News from Hope for stroke

Alternative Treatments

Issue: # 4 Page 2

August/2007

There is a clear lack of medicine to respond to the needs of stroke survivors during their rehabilitation process. After over 100 clinical trials failed, many western clinicians are looking at Traditional Medicines as a source of new treatments. Last April, a review article in the "Stroke" journal pointed out the potential of a number of safe Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Moleac is a biopharmaceutical company, founded by a group of esteemed scientists including a Nobel laureate. Moleac has identified NeuroAid to help stroke patients to achieve fuller recovery.

NeuroAid was initially developed in China as a Traditional Chinese Medicine for stroke patients rehabilitation. Unlike most treatments coming from China, NeuroAid has undergone high quality clinical trials showing effectiveness and safety and is manufactured with stringent quality control. It was introduced in 2001 and is now reaching about 200,000 patients every year in Asia.

A study on 605 patients, enrolled between 2 weeks and 6 months after their stroke, has shown that patients receiving NeuroAid have more than twice as many chances to reach independence after the first month of the 3 months long recommended protocol. Specifically on neurological deficits, NeuroAid has shown strong impact on limbs, toes, fingers, facial paralysis reduction. According to the medical experience developed in China, NeuroAid is also relevant for patient who want to enhance their rehabilitation program even after six month of the stroke event.

In addition, recent clinical trials have shown that NeuroAid does not significantly modify hematological, hemostatic, and biochemical parameters in normal subjects and stroke patients. NeuroAid is safe and has very few reported side effects, which have been found to be of minor concern (such as nausea, vomiting or increased thirst).

Moleac has developed NeuroAid with the support of a renowned mainstream medicine practice clinical team. In addition to prove efficacy, all efforts have been focused to ensure the quality and safety of NeuroAid: modern evaluation practices, such as Good Manufacturing Practice compliance, quality testing, heavy metal dosage and microbial tests have been implemented Every batch of NeuroAid is analyzed thoroughly by third party laboratories to confirm compliance with international standards, and safety for patients.

Moleac, who is also a member of the American Herbal Products Association, is now bringing NeuroAid to patients internationally.

NeuroAid has shown efficacy for patients who suffered a stroke in the past 6 months and have resulting loss of motor function or independence. According to medical experience, NeuroAid can also be relevant to patient who had their stroke for a longer period of time.

As of today NeuroAid is marketed by Moleac in several countries as well as on its dedicated website www.NeuroAid.com. The NeuroAid protocol consists of 3 capsules to be taken 3 times a day over a three-month period. Moleac expects to launch NeuroAid10 on the US market by the end of the year.

Strong interest from the international medical community is now driving several additional clinical trials on NeuroAid. For example, CHIMES study is evaluating the efficacy of NeuroAid at the early stage of stroke onset on 1100 stroke patients in Asia. Moleac plans to use the result of these clinical trials to establish the benefits of NeuroAid to the health insurers and gain reimbursement of NeuroAid for patients. To support this academic research please log on to www.chimes-society.org.

NeuroAid can be ordered on www.neuroaid.com and is delivered worldwide. For more information, clinical teams or patients are invited to logon to www.neuroaid.com / www.moleac.net or e-mail info@neuroaid.com for a quick and personalized response. You are also welcome to call our toll-free number at 1-800-882-4046.

From an article in the American Stroke Association Magazine.
The China Connection

A Chinese Stroke Connection - The Ruth Lycke Story

The following is excerpted from the article "A Chinese Stroke Connection," Stroke Connection Magazine, March/April 2006
Ruth and Dr. Bien

"After my stroke, I was a basket case without the basket," said Ruth Lycke, mother of three teenagers. It took a trip to China and treatment with that country's non-traditional medicine to get her close to being her old self.

In November 2001, Ruth had an inoperable brain stem hemorrhage. "They thought I would die in the first 24 hours," she said "I actually had two strokes, the brain stem bleed and a secondary stroke. I was in a coma for five days."

When she awoke, she had double vision, no mobility or feeling on the right side of her body, limited left side mobility and no balance. She also had cognitive deficits. "Words were my enemy," she said.

The double vision was profoundly distressing because it affected everything else in her recovery. "Not only did I see two of everything, but everything I looked at bounced. There was constant motion. And any fatigue would prevent me from thinking linearly. I repeated myself a lot, which challenged my husband Steve and our three kids, who were between the ages of 9 and 13 at that time."

By two years post-stroke, she had made a remarkable recovery, but her life and her body were not where she wanted them. "I still had double vision and difficulty walking. I was incontinent. I didn't get out very much, and when I did, it was difficult. I became more or less a shut-in."

There was no stroke support group in her hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa, so she started one with the help of the American Stroke Association.

"My doctors told me to be content with what had returned," she said. "But nothing worked right, so I wasn't content."

    Ruth and interpreters

The Lyckes had hosted foreign exchange students for several years, and during this period they hosted two girls from China. Ruth learned about Chinese medicine from them, and they used their Chinese language skills to search the Internet for information on stroke and traditional medicine. That's how she found the First Teaching Hospital and University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Tianjin, China.

After forwarding her medical records to the hospital, she talked to a doctor. "He asked me, 'What do you want me to do for you?' I had never had a doctor ask me that question before. So I gave him my list: normal vision, restored balance, feeling on my right side, improved walking and fine motor movement on my right side. Then he said, 'We can fix you.' I couldn't believe it, so I asked him to repeat it."
Ruth during acupuncture

Ruth flew to China alone, a long trek for someone with her deficits. Once there, she was escorted by the families of her exchange students until she reached the hospital. "I arrived at 10 in the morning, and by 2 o'clock I was already in therapy," she said. "Their therapy is very intense. I had acupuncture twice a day, involving anywhere from 40 to 100 needles - from the tip of my head to my toes on both sides. By the way, the needles don't hurt. They're very thin.

"I also had herbal soaks on my right foot and arm. Then there was 40 to 60 minutes of intense massage, which is done by a doctor. I was busy from early morning to late at night every day."

Ruth had tried acupuncture in the United States with limited results, but "after my first treatment in China, my little finger felt normal for the first time since the stroke. Within 10 days I regained some degree of feeling in my entire right side. Things would go from no feeling, to intense pain, to weighty feeling, to normal.

"When feeling began to return, I was like a kid in a candy shop," said Ruth. "I would reach out and touch the wall, feel the bumps or the crack where the paint came together. It was remarkable to me."

    Ruth and Dr. Han

Although the hospital treats many Europeans, she was its first American patient, so Ruth received lots of attention. "Probably once a week I went to dinner with a doctor. In fact, it wasn't unusual to have dinner with two or three doctors."

The food was an important part of the experience, and one of the most impressive. "All the food was farm fresh. I had an egg or rice soup for breakfast, and then ordered traditional Chinese food for the evening meal from an English menu. The food was very good."

Ruth's treatment cost about $4,000 a month, including meals and a comfortable room. After two months, she had made enough progress that she extended her stay for five months, "to get everything fixed, especially my vision." She considers the $20,000 a bargain for the results produced.

Her experience was good enough that she returned to Tianjin last summer, accompanying two American stroke survivors for treatment. She has four trips planned for 2006.
Ruth and bike

"I no longer suffer from bouncing double vision, even when I'm tired," Ruth said. "I can jump around on the basketball court with my 14-year-old daughter Elizabeth, who is also very excited that I can walk now, so I can take her to the mall. My balance is back, and the fine motor stuff is returning. I can use the remote control now, and scissors. I can walk without difficulty. I have feeling in my face. Words are my friend again. I wrote a book about my experience, and it's been published. Everything on my list was done. They pretty much gave me my life back."

Visit Ruth's Web site for more information on her experience in China or to order her book, Out of the Darkness into the Light.

Release Date:July 24, 2006

Surprising Finding: Acupuncture May Not Help Stroke Patients
By Glenda Fauntleroy, Contributing Writer
Health Behavior News Service

Updated 10:30 a.m., 7/25/2006

Although acupuncture has been used in China for hundreds of years and more frequently in Western countries to treat chronic stroke, there is no clear proof that the therapy improves patients' rehabilitation, a new review has found.

This finding appears to cast some uncertainty on a commonly accepted medical intervention for one of the most disabling health conditions of older adults worldwide.

"The results of the systematic review are really surprising to me," said lead author Hongmei Wu, M.D., of the West China Hospital in Si Chuan. "In China, acupuncture has been well accepted by Chinese patients and is widely used for stroke rehabilitation."

According to the authors, the review's intent was to provide evidence that acupuncture should be routinely used to rehabilitate patients with subacute or chronic stroke. Acupuncture has been used to improve patients' motor, sensation, speech and other neurological functions - but the available research failed to offer sound evidence of the effects of this therapy.

The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing trials on a topic.

The reviewers analyzed five randomized controlled clinical trials that included a total of 368 patients who ranged in age from 24 to 86 years. The patients suffered from either ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in the subacute (one or three months since onset) or chronic (more than three months since onset) phases. Four studies were conducted in China and one was performed in the United States.

The studies in the systemic review evaluated treatment that involved "traditional" acupuncture in which needles were inserted in classical meridian points, or "contemporary" acupuncture where needles were inserted into non-meridian or trigger points.

Meridian points were established in ancient acupuncture as areas mapped on the body in 14 specific zones to treat disorders and diseases. Of these major meridian zones, one corresponds to each of the 12 inner organs, one to the spine and one along the abdomen. Trigger points, however, are spots on the body that are associated with muscle groups.

Although there was some overall improvement after acupuncture treatment, the Cochrane reviewers said this result needs to be "interpreted with caution" due to the insufficient number and general poor quality of the clinical trials.

"From the available evidence, we found that stroke patients do experience some benefits from acupuncture therapy," said Wu. "But most studies are poor in methodological quality, so the continued recommendation for acupuncture on stroke rehabilitation is uncertain."

Stroke ranks as the third leading cause of death in the world and is a main reason for disability and dependency in the elderly. According to the reviewers, stroke is the second most common cause of death in China's cities and the third common cause in its rural areas. For this reason, researchers are driven to find treatments to improve the outcome of stroke rehabilitation.

Acupuncture is one of the main medical treatments in traditional Chinese medicine and began more than 2,000 years in China. The practice has gained popularity in the United States during the past 20 years, according to National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health.

In fact, a 2002 National Health Interview Survey of complementary and alternative medicine use found that about 8.2 million U.S. adults had ever used acupuncture in their lives, and an estimated 2.1 million had used acupuncture the previous year.

Acupuncture's popularity for treatment of stroke can be traced to its promising results, and relatively mild less side effects and inexpensive cost.

"Acupuncture has been used for the treatment of stroke for centuries; however, as with many CAM [complementary and alternative medicine] modalities, the evidence is not clearly supportive of its benefits," said Brian Berman, M.D., director of the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine.

The reviewers concluded that large, methodologically sound trials are "definitely needed" to confirm or disprove the available evidence, said Wu.

"There was evidence of improvement of global neurological deficit, but the trials were not methodologically strong," agreed Berman. "So, the best we can say is the results are inconclusive and better randomized trials are needed."

Wu added that better evidence may, in fact, become available in the coming months as the Chinese Cochrane Center is currently conducting a clinical trial about acupuncture for acute stroke.

# # #

Health Behavior News Service: Lisa Esposito, editor, at (202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org.

Wu HM, et al. Acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2006, Issue 3.

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international nonprofit, independent organization that produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. Visit http://www.cochrane.org for more information.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org.

Center for the Advancement of Health
Health Behavior News Service
Contact: Lisa Esposito, Editor
202.387.2829
hbns-editor@cfah.org

Health Behavior News Service
Washington, DC � 2007

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Not invented here?

Sometimes we might be guilty of a not invented here scenario. The possibilities are being explored by some and discarded by others because it was not invented here or tested here, we tend to dismiss it.
Einstein was not born in the USA, he was from Germany one of the most brilliant minds of our history however, the Manhattan Project was something he wished he never worked on.
Had Einstein not helped to develop the Manhattan Project, history may have been written differently.
Even within our own country, we can have a difference of opinions on a method of treatment that should be used and that talent.
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3 men

What is a detachable platinum coil?
s
One of my favorite from Italian inventor Guido Guglielmi which saved and prolonged my life
Detachable platinum coils are used to occlude (fill) intracranial aneurysms, significantly reducing the incidence of aneurysm rupture or re-rupture. The coils are made of platinum so that they can be visible via X-ray and be flexible enough to conform to the aneurysm shape. The coil is attached to a delivery wire and fed through a microcatheter into the aneurysm. The delivery wire allows the physician to reposition or withdraw the coil to ensure ideal placement. Once properly positioned within the aneurysm, the coil is detached from the delivery wire using an electrolytic detachment process.

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How old is acupuncture?

The Chinese and other East Asian peoples have been using acupuncture to restore, promote and maintain good health for about 2,500 years. Stone needles were originally used, and later bronze, gold and silver needles. Sterile, single-use stainless steel needles are the standard needles used by acupuncturists today. The first medical account of acupuncture was The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, which dates from the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 ACE).

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In response to our reader survey we provided the reader with some alternative technologies available in the USA, some from other countries and those that are here in the USA invented elsewhere. Even though acupuncture has been used in China for 2500 years, we still debate it's practicality in the USA, some are pro and some are con, even written months apart. This is not an endorsement by this organization for the products listed, except for GDC coils, which I can personally attest to. We will follow the progress of these products, communicate changes and it's progress.
We will also bring to you excerpts from white papers that were requested in the future.
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The China Connection- an interview with Ruth Lycke

by Peter V Cornelis

We talked with Ruth about the three stages of recovery. They are respectively, the acute phase (the first 3 months) the (recovery phase, the first 6 months) and the (sequilla phase the later stages) Ruth readily admits, the sooner the better for treatment. We have talked with several patients and the sooner, the better results, the further out you are from your stroke, the longer it may take. Patients that we talked to closer to their stroke did better or regained losses quicker and more of them. One patient "Jackie" who is 15 years out from her stroke had some improvement in movement and was able to do things a little smoother. "Jackie" would like to go back for more treatment and was favorable about the treatment and the experience. Ruth Lycke is also in the process of setting up the China Connection Foundation, a 501 c 3 non profit organization to help stroke survivors. We should mention here that, Ruth Lycke is a stroke survivor herself, she was two years post stroke when she had this same treatment and decided to make it available to others.