Chinese Medicine has developed many methods over the last four thousand years not just to treat medical conditions, but to help strengthen the body and bring it into balance, so as to prevent illness from occurring in the first place.

It is often used to boost the energy, blood and hormones within the body to help it blossom and shine forth with good health.

For over a thousand years, many Chinese have also used its treatments to slow down aging. This has been particularly popular with the wealthy and upper classes in China ...

In 2018, a team of Portuguese researchers reviewed thirteen western based scientific studies on acupuncture.  

This review was published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice and concluded that

“Overall, there is good scientific evidence encouraging acupuncture therapy to treat anxiety disorders as it yields effective outcomes, with fewer side effects than conventional treatment".

And also that “Pharmacology and psychotherapy stand for the conventional treatment for anxiety disorders but these present limited efficacy, especially in the case of chronic anxiety, with high relapse rates and often causing adverse side effects. Clinical research studies render acupuncture as a valid treatment therapy for anxiety disorders without significant adverse effects”.

In the East, Chinese Medicine – herbs, acupuncture and QiGong have all been successfully used for thousands of years to combat anxiety, depression, mood swings, stress, irritability and psychological disorders. They have been widely used for these issues of the mind and emotions on hundreds of millions of people ...

During menopause many women in Western countries experience negative symptoms;  such as hot flushes, night sweats, anxiety, insomnia, vaginal dryness, poor concentration and memory, nausea, depression, mood swings, irritability, feelings of anger, loss of libido, urinary tract infections, dry skin and hair, thirst, brittle nails, and loss of bone density.

Surprisingly in China, most women do not endure these discomforting symptoms at all. In the West it is estimated that approximately 75% of women are affected, whereas in China it is a mere 10%. The reasons behind this are believed to be from differences in diet and from the use of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicines.

In laboratory experiments, organo sulfur compounds found in ordinary garlic have been shown to be effective
in destroying human glioblastoma cells, a common, fast growing and life threatening type of brain tumor.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and appeared in the scientific journal Cancer.

This is the first in a series of articles which shows the benefits of including mushrooms regularly in your diet to help prevent the onset of cancer and to help in the treatment of cancer too.

In Asia many types of mushrooms (from white button mushrooms, to Reishi and Shitake etc.) are often used to help in the treatment of cancer. They are even used with western medical drugs as part of standard treatments in hospitals in Japan.

They are believed to do many things, the most important of which is probably in the strengthening of the immune system which then creates more natural killer cells to attack the cancer.

Two studies published in the journals "Cancer Research" and the "Journal Of Nutrition" by researchers at the Beckman Research Institute in California, found that mice fed diets containing 5 to 10% blueberry powder had significantly reduced growth and spread of their aggressive triple negative breast cancer cells.

These type of breast cancer cells are highly resistant to chemotherapy and account for about 10% of all breast cancer cases.

A study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry by scientists at Texas A&M Agrilife Research, USA, found that breast cancer metastasis had been inhibited by treatments that make use of simple peach extract.

Laboratory tests discovered that compounds in the peaches were beneficial to stopping the metastasis of breast cancer in mice.

Eastern Traditional Medicines have long valued the humble walnut as both a highly nutritious food to enhance health and also as one that can be helpful in the treatment of many illnesses.

Western science is now catching up as it is starting to deliver many studies on how important this variety of nut is to benefiting health. We will be taking a look at lots of these studies that in particular relate to cancer in future blogs.