immunological Infertility Looked At From The Viewpoint Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Medicine blogger

It is easier to understand the concept of what has come to be called Immunologic Infertility, when we look at its causes as described in Western Medical Science.

A womans ability to successfully retain the fertilized ovum and allow it to grow, depends upon a complex interplay of sophisticated immunologic adjustments designed to convert her Uterus into a host for the developing embryo and protect the developing fetus and its placenta against rejection.
Sometimes these mechanisms can go wrong; depending upon how and when this happens, the woman might experience recurrent miscarriages, infertility, or failure to conceive even after IVF.

An underlying immunological factor needs to be considered in all those cases of “unexplained infertility”, especially when a “blighted ovum” is repeatedly seen.

Western Science has thrown up a lot of evidence to show that anti-sperm antibodies can occur in both men and women and can lead to infertility. Anti-sperm antibodies are protein molecules that get attached to sperms and interfere with the sperm’s activity in any of several ways. They may immobilize sperm, cause them to clump together, limit their ability to pass through the cervical mucus, or prevent them from binding to and penetrating the egg.

Researchers have classified specific antibodies by (1) type viz. IgA, IgG and IgM and (2) the site at which they get attached to the sperm (its head, midpiece, or tail). It is seen that IgG type antibodies are most common in men while IgA type ate found in women’s cervical mucus and follicular fluid.
Binding to the head of the sperm is believed to interfere with attachment and penetration of the egg, while binding to its tail interferes with motility.

Other immunological causes involve women who produce antibodies that indirectly cause clotting in blood vessels leading to the developing fetus. The fetus is deprived of nutrients and dies in utero, which triggers an abortion.
It is now thought that between 20 and 25 percent of all repeated miscarriages are due to immunological problems.

Although several male as well as female immunological factors have been identified as causing infertility, treatment of this condition is still in its nascent stage in conventional medicine, which tends to look at problems in isolation and then proceed to treat them in similar manner.

Specific immune conditions causing infertility are not as yet adequately defined or understood and conventional treatment in suspected cases of Immune disorders is presently limited to use of Aspirin and Heparin to prevent clotting in fetal blood vessels and IVIg for controlling an immune response, often along with Steroids.

Traditional Chinese medicine, with its holistic viewpoint, though it does not mention “immunologic disorders” of course, covers a host of underlying conditions that result in infertility, and addresses what it calls the ‘imbalance’ that causes ‘disharmony’.

In the course of several years of my practice as a TCM Infertility Specialist, I have successfully tackled hundreds of so-called cases of ‘unexplained infertility’ with my custom-made Chinese herbal formulas and I suspect many of these might well have been cases in which there was a then unknown ‘immunological factor’ at work, a factor that got corrected when the underlying imbalance was removed!

Immune factors do not always manifest as physical symptoms but sometimes the following symptoms may be noticed:

Frequent miscarriages in the very early weeks
Bodyaches, PMS
Irritability and depressive episodes and /or panic attacks
Night sweats with sweating over the breast bone
Insomnia in the early mornings
Hormone levels show a decrease in every mid-cycle
Past history of hives or itchy skin
Thyroid disorders with the presence of anti-thyroid antibodies

These symptoms often translate into liver qi stagnation, and yin deficiency with heat in the heart and liver in TCM. These symptoms are further complicated by irregular menstruation and a saw-toothed, erratic BBT graph.

Several studies are now emerging about the use of Chinese herbs in this type of infertility.
www.pubmed.gov (a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health) quotes the following article about the Chinese herb Ziyin jianghuo:
“According to the microcosmic Syndrome Differentiation, immunological infertility is recognised as Kidney Yin Deficiency-Hyperactivity of Fire Syndrome. Zhibai Dihuang Pills, a recipe of Chinese medicinal herbs, was used to treat the infertile couples with antisperm and/or antizona pellucida antibodies in their blood serum. It was found that after the treatment, the antibodies were converted to negative in 81.3% of immunological infertile couples. All 8 cases of successful pregnancy occurred in 1-9 months after antibodies negative conversion and the negative status was maintained throughout the course of pregnancy.”

The Ministry of Health of Chinas published Materia medica now documents over ten thousand herbal substances, most of which have been found through years of usage and experimentation in specific conditions.

Chinese herbs are mostly used in combinations of 8 or more herbs (often upto 20 herbs) and are customized into formulas for individual patients. It is therefore usual to have different herbal formulas for patients in the same clinical setting. These herbs can be dispensed in various forms. Raw herbs are mostly used in infertility conditions and taken in the form of brewed teas.

A study of immunological male infertility by Chen Xiaoping used the traditional remedy Zhibai Dihuang Wan. A control group received cortisone and vitamin C. In the herbal treatment group, autoimmunity measures decreased, sperm became more viable, and 80 percent of wives became pregnant within six months. In the control group, 46 percent of wives became pregnant.

Each herb has distinct properties regarding its energy, flavor and movement in the body. It is related to different meridians of the body, too.

Four types of energies described in TCM are cold, cool, warm and hot and the five flavors or herbs are pungent, sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Recent studies have demonstrated that traditional Chinese medicine could regulate the gonadotropin-releasing hormone to induce ovulation and improve the uterus blood flow and menstrual changes of endometrium. In addition, it also has impacts on patients with infertility resulting from polycystic ovarian syndrome, anxiety, stress and immunological disorders. Ref. Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology: June 2008 – Volume 20 – Issue 3 – p 211-215

Western medicine often makes use of the corticosteroid group of drugs, with all there attendant dangers and disadvantages, to treat immunologic infertility.
This alone, apart from several other reasons, should encourage the use of Traditional Chinese herbal medicine, to treat such Cases and I am sure that with increased awareness about this, more and more men and women facing infertility will opt for this line of treatment, in the not-too-distant future!

Patricia Karnowski, M.S.O.M
Fertility Herbalist

Internal Medicine Doctor – Learn All About Them

Medicine blogger

It sounds scary doesn’t it: internal medicine doctor. Most people hear the phrase, coming from their family doctor’s lips and they panic. It can’t be a good thing to be referred to a medical professional who is known as a doctor’s doctor can it? Actually it’s not as scary as it might sound. An internal medicine doctor is also known as an internist, not to be mixed up with a doctor in training known as an intern.

An internist is highly skilled and trained to diagnosis and treat adult diseases. This is the doctor who specializes in one area of your health and can generally figure out symptoms that can stump your family doctor who does not specialize in one area of the body. Think of Dr. House on the television series and you are on the right page to understand what an internist does.

Your internal medicine doctor will generally not be as vague as Dr. House with a specialty though. Many internists specialize in one subspecialty such as a cardiologist who is a heart doctor or a doctor who only treats infectious disease or geriatrics. There are as many sub specialists as there are diseases and body parts to treat and way too many to list here.

So a referral to an internist shouldn’t be anything to panic you now that you realize that an internal medicine doctor can be someone with the specialty skills and training to treat very specific health issues such as heart disease or infectious disease.

Once you get a referral however you should do your own due diligence to make sure the doctor you have been referred to is the doctor you want to see. A simple check can give you information about your internist’s training, education and skills and help you feel more confident that this is the doctor to help you.

If however you don’t feel the referral is a good match after you have seen the doctor, be sure to contact your family health professional and request the names of a few other doctors as well. You are perfectly within your rights to get a second or even a third opinion if you are unhappy with your diagnose or the treatment options presented to you.

However, you should also remember that an internist is a specialist and they usually know what they are doing and what they are looking at. So if you are getting the same information from your second opinion as you got from your first opinion it may be time to accept a diagnoses and stop looking for a new internist to give you a third or fourth opinion and start working on your treatment plan.

An internal medicine doctor can benefit you by managing your healthcare in a collaborative way with other physicians. To find a good one please see the following: http://www.angieslist.com/.

The Alternative Medicine Review – Magnetic Therapy As An Application

Medicine blogger

The alternative medicines are most widely and successfully used in the recent times as an alternative program to the conventional medicines. Magnetic therapy as an alternative therapy has been in use for a long time. Magnetic therapy is very effective in dealing with pains and aches, sprains and wounds. Often people who are suffering from arthritis choose to have magnetic bands and chains attached to their bodies rather than visit the physician millions of times and get lists of medicines that simply clutter their immune system and yet offer no satisfactory results.

One great factor about magnetic therapy as an alternative therapy is the fact that magnetic therapies are absolutely safe without any side effects or long-term hazards. Alternative medicine review of most medicines depict that the alternative therapy are effectual and do not have unfavorable side effects. It has as well been seen that most of the alternative medicines work in conjunction and under the dictates of conventional medicine and therefore, they are not a remote branch of medicine at all.

Alternative medicines are generally natural methods of treatment and hence they are considered to be pure and safe. Medicine of any type affect different people in different methods and at times alternative therapy treatment can affect a patient fatally as much as conventional medicine can. However, it is generally seen that alternative therapy, being natural, does not have negative effects on the patient. Since the magnetic therapy constitutes the use of magnets and the magnetic field to cure pains, it is safe to read the guidelines before administering the magnet to the skin.

At times, men and women who benefit from a small treatment that they undergo in alternative therapy, care to believe that all major treatments in alternative medicine are also as effective. Well it might be but again there are chances of the major illnesses being not cured as effectively as the small problem. This is a case that is common to all medicines and one can resort to other methods if alternative medicine does not work. This is one of the greatest aspects about alternative medicines as one can jump to mainstream medicine if this branch fails to work.

As well as the alternative medicine review says, the money spent in alternative medicines is fairly lesser than the amount that is generally spent in conventional medicine. Alternative medicines might take a while to effect the results. The magnet therapy works wonders only if you give it some time to function properly. So if you are a name who expects relief to come your way with the snap of your fingers then alternative medicine is not an approach that you should try.

Alternative medicine review talks about alternative therapy as being one of the best options to decide for treatment if you abhor hospitals and too many medicines. The magnetic therapy for curing pain is safe and easy method for permanent relief.

Medicine Of Tipifarnib, Cp-690550 And Sb 431542

Medicine blogger

Endogenousmatrix interference using a similar m/z value is usually problematic. Many factors ought to be examined before an Tipifarnib method can be reliably applied to test analysis, especiallymultiple analytes with similar structures andmasses dont createa cross-talk phenomenon. Metabolites with a very close m/zvalue to that in the analyzed parent drug is usually problematicin SRM acquisition that will possibly be resolved just by highresolutionaccurate mass (HR) acquisition. Moreover, the selective nature of SRM acquisition can maskvaluable information including co-eluting matrix ions, degradationproducts or adducts with the analytes of interest.

It can have asignificant impact with assay quality and robustness when runninglarge number of various samples in some sort of routine manner. The mainadvantages ofHRover SRMacquisition in quantitative-qualitative(Quan-Qual) analyses have already been described. In add-on, the SRM-based approach is cumbersome not fast enoughto perform quantitation with large panels of CP-690550 and endogenousmetabolites (e. grams. metabolomics-type of analyses). Thisproblem is usually even exacerbated with ultra-high-performance liquidchromatography (UHPLC) separation. Until recently, the quantitative ease of full scan MSapproaches, concerning extracted ion chromatograms (XIC)after data acquisition using single quadrupole MICROSOFT, time-offlightMS (TOF-MS), ion traps or Fourier transform ion cyclotronresonance (FT-ICR) MICROSOFT, was not comparable with trueSRM as a result of inadequate dynamic range, selectivity, level of responsiveness, precision and ease of use routine analyses. Afew quantitative analyses have previously compared LC/TQ-MSperformance with LC/HR-MS: which include TOF, Q-TOF-MS, and orbitrap-MS. In some instances, analyses were performedwith aged TOF instruments and conclusiveremarks ought to be taken with care and constantly re-evaluatedin this immediately evolving field. Nevertheless, even if Q-TOF-MSand TOF-MS have usually been found being suitable for quantitativeanalysis, a significant loss with quantitative performancewas observed than the TQ-MS standard.

ForOrbitrap technology, previous reports have concluded thatequivalent quantitative performance useful theTQ-MS can be secured. This paper evaluates together with compares the quantitativeperformance of the single-stage HR orbitrap-MS systemwith TQ-MS systems using assays run regularly in ourlab for therapeutic drug monitoring purposes. Seventeentherapeutic meds in three different validated SRM assaysincluding antifungal solutions (AFA), immunosuppressive agents (ISA) together with protein kinase inhibitors (PKI)[36] wereevaluated in this study. Drugs, internal standards (IS) (Table 1) and other chemicals werekindly supplied by Pharma companies or bought fromSigma-Aldrich (Switzerland, Buchs) and also Alsachim (Illkirch, People from france). Ultrapure H2O has been obtained by ultra-filtration applying aMilli-QW UF-Plus apparatus (Millipore Corp., Burlington, MOTHER, USA). All some other chemicals were of analytical grade. The three quantitative LC/MS methods performed for thiscomparison are validated for the TQ-MS with respect tointernational guidelines and released for AFA and PKI.

Our ISA analysis is dependent on a previous study[35] and an in-housestandard operating process. Quality control (QCs) together with calibrator(Cs) grades are depicted in Kitchen table 2. Human plasma (100 mL) had been extracted with 300 mL with acetonitrile(MeCN) + 0. 5% formic uric acid (FA) that contains the internalstandard (IS) (Table 1). When centrifugation, the supernatantwas diluted 2_ in advance of injection onto the UHPLC systemand chromatography was performed at 45 _C while on an AcquityWC18 column (two. 1 i. d. _ 30 mm length, 1. 7 mm, particle dimensions; Waters, USA). The mobile phase was composed of (a) 10 mMammonium formate using 0. 1% FA together with (b) MeCN with 0. 1%FA. The cellular phase was delivered at 0. 3 mL/min applying a2%a??95%B stepwise gradient. The injection volume was 10 mLand the total run time was 7 min. Human blood (100 mL) had been extracted with 200 mL of ZnSO4(0. 4 Meters)/methanol (MeOH) (2: 8, v/v) that contain the IS (Bench 1).

After centrifugation, your supernatant was ready for injectiononto the HPLC process and chromatography was implemented, respectively at room temperatures and 60 _C, with a preconcentrationand an analytical line (2. 1 x 10 and 50 mm, 5 mm C18 XterraW line, respectively, Waters, USA) using acolumn-switching setup. The mobile or portable phase was composed of SB 431542 2 mM ammonium acetate.

Robotics In Medicine Improving Procedures And Reducing Costs

Medicine blogger

Find out how robotics is a rapidly expanding portion of medical treatments.

Robotics in medicine is producing great results in many ways, especially in the area of surgery. The term robotics means the use of a robot to perform various functions. A robot has movable physical structure, a power source, a sensor system, and a computerized brain to control activities.

Surgeons of the future will use robotics to perform surgical tasks. Robotics still requires the expertise of the surgeon to operate, but the instruments used by robotics improve the control, the precision, as well as often minimize the invasiveness of surgical procedures.

Robotics is being used for things like gall bladder surgery, endoscopy, and many other surgeries. Basically, here’s how robotics surgery works. The surgeon looks into a viewfinder to see images being sent by a camera that’s inside the patient. Images show the surgical site and the surgical instruments. Controls, much like a joystick are used by the surgeon to manipulate the instruments and perform the surgery.

Patients with robotics surgery have smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays, and normally faster recovery time. This reduces costs and gives the patient the ability to return to normal activities in a much shorter time span.

Surgical procedures aren’t the only place robotics can be used in medicine. Developers are continuously working on new ways to allow robotics to perform tasks. One area that’s especially promising in the control of disease and the prevention of diseases being spread. Areas that could be harmful for hospital personnel can be sterilized by using robotics. Some other types of procedures are sterilizing floors, delivering lab specimens, pulling patients on stretchers to rooms.

Advocates of using more robotics in medicine feel that the benefits far outweigh any negative constraints. However, in some instances the question of the patient’s emotional state has been questioned. Most people feel more secure when being transported by a human than having a robot transport them. There are other instances where human interaction can have a positive effect on the patient.

How far will the loss of human interaction go in the medical community? At this point, it seems there will be little attention paid to the humanistic side of using robotics in medicine. Obviously, in areas where the patient is virtually unaware, as during surgery, there is little reason not to employ robotics.