Traditional Chinese Medicine for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Abstract

More and more patients have been diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in recent years. Western drug use for this syndrome is often associated with many side-effects and little clinical benefit. As an alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has provided some evidences based upon ancient texts and recent studies, not only to offer clinical benefit but also offer insights into their mechanisms of action. It has perceived advantages such as being natural, effective and safe to ameliorate symptoms of CFS such as fatigue, disordered sleep, cognitive handicaps and other complex complaints, although there are some limitations regarding the diagnostic standards and methodology in related clinical or experimental studies. Modern mechanisms of TCM on CFS mainly focus on adjusting immune dysfunction, regulating abnormal activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and serving as an antioxidant. It is vitally important for the further development to establish standards for ‘zheng’ of CFS, i.e. the different types of CFS pathogenesis in TCM, to perform randomized and controlled trials of TCM on CFS and to make full use of the latest biological, biochemical, molecular and immunological approaches in the experimental design.

Ren Shen Yangrong Tang for Fatigue in Cancer Survivors: A Phase I/II Open-Label Study

“…18 TCM methods for managing chronic fatigue have been widely adopted for the treatment of cancer and other conditions in China and elsewhere. [19][20][21][22][23][24] In oncology care, the TCM method most often used in China is a mixture of herbal compounds and decoction. McCulloch et al, 25 in a multilingual literature review and meta-analysis, reported that Astragalus mongholicus (huangqi)-based herbal medicine was associated with a trend (unconfirmed because of the quality of the study) of increased survival, tumor response, and performance status.…”

Protocol for the evaluation and validation of Qi Blood Yin Yang deficiency pattern questionnaire: prospective observational study

“…According to KM, UCF is categorized into patterns of deficiency or excess. UCF is mainly diagnosed the deficiency pattern, classified into qi, blood, yin, and yang deficiencies, and specialized treatments are then applied according to the particular deficiency patterns 10 . In general, PI diagnosis is a key tool of KM treatment and has great curative power for many chronic illness.…”

“…Similarly, UCF patients can be classified into deficiency syndrome or excess syndrome, which refers to the deficiency or excess in qi, blood, yin, and yang 10, 11. Previous studies mentioned that UCF is mainly considered to exhibit the deficiency pattern and therefore most patients are treated by invigorating qi and yang and nourishing blood and yin 10, 12.…”

Placental therapy: An insight to their biological and therapeutic properties

“…Placenta contains iron which replenishes the iron level in the body to eradicate fatigue and provides energy [27]. Human placenta are commonly used in traditional chinese medicine for the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome [76]. A survey on 189 females on maternal placentophagy was investigated.…”