Current Characteristics of Herbal Medicine Interventions for Cancer on Clinical Databases: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: The utilization of herbal medicine has been noteworthy for treating cancer; however, there is not enough information regarding the characteristics of clinical trials of herbal medicine interventions. This study aimed to evaluate the characteristic of registered trials using herbal medicine interventions for cancer. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed via the website ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN registry, Chinese clinical trial registry, and international clinical trials registry platform to gather associated registered clinical trials using an advanced search with the developed keyword strategy as of March 26, 2023. All obtainable information from the trials was collected without any restrictions to conduct a comprehensive review. RESULTS: A total of 169 registered trials were included for evaluation. Of all trials, 102 trials were eligible for this study. Countries from Asia registered the most trials (62.75%), and hospitals sponsored most of the trials (42.16%). Randomized, Phase 2, interventional trials were dominant, and approximately 64.71% of the trials anticipated recruiting less than 100 participants. More than half of the trials were from 2016 to 2023 (53.92%). While 45 trials were completed, only 16 trials had results for further analysis. According to the completed results, the types of herbal medicines from the trials mainly focused on lung, breast, and colorectal cancer. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to explore the characteristics of clinical trials of herbal medicine for cancer registered in large clinical databases. The acquired trials had relatively informative data; however, better-designed trials may be needed for health professionals to consider herbal medicine as an option when treating cancer patients.

Integrative Medicine in Diagnostics: Current Advances and Future Prospects.

Integrative medicine (IM) has recently gained significant attention from patients and healthcare professionals worldwide [...].

Utilization of massage chairs for promoting overall health and wellness: A rapid scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential benefits of using massage chairs for improving health. DATA SOURCES: A rapid scoping review was conducted using PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar from inception to November 1, 2022. STUDY SELECTION: Using the keyword strategy ("massage chair*" OR "massage-chair*"), only studies in English were selected. Two reviewers independently screened the studies, and conflicts were resolved by consensus. Studies involving physical massage therapy were excluded. DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 59 articles were identified, and 18 were included in the final analysis. Quality assessment was performed, following STROBE, CONSORT and CASP guidelines. The following data were extracted: authors, year, country, study design, study objective, age, gender, participants, measures, and main findings. DATA SYNTHESIS: The results of the present review indication that the utilization of massage chairs may positively affect both physical and mental health concerns. This review especially found a more significant number of studies showing benefits in mental health. However, two case reports indicated complications when using massage chairs. CONCLUSIONS: The use of massage chairs could have benefits on cognitive function improvement, stress reduction and mental fatigue decline, muscle stiffness improvement, pain reduction, and potential benefits for quality of life.

Perception, attitudes, knowledge of using complementary and alternative medicine for cancer patients among healthcare professionals: A mixed-methods systematic review.

BACKGROUND: With the rapid increase in the prevalence of cancer worldwide, the utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has increased among cancer patients. This review aimed to understand the perception, attitudes, and knowledge of healthcare professionals toward using CAM for cancer patients. METHODS: A mixed-methods systematic review was undertaken in four databases. Inclusion criteria were primary studies reporting perception, attitudes, and knowledge of healthcare professionals for using CAM for cancer patients were eligible. A mixed-methods convergent synthesis was carried out, and the findings were subjected to a GRADE-CERQual assessment of confidence. RESULTS: Forty-two studies were chosen. The majority of the studies were quantitative and had less than 100 participants. Most publications were from European countries, and oncology was the highest among the specialties. The review found the following themes: feasibility of having negative adverse effects, low expectations of using CAM among HCPs, potential positive effects of using CAM, specific CAM training may be helpful, no concrete regulations to promote CAM practice, and poor physician-patient communication. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses had more positive views than other professions; oncologists were concerned regarding herb-drug interactions; integration of CAM into the healthcare system was favorable; HCPs felt the need to participate in specific CAM training; and HCPs agreed that CAM education should be provided more regularly. Future studies should explore the studies views of cancer patients and details of in-depth evidence of CAM in oncology settings.

Effect of a massage chair (BFM-M8040) on neck and shoulder pain in office workers: A randomized controlled clinical trial.

Background: With the increasing work-related musculoskeletal disorders, neck and shoulder pain among office workers has also increased. That said, this randomized controlled trial aimed to seek the potential effects of a massage chair (BFR-M8040) on neck and shoulder pain among office workers. Methods: This was conducted at the Wonkwang University Gwangju Medical Center from April 2022 to December 2022. Sixty adult participants were randomly allocated. The mean age of male participants was 39.63 ± 8.09 years while female participants was 43.52 ± 8.27; women participated the most (86.67%). The control group received basic physical treatments, including a 10-min heat treatment for deep regions and a 10-min hot pack for the areas on the neck and shoulder of the complained discomfort. The experimental group received the same treatment as the control group and added 20 min of the electric massage chair's PEMF Neck Mode (XD module 3) (BFR-M8040, Bodyfriend Co., Ltd.). The participants received treatments twice per week. The primary outcome was measured using the numerical rating scale and the Korean version of the neck disability index. And the secondary outcome was measured using pressure pain threshold, range of motion, the Korean occupational stress scale, the Korean version of the Euro-quality of life-5 dimension, and safety evaluation. Results: Fifty-eight participants completed a 6-week follow-up and analyzed (29 in the control group and 29 in the experimental group). There was a significant decrease in the experiment group in both scales for primary outcome measures. For secondary outcome measures, statistically significant increases were observed in pressure pain threshold. The experimental group only showed a slight increase in the quality-of-life measures. There were no reported adverse events. Conclusion: The benefit of using a massage chair (BFR-M8040) was verified to alleviate neck and shoulder pain among office workers; future studies could involve participants from other countries for further investigation.

Development of a prediction model for the depression level of the elderly in low-income households: using decision trees, logistic regression, neural networks, and random forest.

Korea is showing the fastest trend in the world in population aging; there is a high interest in the elderly population nationwide. Among the common chronic diseases, the elderly tends to have a high incidence of depression. That said, it has been vital to focus on preventing depression in the elderly in advance. Hence, this study aims to select the factors related to depression in low-income seniors identified in previous studies and to develop a prediction model. In this study, 2975 elderly people from low-income families were extracted using the 13th-year data of the Korea Welfare Panel Study (2018). Decision trees, logistic regression, neural networks, and random forest were applied to develop a predictive model among the numerous data mining techniques. In addition, the wrapper's stepwise backward elimination, which finds the optimal model by removing the least relevant factors, was applied. The evaluation of the model was confirmed via accuracy. It was verified that the final prediction model, in the case of a decision tree, showed the highest predictive power with an accuracy of 97.3%. Second, psychological factors, leisure life satisfaction, social support, subjective health awareness, and family support ranked higher than demographic factors influencing depression. Based on the results, an approach focused on psychological support is much needed to manage depression in low-income seniors. As predicting depression in the elderly varies on numerous influencing factors, using a decision tree may be beneficial to establish a firm prediction model to identify vital factors causing depression in the elderly population.

Prevention and management of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination using traditional Korean medicine: An online survey of public health doctors.

BACKGROUND: Since February 2021, vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has started in Korea. AIM: To perform a questionnaire survey about the prevention and management of adverse events of COVID-19 vaccination among public health doctors of Korean Medicine (PHKMDs). METHODS: An online questionnaire was developed, comprising categories about adverse events of vaccination (AEVs) and perception of using Korean medicine (KM) in managing vaccine adverse events (AEs) among PHKMDs. PHKMDs' experience of AEVs, usage of Korean medicine for AEVs, and perception and attitude in using KM for AEVs were surveyed. The survey web-link was emailed to the association of PHKMDs. Online links were sent through Survey Monkey to all PHKMDs in Korea. RESULTS: A total of 143 participants were recruited for this study; 65% of participants were vaccinated at the same of the survey (n = 93). Although most participants did not take any medication for prevention of the adverse events, 62% (n = 58) of participants had taken herbal medicine to treat the adverse events (n = 52). Approximately 35% of participants (n = 33) said that they would recommend taking herbal medicine to prevent any AEVs. From various KM interventions, the participants strongly recommended taking an herbal medicine (n = 69, 74.19%) to treat AEs, and the second-highest was acupuncture treatment (n = 19, 20.43%). CONCLUSION: Overall, this research demonstrated a high prevalence of KM usage by the PHKMDs. Hence, this study's results may serve as fundamental evidence for health professionals to consider using KM treatments when treating or preventing AEVs in the near future.

Use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine in nine countries: A cross-sectional multinational survey.

OBJECTIVES: Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TC&AM) play an exceptional role in health care around the world as many patients has sought a holistic approach. SETTING: In this study, a multinational survey was developed and administered to obtain experience, attitude, and promotion information with regard to the international use of TC&AM among nine countries: Germany, United States, Japan, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Russia, Kazakhstan, and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The survey was administered via online to members of SurveyMonkey Audience, a proprietary panel of respondents who were recruited from a diverse population worldwide. RESULTS: A total of 1071 participants has completed the survey. The participants were in favor of the treatments and therapies as well as expressed positive attitudes and also have used herbal medicine treatment more than acupuncture therapy and also used the modalities to promote metabolism rather than treating musculoskeletal diseases. Moreover, participants mentioned that TC&AM should be applied for treating and managing infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Additionally, participants recommended using Facebook channel to promote its treatments and therapies. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, this study provides initial insights on TC&AM that may influence the non-users globally and perhaps inspire a need for further research including more countries in different continents.

The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Systematic Scoping Review.

Background: The development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the medical field has been growing rapidly. As AI models have been introduced in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), a systematized review must be performed to understand its current status. Objective: To categorize and seek the current usage of AI in CAM. Method: A systematic scoping review was conducted based on the method proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The three databases, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, were used to find studies regarding AI and CAM. Only English studies from 2000 were included. Studies without mentioning either AI techniques or CAM modalities were excluded along with the non-peer-reviewed studies. A broad-range search strategy was applied to locate all relevant studies. Results: A total of 32 studies were identified, and three main categories were revealed: 1) acupuncture treatment, 2) tongue and lip diagnoses, and 3) herbal medicine. Other CAM modalities were music therapy, meditation, pulse diagnosis, and TCM syndromes. The majority of the studies utilized AI models to predict certain patterns and find reliable computerized models to assist physicians. Conclusion: Although the results from this review have shown the potential use of AI models in CAM, future research ought to focus on verifying and validating the models by performing a large-scale clinical trial to better promote AI in CAM in the era of digital health.

Global Trends of Nutrition in Cancer Research: A Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis Study over the Past 10 Years.

The increasing application of nutrition in cancer management has attracted a great deal of research interest in recent decades. Nutritional therapies, interventions, and assessments were known to have positive effects on reducing side effects from cancer therapy. In order to identify the global research output for nutrition in cancer research, a bibliometric analysis during the past 10 years was conducted to evaluate the current status of trends, gaps, and research directions as no bibliometric studies have been conducted regarding nutrition and cancer. After the data collection, a total of 1521 articles were chosen for this bibliometric study. The visualization analysis was performed with VOSviewer. The number of publications has grown continuously since a substantial spark was identified in 2019. The majority of the authors' affiliations were in European countries. Four cancer types were recognized among the top 10 author keywords; they were breast cancer, head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer, and gastric cancer. The Nutrients journal was the most popular among the authors as the journal published 195 articles related to the topic. In conclusion, providing evidence-based nutritional solutions for various types of cancer is essential to nutrition and cancer research. Since it is presumed to have a growing number of cancer patients worldwide with the aging population, it is vital to continuously generate research finding effective nutrition therapies for cancer patients.

State of the Art and Future Implications of SH003: Acting as a Therapeutic Anticancer Agent.

Cancer ranks as the first leading cause of death globally. Despite the various types of cancer treatments, negative aspects of the treatments, such as side effects and drug resistance, have been a continuous dilemma for patients. Thus, natural compounds and herbal medicines have earned profound interest as chemopreventive agents for reducing burden for patients. SH003, a novel herbal medicine containing Astragalus membranaceus, Angelica gigas, and Trichosanthes kirilowii, showed the potential to act as an anticancer agent in previous research studies. A narrative review was conducted to present the significant highlights of the total 15 SH003 studies from the past nine years. SH003 has shown positive results in both in vivo and vitro studies against various types of cancer cells; furthermore, the first clinical trial was performed to identify the maximum tolerated dose among solid cancer patients. So far, the potential of SH003 as a chemotherapeutic agent has been well-documented in research studies; continuous work on SH003's efficacy and safety is required to facilitate better cancer patient care but is part of the knowledge needed to understand whether SH003 has the potential to become a pharmaceutical.

Comprehensive traditional East Asian medicine treatment strategy for obesity considering the therapeutic effects and adverse events: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Obesity has become a serious global health problem due to its increasing prevalence. Because of several limitations or adverse events associated with conventional western medicine therapies, there has been an increase in demand for alternative therapies such as traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM). This study aims to provide comprehensive evidence-based information assessing the clinical efficacy and safety of TEAM treatment for obesity as the basis for reliable clinical strategies for patients with obesity. METHODS: Electronic searches of the PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, OASIS, and Korea Citation Index will be performed. Methodological quality will be assessed using the "risk of bias" tool. The primary outcome for efficacy will be weight loss. The secondary outcomes will be response rate, body mass index, waist circumference, and blood pressure. We will also evaluate the rates of adverse events and mortality for safety assessment. First, we will conduct a conventional pairwise meta-analysis. Next, we will conduct network meta-analysis using the frequentist approach. We shall verify the assumption of network meta-analysis and provide network geometry, P-score, net league table, and intervention-based forest plot. A subgroup analysis will be conducted to ascertain the factors that affect treatment, such as dosage, treatment duration, and severity of obesity. RESULTS: The results of this study will provide high-quality systematic reviews that can assist decision making in obesity management. Our network meta-analysis results can provide direct and indirect comparison evidence on comparative efficacy and safety. CONCLUSION: This study will provide fundamental data for prospective research on the application of TEAM in patients with obesity. PROTOCOL REGISTRY NUMBER OF ONLINE REGISTRY: This study protocol was registered in open Science framework (OSF) (Registration DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/ETWDS). URL OF THE ONLINE REGISTRY: https://osf.io/etwds.

Genetic basis of elite combat sports athletes: a systematic review.

Each athlete's innate talent is widely recognized as one of the important contributors to achievement in athletic performance, and genetic factors determine a significant portion of talent or traits. Advances in DNA sequencing technology allow us to discover specific genetic variants contributing to these traits in sports performance. The objective of this systematic review is to identify genes that may play a significant role in the performance of elite-level combat sports athletes. Through the review of 18 full-text articles, a total of 109 different polymorphisms were investigated in 14,313 participants (2,786 combat sports athletes, 8,969 non-athlete controls, 2,558 other sports athletes). Thirteen polymorphisms showed a significant difference between elite combat athletes and the control group, and consist of 8 (PPARA rs4253778, ACTN3 rs1815739, ACE rs4646994, CKM rs8111989, MCT1 rs1049434, FTO rs9939609, GABPß1 rs7181866 and rs8031031) oriented to athletic performance and 5 (COMT rs4680, FEV rs860573, SLC6A2 rs2242446, HTR1B rs11568817, ADRA2A rs521674) focused on psychological traits including emotional and mental traits in combat sports athletes. In addition, a recent whole genome sequencing study identified 4 polymorphisms (KIF27 rs10125715, APC rs518013, TMEM229A rs7783359, LRRN3 rs80054135) associated with reaction time in wrestlers. However, it is not clearly identified which genes are linked explicitly with elite combat sports athletes and how they affect the elite athlete's status or performance in combat sports. Hence, a greater number of candidate genes should be included in future studies to practically utilize the genetic information.

Digital Biomarkers for Neuromuscular Disorders: A Systematic Scoping Review.

Biomarkers play a vital role in clinical care. They enable early diagnosis and treatment by identifying a patient's condition and disease course and act as an outcome measure that accurately evaluates the efficacy of a new treatment or drug. Due to the rapid development of digital technologies, digital biomarkers are expected to grow tremendously. In the era of change, this scoping review was conducted to see which digital biomarkers are progressing in neuromuscular disorders, a diverse and broad-range disease group among the neurological diseases, to discover available evidence for their feasibility and reliability. Thus, a total of 10 studies were examined: 9 observational studies and 1 animal study. Of the observational studies, studies were conducted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) patients. Non-peer reviewed poster presentations were not considered, as the articles may lead to erroneous results. The only animal study included in the present review investigated the mice model of ALS for detecting rest disturbances using a non-invasive digital biomarker.

Bibliometric Analysis of Integrative Medicine Studies from 2000 to 2019.

Integrative medicine has become a vital component of patient care. It provides patient-centered care that is focused on prevention and overall well-being. As there has been a growing number of patients favoring a blend of conventional, complementary and alternative approaches, integrative medicine has exceeded beyond the evaluation of complementary therapies. However, it is noteworthy that there has been a dilemma of providing substantial evidence supporting the efficacy of some complementary and alternative therapies. This study's goals were to analyze publication trends, most productive journals, most productive funding agencies, most productive authors, most relevant keywords, and countries in the field of integrative medicine research. Additionally, science mapping included country collaboration analysis and thematic evolution analysis. The findings from this study showed a constant rise in annual growth of publications from 2000 to 2019; the United States was dominant in various analysis categories. In conclusion, a comprehensive review of the evolution of research of integrative medicine will help healthcare providers understand an overview of the present status while encouraging more evidence-based research for the betterment of integrative patient care.

Utilization of Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Korean Elite Athletes: Current Status and Future Implications.

The objective of the study was to explore the status of usage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among Korean elite athletes. A survey was emailed to all Korean national sports federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia. A total of 705 Korean elite athletes participated in this study. The athletes had to be any of the following to participate in this survey: elite intercollegiate athletes, professional athletes, and national team athletes. 83.3% of the participants stated that they have previously experienced Korean medicine (KM). Compared to the general population in Korea, athletes had more experience (general population = 73.8%). The participants without experience mentioned that they either did not need any KM treatments (39.8%) or lacked information (39.8%) regarding KM treatments. The primary reason for the utilization of KM was the effectiveness of treatments. Therefore, 70.8% of the participants have mentioned recommending KM to others. Generally, athletes are worrisome that the consumption of herbal medicine may not be doping-free; however, it is vital to note that 62% of the participants expressed that prescribed herbal medicine is safe. Overall, this research demonstrates a high prevalence of KM usage by intercollegiate, professional, and national team athletes in Korea. Hence, this study's results may serve as the foundation in future research directions for promoting KM among Korean elite athletes.