• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.163-176
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• 2009

Objectives : To address most probable and suitable method for designing clinical trial intervening Traditional Korean Herbal Medicine on hwa-byung. Study Design : A systematic review of research studies of complementary and/or alternative medical(CAM) treatment of depression, and of domestic clinical trials of Traditional Korean Medicine, and of Chinese clinical trials of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Methods : Randomized, controlled trials(RCTs) of treatment of depression intervening herbal medicine were searched through MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and CNKI databases. Also, domestic RCTs intervening Traditional Korean Herbal Medicine were searched through Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal and Korean studies Information Service System(KISS). Studies were evaluated using Iadad scale and self-designed tool for this study. Results : Thirty four RCT studies( 10 from MEDLINE, 16 from CNKI, 8 domestic studies) of herbal medicine met inclusion criteria. Mean Jadad score of studies published in English was 2.8${\pm}$0.79, in Chinese 1.94${\pm}$0.77, and in Korean 2.75${\pm}$0.71. Twenty one percent of studies included pattern differentiation in their inclusion criteria. Twenty nine percent of studies used combined treatment of herbal and conventional medicine. Among studies on depression, 9% included Complementary Medical assessing tools. Conclusions : There is shortage of domestic clinical trial involving herbal medicine. In China, studies tend to focus on investigating effect of Combined treatment of herbal and conventional medicine on depression. Clinical trial(s) of hwa-byung should provide good internal validity by describing methodology for randomization, double-blinding, and attrition. Also, specific guideline for clinical trial, including Traditional Korean Medical aspects across inclusion criteria, and assessing tools is needed.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.85-95
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• 2016

Objectives Military medicine is the study of research which includes health, sanitation, clinic, and quarantine in military personnel. This study is focused on research the acupuncture treatment of military medicine. Methods The study on acupuncture research for Military Medicine was referred from via KoreaMed, OASIS, The Journal of Korean Military Medical Association, KMbase, KAMJE, NDSL, KISS, KISTI, PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and The Cochran library. As a result, 18 research papers were found and they were analyzed according to the year of publishment, the titles of journals, the nation of research center, the types of study, the purpose of study, the outcome of measurement, the type of acupuncture, and the assessment of acupuncture effect. And then assessed the risk of bias about RCT, NRCT, prospective cohort studies, and before and after studies. Results The number of the published research papers on acupuncture was increased since 2013. The studies were mainly published in the USA and eight out of 18 were RCT. The purpose of study is mostly for musculoskeletal and psychological disease and medical decision for acupuncture. The type of the acupuncture used is not only traditional acupuncture but also the auricular acupuncture. Even though the research results about the effect of acupuncture were excellent and positive, some of studies had a high risk of bias. Conclusions The studies state about acupuncture treatment as mostly positive and effective, however, further clinical studies are required to obtain objective clinical evidence of acupuncture treatment. Furthermore, future trials would be needed to find out effective acupuncture treatments on military duty.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2014

Objectives: The study aimed to determine changes in laboratory data for cancer patients receiving Korean medicine (KM) care, with a focus on patients' functional status, cancer-coagulation factors and cancer immunity. Methods: We conducted an observational study of various cancer patients in all stages admitted to the East-West Cancer Center (EWCC), Dunsan Korean Hospital of Daejeon University, from Mar. 2011 to Aug. 2011. All patients were under the center's multi-modality Korean-medicine-based inpatient cancer care program. The hospitalization stay at EWCC ranged from 9 to 34 days. A total of 80 patients were followed in their routine hematologic laboratory screenings performed before and after hospitalization. Patients were divided into three groups depending on the status of their treatment: prevention of recurrence and metastasis group, KM treatment only group, and combination of conventional and KM treatment group. The lab reports included natural killer cell count (CD16 + CD56), fibrinogen, white blood cell (WBC), lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophil, red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin, platelet, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status. Results: With a Focus on patients' functional status, cancer-coagulation factors and cancer immunity, emphasis was placed on the NK cell count, fibrinogen count, and ECOG scores. Data generally revealed decreased fibrinogen count, fluctuating NK cell count and decreased ECOG, meaning improved performance status in all groups. The KM treatment only group showed the largest decrease in mean fibrinogen count and the largest increase in mean NK cell count. However, the group's ECOG score showed the smallest decrease, which may be due to the concentration of late-cancer-stage patients in that particular group. Conclusions: Multi-modality KM inpatient care may have positive effect on lowering the cancer coagulation factor fibrinogen, but its correlation with the change in the NK cell count is not clear.

• 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.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.536-544
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• 2021

5-amino salicylic acid (5-ASA) is a standard therapy for the treatment of mild to moderate forms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) whereas more severe forms involve the use of steroids and immunosuppressive drugs. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a naturally occurring non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan that has shown epithelium protective effects in experimental colitis recently. In this study, both 5-ASA (30 mg/kg) and HA (15 mg/kg or 30 mg/kg) were administered rectally and investigated for their potential complementary therapeutic effects in moderate or severe murine colitis models. Intrarectal treatment of moderate and severe colitis with 5-ASA alone or HA alone at a dose of 30 mg/kg led to a significant decrease in clinical activity and histology scores, myeloperoxidase activity (MPO), TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β in colitis mice compared to untreated animals. The combination of HA (30 mg/kg) and 5-ASA in severe colitis led to a significant improvement of colitis compared to 5-ASA alone. Combined rectal therapy with HA and 5-ASA could be a treatment alternative for severe cases of IBD as it was the only treatment tested that was not significantly different from the healthy control group. This study further underlines the benefit of searching for yet unexplored drug combinations that show therapeutic potential in IBD without the need of designing completely new drug entities.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.883-887
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to develop a new preparation process for chemical transformation of ginseng saponin glycosides to prosapogenins. Ginseng and ginseng extracts were processed under several treatment conditions using ascorbic acid solution. Treating with ascorbic acid at pH 2-3 and above $80^{\circ}C$ increased the ginsenoside $Rg_3$ content of samples to over 3% as compared to other pH levels and temperatures. In addition, ginseng and ginseng extracts that were processed under a high ascorbic acid solution treatment condition (pH 2.0, 5 hr) contained more ginsenoside $Rg_3$ (approximately 16 times) than those processed under a low ascorbic acid solution treatment condition (pH 3.0, 5 hr). The highest quantity of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ (3.434%) occurred when a sample of fine ginseng root extract (AG2-9) was processed with the ascorbic acid solution at pH 2.0 for 9 hr. However, there was no change in the amount of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ when fine ginseng root extracts were processed with ascorbic acid solution at pH 2.0 for over 9 hr. In conclusion, the results indicated that ascorbic acid treatment of ginseng extracts can produce a level of ginsenoside $Rg_3$ that is over 90-fold the amount found in commercial red ginseng.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2022

Objectives: Currently, Korea's medical services are divided into Western medicine and Korean medicine, and people who are not satisfied with the existing treatments are looking for complementary and alternative medicine(CAM). Therefore, this study attempted to confirm patients' perception of the ongoing collaborative treatment and integrated medical service that added CAM to collaborative treatment based on tertiary hospital users. So that we can confirm the expected advantage and disadvantage of integrated medical service system and the necessity of supporting medical expenses for it. Methods: The survey was conducted on 100 people who experienced tertiary hospital treatment and other 100 people who experienced both tertiary hospital treatment and Korean medicine treatment at the same period. The survey was conducted until the number of respondents in both group reached 100. The survey was conducted through e-mail and was conducted from September 27, 2021 to October 8, 2021. Results: For the advantages of collaborative treatment 'increased in psychological stability,' and for disadvantages 'longer time spent for treatment' were the most common. If integrated medical services are implemented in the future, expected advantages include 'consideration of various treatments.' and expected disadvantages include 'increased medical cost.' The needs to expand support for health insurance for integrated medical services were 75.5% among responders. Conclusions: We were able to find out the (expected) advantages and disadvantages of the collaborative medical care and the integrated medical system that medical users experienced or expected, also confirmed positive answers to the expansion of health insurance support for the integrated medical system.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.126-136
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aroma hand massage on anxiety and immune function in patients who had gynecology surgery under local anesthesia. Methods: The research design was a nonequivalent control group with pre-and posttest design. Data were collected from June 5 to October 6, 2010. Participants included 20 patients in the aroma hand massage group, 20 patients in a hand massage group, and 20 in a control group. As an experimental treatment, hand massage was carried out following the hand massage protocol. Measures consisted of the State Trait Anxiety, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for anxiety, vital signs (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate), and salivary cortisol for anxiety, and immunoglobulin A for immune function. Results: Aroma hand massage and hand massage group showed lower levels in NRS for anxiety, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and pulse rate (p<.001) compared to controls. No group differences were found for state anxiety, salivary cortisol and immunoglobulin A. Conclusion: The results indicate that aroma hand massage and hand massage are effective in reducing anxiety and can be complementary alternative interventions for women having gynecology surgery under local anesthesia.

• CELLMED
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.20.1-20.6
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• 2020

The Karafs is a dried herb of whole plant of Apium graveolens L. from Apiaceae (carrot family). The seeds (fruits) of Apium graveolens are known as Tukhm-e- Karafs in Unani Medicine. Karafs is known as Celeri in French, Apio in Spanish, Selderiji in Dutch, Syelderey in Russian and Chin in Chinese. It is cultivated in different parts of the world for its seeds as spice and green leaves and root as salad crop. Its seeds are also used for medicinal purposes in complementary and alternative medicines. In Unani it is used as a single drug or as an ingredient in compound formulations used for management in various ailments. The seeds have various pharmacological actions like hepatoprotective, diuretic and lithotriptic etc. It is commonly found in Western Asia, Europe, North Africa and various parts of India like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh etc. In Unani its actions are described as Mudirr-i-Bawl (Diuretic), Mufattit-i-Hasāh (Lithotriptic), Dafi'-i-Tashannuj (Antispasmodic) and Kāsir-i-Riyāh (Carminative). It is used for the treatment of Hasah al-Kulya (Nephrolithiasis), Nafkh al-Mi'da (Flatulence), Istisqā' (Oedema) and Ihtibās al-Bawl (Retention of urine) etc.

• Clinical Nutrition Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.139-147
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• 2024

Anxiety disorder is a prevalent psychiatric issue that affects 4.05% of the global population. As complementary and alternative medicine gains popularity, many individuals with anxiety symptoms seek herbal remedies. This systematic review aims to explore the sedative efficacy of chamomile as an herbal medicine for anxiety treatment. Our search was conducted in PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases until August 2023. Among 389 papers found, after removing duplicates and irrelevant papers, 10 clinical trials investigating the effect of oral consumption of chamomile on anxiety were included. Two researchers independently completed all steps, including the screening process and data extraction. Out of the 10 articles selected, 9 studies have concluded that chamomile is effective in reducing anxiety. Even though, the exact mechanism of chamomile's anxiolytic action is not well understood, evidence suggests that its active compounds, including apigenin, may modulate the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis by affecting neurotransmitter pathways. This systematic review showed that chamomile potentially has an anxiolytic effect. In addition, due to the side effects of drugs used to treat anxiety disorders, the use of chamomile seems to be effective and less dangerous.