Prevention Strategies and Research Methods of TCM for Primary Osteoporosis / 中国中医药信息杂志

ABSTRACT

Chronic non-infectious diseases (hereinafter referred to as "chronic disease") have become a serious public health problem which affect the physical and mental health. Its prevention and control is urgent. Primary osteoporosis is a common chronic disease, which has complex causes, long duration, protracted illness, and poor prognosis, and is often accompanied by fracture and other serious complications. Control strategies of TCM are identify the risk factors of TCM and assess the risk of illness; follow the clinical practice guidelines in Western medicine and TCM and attach great importance to the high-quality evidence of TCM; collect TCM information of study population and established the biobank through long-term follow-up study. The specific method was according to the TCM theory of "treat pre-disease", the clinical epidemiological investigation and experimental research methods are combined to carry out disease prevention and control work. In the stage of normal bone mass or osteopenia, the clinical efficacy of TCM program in improving bone mineral density were mainly evaluated. In the stage of osteoporosis (fracture has not yet occurred), the main object was to verify efficacy and safety of TCM or integrative programs preventing the fracture. In osteoporotic fracture phase, the focus was to evaluate whether the combination therapy programs could promote healing, prevent recurrence of the fracture and improve the quality of life, thus reducing morbidity and mortality.