January 11, 2006 – Medicine Kampo could provide relief to patients with chronic fatigue. At least that’s what emerges from a recent article published by Japanese researchers. According to their clinical observations1, the medicinal preparations prescribed by practitioners of this traditional Japanese medicine have had the effect of reducing the symptoms of chronic fatigue.
As part of this study, 170 subjects with various chronic diseases were treated for 12 weeks in a medical clinic. Kampo. Among them, 103 had symptoms of chronic fatigue (physical and mental fatigue felt continuously for at least 6 months), which is common in patients with chronic diseases.
The results of the observations indicate that subjects suffering from chronic fatigue experienced significant relief from their symptoms, both physical and mental, as well as an improvement in the quality of their sleep and an increase in their work capacity.
The study authors note that due to the subjective nature of fatigue and the lack of pharmacological tools to combat it, this condition is often overlooked by physicians.
They hypothesize that the preparations of the pharmacopoeia of medicine Kampo would act as metabolic regulators to help the body fight stress.
The researchers emphasize, moreover, that these results have only a relative value since the study did not include a placebo group or a control group which would have received a treatment other than that of medicine. Kampo.
Note that medicine Kampo is the Japanese version of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from which it borrows the theoretical system as well as the techniques and pharmacopoeia. Just like the traditional Chinese physician, the practitioner of medicine Kampo bases its diagnosis on the theoretical bases of TCM, in particular on the concepts of Yin and Yang and the excess or the deficiency of one or the other in the patient. Once the diagnosis is made, the doctor can prescribe a preparation of medicinal plants specially adapted to his patient.
Pierre Lefrançois – PasseportSanté.net
1. Sekiya N, Shimada Y, Shintani T, et al. Reduction of perception of chronic fatigue in an observational study of patients receiving 12 weeks of kampo therapy, J Altern Complement Med, 2005 Oct; 11 (5): 895-901.
