editorial eastern medicine: from nutritional supplements to...

EditorialEastern Medicine: From Nutritional Supplementsto Cancer Research

Dominic P. Lu,1 Yemeng Chen,2 Lixian Xu,3 and Leo M. Lee4

1University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA2New York College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Mineola, NY 11501, USA3Department of Anesthesiology, School of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710032, China4National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, SAIC-Frederick, Inc., Frederick, MD 21702, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to Dominic P. Lu; [email protected]

Received 21 August 2014; Accepted 21 August 2014; Published 21 December 2014

Copyright © 2014 Dominic P. Lu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Throughout human history, complementary and alternativemedicine in the form of folk medicine has emerged andflourished in every civilization, tribe, and continent. Someforms evolved to become traditional medicine and somedisappeared to be forgotten, while others have been labeleduntraditional medicine and are now regarded as complemen-tary and alternative medicine. In the past half century, anincreasing number of patients and health care providers inthe West have become dissatisfied with aspects of traditionalWestern medicine and have turned their attention to thesebranches of untraditional medicine. The term integrative orintegrated medicine was born recently as the popularity grewin incorporating complementary medicine to reinforce gapsto better fulfill the purpose of traditional medicine.

Complementary and alternative medicine includes manybranches such as herbal medicine which increasingly appearsin the form of nutritional supplements to elude increasinggovernmental regulation as demand for these products grow.In an analysis by the International Trade Center that spanned2010–2013, it was estimated that global medicinal plant pro-duction was $50 billion and is growing at a rate of almost 16%annually. The increasing use of various forms of traditionalherbal medicine in combattingmodern illnesses, particularlythe dangerous side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, hasproven to be valuable. However, the absence of proper warn-ing labels concerning drug-herb interaction causes an alarm-ing number of emergency clinic cases due to the unwantedconsequences of some of these interactions.

Acupuncture is one of these aforementioned branchesthat has mademajor inroads intoWesternmedicine. It, alongwith the increased interest and research in herbal medi-cine, is likely the most researched branch of alternative medi-cine in the West. Acupuncture has been recognized for itshealing value by the National Institutes of Health in 1997.The subsequent creation of the National Institute of Com-plementary and Alternative Medicine within the NIH inthe United States and the founding of European Congressof Integrative Medicine has promoted research into thesevarious overlooked disciplines. Understanding the value anddiscovering themerits of each discipline usingmodernWest-ern scientificmethodology is integral in trying to incorporatedesirable aspects into traditional medicine. This special issuereviewed and acceptedmerited articles ranging in topics fromthe current dilemma of Eastern medicine in the West to theproblem of government oversight in the field of herbs that arefrequently and misguidedly marketed as nutritional supple-ments. An article included in this special issue titled “Impactof Chinese herbal medicine on American society and healthcare system: perspective and concern” reflected these issuesand concerns. Also included are articles highlighting researchinto ginkgo biloba and cancer-related herbal research.

Noting all these development, we turn our attentionto a systematic way of doing traditional Chinese medicineresearch. All articles published in this special issue under-score the positive trend of returning to natural approaches forour health care and emphasize better treatment for all typesof human sickness.

Hindawi Publishing CorporationEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative MedicineVolume 2014, Article ID 817126, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/817126

2 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

There were three research articles, in this special issue,on the mechanisms of immune system and apoptosis forthe therapeutic studies of antitumor activities. Both in vitroherbal drugs possess an enormous potential for the cure ofcertain types of cancer diseases.

It is important to have well-designed pharmaceuticalstudies to help explain the millennia old theory of Chineseherbology and themechanism, pharmacodynamics, pharma-cokinetics, and pharmacognostics that elucidate the efficacyof Chinese herbs and unlock its century-old mysteries.The traditional clinical application of traditional Chinesemedicine has been based on the characteristics of taste,flavor, channel entering, and actions of the herbs.This specialissue includes an article entitled “Anti-inflammatory effectsof 81 Chinese herb extracts and their correlation with thecharacteristics of traditional Chinesemedicine” which suggeststhat herbs with pungent flavors be considered the drugsof choice due to their effective anti-inflammatory agentswhich can be evaluated by their effects on nitrogen oxide(NO) production and cell growth in LPS/IFN𝛾-costimulatedmurine macrophage RAW264.7 cells. This discovery couldbe used as one of the criteria to select different Chineseherbs for anti-inflammatory purposes. Also included inthis special issue is an intensive study on the effect ofCryptotanshinone, extracted from the Chinese herb DanShen (Salviamiltiorrhiza Bung) on reversing the reproductiveand metabolic disturbances in polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS) in rats. This study and its analysis into the possibleregulatory mechanism would validate the clinical efficacy ofthis particular herb for the treatment of PCOS patients.

The guest editors of this special issue hope that, throughthe articles accepted and published, we can bridge the gapbetween Western and Eastern medicines and bring themcloser in order to further understand the human bodyand to promote the advancement of health care. Westerncancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy haveadverse effect. Eastern medicine could help mitigate thoseside effects by minimizing the symptoms and reducing dos-age requirements when used in conjunction with currentWestern treatment and therapies. Immunological, enzymaticmolecular biology-related research could benefit from studiesof effective Eastern medicinal treatments. Studies of the waysin which Western mainstream medicine and technology canbe integrated with traditional Eastern medicine are the focusof this special issue.

Dominic P. LuYemeng Chen

Lixian XuLeo M. Lee

Submit your manuscripts athttp://www.hindawi.com

Stem CellsInternational

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014


MEDIATORSINFLAMMATION

of


Behavioural Neurology

EndocrinologyInternational Journal of



Disease Markers


BioMed Research International

OncologyJournal of



Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity


PPAR Research

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

Immunology ResearchHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

Journal of

ObesityJournal of



Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine

OphthalmologyJournal of


Diabetes ResearchJournal of



Research and TreatmentAIDS


Gastroenterology Research and Practice


Parkinson’s Disease

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Volume 2014Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com

editorial eastern medicine: from nutritional supplements to...

Documents