NADA Ear Acupuncture and Medical Acupuncture for Pain- and Health-Related Quality of Life among Older Patients with Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Prospective Clinical Trial.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of the NADA (National Acupuncture Detoxification Association)-standardized ear acupuncture protocol in comparison to medical acupuncture (MA) in the treatment of chronic nonspecific low back pain (LBP) in older adults.

Methods: This was a prospective, clinical, single center, open label, comparative study. A total of 60 older patients with chronic nonspecific LBP were enrolled in the study.

Randomized Controlled Trial of Acupressure for Perception of Stress and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Health Care Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Self-Acupressure for Stress (SAS) Trial.

Background: The efficacy of providing self-acupressure educational materials in reducing stress and improving health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is uncertain. Evidence-based data to recommend for or against self-acupressure as an intervention for reducing stress and improving HRQOL is needed.

Objective: The Self-Acupressure for Stress (SAS) trial evaluates whether providing self-acupressure educational materials would reduce stress and improve HRQOL among health care providers (HCPs).

Promoting whole person health: Exploring the role of traditional Chinese medicine in Polish healthcare.

Poland has a unique history of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) dating back to the 17th century when Polish missionary Michael (Michał) Boym was a pioneer in the field. In the 20th century, his successor, Professor Zbigniew Garnuszewski, reintroduced acupuncture to medical practice in Poland. However, other methods of TCM and its holistic approach to patient care have not found their place in modern medicine in Poland.

Menstrual cycle characteristics as an indicator of fertility outcomes: evidence from prospective birth cohort study in China.

Objective: To evidently assess the applicability of regulate menstrual cycle (MC) characteristics in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as an indicator for fertility.

Methods: A community-based prospective cohort study was conducted in China. Between January 2010 and December 2012, women who were willing to conceive within 2 years were enrolled in the study.

Acupuncture for cancer pain: an evidence-based clinical practice guideline.

Background: This study aims to develop an evidence-based clinical practice guideline of acupuncture in the treatment of patients with moderate and severe cancer pain.

Methods: The development of this guideline was triggered by a systematic review published in JAMA Oncology in 2020. We searched databases and websites for evidence on patient preferences and values, and other resources of using acupuncture for treatment of cancer pain.

Reframing Palliative Care: An East-West Integrative Palliative Care Model.

Convergence of principles of palliative care and integrative medicine has led to the introduction of the new practice of integrative palliative care in which integrative therapies (including mind-body modalities, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and dietary supplements) are used to provide symptom management for patients who are dying or experiencing the sequelae of serious illness and its treatment. We propose an East-West Integrative palliative care model using non-drug therapies, such as acupuncture, diet, exercise, and stress management that shift the paradigm from suppressing the symptoms of illness to addressing both the root cause of the symptoms and the imbalance and declining homeostatic reserve that perpetuate these symptoms. This whole-person model expands the reach of palliative care, prolonging a better quality of life and allowing the patient to maintain as many activities as possible by preventing symptoms and improving function.

Chinese herbal medicine might be associated with a lower rate of joint replacement in patients with osteoarthritis: A 12-year population-based matched cohort analysis.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: To determine whether adjuvant Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) treatment is associated with the risk of joint replacement in osteoarthritis (OA) patients.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study used a population-based national health insurance (NHI) database from 2000 to 2012 in Taiwan. A total of 125,023 newly diagnosed OA patients were selected from one million beneficiaries of longitudinal health insurance database.

A Patient-Centered Integrative Approach Improves Visual Field Defect: A Case Report.

We present a case involving a patient with a complicated visual field defect preventing her from renewing her driver license. It highlights the underappreciated role of chronic stress in the genesis and perpetuation of ill health and the potential of Chinese medicine (CM) to complement biomedicine in the treatment of an intractable visual disorder. The patient experienced impaired vision from age 15, and ophthalmologists considered various diagnoses including optic neuritis and acute zonal occult outer retinopathy (AZOOR)-complex disorder with acute macular neuroretinopathy.

Women's preconception health patterns in traditional Chinese medicine as a predictor of fertility outcomes.

Objective: To examine the association between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), preconception health patterns and fertility outcomes.

Methods: A community-based prospective cohort study was conducted in China. A total of 3012 newly married women who were willing to conceive within 2 years were enrolled in the study and took National Free Prepregnancy Checkups (NFPC).

Supportive Care in Lung Cancer: Improving Value in the Era of Modern Therapies.

Driven by a discipline-wide imperative to maximize patient centeredness and value, supportive care services have experienced remarkable growth and acceptance in oncology care. Two such services with a growing evidence base and examples of routine integration into usual oncology care are palliative care and integrative medicine. Both focus on the patient experience with cancer during and after cancer-directed treatments occur, from diagnosis through survivorship or end-of-life care.

Change in Health-Related Quality-of-Life at Group and Individual Levels Over Time in Patients Treated for Chronic Myofascial Neck Pain.

Background: This study evaluated change in health-related quality of life at the group and individual levels in a consecutive series of patients with chronic myofascial neck pain.

Methods: Fifty patients with chronic neck pain self-administered the Short Form-36 Version 2 (SF-36 v2) before treatment and 6 weeks later. Internal consistency reliability was estimated for the 8 scale scores and Mosier's formula was used to estimate reliability of the physical and mental health composite scores.

Parenting Style and Behavior as Longitudinal Predictors of Adolescent Alcohol Use.

Objective: Adolescent alcohol use is a serious problem in Australia and other nations. Longitudinal data on family predictors are valuable to guide parental education efforts. The present study tested Baumrind's proposal that parenting styles are direct predictors of adolescent alcohol use.

[Clinical practice of integrative medicine in the United States and its development in primary care].

The field of integrative medicine (IM) has grown tremendously in the United States over last two decades, in terms of clinical practice, research, and education. Its growing popularity among patients has led to increased need for physicians with appropriate counseling skills and a knowledge base of the efficacy and safety of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies. Family medicine is the first specialty as a whole to embrace IM, which encounters similar ailing conditions and emphasizes similar core values-person centered, evidence based, proactive, and continuous in nature.

A cross-sectional study of provider and patient characteristics associated with outpatient disclosures of dietary supplement use.

Objective: Explore patterns in patients' disclosures of supplement use and identify provider and patient characteristics associated with disclosures.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of 61 outpatient primary care, integrative medicine, and complementary medicine providers, and 603 of their patients. Primary outcomes were supplement disclosures (based on audio recorded office visits, post-visit patient surveys and medical record abstractions for the day of the visits).

Factors Affecting Definitions of and Approaches to Integrative Medicine: A Mixed Methods Study Examining China's Integrative Medicine Development.

Aim. This study identifies existing definitions and approaches among China's integrative medicine (IM) experts and examines relationships with key characteristics distinguishing individual experts. Methods.

Effect of perineal self-acupressure on constipation: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The efficacy of perineal self-acupressure in treating constipation is uncertain.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate whether perineal self-acupressure would improve patient reports of quality of life and bowel function at 4 weeks after training.

Design: A randomized, parallel group trial was conducted.

Introducing considerations in the Translation of Chinese Medicine.

This article introduces the document, Considerations in the Translation of Chinese Medicine, published in PDF form online in both Chinese and English. This 20-page document includes several sections describing why the Considerations is necessary, the specificity of texts in Chinese medicine; the history of translation in Chinese medicine; who constitutes an ideal translator of Chinese medicine; what types of language exist in Chinese medicine; and specific issues in the translation of Chinese medicine, such as domestication versus foreignization, technical terminology, period-specific language, style, polysemy, and etymological translation. The final section offers a brief advisory for consumers, and concludes with a call to further discussion, and action, specifically in the development of international collaborative efforts towards the creation of more rigorous guidelines for the translation of Chinese medicine.

Stress reactivity in traditional Chinese medicine-based subgroups of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine differences in autonomic responses to stress, pain perception, and the role of negative affect in these responses in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) classifications.

Design: Fifty-nine female patients with IBS age 18-65 years diagnosed by TCM practitioners as showing primarily an excess (n=32) or an overlap (n=27) pattern (mixed excess and deficiency) were assessed for symptom differences, heart rate, and skin conductance responses to a psychosocial stressor and pain perception. SETTINGS/LOCATIONS: University of California in Los Angeles, California.

Building an Evidence-Base for TCM and Integrative East-West Medicine: A Review of Recent Developments in Innovative Research Design.

There are many challenges to developing an evidence base for Traditional Chinese Medicine and Integrative East-West Medicine. This article offers a review of these challenges alongside an introduction and review of several innovations in healthcare research that have successfully been applied to the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Integrative Medicine. Such innovations include developments in Whole Systems Research, Comparative Effectiveness Research, Health Services Research, and qualitative Social Sciences Research.