A systematic review of the evidence for use of herbal medicine for the treatment of acute diarrhea

Background. Acute diarrhea (AD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among both children and adults. An ideal antidiarrheal treatment should be safe, effective, compatible with Oral Rehydration Solution, and inexpensive. Herbal medicines, if effective, should fit these criteria as well or better than standard treatment. ^ Objective. The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of plant preparations in patients with AD in reports of randomized and non-randomized controlled trials. ^ Aims. The aims of the present study were to identify effective antidiarrheal herbs and to identify potential antidiarrheal herbs for future studies of efficacy through well designed clinical trials in human populations. ^ Methods. Nineteen published studies of herbal management of AD were examined to identify effective plant preparations. Ten plant preparations including Berberine (Berberis aristata), tormentil root ( Potentialla tormentilla), baohauhau (from the baobaosan plant), carob (Ceratonia siliqua), pectin (Malus domestica), wood creosote (Creosote bush), guava (Psidium guajava L.), belladonna (Atropa belladonna), white bean (Phaseolis vulgaris), and wheat (Triticum aestivum) were identified. ^ Results. Qualitative data analysis of nineteen clinical trials indicated berberine’s potentially valuable antisecretory effects against diarrhea caused by Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. Tormentil root showed significant efficacy against rotavirus-induced diarrhea; carob exhibited antidiarrheal properties not only by acting to detoxify and constipate but by providing a rich source of calories; guava and belladonna are antispasmodics and have been shown to relieve the symptoms of AD. Finally, white bean and wheat yielded favorable clinical and dietary outcomes in children with diarrhea. ^ Conclusion. The present study is the first to review the evidence for use of herbal compounds for treatment of AD. Future randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate their efficacy and safety.^

Investigations of stress responses in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Transcriptional control and heat shock protein function

The baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae responds to the cytotoxic effects of elevated temperature (37-42°C) by activating transcription of ∼150 genes, termed heat shock genes, collectively required to compensate for the abundance of misfolded and aggregated proteins and various physiological modifications necessary for the cell to survive and grow at heat shock temperatures. An intriguing facet of the yeast heat shock response is the remarkable similarity it shares with the global remodeling that occurs in mammalian cells in response to numerous pathophysiological conditions including cancer and cardiovascular disease and thus provides an ideal model system. I have therefore investigated several novel features of stress signaling, transcriptional regulation, and physiology. Initial work focused on the characterization of SYM1, a novel heat shock gene in yeast which was demonstrated to be required for growth on the nonfermentable carbon source ethanol at elevated temperature, and to be the functional ortholog of the mammalian kidney disease gene, Mpv17. Additional work addressed the role of two proteins, the Akt-related kinase, Sch9, and Sse1, the yeast Hsp110 protein chaperone homolog, in signaling by protein kinase A, establishing Sse1 as a critical negative regulator of this pathway. Furthermore, I have demonstrated a role for Sse1 in biogenesis and stability of the stress-response transcription factor, Msn2; a finding that has been extended to include a select subset of additional high molecular weight proteins, suggesting a more global role for this chaperone in stabilizing the cellular proteome. The final emphasis of my doctoral work has included the finding that celastrol, a compound isolated from the plant family Celasfraceae, a component of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, can activate heat shock transcription factor (Hsf1) in yeast and mammalian cells through an oxidative stress mechanism. Celastrol treatment simultaneously activates both heat shock and oxidative stress response pathways, resulting in increased cytoprotection. ^

Efficacy of quality criteria to identify potentially harmful information: a cross-sectional survey of complementary and alternative medicine web sites.

BACKGROUND: Many users search the Internet for answers to health questions. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a particularly common search topic. Because many CAM therapies do not require a clinician's prescription, false or misleading CAM information may be more dangerous than information about traditional therapies. Many quality criteria have been suggested to filter out potentially harmful online health information. However, assessing the accuracy of CAM information is uniquely challenging since CAM is generally not supported by conventional literature. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to determine whether domain-independent technical quality criteria can identify potentially harmful online CAM content. METHODS: We analyzed 150 Web sites retrieved from a search for the three most popular herbs: ginseng, ginkgo and St. John's wort and their purported uses on the ten most commonly used search engines. The presence of technical quality criteria as well as potentially harmful statements (commissions) and vital information that should have been mentioned (omissions) was recorded. RESULTS: Thirty-eight sites (25%) contained statements that could lead to direct physical harm if acted upon. One hundred forty five sites (97%) had omitted information. We found no relationship between technical quality criteria and potentially harmful information. CONCLUSIONS: Current technical quality criteria do not identify potentially harmful CAM information online. Consumers should be warned to use other means of validation or to trust only known sites. Quality criteria that consider the uniqueness of CAM must be developed and validated.

The Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical Center Library management information system.

A management information system (MIS) provides a means for collecting, reporting, and analyzing data from all segments of an organization. Such systems are common in business but rare in libraries. The Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library developed an MIS that operates on a system of networked IBM PCs and Paradox, a commercial database software package. The data collected in the system include monthly reports, client profile information, and data collected at the time of service requests. The MIS assists with enforcement of library policies, ensures that correct information is recorded, and provides reports for library managers. It also can be used to help answer a variety of ad hoc questions. Future plans call for the development of an MIS that could be adapted to other libraries' needs, and a decision-support interface that would facilitate access to the data contained in the MIS databases.

Student-Centered Rehabilitation Medicine Research Elective

Purpose: To provide an opportunity for medical students to participate in rehabilitation research and allows the investigator to develop a database of the characteristics of the medical students choosing this elective. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Waking Up to Sleep Medicine Education

Background: Sleep disorders are an important cause of morbidity among our population with billions of dollars spent on direct and indirect costs attributed to sleep disorders. In spite of raising prevalence and morbidity, surveys have shown inadequate education in sleep medicine at all levels at medical school. According to national sleep disorders research plan data, in 1990 about 37 % of medical schools did not offer any sleep education and of the schools which offered it, the average time devoted to sleep medicine was about 2 hours. Sleep disorders have found to be uniformly under diagnosed in primary care settings. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Evaluating the prevalence, content and readability of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) web pages on the internet.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is growing rapidly. As CAM is relatively unregulated, it is important to evaluate the type and availability of CAM information. The goal of this study is to deter-mine the prevalence, content and readability of online CAM information based on searches for arthritis, diabetes and fibromyalgia using four common search engines. Fifty-eight of 599 web pages retrieved by a "condition search" (9.6%) were CAM-oriented. Of 216 CAM pages found by the "condition" and "condition + herbs" searches, 78% were authored by commercial organizations, whose pur-pose involved commerce 69% of the time and 52.3% had no references. Although 98% of the CAM information was intended for consumers, the mean read-ability was at grade level 11. We conclude that consumers searching the web for health information are likely to encounter consumer-oriented CAM advertising, which is difficult to read and is not supported by the conventional literature.

New library buildings: the Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical Center Library.

A historical account is given of the Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical Center Library within its Texas Medical Center setting in Houston, Texas. Outlined are planning, financing, and construction of the new library, which consists in part of new building and in part of renovated interiors of an old building originally completed in 1954. A concise picture is given of the new library's interiors, showing its functional success for users and employees alike. An architectural summary is appended showing gross and net footages, source of funds, costs and capacities.