Schizophrenia? Use Chinese herbs

Researchers from Cochrane Collaboration reviewed 7 studies on the use of Chinese herbs for schizophrenia:

  • The overall response favoured combining herbal medicine plus antipsychotic drugs vs using antipsychotic drugs alone.
  • Significantly fewer people getting combined treatment left the study early compared with those given antipsychotics alone.
  • The combined treatment group had reduced side effects (like constipation) of the anipsychotic drugs.

Conclusions. Results suggest that combining Chinese herbal medicine with antipsychotics is beneficial.

Chinese Medicine for Polycystic kidney disease

Chinese medicine holds hope preventing polycystic kidney disease

Polycystic kidney disease is the leading cause of fatal kidney failure. It is a genetic disorder. This disease causes uncontrolled growth of cells lining the tubules in the kidneys. The result is the formation of many, large fluid-filled cysts in the kidneys. There is no cure, nor suitable drug to help this condition. The current treatment options are kidney transplant or frequent dialysis.

Looking for treatment alternatives Yale scientists turned to Chinese Medicine. There is an increasing support for Chinese herb, Lei Gong Teng (Radix Tripterygii Wilfordii), it’s been shown to effectively treat arthritis. That’s another incurable condition.

However, it is not the only use of this herb.  We can see it in herbal formulas for cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. More recently, it also has been tested in Phase I clinical trials as an anti-tumor agent.

Furthermore, the study from Yale University found that this Chinese medicine also may stop cyst formation in polycystic kidney disease. Scientists are holding on hope for what would be the first treatment for this disease.

“If we were able to slow the rate of cyst formation by even 10 percent a year, compounded annually, patients would not die from this disease. A relatively small effect would have an enormous clinical benefit,” Dr Crews, one of the study authors said.

Chinese herb Barberine has scientific backing for diabetes

Traditional Chinese medicine for diabetes has scientific backing Reports of a traditional Chinese medicine having beneficial effects for people suffering from type 2 diabetes now has some scientific evidence to back up the claims.

A collaboration between Chinese, Korean, and Australian scientists at Sydney’s Garvan Institute, has revealed that the natural plant product berberine could be a valuable new treatment. Berberine is found in the roots and bark of a number of plants used for medicinal purposes including wound healing and treatment of diarrhoea.

It has also been documented in Chinese literature as having a glucose-lowering effect when administered to people with diabetes; yet, until now, its mode of action was unknown.

Garvan scientist Dr Jiming Ye says: “Our studies in animal models of diabetes show that berberine acts in part by activating an enzyme in the muscle and liver that is involved in improving the sensitivity of the tissue to insulin – this, in turn, helps lower blood sugar levels. In addition, it seems berberine can help reduce body weight”. Current medicines for treating type 2 diabetes include metformin and the TZD group of drugs.

However, a large number of patients cannot tolerate metformin and the TZDs can cause undesirable weight gain. Therefore, developing new safe therapies to treat type 2 diabetes is critical.

“Berberine has been used for decades, if not centuries, with few reported side effects. Given the limitations of existing medicines, we are excited to have evidence that berberine may be a helpful new treatment for type 2 diabetes; however, despite its widespread use in traditional medicine practices, it will still have to be evaluated properly following the defined clinical trials process”, said Professor James, head of the Garvan’s Diabetes & Obesity Research Program and co-author of the Diabetes paper.

The next step is to investigate how berberine activates the enzyme that mediates these ‘insulin-sensitising’ effects.

NOTES: This study will be published in the August issue of ‘Diabetes‘.