• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2019

Background : Germany is the first country in the world to introduce modern systems of public health insurance, and the country which most widely uses complementary alternative medicine(CAM) in Europe. In early 21^st century, a large evaluation studies were conducted to include acupuncture in health insurance payments, which were eventually decided. Objectives : This study is to investigate and analyze the process of public policy determination on insurance coverage for acupuncture in German health insurance system. Methods : We collected the data and information through the literature search and from the websites of German government departments and health insurance organizations. To obtain contextual information, German experts of health insurance and acupuncture clinical study were interviewed. Results : As use of acupuncture had been growing, German public health insurers wanted to evaluate the validity of acupuncture coverage and sponsored three evaluation projects for clinical effectiveness of acupuncture using randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and pragmatic trials from 2001 to 2005. For some pain condition, acupuncture was founded not to be effective than sham acupuncture, but more effective than standard care. The federal joint committee of health insurance decided to cover acupuncture for chronic pain of lumbar spine and chronic pain in at least one knee joint due to gonarthrosis. Conclusions : Considering the controversial subject matter in the process of acupuncture's health insurance coverage in Germany, expanding the benefits of Korean medicine in Korea needs to come up with ways to overcome the difficulties of placebo effect, standardization and lack of literature evidence.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.449-455
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• 2012

Greenhouse and laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effects of shade treatment and substrate components on plant growth and physiological activity of Taraxacum officinale. Substrates combined with coco peat and perlite (ratio 70 : 30 and 50 : 50, v/v) showed higher growth and yield than their single substrates (p<0.05). Shade treatment also significantly reduced plant height, root length, root diameter, leaf area, chlorophyll content, and fresh weight (p<0.05), compared to no shade. Contents of total phenolics [mg chlorogenic acid equivalents (CAE) $kg^{-1}$ DW] and total flavonoids [mg naringin equivalents $kg^{-1}$ DW] showed higher amounts in shoot parts than root parts of T. officinale, with shade than no shade. The antioxidant potential of the methanol extracts from the plants dose-dependently increased. DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl radical) free radical scavenging activity was higher in leaf parts than in root parts of the plants, and no shade than with shade.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.231-238
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• 2018

This study is a descriptive research study to analyze knowledge and attitude about CAM and aromatherapy for health department students in H8 university health department students(528 students) in Chungcheongdo-do. The results of this study showed that the treatment methods and therapeutic advantages of CAM showed a positive attitude and the recognition of the therapeutic effect on aromatherapy was somewhat higher. However, the knowledge level of aromatherapy was rather low. The students of the department of health science showed a relatively high awareness of the need for education in CAM, but aromatherapy showed a relatively low perception. Therefore, in order to reduce patient welfare and symptom in health department, it is necessary to develop knowledge training for knowledge application and effective treatment and development of clinical practice program for various treatment methods.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.207-217
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• 2021

Objectives: The objective of this study was to perform a scoping review to describe clinical study trends on Qigong in order to identify further directions of Qigong in Korean medicine. Methods: Under the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework, PubMed was searched to identify articles published from January 1, 2019 to June 28, 2021. A total of 224 articles were retrieved. Results were systematically filtered by two independent reviewers based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Publication information, disease, intervention and research results of a total of 153 articles were extracted and analyzed. Results: Asia had the largest number of Qigong studies (82 studies, 65%). Most research studies were conducted in the academic field of Medicine (n=109, 86.5%), including Complementary and Alternative Medicine (n=35), Medicine (miscellaneous) (n=15), and Oncology (n=15). Based on ICD-10 classification, Mental and Behavioral Disorder (n=25, 19.8%) was the most frequently analyzed decease, followed by Neoplasm (n=24) and Disease of the Nervous system (n=12). Almost half of all studies were Systematic Reviews. RCTs only accounted for 25.4%. Interventions were very diverse and inconsistent. Sixty (47.6%) studies analyzed Qigong as a single intervention. In 66 cases, Qigong was analyzed as part of a large category such as Mind-Body intervention. Most studies designed a Donggong (動功) program. The age of the population was relatively high as 47.1% of all studies were conducted on middle aged or older adults. Conclusions: These findings suggest that further standardized research on Qigong, especially Junggong (靜功), needs to be conducted by developing research protocols and practice programs to verify effects of Qigong and utilize Qigong as a medical intervention in Korean Medicine.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.131-139
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• 2019

Introduction: Mastalgia is the most common benign breast disorder during the fertility period of women. So far a wide range of natural or complementary medicines is used to cure mastalgia. Sanitary organizations need complete and suitable details to help women, for making the proper decision for alternative treatment based on the evidence. The aim of the present study is to introduce medicinal plant-based treatments about mastalgia and summarizes clinical trials about this disorder. Method: The articles were provided using mixture of keywords including cyclic pain, breast, treatment, therapeutics, therapy, clinical trial, herbal, drug, mastalgia and all the probable terms, in national and international databases SID, Iran Medex, Magiran, PubMed, Scopus, Medline, Science direct and Cochrane library, in both Persian and English languages. All cross-sectional and review articles about herbal treatment of mastalgia until 2018 November were studied. Results: Nineteen articles from all of the available articles (45 cases) and a sample size about of (1987 cases) were included in our study. The articles were clinical trials. The results revealed that mastalgia could be healed by Nigella sativa, Vitex agnus-castus, curcumin, Hypericum perforatum, Citrus sinensis, wheat germ, and Ginkgo biloba. Conclusion: Most of the evaluated medicinal plants possessing antioxidant compounds with anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, exhibited healing effects in the treatment of mastalgia. Thus, medicinal plants can be considered in the treatment of mastalgia; however, further investigations are needed to obtain more details about their probable side effects.

• Integrative Medicine Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.333-340
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• 2018

Background: Traditional Korean medicine (TKM) is widely used to treat children with cerebral palsy (CP) in Korea; however, studies investigating factors that influence the use of TKM are scarce. Thus, we investigated the clinical factors that might influence the use of TKM. Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional, multicenter survey was performed from August 2014 to May 2016. The history of TKM use, type and severity of CP, current treatment characteristics, presence of accompanying disabilities or other health problems not directly related to CP, and monthly cost for the treatment of CP were surveyed. Results: In total, 182 children were recruited, and 78 children (42.9%) had used TKM. Among these 78 children, 50 (64.1% of the TKM-use group) had used both acupuncture and herbal medication, 15 (19.2%) had used acupuncture only, and 13 (16.7%) had used herbal medication only. Children with non-typical CP, accompanying disabilities and general health problems tended to use TKM. The monthly cost of treatment for CP was significantly higher in the TKM-use group than that in the no-TKM-use group, suggesting that economically disadvantaged children may have difficulty in accessing TKM. Dietary supplements, conventional pharmacological treatments, and rehabilitation therapies did not affect TKM use. Conclusion: Children with non-typical symptoms or those with poor overall health status are likely to use TKM. Additionally, TKM use leads to increased treatment costs. Studies investigating the motivation for starting or ceasing TKM therapy, socioeconomic factors and the attitude of parents towards complementary and alternative medicine should be performed.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2021

Background: Many herbal medications have been used to treat various liver diseases. But the concerns of herbal medicine induced liver injury also existed. In this respect, we would like to report several cases with imporved elevated liver aminotransferase after treating herbal medicine including Artemisia capillaris. Case Reports: We report four patients with elevated aminotransferase levels (ATLs), which indicate hepatocellular damages. After receiving herbal medicines therapy containing Artemisia capillaris as principal component (HMA), the patients' ATLs were improved. In the first case, the patient's ATLs decreased into normal range after administration of HMA, although they have not been improved with hepatotonics for a long period. In the second case, the patient's ATLs have been elevated after taking anticoagulants. The ATLs were improved with HMA without stopping anticoagulants. In the other two cases, the patients' ATLs were also improved after taking HMA. In addition, there were no changes of previous drugs for treating the corresponding underlying diseases and no adverse events during HMA applications. Result and Conclusion: The four patients received the herbal medicine containing Artemisia capillaris as principal component and showed improvement of ATLs. These cases suggest that HMA can be considered as alternative or complementary remedies to improve various liver diseases.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 2008

Objectives : Cheonggukjang(natto) is known to have anti-hyperlipidemic action in our previous study. This study was designed to investigate the safety of Prototype-cheonggukjang (PC, Herbal-natto). Methods : We investigated the effects of PC on changes in body weights, food uptake, water uptake, levels of AST/ALT, levels of BUN/creatinine and electrolytes in serum from normal mice. PC is made by cheonggukjang added Codonopsis Lanceolata, Houttuynia cordata and Lentinus edodes in indicated concetrations. Results : In this experiment, PC group showed equal levels of body weights, urine volume compared to non-treated control group. Oral administration of PC did not affect food and water uptake too. Levels of AST/ALT, which are markers of liver function, were not changed by administration of PC. In addition, levels of BUN/creatinine, which are markers of renal function, were not affected by PC too. Finally electrolytes in serum were not affected by PC. Conclusions : These results imply that oral administration of PC is safe in the framework of liver and renal function, and electrolytes in serum.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2010

Clinical research on acupuncture in cancer care is a new and challenging field in oncology. The results of clinical research will continue to provide clinically relevant answers for patients and oncologists. The evidence currently available has suggested that acupuncture is a safe and effective therapy to manage cancer and treatment related symptoms, while giving patients the ability to actively participate in their own care plan. The article explains the potential benefits of acupuncture and describes the difficulties in studying its effectiveness.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.208-213
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• 2010

We sought to optimize parboiled rice preparations with respect to nutritional composition and to compare the physicochemical properties of polished, glutinous rices and Olbyossal (parboiled rice). Crude lipid contents (all w/w) were: brown glutinous rice (1.92%) > Olbyossal (1.13%) > glutinous rice (1.08%) > polished rice (0.32%). The crude ash content of Olbyossal was greater than that of polished rice. There was no significant difference in crude protein level between Olbyossal and polished rice. Total dietary fiber content (all figures are w/w) was higher in Olbyossal (3.79%) than in polished rice (1.67%). With respect to mineral content, P (249.16 mg%), K (144.67 mg%), Na (35.41 mg%), and Mg (30.24 mg%) levels were higher in Olbyossal than in polished rice. There was no significant difference in fatty acid or amino acid content between polished rice and Olbyossal. The L value (lightness) of Olbyossal was lower than that of polished rice but the hardness of Olbyossal was greater.