Chinese Herbal Medicine in the Management of Atherosclerosis-Related Chronic Conditions in an Aging Population

Chronic conditions are important problems for an aging society. They impede on healthy aging and increases the cost of living due to increased medical cost. The most prevalent chronic conditions faced by the elderly population are hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes mellitus. They increase the risk of developing atherosclerosis, a chronic condition which causes heart attack and stroke. This chapter provides a review on existing therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, and briefly discusses their side effects. This chapter also provides a brief introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and its development in ancient China. This will be followed by a discussion on the recent research on the use of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and the potentials and challenges of incorporating CHM in mainstream healthcare system.

Multiple Voices, Multiple Paths

The Western knowledge paradigm – with its ways of knowing, ways of seeing and its notions of reality - has dominated the global knowledge arena, rendering many indigenous knowledge systems as invalid, illegitimate and irrelevant. This is particularly true for indigenous medical knowledge systems, which have struggled to articulate their voices from the marginalisation imposed by colonialism, globalisation and modernity. This chapter outlines paradigmatic tenets and key conceptions underpinning Western Biomedicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Traditional African Medicine. It explores areas of synergy and contradiction, as well as points for potential dialogue between the medical systems. The chapter suggests that if carefully excavated, explorations into such ontologies and epistemologies can make meaningful contributions to knowledge brokerage, thus promoting inclusivity and ethics in knowledge societies. It therefore makes a case for cognitive justice – ‘the right of different traditions of knowledge to co-exist without duress'.

Yoga in the Treatment of Trauma-Related Disorders

Objective: This research review aimed to investigate yoga as an alternative treatment to trauma-related disorders as depression, anxiety and PTSD. Method: We searched different databases as Oria, PsychNet, and PubMed, and a hand search of relevant papers. Only quantitative studies were included as there were few good qualitative studies. Results: The results are somewhat varying in yoga as an effective intervention for trauma-related disorders or symptoms. In some studies the yoga group show greater improvements than the passive control group. When the control group is active there seems to be less of a difference between the groups. Even though most of these studies have small sample sizes there is an indication that yoga may improve trauma-related disorders such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Since yoga is a time-effective and have low costs it may be considered as an alternative when more time consuming and expensive treatment is not available or possible. Yoga may also be implemented as an adjunctive treatment.

Narratives of Integrative Health Coaching

Integrative health coaching incorporates vision and values into the goal setting process in order for change to occur. While health coaches frequently work with healthy people who want to make changes in their lives such as finding time to exercise or getting more sleep, this narrative focuses on the role of a health coach when working with physical therapy patients at a hospital. Health coaching, a new addition to the field of health education, provides a missing link in the healing journeys of patients.

Role of Nutraceuticals in Cancer

Nutraceuticals are increasingly becoming popular for prevention and treatment of cancer. Association of adverse effects with standard treatment modalities of cancer has led to consideration of safer approaches. Nutraceuticals may help in prevention of cancer as well as in treatment and avoidance of side effects associated with chemo-radiation. The active components of nutraceuticals are known as phytochemicals. Many mechanisms have been put forward for the actions of these phytochemicals but an exact mechanism for a well defined role of a particular phytochemical in a specific type of cancer is yet to be elucidated. Thus, nutraceutical industry has emerged as a research oriented sector. It is important for the healthcare professionals to understand the categories, research developments, mechanism of action and areas of concern in the field of nutraceuticals.

Antioxidants as Functional Foods in Metabolic Syndrome

In the recent years, there has been a great deal of attention in investigating the disease preventive properties of functional foods. Particularly, impact of the antioxidant property of functional foods in reducing the risk or progression of chronic diseases has gained considerable interest amongst researchers and practitioners. Free radicals such as reactive oxygen species are generated in the body by exposure to a number of physiochemical or pathological mechanisms. It is imperative to preserve a balance between the levels of free radicals and antioxidants for routine physiological function, a disparity of which would accelerate oxidative stress. Increased oxidative stress and associated consequences in metabolic disorders such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes has warranted the need for exogenous antioxidant concentrates derived from natural foods to alleviate the adverse effects. This chapter provides an overview on the efficacy of functional foods in reducing free radical-mediated damage in metabolic syndrome.

The Effects of Probiotic Cultures in Functional Foods

Functional foods are an important part of an overall healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and physical activity. The consumption of probiotic foods has many benefits. Dairy products that contain probiotic bacteria are those that are produced with various fermentation methods, especially lactic acid fermentation, by using starter cultures and those that have various textures and aromas. Fermented dairy probiotic products are popular due to their differences in taste and their favourable physiological effects. However, recent upsurge in interest of consumers towards dairy alternatives has opened up new research areas for developing non-dairy probiotic products. Different substrates such as cereals, fruit juices, vegetables can be used utilized for delivering these beneficial microorganisms. This chapter provides an insight on the recent research/developments about selection criteria of bacteria as probiotics and in the field of technological properties of probiotics.

Phytopharmaceutical Applications of Nutraceutical and Functional Foods

Nutraceuticals are actually “Bioactive herbal formulations” that contains selective combinations of specific bioactive constituents of plants and/or their parts that possess health-promotive, disease preventing and medicinal properties. The important phytochemical constituents commonly found in plants are polyphenols, flavonoids, isoflavonoids, anthocyanidins, carotenoids, fibers, limonoids, glucosinolates, phytoestrogens, phytosterols and terpenoids. They play positive pharmacological activities in human health such as antioxidant activity, anti-microbial activity, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-spasmodic, chemo-preventive, hepato-protective, neuro-protective, hypolipidemic, hypotensive, anti-aging, diabetes, osteoporosis, repair DNA damage, heart diseases, diuretic, Central Nervous System (CNS) stimulant, immuno-modulator, carminative, Thus the present chapter summarizes the phyto-pharmaceutical applications of nutraceuticals and functional foods and would lay emphasis on its importance for future generations for their well-being.

Consumers Attitude Towards Healthy Food

Nowadays the consumer's health consciousness drives the agri-food market. Superfoods or foods with health-related claims, including organic and functional foods, are the latest trend in the food industry. Since entering the market these products are rapidly gaining a remarkable market share worldwide. In this article, the authors conducted a survey of 300 Greek consumers to better understand attitudes towards these products, through the implementation of factor and cluster analysis and linear regression. Analyzing consumers' perception of healthy food products, in particular, organic and functional foods, is the best way to determine the market orientation and to have a clear market segmentation.

CAM Recommended by Standard Guidelines for Chronic Illnesses

This chapter will focus on guidelines for clinical practice that mention a range of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) techniques. After exploring the definition and grading of clinical practice guidelines as a decision-making tool, the CAM methods included in the review will be described. A definition of chronic diseases will be provided and an overview of the current clinical practice guidelines on a number of prevalent conditions will be presented. Guidelines released by several international regulatory organisations will be compared in order to detect which CAM techniques have been or not been recommended for chronic illnesses in different countries. The challenges in implementing and appraising guidelines will be finally discussed.