Releases Saturday 20 January 2001
No 7279 Volume 322
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(1) Fruit
extract is effective treatment for premenstrual
syndrome
(2) High impact physical activity may reduce risk of hip fracture
(3) Is complementary
therapy the medicine of the new
millennium?
(1) Fruit extract is
effective treatment for premenstrual
syndrome
(Treatment for the premenstrual syndrome
with agnus castus
fruit extract: prospective, randomised,
placebo controlled
study)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7279/134
Dry extract of the agnus castus fruit is
an effective
treatment of premenstrual syndrome, and
should be
considered a therapeutic option, finds
a study in this week's
BMJ.
Researchers at the Institute for Health
Care and Science in
Germany identified 170 women diagnosed
with premenstrual
syndrome. Eighty-six women received agnus
castus extract
and 84 received placebo over three menstrual
cycles. Six
symptoms - irritability, mood alteration,
anger, headache,
breast fullness and bloating - were assessed
at the start of
the first cycle and again at the end of
the third cycle.
They found that patients who received agnus
castus had a
significant improvement in combined symptoms
compared
with those on placebo. Five of the six
symptoms (irritability,
mood alteration, anger, headache and breast
fullness) were
significantly improved. Other symptoms
such as bloating
were unaffected by treatment. Overall,
more than half the
women had a 50% or greater overall improvement
in their
symptoms, and side effects were few and
mild.
Given the debilitating effects of premenstrual
syndrome, this
herbal remedy should be considered a therapeutic
option,
conclude the authors.
Contact:
R Schellenberg, Senior Consultant, Institute
for Health Care
and Science, Huttenberg, Germany
Email: rued.schellenberg.med{at}t-online.de
(2) High impact physical activity may reduce risk of hip fracture
(Patterns of physical activity and
ultrasound attenuation by
heel bone among Norfolk cohort of
European Prospective
Investigation of Cancer (EPIC Norfolk):
population-based
study)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7279/140
Men and women who regularly participate
in high impact
physical activity may be at a lower risk
of hip fracture than
those who participate in moderate or low
impact activities,
finds a study in this week's BMJ.
Researchers in Cambridge identified 2,296
men and 2,914
women who had had a heel ultrasound measurement
taken
(to predict their risk of hip fracture)
as part of the European
Prospective Investigation of Cancer. Both
men and women
who reported participating in high impact
physical activity,
including jogging, tennis, badminton,
and step aerobics, had a
significantly higher ultrasound measurement
than those who
reported no activity of this type. This,
say the authors, could
be translated into a 33% reduction in
risk of hip fracture in
men and a 12% reduction in women. Women
who reported
climbing more stairs and watching less
television also had
higher ultrasound measurements. Moderate
or low impact
physical activity had no effect.
These results support the need for interventions
to increase
participation in high impact activities
amongst younger men
and women to slow the rate of bone loss
in later life,
conclude the authors.
Contact:
Nicholas Wareham, University of Cambridge,
Institute of
Public Health, Cambridge, UK
Email:njw1004{at}medschl.cam.ac.uk
(3) Is complementary
therapy the medicine of the new
millennium?
(Integrated medicine)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7279/119
(Regulation in complementary and
alternative medicine)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7279/158
(Can doctors respond to patients'
increasing interest in
complementary and alternative medicine?)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7279/154
To coincide with a conference in London
next week,
organised jointly by the UK's Royal College
of Physicians
and the US's National Center for Complementary
and
Alternative Medicine, several articles
in this week's BMJ
discuss how complementary and alternative
therapies can be
integrated into conventional patient care.
As US expenditure on complementary medicine
approaches
$40 billion a year and at least 40% of
general practices in the
UK provide some complementary medicine
services,
conventional medicine can no longer ignore
complementary
medicine, write Lesley Rees and Andrew
Weil. They believe
that funding for research and clear guidelines
for the
regulation and training of health professionals
who want to
incorporate a complementary therapy into
their practice is
essential to the effective integration
of complementary
medicine and conventional medicine.
Despite recommendations for clearer regulation
in the UK,
professional standards vary widely, reports
Simon Mills of
the Complementary Health Studies Programme
in Exeter.
He believes that each discipline should
set up its own
regulatory body, and that greater co-operation
and respect
between orthodox and complementary practitioners
would
improve communication with patients.
To advise about complementary and alternative
medicine,
doctors need to understand its potential
benefits and
limitations, write Owen and colleagues.
Without this,
complementary and alternative medicine
will continue to be
patchy and largely outside the conventional
care framework,
they add. They believe that the integration
of complementary
and alternative medicine gives doctors
and the health
profession an opportunity to bring together
the strengths and
to balance the weaknesses inherent in
different systems of
healthcare, and could be a healing process
in itself.
Contacts:
Lesley Rees, Director of Education, Royal
College of
Physicians, London, UK
Email: Lesley.Rees{at}rcplondon.ac.uk
Andrew Weil, Director, Program in Integrative
Medicine and
Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona,
Tucson, USA
Email: Mnhardin{at}ix.netcom.com
Simon Mills, Research Coordinator, Complementary
Health
Studies Programme, Exeter, UK
Email: S.Y.Mills{at}exeter.ac.uk
D Owen, Homoeopathic Physician, Homoeopathic
Physicians Teaching Group, Oxford, UK
Email: owen{at}healthways.demon.co.uk
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