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Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Lifestyle changes & supplements outperform statins

Categories: Lifestyle research

Investigators from the US have carried out a randomised trial involving 74 patients with hypercholesterolemia who were either given 40 mg of simvastatin daily with routine counselling or an alternative treatment with therapeutic lifestyle changes, ingestion of red yeast rice and fish oil supplements for 12 weeks. There was a statistically significant reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholestero ...

Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes in prostate and extends cell lifespan

Categories: Lifestyle research

Nutrition and lifestyle changes may modulate gene expression in the prostate and decrease men's risk of developing prostate cancer. In a pilot study, American researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who had decided against conventional medical treatment. The men underwent three months of intensive lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, ...

Binge drinking increases stroke risk

Categories: Lifestyle research

Binge drinking increases the risk of stroke, according to the results of a Finnish prospective cohort study. 15,965 Finnish men and women age 25 to 64 years who had no history of stroke at baseline were followed up for a 10-year period. Binge drinking was defined as consuming six or more drinks of the same alcoholic beverage in one session for men, or consuming four or more drinks for women. 3558 ...

Exercise protects against breast cancer

Categories: Lifestyle research

Vigorous exercise may protect women against breast cancer. 32,269 women enrolled in the American Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project were asked about physical activity throughout the previous year and followed up over a 20 year period. Researchers found that regular activity such as running, aerobics or heavy housework was associated with a 30% reduced risk of developing breast cancer. T ...

Healthy lifestyle halves premature death in women

Categories: Lifestyle research

More than 50% of deaths in women from chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease could be avoided if they don't smoke, watch their weight, exercise and eat a healthy diet low in red meat and trans-fats. A prospective cohort study, part of the US Nurses' Health Study, followed nearly 77,782 women over a 24-year period. Participants completed detailed follow-up questionnaires every two years ...

Embryo transfer is a laughing matter

Categories: Lifestyle research

The established Israeli practice of 'medical clowning' hit UK headlines in November when it was reported that entertaining women with clowns after embryo transfer could boost IVF pregnancy rates. A team studied 186 women aged 25 to 40 over 10 months, all of whom were undergoing embryo transfer treatment. They found that when women were entertained by a professionally trained clown, while they recu ...

Happiness is infectious

Categories: Lifestyle research

Researchers from the USA have found that happiness can spread from person to person. The data analysed comes from the Framingham Heart Study and involved 4739 individuals followed from 1983 to 2003. Participants were asked to identify their relatives, close friends, place of residence, and place of work to ensure they could be contacted every two to four years for follow-up. Happiness was measured ...

Light drinking in pregnancy does not affect babies

Categories: Lifestyle research

Children born to mothers who drink lightly during pregnancy (one to two units of alcohol per week or per occasion) are not at increased risk of behavioural difficulties or cognitive deficits compared with children of abstinent mothers, according to a large study by UK researchers. The research was based on data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), and included information on the behavioural ...

Antidepressants may impair male fertility

Categories: Lifestyle research

A small preliminary study suggests that antidepressants could impair male fertility by causing DNA damage to sperm. A US team gave 35 healthy men doses of the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor paroxetine) for five weeks, and examined their sperm before treatment and after four weeks. The men's sperm seemed superficially healthy, with normal sperm amount, shape and motility. However when the t ...