Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Menopause: A Qualitative Analysis of Women’s Decision Making

Hill‐Sakurai, Laura E.; Muller, Jessica; Thom, David H.

doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0537-9

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The Shanghai gynaecology expert Cai Zhuang 蔡庄 estimates that less than one in six of menopausal women in this most westernised of Chinese cities suffer from symptoms serious enough to require treatment (Cai Zhuang 蔡莊 and Zhou Fengqing 周佩青 1997: 100). In the West, however, more than half of all women suffering from menopausal complaints such as hot flashes look towards alternative medicine for help (Hill-Sakurai et al 2008). The ensuing demand for practices such as TCM may well have filtered back to China and influenced physicians there to design treatments specifically dealing with this problem.…”

Section: Menopause and Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Globalising Chinese Medical Understandings of Menopause

Scheid

2008

East Asian Science

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This essay examines the treatment of menopausal syndrome by Chinese medicine as a window on how globalisation impacts on the development of the Chinese medical tradition. The treatment strategies for menopausal syndrome were invented in 1964 and betray a strong influence of biomedical thinking. Today, they are sold both at home and abroad as products of 2,000 years of clinical experience. Close examination of textual sources reveals that such attachment is achieved by way of skillfully patching selected elements of tradition onto each other, creating a narrative that appears coherent and fits biomedical models of menopause, but is intrinsically fragile. Not only can the patchwork that sustains this narrative easily be deconstructed (as for instance in this article) but having attached itself to a distinctive interpretation of ageing-universal, biological and chauvinist-it also opens itself up to all of the criticisms that have been made of biomedical models of menopause insensitive to local variations in women's experience. Furthermore, there is no evidence that modernising Chinese medical interpretations of menopause have increased its effectiveness in clinical practice. Whilst the essay itself does not seek to resolve these tensions, it demonstrates that the globalisation of Chinese medicine provides it not merely with opportunities but also with important new problems whose resolution may determine its ongoing development-and indeed survival-as a living tradition.The processes of globalisation that are shaping the world today are still widely equated in both academic and popular imaginations with the dispersal of things western, modern and rational. In this view, epitomised in Fukuyama's (1992) notion of the end of history, natural evolution (of ideology, economics, technology) and the inevitable westernisation of the world are seen as congruent events. Yet, even as

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Section: Menopause and Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Globalising Chinese Medical Understandings of Menopause

Scheid

2008

East Asian Science

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“…An increasing number of women are turning to complementary and alternative therapies to help manage menopausal symptoms [19], with current estimates ranging from 40% to over 70% of women in the peri- and postmenopausal period [19–21]. Among the more commonly chosen therapies are mind-body practices, including active disciplines such as yoga and tai chi, as well as specific relaxation and other stress management techniques [19–20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind-body therapies for menopausal symptoms: A systematic review

Innes¹,

Selfe²,

Vishnu³

2010

Maturitas

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Objective To systematically review the peer-reviewed literature regarding the effects of self-administered mind-body therapies on menopausal symptoms. Methods To identify qualifying studies, we searched 10 scientific databases and scanned bibliographies of relevant review papers and all identified articles. The methodological quality of all studies was assessed systematically using predefined criteria. Results Twenty-one papers representing 18 clinical trials from 6 countries met our inclusion criteria, including 12 randomized controlled trials (N=719), 1 non-randomized controlled trial (N=58), and 5 uncontrolled trials (N=105). Interventions included yoga and/or meditation-based programs, tai chi, and other relaxation practices, including muscle relaxation and breath-based techniques, relaxation response training, and low frequency sound-wave therapy. Eight of the nine studies of yoga, tai chi, and meditation-based programs reported improvement in overall menopausal and vasomotor symptoms; six of seven trials indicated improvement in mood and sleep with yoga-based programs, and four studies reported reduced musculoskeletal pain. Results from the remaining nine trials suggest that breath-based and other relaxation therapies also show promise for alleviating vasomotor and other menopausal symptoms, although intergroup findings were mixed. Most studies reviewed suffered methodological or other limitations, complicating interpretation of findings. Conclusions Collectively, findings of these studies suggest that yoga-based and certain other mind-body therapies may be beneficial for alleviating specific menopausal symptoms. However, the limitations characterizing most studies hinder interpretation of findings and preclude firm conclusions regarding efficacy. Additional large, methodologically sound trials are needed to determine the effects of specific mind-body therapies on menopausal symptoms, examine long-term outcomes, and investigate underlying mechanisms.

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“…An interesting finding was that 31 articles mentioned the use of software to assist data handling and analysis, where the most widely used was the NVivo (7,9,12,15,(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27) , followed by Atlas ti (28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33) , Maxqda (10,34) , SPSS (9,31) , QSR 6 (35)(36) , Excel (37)(38) (two articles in each), PASW18 (39) , KWalitan 5.0 (40) and Alceste (41) (one article in each). The 76 productions analyzed were published in 56 journals with international circulation, where the most frequent one was BMC Family Practice with seven articles, followed by the British Journal of General Practice and the Journal of General Internal Medicine (four articles in each).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some authors emphasize that, as these are natural treatments, their use poses less risk to health in comparison with industrialized drugs, but these authors also state that these treatments are not free from potential adverse reactions (26) . A study from the USA showed that the most popular ACM types among participants were herbs (powders, teas, or extracts), nutritional supplements and foods rich in soy, meditation, acupuncture, massage, and Reiki.…”

Section: The Use Of Integrative and Complementary Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A study from the USA showed that the most popular ACM types among participants were herbs (powders, teas, or extracts), nutritional supplements and foods rich in soy, meditation, acupuncture, massage, and Reiki. Participants were menopausal women who explained that ACM was safer and less harmful than hormone therapy, claiming that women in previous generations were treated only with natural things (26) . For a group of older men in the mid-west region of Brazil, plants were viewed as different from health care unit drugs, as herbs took longer to be effective and could only help the treatment prescribed by the physician.…”

Section: The Use Of Integrative and Complementary Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An integrative review of drug utilization by the elderly in primary health care

Oliveira

Santos

2016

Rev. esc. enferm. USP

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OBJECTIVE To identify knowledge produced about drug utilization by the elderly in the primary health care context from 2006 to 2014. METHOD An integrative review of the PubMed, LILACS, BDENF, and SCOPUS databases, including qualitative research papers in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. It excluded papers with insufficient information regarding the methodological description. RESULTS Search found 633 papers that, after being subjected to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, made up a corpusof 76 publications, mostly in English and produced in the United States, England, and Brazil. Results were pooled in eight thematic categories showing the current trend of drug use in the elderly, notably the use of psychotropics, polypharmacy, the prevention of adverse events, and adoption of technologies to facilitate drug management by the elderly. Studies point out the risks posed to the elderly as a consequence of changes in metabolism and simultaneous use of several drugs. CONCLUSION There is strong concern about improving communications between professionals and the elderly in order to promote an exchange of information about therapy, and in this way prevent major health complications in this population.

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Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Menopause: A Qualitative Analysis of Women’s Decision Making

Cited by 33 publications

References 18 publications

Globalising Chinese Medical Understandings of Menopause

Globalising Chinese Medical Understandings of Menopause

Mind-body therapies for menopausal symptoms: A systematic review

An integrative review of drug utilization by the elderly in primary health care

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