China : 36 new laws and regulations come into effect
CCTV.com, 1 February 2007
Of the new laws introduced this month, one will deal with what t he Supreme People's Court is calling "unfair competition". The law deals with false or confusing advertising and also deals harshly with companies which misuse brand names. In this new law, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine and rural doctors will be able to sit simpler examinations to qualify, while officials will give special acknowledgement to those with special skills.
Seniors receive door to door nursing services
Shanghai Daily (http://www.shanghaidaily.com), 12 February 2007
The Baoshan Community health service center in Zhabei District has hired six full-time nurses and signed up 12 students from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to provide a door-to-door service for 20,000 elderly residents to ensure that they are taking their medicines and looking after their health. Mental diseases among aged citizens in the Community is quite rampant says center director Chen Jigen. "Most of them suffer depression and other kinds of diseases as they live alone without care."
Italy signs agreement for joint TCM lab in China
China Corporate Social Responsibility (http://www.chinacsr.com), 12 February 2007
The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology's Vice Minister Shang Yong and visiting Italian Health Minister Livia Turco have signed a memorandum or understanding on building a joint lab for TCM. This lab would serve as a base to develop Chinese medicine by integrating it with modern biotechnologies, to better enable them to get registered in the European Union (EU) so that TCM research can be contained with the EU 7th Framework Programme.
Chinese drug could help prevent relapse of breast cancer
http://www.ecanadanow.com, 21 February 2007
A drug made from the extract of a TCM medicinal herb will be tested to determine if it helps delay or prevent a relapse in advanced breast cancer patients who have responded to Western treatment. Preliminary tests on animals have shown that Proveq MPCB can stave off the conditions which lead to a relapse after Chemotherapy. Professor Hui Kam Man, founding director of the firm MediPearl which makes the substance, told The Straits Times, "Herbal treatment can't fight head-on with Western drugs," he said. "But it acts in a slower and more sustained way, with less toxicity, so it can serve as a supplement." Proveq MPCB lowers the levels of a type of white blood cell, called macrophage, and the cancer-promoting proteins it produces. The clinical trial of Proveq MPCB will begin later in 2007, last two years and will include 120 advanced breast cancer patients who responded to conventional treatment.
Black Soya beans may help prevent weight gain
Healthday.com (http://foodconsumer.org), 26 February 2007
New research in rats suggests that black soya beans may help prevent obesity, lower cholesterol levels and so lessen the development of diabetes. In a study published in the February issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, a team of Korean researchers studied the effects of black soya in 32 rats. The rats ate a fatty diet as well as varying amounts of black soya beans. After two weeks, the rats getting 10 percent of their energy from black soya gained only half as much weight as those in the control group, and their total blood cholesterol and LDL (so-called "bad") cholesterol fell by 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Soya protein may reduce the production of new fatty acids and cholesterol by affecting fat metabolism in the liver and adipose tissue. This may help explain why black soya is a traditional Asian treatment against diabetes in some countries.
Compiled By:
Jennifer Eagleton, BA, MA (Asian Studies), Integrated Chinese Medicine Holdings Ltd.
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