Juniper Publishers Journal of Complementary Medicine & Alternative Healthcare

Juniper Publishers- Journal of complementary medicine Abstract Background:  The gut microbiome plays a key role in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which has spurred the development of novel therapeutics aimed at restoring microbial community structure.  Saccharomyces boulardii  is a new probiotic that has not been commonly used to treatment IBD. Although the traditional Chinese herbal medicine Sijunzi Tang (SJZT) decoction has been widely used to alleviate the symptoms of ulcerative colitis (UC), its underlying mechanism remains unknown. Methods:  The efficacy of four drugs named  S. boulardii , SJZT, Dangshen ( Codonopsis pilosula ) polysaccharide or  S. boulardii  in combination with Dangshen polysaccharide were test during treatment with Dextran Sulphate Sodium (DSS)-induced mice colitis. Weight loss, colonic histology were measured. Furthermore, the gut microbiome of mice before and post colitis treatments were performed by 16S rRNA-ba...

Juniper Publishers- Journal of Complementary Medicine Abstract The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the management of hypertension (HTN) is evident. This necessitates the need to investigate the prevalent attitudes that drive the patient to pursue this practice. This study aimed to assess HTN patients’ attitudes towards CAM; patient-doctor communication about CAM and attitudes towards disclosing it to the physician. A cross-sectional study was conducted among HTN patients attending out-patient clinics of two major teaching hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq. A convenience sampling method was adopted for the recruitment, and a validated CAM-attitude questionnaire was used for gathering the information. CAM was used by 65.5% of respondents. A significant difference in patients’ attitudes towards CAM was found between CAM-users (mean=4.34+1.67, median=5.0) versus non-users (mean=1.31+0.93, median=1.0), P<0.001. The highest favorable attitude towards...