• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.9-22
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• 2023

As a famous herbal medicine in China and Asia, ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) is also known as the "King of All Herbs" and has long been used in medicine and healthcare. In addition to the obvious biological activities of ginsenosides, ginseng polysaccharides (GPs) exhibit excellent antitumor, antioxidant stress, and immunomodulatory effects. In particular, GPs can exert an antitumor effect and is a potential immunomodulator. However, due to the complexity and diversity in the structures and components of GPs, their specific physicochemical properties, and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this article, we have summarized the factors influencing the antitumor activity of GPs and their mechanism of action, including the stimulation of the immune system, regulation of the gut microbiota, and direct action on tumor cells

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.1 s.29
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• pp.505-530
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• 1995

Recently some people in learned circles of oriental medicine raised a Question about a terminological problem, i.e., 'oriental medical'. This question was thought as an attempt to find out the identity of oriental medicine which exists among the various current medical knowledge systems. In spite of same object, human body, there are diverse medical knowledge systems which has different concepts and theories. This come from the difference of a view of object which defines the experiences of that. The knowledge system of oriental medicine was established by the view of object in oriental medicine which depended on the way of thinking as Yin and Yang. The view of object in oriental medicine has come out in the special cultural soil, namely, the oriental world. Because of this the view of object in oriental medicine cannot be seperated from the oriental world view. What distintive feature does the oriental world view have? It can be summarized as the holistic, dynamical and organic ideas of the world. The term 'oriental medical' is being used to emphasize the characteristic and the peculiarity of the oriental medicine among the various medical knowledge systems. Can the current so called scientific method accept this peculiar and special method of oriental medicine? The efforts of philosophers who had been stimulated by the awful scientific achivements and had tried to find out the unified method penetrating through all the empirical science by mobilizing the logic and mathematics has became out of date for the raise of a question about the inductive method. On the contrary, the theses of theory-laden observation was accepted widely and the relativism was accepted as a new established theory. But the relativism has its own problem. The relativism was founded upon the concept, the incommensurability, which Khun and Feyerabend had proposed. This concept was criticized strongly by some of philosophers because of its own self-refuting. The view of object in oriental medicine has a relative characteristic in the aspect of its urge that in accordance with the perspective a different medical knowledge system can be possible. But our possible choice is the moderate conceptual relativism. Therefore if the view of object in oriental medicine includes the relative aspect, there is the 'conceptual relativity' between the knowledge system of oriental medicine and the western medicine. This preview an important aspect for the standardization and modernizing research of oriental medicine by lending the knowledge of the western medicine. And when we choose the moderate conceptual relativism, it means that we do not support the extreme relativism, that is, 'anything goes'. The concept of truth and rationality cannot be abandoned, and it plays the role of the norm on the knowledge system of oriental medicine and other knowledge systems of medicine in a limited meaning. And the view of object in oriental medicine has an organic view about the human body and the characteristic which wants to interpret the phenomena of human body by using the holistic method. But the availability of this method will be evaluated by the achievements of oriental medicine. Finally what relationship does the theory of oriental medicine have with the world the theory is applied to? It is recognized that the theory of oriental medicine has the instrumental characteristic. But it can be thought the instrumentalism is different from the oriental medical standpoint in the aspect that the instrumentalism seperates the theoretical existence from the observational existence sharply. Because in the oriental thinking way there is no seperation between the mind of observer and the object and no conflict between the idealism and the realism like the western world. For this problem there must be a further study.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.31-56
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• 2000

A purpose of this study is to study on Rene Descartes's mind-body theory in medical aspect. Though Rene Descartes was not so much a doctor as a philosopher, he had health and medical science at heart. When he came into the world in 1596, he was in poor health. Therefore, he suffered from his bad health. Descartes's ideas absolutely colored Western thought for three hundred years, especially, his mind-body theory, mechanistic life-view, and reductionism had important effect on medical study and science of public health. As a rule, we know that his mind-body theory was applicable to mind-body dualism, and his mind-body dualism was connected with biomedical model of medicine. But by this study, his mind-body theory was not only mind-body dualism but also mind-body monoism. And he asserted mind-body interaction too. In other words, he advocated mind-body dualism in scientific aspect, but he knew mind-body monoism from his experence. He confessed this fact to Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, he wrote mind-body interaction in $\boxDr$Discours de la methode$\boxUl$, $\boxDr$Meditationes de prima philosophia$\boxUl$, and $\boxDr$Traite des passions de 1'ame$\boxUl$ etc. However, only mind-body dualism of his mind-body theories was written in our medical text book, morever mental realm was excluded from the persuit of learning Descartes advocated a mechanistic world-view and mechanistic life-view, he regarded human body as a machine part. And a paticent corresponds to a troubled machine, a doctor deserves a repairman. But this point of view made holistic understanding of man impossible. Descartes divide the whole into basic building blocks, we named the approach Reductionism. Reductionism led to ontological concept in medical science, bacteriology established 'specific cause-specific disease-specific therapy'. We examined medical influence of Descartes's thought, we need to draw out a philosophic basis of medical science and science of public health by a close study of his records.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.82-93
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• 2021

Background: This study used bibliometric analysis of articles published about the topic of regional anesthesia from 1980-2019 with the aim of determining which countries, organizations, and authors were effective, engaged in international cooperation, and had the most cited articles and journals. Methods: All articles published from 1980-2019 included in the Web of Science database and found using the keywords regional anesthesia/anaesthesia, spinal anesthesia/anaesthesia, epidural anesthesia/anaesthesia, neuraxial anesthesia/anaesthesia, combined spinal-epidural, and peripheral nerve block in the title section had bibliometric analysis performed. Correlations between the number of publications from a country with gross domestic product (GDP), gross domestic product (at purchasing power parity) per capita (GDP PPP), and human development index (HDI) values were investigated with the Spearman correlation coefficient. The number of articles that will be published in the future was estimated with linear regression analysis. Results: Literature screening found 11,156 publications. Of these publications, 6,452 were articles. The top 4 countries producing articles were United States of America (n = 1,583), Germany (585), United Kingdom (510), and Turkey (386). There was a significant positive correlation found between the GDP, GDP PPP, and HDI markers for global countries with publication productivity (r = 0.644, P < 0.001; r = 0.623, P < 0.001, r = 0.542, P < 0.001). The most productive organizations were Harvard University and the University of Toronto. Conclusions: This comprehensive study presenting a holistic summary and evaluation of 6,452 articles about this topic may direct anesthesiologists, doctors, academics, and students interested in this topic.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.71-82
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• 2023

Objectives: The existing reductionist approach has not reached complete understanding of the cause of schizophrenia. The objective of this study was to investigate yin-yang and five-element characteristics reflected on four time pillars of birth of patients with schizophrenia through comparison with the general population in the perspective of consilience-based holistic approach. Methods: This study was conducted using a random sequential recruitment method for the general population and individuals with schizophrenia aged 18 to 64 based on the exact date and time of birth using structured questionnaires. Relative positional relations of yin-yang and five-element with day master were primarily examined. In addition, the strength of day master with a score range of 0~100 points was assessed through operational score allocation. Results: Of 591 participants, 576 (346: general population, 230: individuals with schizophrenia) were analyzed. Between-group analyses showed no significant difference in the distribution of types of day master (χ²=10.41, df=9, p=0.318). However, significant between-group differences were shown in the distribution of the strength of day master (t=2.14, p=0.032) and frequency of restraining month branch (χ²=5.23, df=1, p=0.022). In logistic regression analysis, 10-point increase on the strength of day master decreased the probability of onset of schizophrenia over the age of 30 by 29.6% (p=0.002; 95% confidence interval, 0.566~0.876). Conclusions: Findings in this study suggest that four time pillars of birth might be associated with schizophrenia through yin-yang and five-element theory and synchronicity principle, implicating the plausibility of consilience-based holistic approach in the determination of risk factors or cause of schizophrenia.

• THE JOURNAL OF KOREAN ORIENTAL ONCOLOGY
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.125-148
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• 2000

At here, we investigated the historical background, current stage, and concrete therapies of alternatives in cancer therapy. We obtained the conclusion below. 1. Alternative medicine(AM) is a unothodoxial medical physiology, medical practice or intervension that overcome the side effects, faults, limits of coventional medicine. 2. Recentely, as emerging New-age movement, collapse of Decarte's mecanical cosmology, and emphasis on patient rights, the interest of AM is increased, and foreign & domestic use rates of AM are risen. 3. After coventional medicine in cancer therapies that depends on operations, radiations, and chemotherapy is bounded, Alternatives in cancer therapy are rapidly developed, and the majority of users are often considered satisfactory. 4. Alternatives in cancer therapy are classified six boundaries; Diet and Nutrition, Mind-body Technique, Integrated System, Pharmacologic and Biologic treatments, Immuno Enhanced Therapy, Natural and herbal medicine. 5. Looking at contents of Alternatives in cancer therapy, we get to know most of them are similar to the treatment of oriental medicine in holistic method, therapy, philosophy. If we synthesize the alternative medicine's treatment mentioned above and investigate it with oriental medical viewpoint, that may help us approach the conquest of cancer and improve the rate of cure. 6. It is certain that foreign AM will be imported reversely, and we must prepare for rebuilding of Korean traditional AM systemically, investing for activity positively, making national policy for medical system.

• CELLMED
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.27.1-27.6
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• 2020

Cancer is one of the leading cause of mortality in India as well as worldwide. The management of cancer by conventional therapy has shown life threatening adverse effects. The researchers are now exploring the natural way of treatment. Unani system of medicine have rich literature for cancer and many compound formulations have been described in this system. Unani system of medicine is based on holistic approach and treat human being as a unit with natural herbs, mineral and animal origin drugs. An important compound Unani formulation (CUF) from the literature has been chosen to explore the Unani claim of its anticancer activity. The phytochemical constituents were assessed using standard phytochemical screening method. Antioxidant property of this formulation was assessed by DPPH assay. The DPPH free radical scavenging assay was carried out by colorimetric method and ascorbic acid was taken as a positive control. Three different extracts of CUF on different concentrations were used to screening on human breast cancer (BCC) MCF-7 cell line. For the estimation of in-vitro cytotoxic potency of the investigated extracts was assessed on MTT assay by using trypan blue method and paclitaxel was used as the standard. Hydro-ethanolic (HE) extract showed highest free radical scavenging activity among all extracts. DPPH Assay showed substantial antioxidant activity of these extracts in hydro-ethanol extract at 1㎍ concentration of CUF. The CUF showed antioxidant and anticancer activity. The claim made by Unani physician has been proved.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.91-102
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• 2024

Objectives: Recent trends in traditional Korean medicine (TKM) lung cancer treatment involve the administration of a few ready-made herbal formulas in batches. However, utilizing a TKM pathology-based formulation of herbs can fill in the gaps in holistic treatment that are often missed in a one-size-fits-all approach. The author aimed to analyze treatment trends between a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) cancer treatment specialty book and a series of Korean lung cancer TKM treatment case reports. Methods: The frequently used pattern identification types, herbal formulas, and herbs in the lung cancer chapter of a TCM cancer treatment specialty book and case reports of TKM treatment of lung cancer were analyzed in a comparative manner. Results: Twenty-four pattern identification types for lung cancer were derived from the TCM book, and they were Phlegm-blood stasis, lung heat, and deficiency type. Six types of pattern identification types were derived from the 20 cases reports of TKM treatment, and they were blood stasis due to qi stagnation and deficiency type. Twelve cases were treated with ready-made anti-tumor herbal preparations without performing a pattern identification, accounting for two-thirds of the cases. Conclusions: The treatment of lung cancer in TCM is characterized by the use of pattern identification to formulate herbal formulas with simultaneous administration of anti-tumor herbs within the same formula. The treatment of lung cancer in TKM is relatively infrequent in its use of pattern identification. In addition, herbal formulas derived through the process of pattern identification and derived for anti-tumor purposes were often administered separately.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2006

At the age of materialism and ignorance for life, the introspection for the ethics problem of the doctors, is getting more and more attention. It seems that every doctors should have the basic virtues of modesty and benevolence. Such virtues have been stressed throughout the human history, and, apart from the Hipp. ocratic oath of ancient greece, the morality of a doctor is the essential virtue, even for the doctors of western medicine, whose medical technology is based on the materialism. Unlike western medicine, oriental medicine, for its holistic and relative nature, has more 'relative' factors generated from each individual doctors and therefore, tends to be influenced more by the doctors' attitudes. The diagnosis process itself can be influenced by the emotions of patients and doctors, and even the efficacy of the acupuncture treatment itself can be influenced by the conception a doctor has when he/she conduct the treatment. Therefore, in every classics of oriental medicine have stressed the basic 'attitudes of mind' a doctor should have. But, at the time when the western 'natural science' paradigm prevails, it seems to be difficult to educate such state of mind simply by 'understanding' it through books or media. It needs 'shift of concept' through the humane tools of education. Therefore, the present writer would like to consider the effects and influences of meditation as the tools to develop the virtues of oriental doctors, and to investigate the possibility that the virtues achieved by the meditation is the same one as mentioned in many oriental medical classics(not only the attitude for the patients, but also the state of mind a doctor should have during the diagnosis and treatment process).

• CELLMED
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.9.1-9.14
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• 2015

The so-called "Needham's Grand Question" (NGQ) can be formulated as why modern science was developed in Europe despite the earlier successes of science and technology in ancient China. Numerous answers have been proposed. In this review, it will be pointed out that traditional Chinese natural philosophy (TCNP) and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are in fact dealing with problems of highly complex dynamical systems of Nature and human beings. Due to the lack of mathematical machinery in dealing with such complex phenomena, a holistic approach was taken by ancient Chinese instead. It was very successful for the first eighteen centuries. In the recent three centuries, however, the reductionist and mechanistic viewpoints of Western natural philosophy, sciences, and medicine have been prevalent all over the world up to now. The main obstacle in preventing the advancement of TCM, TCNP and its sciences is actually the lacking of proper mathematical tools in dealing with complex dynamical systems. Fortunately, the tools are now available and a "chaotic wave theory of fractal continuum" has been proposed recently. To give the theory an operational meaning, three basic laws of TCNP are outlined. These three laws of wave/field interactions contrast readily with those of Newton's particle collisions. Via the proposed three laws, TCM, TCNP and its sciences can be unified under the same principles. Finally, an answer to NGQ can be accurately given. It is hoped that this review will help promoting a genuine understanding of natural philosophy, sciences, and medicine in an ecumenical way.