital, just a few sessions of meditation can boost your sex drive and speed arousal time.

The researchers measured the reactions of 24 women who were watching an erotic film, then measured for a second time after they attended three 'mindfulness' meditation courses.

Even though the participants were watching the same film, they were more turned on than during the first viewing.

The reasons for this aren't fully understood, but researchers believe the art of meditation allows you to 'turn off' the active part of your brain and focus on specific feelings and sensations instead.

In this interview, researcher Lori Brotto of  the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, a Buddhist meditator herself, describes how she uses mindfulness meditation to help women who are unable to have intercourse because of actual or anticipated pain.

...in the last seven years we’ve carried out at least three studies now adapting the mindfulness based intervention to gynaecologic cancer survivors who we know have a high incidence of sexual side-effects following treatment. And most recently we’ve looked at either three-session or four-session mindfulness intervention versus a wait-list control group, or an education only control group. And women will report improvements in their level of sexual desire, their level of sexual arousal; we also measure the physiological sexual arousal response. We have women come into our lab, we expose them to some short video clips, neutral and erotic video clips and we measure their sexual arousal response  before and after treatment. And not only do we see an increase in the genital arousal response but we also see more agreement between the genital response and women’s self-report of being sexually aroused. So it seems that their mind and their body is more in unison following the intervention.

Read more of the original article here: 

http://www.theidproject.org/blog/nancy-thompson/2012/12/05/daily-connect-meditation-new-viagra

Mistletoe as a treatment for colon cancer?

Extract of mistletoe could either assist chemotherapy or act as an alternative to chemotherapy as a treatment for colon cancer, researchers in Australia said.

For her honors research project at the University of Adelaide, student Zahra Lotfollahi compared the effectiveness of three different types of mistletoe extract and chemotherapy on colon cancer cells. She also compared the impact of mistletoe extract and chemotherapy on healthy intestinal cells.

Professor Gordon Howarth, a Cancer Council senior research fellow at the University of Adelaide, one of Lotfollahi's advisors, said mistletoe extract is already authorized for use for colon cancer in Europe, but not in other countries such as Australia and the United States due to a lack of scientific testing.

From Life Extension: 

"Mistletoe extract has been considered a viable alternative therapy overseas for many years, but it's important for us to understand the science behind it," Howarth said in a statement.

Lotfollahi found one of the mistletoe extracts -- from a species known as Fraxini, which grows on ash trees -- was highly effective against colon cancer cells in cell culture and was gentler on healthy intestinal cells compared with chemotherapy.

Significantly, Fraxini extract was found to be more potent against cancer cells than the chemotherapy drug, Lotfollahi said.

"This is an important result because we know that chemotherapy is effective at killing healthy cells as well as cancer cells," Lotfollahi said. "This can result in severe side effects for the patient, such ulcers in the mouth and hair loss."

Homeopathic remedy for dengue fever now in tests.

A homeopathic drug extracted from a plant native to the US and used as a traditional medicine in that country the 19th century, promises a cure for dengue, says a study by the state-run King Institute of Preventive Medicine.

The King Institute team headed by a Chennai-based homoeopath administered the drug extracted from Eupatorium perfoliatum to 50 patients with secondary dengue and found all of them recovered. "The platelet counts came under control for almost all patients and blood tests showed marked improvement," said King Institute director Dr P Gunasekaran. The study, lead by Dr N R Jayakumar of Madan Homoeo Clinic, was presented at an international symposium on 'Challenges and strategies in the prevention and management of viral infections' at Central Learther Research Institute recently.

Recent Study Brings Ancient Pain Treatment Known as "Cupping" to Renewed Interest.

The ancient art of applying suction cups to the body has gotten a boost from several new studies that show it helps relieve a variety of painful conditions.

from the Wall Street Journal: 

Cupping, as the practice is called, was performed traditionally in China and other countries, and is now available from acupuncturists, and some chiropractors and massage therapists in the U.S. In the traditional method, called fire cupping, a ball of burning cotton is briefly placed inside a glass cup to heat the air inside, which then creates a partial vacuum as it cools. Newer-style plastic or silicone cups have valves that attach to hand pumps used to create suction.

Until recently, there was scant published evidence in favor of cupping for pain relief. Over the past three years, a handful of new studies have shown it helps relieve back, neck, carpal tunnel and knee pain.

There are a number of theories on how cupping may work to relieve pain. A widely held one is that suction on the skin "increases blood flow to the area and creates a mild immune response," says Kathleen Lumiere, an assistant professor of acupuncture and oriental medicine at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Wash. It also helps release fascia, connective tissue that can pull on muscles causing pain or limited motion, clinicians say.

Typically cups are on for up to 20 minutes and leave a temporary reddish mark that looks "like rare roast beef," says Brian K. Nathanson, a Norwalk, Conn., chiropractor who has been doing cupping for about five years.

Some clinicians slide the cups on the body, using them as massage tools in a technique sometimes called running cupping. "People who love deep-tissue massage love cupping," says Gabrielle Francis, a Manhattan chiropractor and acupuncturist who does both static cupping and running cupping. Both can cause mild discomfort in some patients, clinicians say.

In a study of people with neck pain caused by computer use, "cupping therapy was effective in reducing pain," says Tae-Hun Kim, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in Daejeon, South Korea. The 40-person study, published online in September in the Journal of Occupational Health, found that six cupping sessions over two weeks was more effective on average in relieving pain than a heating pad—and the benefit lasted a month after treatment ended.

New Moffitt Research: Supplements may help prevent "Chemo Brain"

Oct. 22--As an environmental consultant, Miriam Zimms was known for her iron-clad memory.

Juggling multiple projects, spreadsheets and scientific data were all in a day's work. "My clients have always said I was Fort Knox," she says.

But that all changed the moment Zimms' doctor said she had breast cancer. For a full year, the 43-year-old's world was taken over by her treatment: chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Fighting for survival was distracting enough, but Zimms also found herself irritated by a growing inability to hold together information in her mental vault. The frustration has grown as the forgetfulness has persisted, two years later.

"It's like someone opened my brain like a jewelry box, put in a tube and filled it with air," Zimms says. "There was a film of air between my brain and skull."

Chemotherapy is the culprit behind Zimms' cognitive struggles. The mental fogginess impairs a cancer patient's ability to process or verbalize ideas and words, for months, even years after treatment ends, says Nagi Kumar, director of nutrition research at Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center.

"It's a serious problem. Ask any breast cancer survivor," says Kumar, who is about to launch a scientific nutritional study at Moffitt to tackle the "chemo brain" condition. "Some are almost resigned to it."

Oncologists -- and most patients -- are understandably so focused on treating tumors that addressing side effects can become secondary. But as the number of long-term breast cancer survivors has ballooned to 11.7 million, more are paying attention to a condition that affects between 30 and 80 percent of them, Kumar says.

A simple nutritional solution is at the heart of the small Moffitt study. Kumar's team created a plant-based and omega-3 fatty acid supplement they hope can improve the cognitive health of breast cancer survivors. The idea is that these supplements thought to be beneficial to people with dementia could lessen the negative effects of chemo brain.

Click to read more ...

New Study: Homeopathy treatment for Hot Flashes found to be effective and have no side effects.

From: Gaia Health 

Hot flashes are the bane of many women going through menopause. They can inconvenient, embarrassing, and even crippling. They are, in fact, a primary reason that many women are willing to risk taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The risks that go along with HRT, though, are not necessary. A new study documents that a combination of homeopathic remedies, currently marketed in France as Acthéane, is effective.

The study is what modern medicine likes to call the Gold Standard: double-blind and both placebo and randomly controlled. It compared two groups of women over 50 years of age, who had not had periods for at least one year, and who had spontaneously complained, during routine gynecological visits, of hot flashes that had lasted for at least two years and had caused significant repercussions in their social or professional lives.

Acthéane produced a near-immediate drop in the severity of hot flashes, which continued throughout the trial. The hot flash score (HFS) after the first week was 15.3 in the Acthéane group and 12.7 in the placebo group, a difference of 2.6, or 17% lower. Both groups’ HFS scores were reduced during the course of the trial, but the difference at the end amounted to 33% – a highly significant reduction.

To see details and graphs from the study please read more here: Acthéane Homeopathic Treatment Found Effective. 

New 6 Year Acupuncture Study Finding: Eases Migraines & Other Chronic Pain.

A new rigorous study of acupuncture the most detailed and scientific to date found that acupuncture can ease migraines and arthritis and other forms of chronic pain. Read More: 

The findings provide strong scientific support for an age-old therapy used by an estimated three million Americans each year. Though acupuncture has been studied for decades, the body of medical research on it has been mixed and mired to some extent by small and poor-quality studies. Financed by the National Institutes of Health and carried out over about half a decade, the new research was a detailed analysis of earlier research that involved data on nearly 18,000 patients.

The researchers, who published their results in Archives of Internal Medicine, found that acupuncture outperformed sham treatments and standard care when used by people suffering from osteoarthritis, migraines and chronic back, neck and shoulder pain.

“This has been a controversial subject for a long time,” said Dr. Andrew J. Vickers, attending research methodologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the lead author of the study. “But when you try to answer the question the right way, as we did, you get very clear answers.

“We think there’s firm evidence supporting acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain.”

Acupuncture, which involves inserting needles at various places on the body to stimulate so-called acupoints, is among the most widely practiced forms of alternative medicine in the country and is offered by many hospitals. Most commonly the treatment is sought by adults looking for relief from chronic pain, though it is also used with growing frequency in children. According to government estimates, about 150,000 children in the United States underwent acupuncture in 2007.

But for all its popularity, questions about its efficacy have long been commonplace. Are those who swear by it experiencing true relief or the psychological balm of the placebo effect?

Dr. Vickers and a team of scientists from around the world — England, Germany, Sweden and elsewhere — sought an answer by pooling years of data. Rather than averaging the results or conclusions from years of previous studies, a common but less rigorous form of meta-analysis, Dr. Vickers and his colleagues first selected 29 randomized studies of acupuncture that they determined to be of high quality. Then they contacted the authors to obtain their raw data, which they scrutinized and pooled for further analysis. This helped them correct for statistical and methodological problems with the previous studies, allowing them to reach more precise and reliable conclusions about whether acupuncture actually works.

All told, the painstaking process took the team about six years. “Replicating pretty much every single number reported in dozens of papers is no quick or easy task,” Dr. Vickers said.

The meta-analysis included studies that compared acupuncture with usual care, like over-the-counter pain relievers and other standard medicines. It also included studies that used sham acupuncture treatments, in which needles were inserted only superficially, for example, or in which patients in control groups were treated with needles that covertly retracted into handles.

Ultimately, Dr. Vickers and his colleagues found that at the end of treatment, about half of the patients treated with true acupuncture reported improvements, compared with about 30 percent of patients who did not undergo it.

“There were 30 or 40 people from all over the world involved in this research, and as a whole the sense was that this was a clinically important effect size,” Dr. Vickers said. That is especially the case, he added, given that acupuncture “is relatively noninvasive and relatively safe.”

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/acupuncture-provides-true-pain-relief-in-study/