Chinese Medicine for Dermatological Treatments I
Chinese medicine materia medica, tcm chinese medicine, chinese herbal medicine
Traditionally Chinese medicine has been known as Traditional Chinese
Medicine or TCM, an alternative therapy administered in topical, oral
or injected methods. Herbs are generally used for treatment and often
TCM is used for dermatological treatments. However, TCM is not always
taken in the best of lights and this is because adequate research and
understanding of the process has not been achieved. Herbal medicines have
3 primary functions:
? Detoxification and elimination
? Maintenance and management of overall health
? Building of health
Different applications have different formulas and herbal methods are
often used like a particular part or type of plant employed. US therapists
use ‘orthodox’ therapies that are approved by the FDA. Though it works,
patients are often sick of using them. Thus they go for alternative therapies
like TCM. Dietary manipulation, vitamin therapy and herbal solutions are
the common treatments used.
Dermatologists are now sufficiently informed about the placebo controlled
effects of TCM and medical literature contain evidences about its efficiency.
Popular in mainland China and Japan, TCM has been authenticated by Chinese
medical studies. One myth about TCM is that it is free of side effects,
although hepatotoxicity and dermatitis are common adverse effects.
TCM is effective as this is used for treating a lot of diseases like
psoriasis. It is similar to psoralen UVA phototherapy. The Radix Angelicae
pubescentis is a Chinese herbal alternative. Furocoumarins are also common
in TCM and when compared with psoralen UVA treatments they effectively
treat psoriasis. When administered in patients, a majority of them showed
improvement. The adverse effects include nausea and headaches.
Toxic effects of TCM include gastro intestinal reactions, abnormal menstruation
and cutaneous and mucotaneous reactions in human beings and animals. Abnormal
reactions in the hematopoietic system are also common in some individuals.
Exacerbation, abnormal functioning of the liver and latent chronic hepatitis
is also observed.
Other TCM samples like ethyliminum are an active ingredient in indigo
naturalis and are often used in western medicine as a treatment for psoriasis.
Some of the samples have fewer amounts of adverse effects and are widely
prepared and commercially marketed in China. TCM topical agents have also
beneficial effects such as the alkaloids that have anti neo plastic activities
such as campototheca, hydroxycampototheic, deoxycampototheic etc. Some
of these topical agents have been known to result in an enhancement of
post inflammatory hyper pigmentation. The injected TCM yields better results
than the other varieties.
