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Turmeric Combines Experience + Evidence

Turmeric is a very popular spice used in Indian cooking- it is what gives curry its distinctive yellow color. The yellow color can also cause staining in clothes that is practically impossible to get rid of! Turmeric is also one of the oldest medicinal herbs and extensively used in Ayurvedic medicine. It is well known in India for its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory effects. Commonly referred to as the Golden Spice, turmeric (or haldi in India) is said to have many medicinal properties including strengthening energy and improving blood circulation, and is used to treat a variety of ailments like asthma, bronchitis, arthritis, sprains, and swelling. In fact, whenever I suffered a minor injury, the first thing my mom applied on my wound was a paste made from turmeric (which is found in every Indian kitchen even in America, and used in almost every traditional Indian dish). I grew up rolling my eyes at one of the most common household remedies for most Indians.🙄 Turmeric, also known as

Experience Vs. Evidence

Ancient and modern medicine differ primarily in their approach to finding a cure- the former relied on experience and accumulated knowledge (tried and true method, if you will), whereas modern medicine uses chemistry and research to determine the therapeutic potential of a drug. As a result, the two are often distinguished as Experience vs. Evidence-based medicine. Another important difference between ancient and modern medicine is that modern medicine uses targeted treatment of the specific illness whereas ancient medicine relied on holistic healing.  Experience Vs. Evidence- Based Medicine While both are on opposite sides of the medical spectrum with modern medicine seeming far more logical and therefore reliable, modern medicine still lacks cures for many diseases that traditional medicines seemed to have a remedy for, including common ailments like the cold and stomach issues.  In fact, after years of dismissing ancient (mainly traditional eastern) medical practices as non-scientif

Ancient Chinese Medicine for Cancer

If ancient Chinese medicine can give us a cure for malaria, could it also provide cures for other diseases like cancer? That was my thought when I first read about the discovery of the malaria remedy in TCM, and apparently, I wasn't the first to think that! A pharmacology professor at Yale University is trying to find out exactly that. Prof. Yung-Chi Cheng of the Yale School of Medicine is studying botanical drugs based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that can make traditional cancer treatments work better. The professor calls the approach "WE medicine"- a combination of Western experimental-based pharmacology and eastern experience plant-based medicine.  I found the story of how his research began also quite interesting. After he expressed his interest in Chinese medicine for cancer treatment to a postdoc researcher, Shwu-Huey Liu, she went to the library and started researching Chinese herbs. After narrowing the search to common herbs that are still in use, and ha

History of Malaria

Today (April 25) is World Malaria Day, so I figured it would be apt to write about the disease which is related to my recent posts on artemisinin and quinine, and also has a strong connection to the ancient times.  Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that is widespread in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. It causes flu-like symptoms including fever, headache and vomiting, and can be fatal if untreated. Every year, there are over 200 million cases and around 500,000 deaths, 95% of which are in Africa. Malaria was also responsible for several epidemics in the Americas in the 1700 and 1800s, until it was discovered that mosquitos carried the disease and anti-mosquito measures were widely utilized. Malaria pathogen attached to red blood cell Not only is malaria one of the most common diseases in the world, it is also one of the oldest. References to malaria are found in practically all ancient medical texts, including from the Classical period. In fact, it is thought that the d

Origin of the Word Vaccine

Even though the process of vaccination can be traced back to ancient Indian and Chinese civilizations (as I wrote in my earlier post on history of vaccines), the name, like so many other words in the English language, has a Latin root.  Vaccine is derived from the Latin vaccinus , which means "of or belonging to cows". The first western vaccine was developed by English physician Edward Jenner using cow pox, which was called  vaccinae. Jenner found that an injection of material taken from cowpox sores protected a person from getting small pox in the future. Because it was taken from cows ( vacca in Latin), it came to be called vaccinus , which led to the adjective, vaccinae , and then to vaccine in English. Cowpox virus

Nature's New Year

Today, my family, who hail from the southern part of India, celebrated the beginning of the New Year  known as Ugadi (Yug= Era; Adi= New beginning). I discovered that many other communities in India and Southeast Asia also celebrate their new year today under various names such as Vishu, Puthandu, Baisakhi, and Chaitra Navratri. While it may appear strange to celebrate the beginning of the new year four months into the calendar year, I found that it is actually not at all uncommon around the world and historically.  Spring is the season of new beginnings, with fresh blossoms and nature coming alive after the long, desolate winter months. The new growth signifies rebirth and renewal in most cultures. As a result, spring was the natural time to celebrate the new year for many cultures and civilizations. The most common date to celebrate new year was the Vernal Equinox, on March 20 when the length of day and night is equal. Vernal is derived from the Latin word vernare meaning "to bl

Cause of Cancer

Considering cancer is one of the oldest diseases of mankind, dating back to prehistoric ages, it is astounding that there is yet no real cure for cancer! Not only that, we have yet to fully understand what causes cancer in humans, and how to stop it. The Egyptians have the earliest record of identifying and treating cancer as far back as 3000 BC. The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes 8 different types of cancer and mentions there is no cure for it. At the same time, it describes surgery and cauterization, which involved destroying tissue with a hot instrument called “the fire drill” as treatments used on tumors. Ancient Egyptians were able to distinguish between benign tumors from malignant (cancerous) tumors. Edwin Smith papyrus The ancient Greeks also made a detailed study of cancer, with Hippocrates being the first and perhaps the most significant. Hippocrates identified malignant and non-malignant tumors and likened its appearance to a crab, thus giving rise to the nam