Questioning Established Theories and Treatment Methods Related to Iron and Other Metal Metabolic Changes, Affecting All Major Diseases and Billions of Patients.

The medical and scientific literature is dominated by highly cited historical theories and findings [...].

Climate and categories: Two key elements for understanding the Mesoamerican hot-cold classification of illnesses and medicinal plants.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The concepts of health and illness, and their causes, are fundamental for understanding medicinal plant choice and use by traditional people. The hot-cold system is widespread in Mesoamerican traditional medicine and guides many therapeutic decisions. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study explores a hypothesis that climate influences the hot-cold classification of illnesses and medicinal plants, and the perception of hazard of illnesses. In addition, we examine the classification categories within the system used in different regions of Mexico. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Studies from Mexico with quantitative and qualitative data on the hot-cold properties of medicinal plants and ailments were reviewed. The information was organized and then related to the climate type of the study areas. RESULTS: In temperate climates, most diseases were considered cold, and hot medicinal plants were dominant. Conversely, in warm-tropical climates, hot diseases dominated, and the majority of medicinal plants were cold; however, this evidence was weaker. The perception of hazard was congruent with the number of illnesses for temperate climates. There were additional classification categories within the hot-cold system for diseases and medicinal plants, and they were expressed in different terms in Spanish, English, and indigenous languages. Although similar terms and categories were used in the classification of diseases and medicinal plants, they can differ conceptually and vary between places and cultures. Publications are sometimes unclear if the terms used are emic or etic. The basic principle of using plants with the opposite property of the disease does not always apply strictly. CONCLUSIONS: Climate appears to influence the hot-cold classification of diseases and medicinal plants in Mexico, and the system is not strictly dual. Improved knowledge of the hot-cold system is necessary to understand Mesoamerican medicinal plant use and culture.

Diagnosis and Metaphor.

Human beings rely on metaphor as a primary cognitive device for interpreting the world around them. Metaphors figure especially strongly in discourse around health, illness, and medicine. It is not just that patients use metaphors to describe their personal experience of being unwell, or that medical professionals employ metaphor to convey a diagnosis, describe a treatment, or explain the function of an organ to their patients. Metaphor, it is argued, lies at the heart of the process of diagnosis. Moreover, diagnosticians employ competing metaphors in the early stages of diagnosis to speculate on alternative ways of viewing a puzzling set of symptoms. Diagnosis is often defined as a process of ordering and classifying, while metaphor is a device for playing with classifications. The medical systems of different cultures depend on different sets of fundamental metaphors. Modern Western biomedicine is organized around a series of basic metaphors: the body as machine, the body as the site of battle, and the body as a communication system. Traditional Chinese medicine, on the other hand, uses images of flow and blockage, balance and imbalance, and works by analogy with five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Psychologists are sometimes able to detect from a patient's own use of metaphor, or inability to use or recognize metaphor, clues to a diagnosis of psychosis or autism. With conditions such as anorexia nervosa, therapists may actually work to modify the dysfunctional metaphors by which patients depict themselves, with the purpose of establishing positive metaphors for envisaging recovery.

Classifying diseases and remedies in ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacology.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ethnopharmacology focuses on the understanding of local and indigenous use of medicines and therefore an emic approach is inevitable. Often, however, standard biomedical disease classifications are used to describe and analyse local diseases and remedies. Standard classifications might be a valid tool for cross-cultural comparisons and bioprospecting purposes but are not suitable to understand the local perception of disease and use of remedies. Different standard disease classification systems exist but their suitability for cross-cultural comparisons of ethnomedical data has never been assessed. Depending on the research focus, (I) ethnomedical, (II) cross-cultural, and (III) bioprospecting, we provide suggestions for the use of specific classification systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyse three different standard biomedical classification systems (the International Classification of Diseases (ICD); the Economic Botany Data Collection Standard (EBDCS); and the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC)), and discuss their value for categorizing diseases of ethnomedical systems and their suitability for cross-cultural research in ethnopharmacology. Moreover, based on the biomedical uses of all approved plant derived biomedical drugs, we propose a biomedical therapy-based classification system as a guide for the discovery of drugs from ethnopharmacological sources. RESULTS: Widely used standards, such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) by the WHO and the Economic Botany Data Collection Standard (EBDCS) are either technically challenging due to a categorisation system based on clinical examinations, which are usually not possible during field research (ICD) or lack clear biomedical criteria combining disorders and medical effects in an imprecise and confusing way (EBDCS). The International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC), also accepted by the WHO, has more in common with ethnomedical reality than the ICD or the EBDCS, as the categories are designed according to patient's perceptions and are less influenced by clinical medicine. Since diagnostic tools are not required, medical ethnobotanists and ethnopharmacologists can easily classify reported symptoms and complaints with the ICPC in one of the "chapters" based on 17 body systems, psychological and social problems. Also the biomedical uses of plant-derived drugs are classifiable into 17 broad organ- and therapy-based use-categories but can easily be divided into more specific subcategories. CONCLUSIONS: Depending on the research focus (I-III) we propose the following classification systems: I. Ethnomedicine: Ethnomedicine is culture-bound and local classifications have to be understood from an emic perspective. Consequently, the application of prefabricated, "one-size fits all" biomedical classification schemes is of limited value. II. Cross-cultural analysis: The ICPC is a suitable standard that can be applied but modified as required. III. Bioprospecting: We suggest a biomedical therapy-driven classification system with currently 17 use-categories based on biomedical uses of all approved plant derived natural product drugs.

[Treatment of winter diseases in summer].

To explore the connotation and essence of treatment of winter diseases in summer with analysis and deduction. Treating winter diseases in summer is the concrete embodiment and application of taking advantage of "recuperating yang in spring and summer". Winter diseases are formed by compound factors with deficiency of yangqi as the prerequisite and yin as well as cold as the predominant pathogens. Its pathological characteristic rests with stagnation in meri-dians and collaterals. Aiming at curing chronic diseases, reinforcing yangqi and removing stagnation in meridians and collaterals, treatment in summer is a treating strategy focused on proper opportunity of treatment, which is expected to yield twice the result with half the effort. To select the suitable indications is taken as the core of this treating strategy. And at the same time, blind expansion without careful consideration is not suggested.

Clinical applications of coenzyme Q10.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) or ubiquinone was known for its key role in mitochondrial bioenergetics as electron and proton carrier; later studies demonstrated its presence in other cellular membranes and in blood plasma, and extensively investigated its antioxidant role. These two functions constitute the basis for supporting the clinical indication of CoQ10. Furthermore, recent data indicate that CoQ10 affects expression of genes involved in human cell signalling, metabolism and transport and some of the effects of CoQ10 supplementation may be due to this property. CoQ10 deficiencies are due to autosomal recessive mutations, mitochondrial diseases, ageing-related oxidative stress and carcinogenesis processes, and also a secondary effect of statin treatment. Many neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes, cancer, fibromyalgia, muscular and cardiovascular diseases have been associated with low CoQ10 levels. CoQ10 treatment does not cause serious adverse effects in humans and new formulations have been developed that increase CoQ10 absorption and tissue distribution. Oral CoQ10 treatment is a frequent mitochondrial energizer and antioxidant strategy in many diseases that may provide a significant symptomatic benefit.

[AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF MEDICAL PRACTICES AND KNOWELEDGE IN THE NAHUA CONTEST ( NAUPAN, PUEBLA, MEXICO)]. / UNO STUDIO ETNOGRAFICO DELLE PRATICHE E DEI SAPERI MEDICI NEL CONTESTO NAHUA (NAUPAN, PUEBLA, MESSICO).

In the last thirty years, the improvement of biomedical acculturate had influenced the medical tradition of Nauha, in souther-eastern Mexico. The study analyses how the constituent elements of biomedical tradition are incorporated into new rhetorical, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, mixed with languages and symbols typical of local tradition.

Disease location identification as a major guide to acupoint selection.

Selecting acupoints according to channel pathway is the major point selection principle in acupuncture treatment for which there is a consensus. However, defining the disease location remains the premise of acupoint selection based on channel pathway. What is the substance of disease location identification in clinical acupuncture? Besides indicating acupoint selection according to channel pathway, what guidance can it provide for acupuncture treatment? This is the main topic discussed in this article.

Statistical identification of syndromes feature and structure of disease of western medicine based on general latent structure model.

Syndrome differentiation is the character of Chinese medicine (CM). Disease differentiation is the principle of Western medicine (WM). Identifying basic syndromes feature and structure of disease of WM is an important avenue for prevention and treatment of integrated Chinese and Western medicine. The idea here is first to divide all patients suffering from a disease of WM into several groups in the light of the stage of the disease, and secondly to identify basic syndromes feature in a distinct stage, and finally to achieve the purpose of syndrome differentiation. Syndrome differentiation is simply taken as a classifier that classifies patients into distinct classes primarily based on overall observation of their symptoms. Previous clustering methods are unable to cope with the complexity of CM. We therefore show a new multi-dimensional clustering method in the form of general latent structure (GLS) model, which is a suitable statistical learning technique of latent class analysis. In this paper, we learn an optimal GLS model which reflects much better model quality compared with other latent class models from the osteoporosis patient of community women (OPCW) real data including 40-65 year-old women whose bone mineral density (BMD) is less than mean-2.0 standard deviation (M-2.0SD). Further, we illustrate a case analysis of statistical identification of CM syndromes feature and structure of OPCW from qualitative and quantitative contents through the GLS model. Our analysis has discovered natural clusters and structures that correspond well to CM basic syndrome and factors of osteoporosis patients (OP). The GLS model suggests the possibility of establishing objective and quantitative diagnosis standards for syndrome differentiation on OPCW. Hence, for the future it can provide a reference for the similar study from the perspective of a combination of disease differentiation and syndrome differentiation.

Systems biology and the future of medicine.

Contemporary views of human disease are based on simple correlation between clinical syndromes and pathological analysis dating from the late 19th century. Although this approach to disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment has served the medical establishment and society well for many years, it has serious shortcomings for the modern era of the genomic medicine that stem from its reliance on reductionist principles of experimentation and analysis. Quantitative, holistic systems biology applied to human disease offers a unique approach for diagnosing established disease, defining disease predilection, and developing individualized (personalized) treatment strategies that can take full advantage of modern molecular pathobiology and the comprehensive data sets that are rapidly becoming available for populations and individuals. In this way, systems pathobiology offers the promise of redefining our approach to disease and the field of medicine.

Systems biology and personalized medicine: a network approach to human disease.

Human diseases have historically been classified on the basis of their end-organ manifestations, using a traditional clinicopathological approach dating to the 19th century. With the advent of rigorous molecular methodologies at the end of the 20th century, many specific disease determinants were identified and more targeted therapeutic strategies developed. Although the conventional reductionist approach underlying these strategies for understanding disease served us well in the pregenomic era, it hampers our understanding of the complex molecular networks within which disease develops that are increasingly manifest in the current era. This article presents a novel, holistic method for classifying human diseases that can serve as a template for understanding disease pathobiology, prognosis, and treatment.

[Principle and application of Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation and disease classification].

Taxonomy of diseases is usable in Western medicine and also in Chinese medicine, but with different measures of sorting, i.e. disease classification in Western medicine and the syndrome differentiation in Chinese medicine. Actually, an integrative mode of the above two measures is already the chief mode of sorting applied in clinical practice of Chinese medicine and integrative medicine. The two measures are introduced in this paper, and the integrative mode is deeply analyzed as well. Its biomedical interpretation and protocol are operational explained, and its important values, involving clinical practice for assessments of therapeutic efficacy, drug action and safety; new drug research and development; medical innovation; and research on internal relation among diseases, are discussed with illustration. The authors indicated that the integrative taxonomic mode of disease classification and syndrome differentiation is an important theoretical representation for mutual-supplementing of Chinese medicine and Western medicine in integrative medicine, also the important measure and approach for developing Chinese medicine and innovating biomedicine, and it is meaningful in both theoretical guidance and actual clinical practice.

Automatic symptom name normalization in clinical records of traditional Chinese medicine.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, Data Mining technology has been applied more than ever before in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to discover regularities from the experience accumulated in the past thousands of years in China. Electronic medical records (or clinical records) of TCM, containing larger amount of information than well-structured data of prescriptions extracted manually from TCM literature such as information related to medical treatment process, could be an important source for discovering valuable regularities of TCM. However, they are collected by TCM doctors on a day to day basis without the support of authoritative editorial board, and owing to different experience and background of TCM doctors, the same concept might be described in several different terms. Therefore, clinical records of TCM cannot be used directly to Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. This paper focuses its attention on the phenomena of "one symptom with different names" and investigates a series of metrics for automatically normalizing symptom names in clinical records of TCM. RESULTS: A series of extensive experiments were performed to validate the metrics proposed, and they have shown that the hybrid similarity metrics integrating literal similarity and remedy-based similarity are more accurate than the others which are based on literal similarity or remedy-based similarity alone, and the highest F-Measure (65.62%) of all the metrics is achieved by hybrid similarity metric VSM+TFIDF+SWD. CONCLUSIONS: Automatic symptom name normalization is an essential task for discovering knowledge from clinical data of TCM. The problem is introduced for the first time by this paper. The results have verified that the investigated metrics are reasonable and accurate, and the hybrid similarity metrics are much better than the metrics based on literal similarity or remedy-based similarity alone.

Grupo de medicina tradicional totonaca Tuwan. Su aporte a la atención de la salud en el municipio de Zozocolco de Hidalgo, Veracruz (méxico) / Group of totonacan tradicional medicine Tuwan. Its contribution to health care in the municipality of Zozocolco Hidalgo, Veracruz (México)

Se registra y analiza información sobre el papel que juega el grupo de medicina tradicional Tuwan en la atención de la salud de un municipio de la zona serrana del Totonacapan, en el cual el sistema de atención de la salud recae en un solo Centro o Clínica de la Secretaria de Salubridad y Asistencia. Se tomaron como indicadores las diferentes formas de atención a las personas, la clasificación de las enfermedades más frecuentes, el tipo o características de la población que atienden y las plantas medicinales que utilizan. El interés fundamental es mostrar la gran riqueza cultural que sobre plantas medicinales existe entre los totonacas. Con esta perspectiva, la investigación desarrollada consistió en recoger y registrar el saber tradicional sobre plantas medicinales que durante mucho tiempo han conservado, practicado y transformado los totonacas y como estos conocimientos forman un sistema de salud complejo basado en sus conocimientos tradicionales que atiende a un alto porcentaje de la población. Se presenta el registro de 32 especies que conocen y usan los terapeutas tradicionales que forman este grupo de medicina tradicional denominado Tuwan (AU)

The paper records and analyzes the information on the role placed by the Group of tradicional medicine Tuwan in the Elath careo f a municipality located in the mountain area of Totonacapan, in which the Elath care is provided by a single center or clinic of the Secretary of Health and Welfare. The following indicators were considered: the different forms of people care, the classification of the most common diseases, the type of characteristics of the population served and the medicinal plants used. The primary interest is to show the cultural wealth of medicinal plants among Totonacas. In this view, the aim of the research was to collect and record the traditional knowledge about medicinal plants that Totonacas have preserved, practiced and transformed for long time. Also, how this knowledge constitutes a complex health system based on traditional knowledge, which serves a high percentage of the population. Therty two plant species known and used by the traditional healers of this group of traditional medicine named Tuwan, were recorded and are presented here (AU)

Contested boundaries: psychiatry, disease, and diagnosis.

Since the 19th century, we have come to think of disease in terms of specific entities--entities defined and legitimated in terms of characteristic somatic mechanisms. Since the last third of that century, we have expanded would-be disease categories to include an ever-broader variety of emotional pain, idiosyncrasy, and culturally unsettling behaviors. Psychiatry has been the residuary legatee of these developments, developments that have always been contested at the ever-shifting boundary between disease and deviance, feeling and symptom, the random and the determined, the stigmatized and the value-free. Even in our era of reductionist hopes, psychopharmaceutical practice, and corporate strategies, the legitimacy of many putative disease categories will remain contested. The use of the specific disease entity model will always be a reductionist means to achieve necessarily holistic ends, both in terms of cultural norms and the needs of suffering individuals. Bureaucratic rigidities and stakeholder conflicts structure and intensify such boundary conflicts, as do the interests and activism of an interested lay public.

An assessment of the diagnosed prevalence of diseases in men 50 years of age or older.

OBJECTIVE: A lack of focus on certain men's health problems has led to significant morbidity and mortality in aging men. Managed care must begin to focus on the conditions that are most prevalent in this fast-growing population in an effort to improve the quality of care. To assist in achieving this goal, a naturalistic retrospective study assessing the prevalence of the 10 leading disorders in men older than the age of 50 was conducted, with an additional focus on men eligible for Medicare. METHODS: Claims data were obtained from the Integrated Health Care Information Solutions National Managed Care Benchmark database (Waltham, Mass), that includes data from 30 health plans covering more than 25 million lives, and from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, representing men from a 5% random sample of Medicare-eligible patients. Men older than 50 years of age were included in the study. The prevalence of all diseases was determined in the 2003 calendar year for each population. Prevalence was calculated by dividing the number of diagnosed cases of a disease by the total person-time observations within the 2003 period. RESULTS: The results indicate that cardiovascular (ie, coronary artery disease [CAD], hypertension, and arrhythmias), urological (ie, enlarged prostate and prostate cancer), and musculoskeletal disorders (ie, osteoarthritis and bursitis) comprise 70% of the 10 leading diseases. CAD and hypertension ranked first and second across all age categories, whereas enlarged prostate ranked fourth. In men older than 50, diabetes ranked third, whereas cataracts ranked third in Medicare-eligible men. CONCLUSION: The diseases identified in this study have the potential to cause significant clinical and economic implications when poorly treated or undertreated. Therefore, there is a need to institute early treatment for these conditions before they progress and require more extensive and costly interventions.