China :: Health :: Medicine

Regulators at the US Food and Drug Administration have denied for a second time a sleep aid drug over safety concerns. Trancept Pharmaceuticals formulation of zolpidem tartrate (a similar formulation used in Ambien) has been trying to get approval for a sublingual tablet they hope to market at Intermezzo. This sleep aid would be marketed towards those who wake in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. The problem is regulators have doubts over safety. Taking a dose of this drug with less than 4 hours of sleep time may result in severe morning drowsiness. The stories of sleep driving, sleep walking and sleep falls have all been documented and are receiving attention. Driving While Drowsy is Unsafe According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowsy driving contributes to an estimated 100,000 motor vehicle crashes and about 1,500 deaths each year. In fact, in 2007, FDA regulators requested that all manufacturers of sedative-hypnotic drugs include stronge...

As many of you might have guessed, the new issue of Chinese Medicine Quarterly is coming out on July 20. We are just putting the finishing touches on it now, and Ive never been so excited about Deepest Health as I am now. Our first issue was good full of discussion on the nature of Classical Chinese medicine & some interesting perspectives on what it means to practice our medicine in the contemporary world. But, like all first tries, there were things we could have done better and we were eager to see what we could do with another try. I can tell you that everything you mentioned that you liked about the first issue has been retained and amplified, and weve eliminated most of the first-timer mistakes that kept me up nights! It doesnt mean its going to be perfect, but Im very pleased with the result. One thing I really love about a publication of this nature is the way that multiple, even sometimes contradictory, viewpoints on an important topic like Spirit can appear harmonious ...

I took a lunch break here yesterday. It's winter in Sydney but in the sun it's quite warm. I was looking out for whales (just gets better and better don't it!) Anyway I couldn't see any. Can you? Look out for the bird at the end. Just made it in!

There are a few concepts in Chinese medicine that always inspire animated discussion. One of those topics, often the subject of debate and confusion, is that of spirit. I deliberately use the English word here simply because it is the presence of so many different concepts (Shen, Ling, Hun, Po, etc) that relate to the English word spirit. In fact, that creates part of the mystery and interest at least among English speakers. For my part, Ive gone through various phases in my quest to learn about spirit in the context of Chinese medicine. Ive sometimes avoided the thing entirely, opting instead to focus on simpler ideas. To be frank, it has seemed to me that people focus a little too much on spirit, and not enough on other things! Sometimes, Ive jumped in all the way and waded through the stream of information, talking to many people and reading many texts to clarify my own thinking. Still other times, Ive taken a more personal and internal approach to grappling with spirit and how it ...

Menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, irritability, brain fog and other symptoms seem to be considered the norm for women over the age of 50, yet this in not true for women around the globe. Researchers from the Department of Integrated Health at Westminster University polled 1,000 British women ages 45 to 55 and compared their answers to those of women from the U.S., Canada, Japan and China. The conclusion was that Japanese and Chinese women suffer the least amount of menopause symptoms. British women suffer the most and Americans are somewhere in between. 1 If you want to know how to turn down your body's internal "thermostat" you are in the right place. Alternative medicine, including food therapy, is a viable option for managing menopause symptoms. What causes this disparity between menopausal women in the East and West? In Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China women do not generally seek medical attention for menopause symptoms.9 The reasons fo...

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