Weird stuff in TCM...... List it! [Archive]

GeneChing

09-24-2009, 09:36 AM

Now I wonder about the other four deadly venoms...;)

Toad Venom In Cancer Treatment: Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Well-tolerated, Study Shows (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090924101638.htm)

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2009) — Huachansu, a Chinese medicine that comes from the dried venom secreted by the skin glands of toads, has tolerable toxicity levels, even at doses eight times those normally administered, and may slow disease progression in some cancer patients, say researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The results from the Phase I clinical study, a collaborative research project between M. D. Anderson and Fudan University Cancer Hospital in Shanghai, are reported in the online Early View feature of the journal Cancer. The study marks the first time a formal clinical trial has examined the relationship between huachansu dose and toxicity, although the drug is common in China and approved by the Chinese Food and Drug Administration.

Huachansu is widely used to treat patients with liver, lung, colon and pancreatic cancer at oncology clinics in China. Chinese clinical trials conducted since the 1970s have demonstrated the anti-cancer properties of huachansu, citing total response rates of 10 percent and 16 percent observed in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and lung cancer, respectively1,2.

"Studying traditional Chinese medicine such as huachansu is new to American research institutions, which have been skeptical and slow to adopt these complementary treatments. However, it is important to understand its potential role in treating cancer," says Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., one of the paper's authors and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at M. D. Anderson. "We wanted to apply a Western medicine-based approach to explore the role of the toad venom compound in cancer patients and test if it is possible to deliver a more potent dose without raising toxicities or side effects."

The clinical trial was conducted at the Fudan University Cancer Hospital while M. D. Anderson provided training and ongoing consultation. The institutions collaboratively designed the trial that was approved by both institutional review boards. M. D. Anderson and Fudan University Cancer Hospital signed a sister institution agreement in 2003, creating a framework for research, educational and clinical collaboration.

The typical dose of huachansu used in China is approximately 15 milliliters of drug per meter squared of body mass (mL/m2). In the study, 15 patients with stage III or IV hepatocellular (liver) carcinoma, nonsmall cell lung cancer or pancreatic cancer received one of five dose levels ranging from 10 mL/ m2 up to 90 mL/m2 from January 2005 through July 2006. The treatment was repeated daily for 14 days followed by seven days off (one cycle). After two cycles, most patients received other treatments. Quality control methods were put in place to ensure huachansu of a uniform and consistent lot.

While the dose was up to eight times higher than conventional doses used in China, researchers observed only low toxicities or side effects. Eleven (73 percent) patients had no toxicities greater than the lowest grade measured. Importantly, no significant cardiac toxicity was observed and no significant changes in cancer-related symptoms occurred. Of the 15 patients who completed the treatment, six hepatocellular carcinoma patients (40 percent) had stable disease for a median of six months. One patient had a 20 percent reduction in tumor mass that lasted for more than 11 months.

"Even though we saw no complete or partial response (reduction of disease by 30 percent or more) it is encouraging that the cancer did not progress in a large set of the hepatocellular carcinoma patients," says Zhiqiang Meng, principal investigator on the trial and an associate professor and deputy chair of the Department of Integrative Oncology at Fudan University Cancer Hospital, "Previous observations from studies conducted in China have shown that huachansu can inhibit tumor cell growth and improve immunologic function3. These findings, coupled with that knowledge, demonstrate the need for further clinical trials of this promising agent."

A Phase II clinical trial comparing the effects of huachansu combined with gemcitabine (Gemzar®) to gemcitabine and placebo for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer is under way at the Fudan University Cancer Hospital in collaboration with M. D. Anderson.

Both trials are part of the International Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Cancer funded by the National Cancer Institute. Anhui Jinchan Biochemistry Company, Ltd. provided the drug for this trial.

In addition to Cohen, other M. D. Anderson faculty contributing to this study include Peiying Yang, MD, the Integrative Medicine Program in the Department of Medical Oncology; David Z. Chang, MD, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology; Zongxing Liao, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology; and Razelle Kurzrock, MD, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics. In addition to Meng, other Fudan University researchers contributing to this study include Yehua Shen, MD; Wenying Bei, MD; Ying Zhang, MD; Yongqian Ge, MD; and Luming Liu, MD, PhD. Formerly of M. D. Anderson, Robert A. Newman, MD, now of New Chapter Inc. and Bob Thornton, MD, now of Merck & Co, Inc. also contributed to this study.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Lee Chiang Po

09-24-2009, 12:58 PM

Since they banned DDT, which would not kill mammals, and started using some of this stuff you find on the Walmart shelves, which will kill you with a single sip, lots of stuff is dying off. Honey bees are just another I can think of. The stuff lingers too long and absorbs into everything.

This stuff you all are describing. What is it for exactly. It sounds like it could be more of a health hazard than anything else.

SavvySavage

09-29-2009, 06:33 AM

think it's weird that TCM practicioners use prescriptioned memorized points and then tries to make them sound mystical. That makes for a boring acupuncture practice

TenTigers

09-29-2009, 08:10 AM

you can trip from chemicals excreated by certain toads. People on chemo smoke marijuana to rid them of the discomfort and increase appetite. I think God is trying to tell us something.

not only that, but recent studies have shown that red wine, and chocolate (with high cocoa content) strengthens the immune system, as do orgasms.
Yep..it's a sign from God alright.
God wants us to pahr-tay!

taai gihk yahn

09-29-2009, 05:13 PM

God wants us to pahr-tay!
yeah, right up to the point where he hits you w/a lightning bolt, flash flood or wildebeast stampede - he's just trying to get your guard down, is all! nasty god!:mad:

chusauli

09-30-2009, 10:15 AM

E Jiao (Donkey Gelatin)
Lu Jiao Jiao (Deer Horn Gelatin)
Bie Jia (Softshell turtle shell)
Gui Ban (Turtle shell)
Chan Su (Toad Poison)

All good stuff!

BTW, Wu Ling Zhi is Flying squirrel poop, not Bat poop.

Cordyceps is the bomb! Great for Lung Cancer, TB - stops bleeding in the lungs! Also good for improving Lung Capacity for aerobic endeavors. Expensive but great! Gene, try it in powdered form from Mayway Corp. It will save lives!

BTW, not all acupuncturists use prescribed memorized points...only the beginners do that. There is a real art and science to acupuncture.

sanjuro_ronin

09-30-2009, 10:23 AM

chusauli

09-30-2009, 11:33 AM

sanjuro_ronin

09-30-2009, 11:36 AM

Very safe - but buy a good brand like Mayway's, or other Taiwanese manufacturer of powdered versions.

The real question is if it is safe for you...if you have a phlegm condition now, I would say cordyceps is contraindicated.

Phlegm?
Nope, no such issues.
I recall some rumours that the Chinese olympic athletes were on it years ago and it worked really well, that is why it is a banned substance list I think.

Boston Bagua

09-30-2009, 01:34 PM

I get my cordyceps from Aloha Medicinals in Las Vegas.

They grow it on organic matter and its really good.

Ye Ming Sha is Bat Poop
Can Sha is silkworm poop
Bai Hua She is a pit viper

All good things to use in dit da and other conditions.

chusauli

09-30-2009, 05:38 PM

Phlegm?
Nope, no such issues.
I recall some rumours that the Chinese olympic athletes were on it years ago and it worked really well, that is why it is a banned substance list I think.

I do not know if it is banned in athletic events... I do not think it is.

Earthworms (Di Long) are also great for increasing O2 uptake. The Chinese athletes eat it raw every morning for diving and track and field.

I say try the cordyceps. Its great for those over 40...

Boston Bagua

10-01-2009, 06:09 AM

Robert,

Do you have people that get a little weirded out if and when you use the various forms of excrement in formulas?

chusauli

10-01-2009, 09:40 AM

Robert,

Do you have people that get a little weirded out if and when you use the various forms of excrement in formulas?

No, I just don't tell them what it is... :)

Most of the stuff I use for patient compliance is either capsules, pills or customized powders that are encapsulated.

Raw herbs is used in my Dit Da Jow, Tiet Sa Jeung Jow, and my special mojo juice - the Always Spring Wine.

For Dit Da, I already have powdered herbs on hand.

TenTigers

10-01-2009, 04:08 PM

there was a MLM company called Metagenics that repackaged Chinese patent medicines, so instead of saying Dog Pen1s/Gecko Balls formula, it said,"TC 38" or something. Nice packaging, slick brochures depicting people in white lab coats and huge stainless steel tanks and pristine labs and warehouses. Meanwhile they were taking the Po Chi Yune that was made in some cellar, and sticking different labels on the bottles.
Not sure if they are still in operation, but their idea was good. Repackage the TCM products for the Western world.

chusauli

10-01-2009, 04:38 PM

Its already been done. That is the way most herbals outside of Chinatown are sold these days...

Just look at Mayway, Evergreen, QualiHerbs, Brion Herbs, Blue Poppy, and others.

I say NY is pretty behind the times, especially with the Chinatown type practitioners.

uki

10-17-2009, 05:50 AM

dried tiger ***** - used to treat impotence and increase ones jing essence... or so i have heard. :D

taai gihk yahn

10-17-2009, 06:32 AM

there was a MLM company called Metagenics
didn't Spencer Gee used to sell their stuff?

, Blue Poppy,
I think Flaws was one of the first to produce quality stuff outside of any Chinatown setting - he was "old school" NYC TCMA from what I recall...

GeneChing

12-03-2009, 10:37 AM

But it mentions one of my fav herb names, ***** goat weed, and it's from JA so that just had to be posted here somewhere. ;)

Introducing Carib Producers Jamaica Ltd's Power Wine (http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20091203/cook/cook7.html)
Published: Thursday | December 3, 2009

Zhang CZ et al. In vitro estrogenic activities of Chinese medicinal plants traditionally used for the management of menopausal symptoms. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Freelance Photographer

Power Wine is a fortified wine infused with herbs which have been used for centuries - originally as medicinal and later as popular beverages. These herbs used in this rice-based wine include ***** goat weed, Siberian ginseng and yohimbe.

Customer Benefits

Better tastes profile than all the leading competitors (Jagra, Magnum, and Mandingo). Best served cold.

Power Wine gives a faster buzz than competitive brands.

Power Wine is a great mixer.

Power Wine is made from rice wine and not cane musk like the competitors'.

Product Message

Power wine consists of ingredients that promote endurance, energy and verve. Power Wine also contains 20 per cent alcohol and herbal extracts which give it its distinctive taste. In fact, Power Wine gives you that get-up-and-go feel and the needed vim, vigour and vitality for a night of partying.

The size of the bottle is 200ml and it is available at all popular retail outlets.

PRODUCT MIXES

POWER BULL

2 parts Power Wine

1 part Red Bull

Stir and savour the mellow flavour

POWER MACK

2 parts Power Wine

1 part Mackeson

Stir and savour the mellow flavour

3 THE HARD WAY

2 parts Power Wine

1 part Red Bull

1 part Mackeson

Stir and savour the mellow flavour

What is ***** Goat Weed?

Other names: Epimedium, Yin Yan Huo

***** goat weed is a leafy plant that is native to Asia and the Mediterranean region. It has a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine. According to folklore, ***** goat weed's reputed aphrodisiac qualities were discovered when a Chinese goat herder noticed increased sexual activity in his flock after they ingested the weed. It has helped men suffering from erectile dysfunction and women with sexual dysfunctions.

Animal studies indicate that ***** goat weed may work by increasing nitric oxide levels, which relax smooth muscle and let more blood flow to the ***** or clitoris.

***** goat weed also appears to act by inhibiting the PDE-5 enzyme, which is the same way that the popular drug Viagra works. Some evidence suggests ***** goat weed may modulate levels of the hormones cortisol, testosterone and thyroid hormone, bringing low levels back to normal.

Sources

Oh MH et al. Screening of Korean herbal medicines used to improve cognitive function for anti-cholinesterase activity. Phytomedicine.

Stir and savour the mellow flavour. JAH! :rolleyes:

GeneChing

12-17-2009, 10:54 AM

This just struck me as funny. Of course, we all know that soda was traditionally distributed as a medicinal - carbonation was a key element in many early tonics. And the original Coke has a special very medicinal ingredient. ;)

China's cure for the common cold: Coca-Cola and ginger (http://www.examiner.com/x-15615-Asia-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m12d16-Chinas-cure-for-the-common-cold-CocaCola-and-ginger)
December 16, 9:28 PM Asia Headlines Examiner Glen Loveland

HAERBIN, CHINA – My first winter in China I got a terrible cold and was surprised when a Chinese friend of mine told me he had the perfect solution: hot Coca-Cola and ginger. My first thought was, “I don’t want warm Coke!” But in China, most people drink carbonated beverages and even beer at room temperature. Most foreigners in China are often reminded by their friends that cold drinks are “bad” for them.

When he ordered the Coke and ginger concoction from the waitress I was even more surprised by her lack of reaction to what I considered a strange brew. She barely blinked an eye and in a few moments a scalding Coca-Cola mixed with sliced ginger were placed in front of me.

Ren Yong, or Nick, is from Haerbin in northeast China. Haerbin is well-known for its sub-freezing temperatures in the winter. He told me that locals believed that ginger – a long time staple of Chinese traditional medicine – could help curb the cold and that the sugar and caffeine in the Coca-Cola would help efficiently pump the ginger through my system.

While I remained skeptical of the cure claims that had obviously not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, one thing was undeniable – it tasted good! I discovered that boiled Coca-Cola is actually thick – almost like syrup – and doesn’t taste nearly as sweet as I thought it would. Crunching down on the ginger slices delivers a real burst of heat that does make your sore throat feel good. Within minutes, my nose was running from heat, which Nick said was a good sign. My body was expelling the virus!

While I don’t think Coca-Cola is responsible for this innovation, the company has long known that embracing cultural traditions in China is a path to success. In 2007 the company opened The Coca-Cola Research Center for Chinese Medicine at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing.

"We see this center as an important step in strengthening our innovation pipeline for beverages that contribute to well-being," said Dr. Rhona Applebaum, vice president, chief scientific and regulatory officer of The Coca-Cola Company. "This collaboration will ultimately help us bring the insights and benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine to consumers all over the world. As the world's largest beverage company, we can add global reach and world-class marketing skills to help promote Chinese wisdom in preventive holistic health through new and innovative beverages."

Whether or not Coke and ginger cured my cold, I did feel much better. Since that first winter in China, I’ve been served many more glasses of this unique mix of traditional Chinese medicine and Western invention.

GeneChing

02-02-2010, 10:41 AM

Who eats toad meat?

Chinese medicine market sought for cane toad poison (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8480041.stm)
By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney

Australia's most notorious pest, the pervasive and poisonous cane toad, could soon end up on dinner tables and in medicinal treatments in Asia.

A representative from a Queensland meat processing firm is travelling to China next month to negotiate an export deal.

There are an estimated 200 million cane toads in Australia, where they pose a major threat to native wildlife.

Reviled in Australia, the cane toad is a popular ingredient in a range of traditional medicines in China.

Its toxins are used as a heart stimulant and as a diuretic as well a remedy for sinusitis and toothache.

The animal's skin and organs are also thought to have powerful therapeutic qualities.

Therapeutic toads?

John Burey, an entrepreneur in the northern state of Queensland, believes there is significant demand in China for exports of live toads - both for meat and their healing properties.

"The Chinese have been using cane toads with their skins... in traditional medicines for many, many years now. I thought there was a possibly an opportunity there to try and turn a pest into something that might be profitable," he said.

Mr Burey is due to travel to Beijing next month for talks with prospective clients.

Various quarantine and licensing formalities will have to be sorted out with both Australian and Chinese authorities before exports can begin.

Cane toad venom is present throughout its body and is produced as a milky liquid from large swollen glands located over its shoulders.

It can kill dogs and cats, as well as freshwater crocodiles and large snakes.

It can also cause temporary blindness and excruciating pain in people if the poison gets into the eyes or mouth.

These warty creatures are native to the Americas. They were brought to Queensland in the 1930s in an unsuccessful attempt to eradicate beetles that were destroying sugar cane plantations.

Scott R. Brown

02-03-2010, 04:55 PM

Wolf nipple chips!

Ocelot spleens!

Badger's ear lobes!

taai gihk yahn

02-03-2010, 06:37 PM

marmoset cuticles

chocolate dipped cactus spikes (go great with wolf nipple chips)

woolly mammoth mammaries

Scott R. Brown

02-03-2010, 06:51 PM

chocolate dipped cactus spikes (go great with wolf nipple chips)

I serve those every year at my Super Bowl Party!

Are you going to be able to make it this year?:)

Bring the family.....every year we have a designated Heimlich and CPR person and I don't have one yet for this weekend!

diego

02-16-2010, 11:14 AM

In 1920 physicians would inject sliced monkey testicles into athletes.

GeneChing

08-11-2011, 10:02 AM

:eek:

Ministry investigates pills made of 'baby flesh' (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-08/10/content_13081928.htm)
Updated: 2011-08-10 07:55
By Zhou Wenting and Liu Mingtai (China Daily)

BEIJING / CHANGCHUN - The Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that it has launched an investigation in the wake of a media report in South Korea about capsules from China - made from the flesh of dead babies - being used as stamina boosters.

Deng Haihua, spokesman of the ministry, said on Tuesday that the ministry has instructed its provincial agency in Jilin to look into the case.

Deng said China has strict management of disposal of infant and fetal remains as well as placentas.

"Any practice that handles the remains as medical waste is strictly prohibited," Deng said.

According to the country's regulations, medical institutions and their staff are prohibited from trading corpses.

The Global Times reported on Monday that SBS, one of the three major national television networks in South Korea, broadcast a documentary on Aug 6 about the appearance of capsules from China containing dead baby flesh.

According to the report, the TV program warned that some of the capsules were taken by Koreans.

The television team claimed to have been to China, found the hospital that sold the materials, and taken video of the manufacturing process.

It quoted insiders saying the "tonic" capsules are mainly sent to South Korea through members of the Korean ethnic group in China.

The ethnic group mainly inhabits Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces.

A test from the national customs office and institute of scientific investigation in South Korea showed the content of the pills received by the television team was 99.7 percent identical with humans, the program said.

It was not reported which hospital or city in China the team visited.

Phone calls to Customs in Jilin went unanswered on Tuesday.

A professor at the Third Hospital of Jilin University said he has never heard of such cases in his two-decade career.

"It's hard to comment, because it looks like a rumor," said the professor, surnamed Zhang. "This is impossible from my professional judgment."

Three traditional Chinese medicine experts and obstetrics doctors in Beijing and Shanghai contacted by China Daily said they have never heard of such cases and it seemed senseless.

It has long been a folk tradition to eat placentas in China. Placentas are believed to make up sperm and support the sufficiency of blood in traditional Chinese medicine.

In China, placentas belong to mothers of newborns. Medical institutions will handle a placenta if a mother gives it up or donates it. Nobody is allowed to sell or buy placentas according to the regulation from the Ministry of Health.

As for placenta eating, I'll default to the great sage Cecil Adams on this one: Is there really such a thing as ... placenta stew? (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/686/is-there-really-such-a-thing-as-placenta-stew)

Matthew

08-15-2011, 04:48 PM

:eek:

As for placenta eating, I'll default to the great sage Cecil Adams on this one: Is there really such a thing as ... placenta stew? (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/686/is-there-really-such-a-thing-as-placenta-stew)

I have heard that Cantonese people make a placenta soup- but I have never been to Canton and asked. Next time I'm there I will ask if they have any recipes ;)

I'm very curious about it myself and although have heard about it- have not had serious discussions with my partner about doing it. Regarding it as the only "meat" or flesh that does not require killing is an interesting way to put it for the article you linked. Still- as a non-meat eater I will surely be looking into health effects before eating it from both Chinese Medicine and scientific analysis of contents of it before I decide it is for me.

Eric Olson

08-15-2011, 07:57 PM

dragon bone=dinosaur bone

GeneChing

11-08-2012, 10:32 AM

Sick ox coughs up highly valuable TCM ingredient (http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/743241.shtml)
Global Times | 2012-11-8 20:15:05
By Agencies

A yellow ox in Bijie, Guizhou Province, recently spit up two large gallstones, worth about 40,000 yuan ($6,408), Shenzhen Evening News reported on Thursday. The stones, known as calculus bovis, are very valuable in traditional Chinese medicine.

The animal's owner, surnamed Yang, bought the ox for 3,000 yuan a year ago. On October 29, Yang was herding the ox, which had been ill, when it suddenly spit up two odd-looking stones, each weighing about a half a kilogram.

Yang took them to Bijie Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine on November 4. Several doctors agreed that they were calculus bovis, worth 40,000 yuan.

"When I saw that my ox had become so weak after such an investment, I thought I'd lost out. But now, I have gained a fortune, " Yang said.
Okay, to be fair, these are ox gallstones, and we all know bull bile is the source of taurine, the key ingredient in so-called power drinks like Red Bull (thus the 'bull'). I wonder if yak bile has similar properties. If a yak spit up a gallstone, would it be yak yak? :p

GeneChing

04-04-2013, 08:45 AM

I've heard web rumors about human fetuses (feti?) being used in TCM soup.

Smuggling of Human Flesh Capsules on the Increase in Korea. Even Reports of Dog Flesh? (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/04/04/smuggling-of-human-flesh-capsules-on-the-increase-in-korea-even-reports-of-dog-flesh/)
16 hours ago by Andrew Miller

Earler this week, Japanese website Niconico ran an article suggesting that the capsules containing ground up human fetuses are being smuggled into Korea.

As shocking as it sounds, this is not the first time such stories have appeared online. Incheon International Airport Customs and Excise Department reportedly made public the discovery on 31 March this year.

According to Niconico’s report, the same airport’s Customs and Excise Department, the amount of illegal health foods confiscated in 2012 totaled 1,715 items (486 kilograms). Of this figure, dead baby fetuses that were turned into pill-sized capsules, termed as “human flesh capsules”, made up a total of 47 cases. Perhaps even more alarmingly, a total of 20,663 of the capsules were confiscated in the same year; over twice the amount recorded in 2011. The problem becomes even more concerning when one considers that this year alone has already seen the confiscation of 3, 235 of the same items.

The capsules are produced and consumed by foreigners outside of Korea, but for purposes of being passed to friends residing in Korea they are often carried in hand luggage or sent via international mail. What’s more, while human flesh is admittedly the most shocking of smuggled ingredients, dog, cobra and toad flesh have also been discovered in powdered form inside of smuggled capsules. The extracts from toad flesh are known for its hallucinogenic properties. It is the first time that dog flesh has been confirmed among the confiscated items.

Human flesh capsules are smuggled into Korea via China and have a demand on Seoul’s black pharmaceutical market as medicine purported to be able to heal a wide variety of illnesses. Reports of demand for this type of flesh were first published in a Korean monthly magazine where they shocked many citizens around the world.

Since the story appeared on April 1, we, too, were a little unsure of this one. Sources suggest, however, that it’s genuine.

-N-

04-06-2013, 09:11 PM

Flying squierrel (sp?) poop (wulingzi)

Earth Worms (Dilong)

Deer Tails

Locust Shells

Sea shells

What else? I know I'm missing some!

My mom told me of one when I was a kid.

huang zhong huang

That's when a cow takes a dump, and a dog comes by and craps on top of that.

Don't know what it's used for though.

-N-

04-06-2013, 09:14 PM

I'm not sure why. I'm ok with fungus and I'm ok with bugs. In fact, I have a taste for fried scorpions. But cordyceps - a parasitic fungus off a caterpillar's head? That's just nasty.

Bugs...

Dried waterbugs used to treat bedwetting.

Dried bumblebees used with dried plums for sore throat, IIRC.

-N-

04-06-2013, 09:16 PM

oh, and the dried urine of a pre-adolescent boy...

I was told that the fresh urine was used to treat heart attack.

Dale Dugas

04-07-2013, 07:36 AM

Shifu Augustine Fong's Iron Palm herbs contains dried concentrated baby urine. Something about the uric acid helping to breakdown the other herbs and pull them into solution.

-N-

04-07-2013, 09:28 AM

Bugs...

Dried waterbugs used to treat bedwetting.

Dried bumblebees used with dried plums for sore throat, IIRC.

I remember seeing the waterbugs in plastic bags at the snack counter in the Sun Sing theater(or was that Great Star?) in SF Chinatown.

The bees were a type that lived inside the hollow part of bamboo trunks.

Vajramusti

04-07-2013, 05:48 PM

Shifu Augustine Fong's Iron Palm herbs contains dried concentrated baby urine. Something about the uric acid helping to breakdown the other herbs and pull them into solution.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interesting .
I don't think that he currently makes his jow(s) for the public. Sifu can tell a lot about what's in a jow- evn ones that he did not make.
My late friend Pete Robinson had quite a collection of jows.With his death I have no oidea what happened to his extensive collection. He had some excellent teachers over the years including Gin Foon Mak.

GeneChing

04-08-2013, 10:22 AM

huang zhong huang

That's when a cow takes a dump, and a dog comes by and craps on top of that.

Don't know what it's used for though.
It's used for laowai. :p

Dale Dugas

04-08-2013, 10:24 AM

The herbs were included in Randy Williams' book on Wing Chun: Iron Palm training and Weapons. Being that Randy had trained with Shifu Fong as well as Shifu Fong selling the same liniments under the same names I assumed Randy got the formulas from Shifu Fong.

The Chinese formula listed there included the Dried Urine. The injury Dit Da Jow formula was presented as well. I have filled both formulas for various people who said they work well.

GeneChing

04-08-2013, 10:57 AM

I've encountered Virgin boy urine as an element in many tiedajiu recipes. Anyone know where that comes from? There was even a reference to that in the movie King of Masks (1997)

mawali

04-08-2013, 05:38 PM

I've encountered Virgin boy urine as an element in many tiedajiu recipes. Anyone know where that comes from? There was even a reference to that in the movie King of Masks (1997)

I wonder if there is a double blind 'taste test' or something to distinguish the virgin boy from the other.
p.s. I think I am a virgin boy:D

-N-

04-08-2013, 11:43 PM

It's used for laowai. :p

Belly goot foh yoo!!!

GeneChing

08-13-2013, 09:16 AM

So this is the cure for cancer. Obviously we've been looking in the wrong place. :rolleyes:

Bee sting therapy causes buzz in China (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/lifestyle/bee-sting-therapy-causes/775086.html)
POSTED: 13 Aug 2013 1:58 PM

Patients in China are swarming to acupuncture clinics to be given bee stings to treat or ward off life-threatening illness, practitioners say.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/775092/1376373042000/large16x9/768/432/a-patient-receives-a-bee.jpg
A patient receives a bee sting administered by a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine at a clinic on the outskirts of Beijing, China. (AFP/Ed Jones)Bees are prepared by a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine at an acupuncture clinic in Beijing, China. (AFP/Ed Jones)

BEIJING: Patients in China are swarming to acupuncture clinics to be given bee stings to treat or ward off life-threatening illness, practitioners say.

More than 27,000 people have undergone the painful technique -- each session can involve dozens of punctures -- at Wang Menglin's clinic in Beijing, says the bee acupuncturist who makes his living from believers in the concept.

But except for trying to prevent allergic reactions to the stings themselves, there is no orthodox medical evidence that bee venom is effective against illness, and rationalist websites in the West describe so-called "apitherapy" as "quackery".

"We hold the bee, put it on a point on the body, hold its head, and pinch it until the sting needle emerges," Wang said at his facility on the outskirts of the capital.

The bee -- Wang said he uses an imported Italian variety -- dies when it stings.

"We've treated patients with dozens of diseases, from arthritis to cancer, all with positive results," said Wang.

Bee stings can be used to treat "most common diseases of the lower limbs," he added, and claimed they also work as a preventative measure. But sciencebasedmedicine.org, a US-based website, says that such claims of panaceas and cure-alls are "always a red flag for quackery".

"There is no scientific evidence to support its use," it says of "apitherapy", or treatment with bee products.

One of Wang's patients said doctors told him he had lung and brain cancer and gave him little over a year to live, but he now believes he has almost doubled his life expectancy and credits bee stings for the change. "From last year up until now, I think I'm getting much stronger," the patient told AFP.

But on its website, the American Cancer Society makes clear: "There have been no clinical studies in humans showing that bee venom or other honeybee products are effective in preventing or treating cancer.

"Relying on this type of treatment alone and avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer may have serious health consequences."

It adds that there is a Koranic reference to the medicinal properties of the liquid produced by bees, and that Charlemagne (742-814), the first Holy Roman Emperor, is said to have been treated with bee stings.

In the West bee stings have also been used by sufferers of multiple sclerosis (MS), an often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system.

But the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the US says on its website: "In spite of long-standing claims about the possible benefits of bee venom for people with MS, a 24-week randomised study showed no reduction in disease activity, disability, or fatigue, and no improvement in quality of life."

The trend for bee acupuncture comes at a time when colonies of the insect around the world are mysteriously collapsing. Environmentalists fear dwindling numbers of bees, which help pollinate crops, could have a serious effect on agricultural production.

Bee venom is one of the many traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatments derived from animals and plants -- some of which are blamed for endangering particular wildlife species.

TCM is a major part of China's healthcare system and a booming industry which continues to receive significant investment and support from the central government.

Many people in China cannot afford to buy the latest orthodox pharmaceuticals as national health insurance is limited.

Older people -- who are more likely to fall ill -- also favour traditional remedies because of deep-rooted cultural beliefs in the power of natural, rather than modern, ingredients.

Most hospitals in China have traditional medicine treatments available.

It can be a lucrative field for companies and practitioners -- in 2012, the TCM industry in China produced goods worth 516 billion yuan ($84 billion), more than 31 percent of the country's total medicine output, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

MarathonTmatt

08-13-2013, 10:08 PM

Kellen Bassette

08-14-2013, 05:26 AM

Wow, I guess it is a good thing I got stung 5 times last week (once in the head) by bees when I was up-rooting saplings from the ground w/ my bare hands to clear a path through the woods. Whichever kind nests in the ground, those were the ones.

Those were most likely "ground bees" a type of yellow jacket. One of the more ornery species.

I used to do bee removal professionally in Louisiana. If it was just honey bees, I often wouldn't wear a bee suit, since I'd rather deal with a couple stings then the sweating to death in the suit. I used to get stung all the time, I should be good on cancer treatments for the next few lives.

GeneChing

08-26-2013, 11:51 AM

The Million Roach March: Horde of ****roaches flee Chinese farm (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/the_million_roach_march_horde_of_2kTYSIS6HUD2N3Ewv WaFdN)
By MICHAEL BLAUSTEIN
Last Updated: 9:22 AM, August 26, 2013
Posted: 9:02 AM, August 26, 2013

Over 1,000,000 ****roaches escaped from a Chinese farm.

More than one million ****roaches have escaped from a Chinese farm and fled into nearby corn fields.

The bugs broke free on Aug. 20 from a nursery in western China where they were being raised for use in traditional Chinese medicine, according to the Modern Express.

According to the Express, the facility's owner Wang Pengsheng returned to his farm to find that an "unknown perpetrator" had destroyed the plastic greenhouse he used to raise the crunchy critters.

Authorities in the area started a "large scale disinfection" on Aug. 22 and urged residents to stay calm, according to Shanghaiist.

Pengsheng started his roach farm by buying 225 lbs. of Periplaneta americana cochroach eggs which he used to hatch over 1,500,000 roaches that were being fed "fruit and biscuits" everyday.

Pengsheng was expecting to make around $160 for every 2 lbs of ****roaches he sold, but now the farmer is facing huge losses because of the great roach escape.

Although ****roaches are thought of as pests in much of the world, they are valued in China where extracts from the bugs are used in medicines to treat cancer, reduce inflammation and improve overall autoimmune system health, according to Discovery News.
Man, if I was this guy's neighbor, I'd be really ****ed off.

GeneChing

09-11-2013, 09:25 AM

That’s the spirit: Snake preserved in wine for 3 months bites woman (http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/809720.shtml#.UjCYd8osasJ)
Globaltimes.cn | 2013-9-9 16:14:27
By Globaltimes.cn

The Year of the Snake has proved unlucky for one woman in northern China who received hospital treatment after opening a bottle of wine containing a snake that suddenly jumped out and bit her hand.

The surprise attack occurred after the woman surnamed Liu from Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang Province decided to add more alcohol to the bottle when the snake, which she had bought live in June and since kept pickled in spirits, pulled a Jesus and sprung to life, dbw.cn reported on September 3.

Liu received treatment at a local hospital for inflammation, explaining she drank snake wine regularly to cure her rheumatism. Alcohols containing preserved snakes boasting medicinal properties are common in China.

A similar case involving a serpent resurrection occurred in 2009 when a Hubei Province resident surnamed Zhang was bit two months after he attempted a similar brew. Zhang was not severely injured, unlike a villager from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in April 2001 who died a day after being bitten from a preserved wine snake.

Web editor: pangqi@globaltimes.com.cn I've had snake wine. It's actually not that weird, which just goes to show how weird TCM ingredients can get.

Now, getting bit by a snake in wine, that's weird.

enoajnin

10-04-2013, 10:23 AM

Okay this probably isn't that weird considering what has gone before (virgin boy pee?) but it seemed like the spot for it.

Here is Travis Barker of the band Blink-182 getting the cupping treatment. I wonder how this effects his tats?

http://distilleryimage8.ak.instagram.com/db9c5fe02ca411e38c6a22000a9f3c64_7.jpg

GeneChing

10-07-2013, 09:01 AM

And more...

*****es and blood: Asia's libido-boosting foods (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8atxY9fB58)
Published on Oct 4, 2013

From ***** hotpots to snake blood and fried animal organs, around Asia there are many meals that can supposedly help boost libido. Duration: 02:30
"taste *****, talk about *****, but don't say there's no culture in it" :eek:

GeneChing

02-28-2014, 10:21 AM

It's just for the nooBs to TCM (and an excuse to ttt this thread)

Off the Beaten Palate: Snake wine and other medicinal liquors (http://shanghaiist.com/2014/02/28/off_the_beaten_palate_deer_*****_wi.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/benjamincost/exoticwinemain.jpg

It can be all too easy to stick to your culinary comfort zone in Shanghai, be it KFC or gōngbǎo jīdīng. As a challenge to break these habits and avoid the rut, every few weeks Shanghaiist will explore one of the more intriguing options out of China's endless array of curious cookery. Although bizarre to most Western palates, these oft-avoided edibles usually boast unique medicinal properties, nutritional benefits, and intriguing culinary histories. We'll explore for you where they came from and where you can sample these rare eats for yourselves.

Suffering from erectile dysfunction? Drink 25 milliliters of snake and deer ***** liquor once a day. That's just one of the exotic wine prescriptions in the more than one thousand-year-old Chinese pharmacopeia, Sheng Nong's Herbal Classic. Despite being called "wines," Chinese animal liquors were traditionally used as medicines and not social lubricants, with hundreds of varieties for every ailment imaginable, set dosages, and even side effects.

Even today, people don't treat them as hocus-pocus. My friend and snake maven Mr. Hu believes so strongly in snake and deer ***** wine that he was hesitant to cough it up, just like a pharmacy would be if a 20-something asked for Viagra. And no way was I having a second shot of it. He even asked if I'd drunk other snake liquors within the past week. Again, much like a doctor asking if you're on medication during a check-up.

China boasts hundreds of exotic animal wines from monkey to pangolin, that animal that looks an anteater mated with an artichoke. We'll stick with the equally exotic, but less taboo tipples for this article.

Deer antler (lùróngjiǔ, 鹿茸酒)
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/benjamincost/exoticwineantler.jpg

You've probably encountered these at Asian medicinal markets without even realizing it. Tan, velvety, and circular the slices are often mistaken for dried mushrooms. You can buy them in bunches and boil them in tea to help your joints, improve circulation, and supposedly make you "*****." For the latter effect, you're better off consuming them in paired with ginseng in baijiu. Unlike deer antler, ginseng has been scientifically proven to strengthen your own "deer antler." You can find deer antler and ginseng wine at Jackie's Beer Nest for 45RMB a shot. It tastes essentially like baijiu, but mustier, as if decaying leaves were tossed in. The apothecary advises no more than 25 milliliters a day.
Jackie's Beer Nest // 76 Zhaozhou Lu, near Dongtai Lu (肇周路76号, 近东台路). Tel: 138-1650-2260. Hours: 5-11pm.

Snake bile wine (shédǎnjiǔ, 蛇胆酒)
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/benjamincost/exoticwinesbile.jpg

Swamp green with an iridescent tinge, you could easily see vials of this stuff being touted by a bayou-dwelling witch doctor with skull face paint. The elixir is a mixture of baijiu and bile from snake gallbladders, which often come bobbing about in the same flask as the liquor. They resemble fleshy gray-blue pills. Drinking 25ml of this elixir once a day is said to improve eyesight and reduce inflammation. Not gonna lie, knocking back a tumbler evoked downing formaldehyde that a toad had been sitting in, and was one of the most vile things I've ever tasted. 10RMB per shot.
Dahushedao (大胡蛇岛) // 222 Kangding Road, near Jiangning Road (康定路222号, 近江宁路) // Closest Metro Stop: Changping Road (昌平路) Line 7.

Deer ***** wine (lùbiānjiǔ, 鹿鞭酒)
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/benjamincost/exoticwinedeerp.jpg

This holy sex grail didn't resemble anything too extraordinary at first glance, just a drum of swamp detritus. Then Mr. Hu grabbed the head of what looked like a plant stalk and pulled. And I saw it. It was about 8 inches long and brown. And that was just the nozzle. As he pulled, lengths and lengths of it uncoiled from the container like a gasoline hose from its holster. If this was indeed an aphrodisiac, it could probably help you penetrate kevlar. To help enhance its effects, like with deer antler, deer ***** is often paired with ginseng in an aphrodisiac speedball. At Dahushedao, it usually sword fights with smaller snake *****es in a jar. A shot runs you 35RMB. It tastes similar to deer antler wine and allegedly benefits middle aged and older men, who should take it in 20-25ml doses once a day. You can also try the version at Jackie's Beer Nest, which comes with lizard and snake and costs 45RMB.
Dahushedao (大胡蛇岛) // 222 Kangding Road, near Jiangning Road (康定路222号, 近江宁路) // Closest Metro Stop: Changping Road (昌平路) Line 7, OR Jackie's Beer Nest // 76 Zhaozhou Lu, near Dongtai Lu (肇周路76号, 近东台路). Tel: 138-1650-2260. Hours: 5-11pm.

Three Snake Wine (sānzhòngshéjiǔ, 三种蛇酒)
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/benjamincost/exoticwineviper.jpg

As the legend goes, a Tang Dynasty emperor (AD 618-907) lost his appetite and tried every known remedy to regain it, but to no avail. Only after consuming a certain robust snake bearing markings similar to his imperial stamps, did his hunger return. The exuberant emperor decreed that locals living in the region of Hunan where the miracle serpent dwelled would be exempt from taxes if they captured a snake, a ruling that eventually depleted the population. Nowadays, the snake, the Hunan pit viper, remains confined to a few forest patches in Hunan province.

The specimen Mr. Hu showed me was captured 15 years ago and was as thick as a speed skater's calf (above left). Few attain that size anymore, and hunting them is now illegal. No one's ever proved the Hunan viper to be an appetite stimulant, but it does have purported health properties best observed when it's paired with banded krait and Zaocys snake in a tonic called "three snake wine."

The viper most famously speeds up blood clotting, healing your wounds faster alla Wolverine - a belief stemming from the fact that when the viper bites you, your blood coagulates. Of course, if you take it on its own, you can experience side effects like overheating and sores. The Zaocys snake serves to depress these effects, while the krait helps prevent paralysis. All three in conjunction allegedly aid the joints.

Mr. Hu points out that, like with wine or whiskey, the older the vintage the more prized it is. The alcohol content dwindles over time but the health effects become stronger. Unfortunately so does the funk factor, making it taste like baijiu with notes of pond scum. Mr. Hu recommends taking 20-25ml once a day, which'll set you back 50RMB. Just don't drink if you're already taking snake bile liquor, or you'll apparently break out in mouth ulcers.
Dahushedao (大胡蛇岛) // 222 Kangding Road, near Jiangning Road (康定路222号, 近江宁路) // Closest Metro Stop: Changping Road (昌平路) Line 7.

Our verdict

Health tonics with deer ***** and snake bile might sound like witches brew- might as well throw in "eye of newt," right? But while they don't always align with modern science (though they often do), they're based in a scholarship as rich and complex as you'll find in any Western medical journal. Not to mention they allow you to strike both snake and deer ***** off your culinary bucket list without having to wolf all 20 inches of either one.
Anyone try any of these? I've had several snake wines before.

GeneChing

07-11-2014, 11:34 AM

11 traditional Chinese therapies that will weird you out (http://shanghaiist.com/2014/07/11/11-traditional-chinese-therapies-that-will-weird-you-out.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy14.jpg

A number of mysterious therapies have surfaced in recent years as people have strayed from the typical herbal remedies and cupping procedures to seek out alternative "cure-all" treatments. We've taken a look at some of the more baffling out-of-the-box remedies across China that have proven, for the most part, to be pretty ineffective.

1. Urine therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy1.jpg

On August 8, 2004, around 30 elderly folk gathered at a hotel in Guangzhou to share their experiences in urine drinking and toasted one another with a fresh glass of the stuff.

Since then, it's been reported that chugging down one’s own urine could cure illnesses such as hyperthyroidism. Founded in Hong Kong in 2008, the China Urine Therapy Association claims to have gathered more than 100,000 followers who've turned to urine therapy, even though medical experts pointed out that the practice is likely more harmful than effective.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy7.jpg
These two people claim to have been using urine therapy for over 10 years and swear by it (June 24, 2014 in Chongqing).

2. Ant-eating therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy2.jpg

In 2001, a Hangzhou hotel hosted a free event for live ant tasting, inviting “experts” from ant farms to demonstrate ant-eating to the public. Claiming that the critters are rich in protein, the eating of ants is believed to have anti-aging effects.

3. Fire therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy3.jpg

It's believed that fire therapy has various advantages, including stimulating blood circulation. In 2005, authorities issued a notice regarding the management of Chinese medicine massage, Gua sha (scraping sha-bruises), cupping and so on. Fire therapy, somehow, was not mentioned.

4. Apitherapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy4.jpg

Apitherapy, a folk therapy using bee venom, is claimed to be effective in curing rheumatism, arthritis, migraine headaches, stomach pains, high blood cholesterol and other ailments, although the state has not approved Apitherapy as a useful Chinese medical treatment. Experts say the biggest risk is allergies, which could be deadly. This picture taken in August 2013 shows a very unpleasant-looking patient in Beijing undergoing the treatment.

5. Sand therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy5.jpg

On 30 October, 2013 a new health concept called "Western Yusha (sand) therapy" was introduced in Nanjing. The idea is basically to bury your body in sand until you begin to sweat. The treatment claims to be a combination of "magnetic therapy", "hyperthermia", "light therapy" and "massage”. On the plus side, you could probably go to the nearest beach and do it for free.

continued next post

GeneChing

07-11-2014, 11:35 AM

#6 ain't so weird.

6. Plant therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy6.jpg

On July 12, 2008, the summer that Beijing hosted the Olympic games, an artist drew an Olympic Fuwa (the mascot of the games) on the back of two women with the essence of flowers and grass. The artist said that the plant "juice" had skin revitalizing effects.

7. “Stretch and Beat therapy”

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy9.jpg

On April 11, 2011, Xiao Hong-ci, the author of a book introducing the idea of muscle-stretching and body-slapping, spoke at a press conference in Taipei to boast benefits of the therapy that he said could cure hundreds of diseases. Since 2009, the “stretch and beat therapy" has become increasingly popular in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and other cities that offer lessons, workshops and books promoting the treatment.

8. Green bean therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy8.jpg

In 2010, “miracle doctor” Zhang Wu promoted the idea in his best-selling book that by simply eating green beans, one could cure diseases of all sorts. Ironically, in February 2014, Zhang was diagnosed with cerebral infarction. In an interview, he admitted that his green beat diet wasn't working and had to cease the treatment.

9. “Electricity” treatment

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy10.jpg

Li Yi, who was dubbed a “fairy priest”, claimed he had found a way to “master 220 volt electricity," allowing him to cure patients' cancer with electrical current. A paraplegic patient of his was able to have conscious control of the body after the treatment, and medical experts have strongly questioned it.

10. “Holy water” therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy15.jpg

Images from October 5, 2012 show nearly a hundred people fighting over the so-called “holy water” from a creek in Zhejiang. It was believed by residents that the water could cure ailments, although medical tests showed that it was no more special than the tap water in their kitchen.

11. Dietary supplement therapy

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/shang_shanghaiist/therapy17.jpg

On December 5, 2005, a group of businessmen visited a remote village in Hunan, boasting a health care supplement which they claimed could cure illnesses. One of the buyers happily showed off her "achievement", which cost her 160 yuan, although she was completely unaware that the supplements had a value of only 10 yuan.

Not only are they overpriced and ineffective, sometimes the supplements can prove dangerous. Earlier this month, supplements meant to treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were blacklisted after they were found to have damaging impurities inside the liquid.

GeneChing

09-10-2014, 09:10 AM

I was just about to eat a biscuit...now I've lost my appetite for it. :(

Human placenta 'biscuits' being sold in Hong Kong shops, despite ban (http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1580228/human-placenta-available-chinese-medicine-shops-causeway-bay)
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 24 August, 2014, 4:52am
UPDATED : Monday, 25 August, 2014, 12:57pm

http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486x302/public/2014/08/24/96fdbf69bac7a730497a03f39f034357.jpg?itok=MQE5rZ15
Human placenta biscuits on sale

While the sale of human placenta remains illegal in Hong Kong, it was available under the counter at several traditional Chinese medicine shops approached by the Post.

Three of the six Causeway Bay shops reporters visited said they sold placenta in biscuit form, colloquially known as tseh ji hong. It can be eaten like a biscuit or broken up and mixed with water, one seller said.

Prices ranged from HK$40 to HK$50 a piece or HK$100 per tael.

Asked where the products came from, one seller said Hong Kong and the other two did not respond.

At one dispensary, a seller talked about Sheila Chan Suk-lan, a Hong Kong actress who was once reported in the Chinese-language media as saying eating human placenta was her secret for good skincare. "I tried it once on the mainland. Although it was very inhumane, I ate it in the end," she reportedly said.

In image-obsessed Hong Kong, the black-market trade is probably fuelled by claims that consuming human placenta improves the complexion.

The mainland banned the sale of human placenta in 2005, though the trade continued to flourish for some time on online marketplace Taobao. Today only sheep placenta products can be found there.

For new mums looking to boost iron levels, the consumption of human placenta is something they have been turning to more frequently. Scot Stacy Wallace consumed her placenta in a fruit smoothie and found it "delicious". Wallace, who had no problems claiming her placenta from the private Matilda International Hospital in February, had the organ encapsulated.

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2014/08/24/19.jpg?itok=klK3Sygc
Human placenta biscuits sold at Traditional Chinese Medicine dispensaries in Causeway Bay. Photo: SCMP

"I took capsules three times a day for the first six weeks post birth. The biggest impact was on my milk supply. It was plentiful," she said.

"I still think eating one's placenta is a little nuts, but I'd do it again. I have leftover capsules in the freezer for when I hit menopause and feel lucky to have this secret weapon when that big change in life comes."

In 1998, British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall flambéed placenta during an episode of his TV Dinners, saying it was "enjoyed by the baby's family and friends". Viewers complained, comparing eating placenta to cannibalism.

The placenta encapsulation process involves steaming it with ingredients such as lemon, ginger or chilli. It is then dehydrated and ground into a powder and placed in vegetable capsules.

And the placenta is not just eaten. In various cultures, it plays a vital ceremonial role.

In Cambodia it's buried, often surrounded by spiked plants, to ward off evil spirits, while in Yemen it is placed on the roof of a family home so birds can eat it - the idea being that it will guarantee love between the parents.

In Turkey, the proper disposal of the placenta is said to promote the devoutness of the child later in life. Nepalis believe the placenta is a friend of the baby. Malaysia's Orang Asli believe it's the baby's older sibling.

The Igbo of Nigeria consider the placenta the deceased twin of the baby and hold a funeral.

GeneChing

10-31-2014, 10:07 AM

Another trick. Not a treat. Not at all. :eek:

Just a load of crap? Villagers in China claim drink made with manure is effective against cancer (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/10/31/just-a-load-of-crap-villagers-in-china-claim-drink-made-with-manure-is-effective-against-cancer/)
Philip Kendall 5 hours ago

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/poop.jpg?w=580&h=386

Villagers in a rural Chinese village have stumbled upon a drink which they believe to be effective against cancer, with dozens of households now partaking in the special brew on a twice-daily basis.

We’re sure that anyone would be prepared to make time in their daily routine for a warm drink every morning and night if it potentially meant staying fit and healthy well into retirement, but we doubt many would be so keen once they heard that said drink was little more than cow dung and sheep’s droppings mixed with warm water.

The story of the unusual remedy’s creation goes, Xinhua.jp reports, that an elderly woman living in the village of Xiangtan in China’s Hunan Province was last year diagnosed with lung cancer and told that she would not have long to live. Her son, who was at that time working far away in China’s southernmost province of Hainan, heard tell of a “remedy” – a drink made from ground-up animal feces and water – that was said to be especially effective against cancer, which he then conveyed to his mother.

As unpalatable as it sounds, some eight months after having started drinking the brown brew, the old woman is not only still alive but claims to have seen vast improvements in her health, prompting families in the area to start drinking the poopy mixture themselves as a preventative measure.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/cook-it-up.jpg?w=580&h=386

The manure used in the odd concoction is reportedly collected from mountains and hills around the village, with both cow and sheep feces being used. The animal waste is dried out, stir-fried, and then crushed down into a fine powder. This powder is then mixed with hot water and drunk twice a day; once in the morning and again at night.

It is not clear whether the elderly woman has been back to her doctor for tests since beginning her self-prescribed treatment, but we wish her all the best and hope she continues to feel better. All the same, we’d advise against accepting any cups of coffee or strong tea if you ever happen to find yourself in the village and are offered a quick brew…

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/cup-o-poop.jpg?w=580&h=386

Source: Xinhua.JP
Photos: QQ via Toychan.net

MarathonTmatt

10-31-2014, 04:26 PM

Another trick. Not a treat. Not at all. :eek:

:)

It sounds like more studies + time will show if this remedy is indeed worthy of fighting off cancer. It makes sense though. I have seen animals eat the feces of other animals before, such as dogs. Why not humans? We process it, dry it out, and brew it up with water using fire and it seems to make sense. I know a few threads back one of the features was urine drinking, which also makes sense. I would want to make sure that my dung is from an animal with a more organic diet, though.

GeneChing

03-26-2015, 10:40 AM

'premium cane toads' no less. :D

Poisonous remedy: Millions of Australian cane toads may be shipped to China so their potent venom can be used in traditional medicines which help battle cancer (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3012860/Millions-Australian-cane-toads-shipped-China-potent-venom-used-traditional-medicines-help-battle-cancer.html)

Cane toad venom could be used in medicines to battle cancer
Millions of toads could be exported to China for use in traditional remedies
Australian cane toads are healthier than those found in Asia
Venom has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years

By Freya Noble for Daily Mail Australia
Published: 08:35 EST, 26 March 2015 | Updated: 09:25 EST, 26 March 2015

Cane toads are one of Australia's most invasive pests, and pose a huge threat to native species. But now they could be turned into a successful commodity.

Their venom could be effective in fighting cancer, researchers have discovered, and the potency of Australian cane toad's venom is stronger than those in China.

This means that potentially millions of toads could be shipped to China, so they could have their venom extracted and turned into medicine, to be sold on the multi-billion dollar traditional medicine market.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/26/13/2703138400000578-3012860-image-a-22_1427376758766.jpg
Millions of Australian cane toads could be shipped to China so their potent venom can be used in cancer medicine

Harendra Parekh, from the University of Queensland's pharmacy department where the research took place, said this discovery could lead to a 'potentially a very lucrative export market'.

'People are killing cane toads by the millions for free, but it’s potentially a very lucrative export market for Australia with the Chinese being extremely interested in naturally derived health products,' Dr Parekh said in an article published by the UOQ.

He added that the Australian cane toad has close similarities to the Asiatic species, 'whose venom has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/26/12/2703149100000578-0-image-a-18_1427373860528.jpg
The venom would likely be mixed with herbs and sold in tablet form (file photo)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/26/13/2703137500000578-3012860-image-a-21_1427375637582.jpg
Cane toads are a pest in Australia, which were introduced in Queensland in 1935 to control cane beetles

'We already have several companies interested, as the Chinese value Australian toads because of the environment they enjoy here,' Dr Parekh said.

The researcher spoke to the Guardian Australia about how the cane toad's venom could be used as a medicine, and said it would most likely appear in a tablet form.

'We could process the venom for medicine, ideally in a tablet because it tastes absolutely awful if you drink it,' Dr Parekh said.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/26/13/27031E5B00000578-3012860-image-a-20_1427375623513.jpg
New research shows that the pests could be turned into a huge economic commodity

'Look at lamb, beef and chicken – these Australian products are seen as premium goods in China. Cane toads would be no different. They’d be premium cane toads.'

The can toads would be squeezed for their potent venom which would then be mixed with herbs and turned into medicine. The venom extraction can be done while the toads are alive.

Cane toads were first introduced to Queensland in 1935, in an attempt to control cane beetles.

However, like rabbits, they quickly multiplied are were deemed a pest. They have since spread to New South Wales, West Australia and the Northern Territory.

curenado

03-26-2015, 12:27 PM

Poor toads.

I do not know the words for that one "medicine" where someone is dying of dysentery uncontrolled by regular means so the "pill" is a piece of crap of someone not dying of intractable dysentery :) it is legit. Others do it. US does it, "so you know it's true".

Best motivator to maintain bowel health I know of

herb ox

03-26-2015, 03:13 PM

Curenado - are you referring to a "fecal transplant"? A doctor friend of mine told me about this when they were just starting to use it to combat clostridium difficile, a terrible bacterial infection of the intestines that occurs after prolonged antibiotic use kills off our beneficial bacterial gut flora.

At first he mentioned administration if the material by nasogastric tube - so basically snorting a glass of a poop-shake...

Glad to hear recently they are going in from the other end.

I will be sticking to vanilla ice cream from now on, thank you...

Herb ox

curenado

03-26-2015, 04:28 PM

Yup, but they didn't invent it, they're probably just the record holders for price charged and fuss made.
US is low on health quality, but if you want to put something out say "US does it" and of course, like time, god and every right thing we invented it. Haha

GeneChing

11-05-2015, 10:55 AM

Not traditional in TCM. Definitely quackery. And definitely post worthy here. ;)

Jiangxi dad digs up graves of women, grinds their skulls to powder, hoping to cure daughter's mental illness (http://shanghaiist.com/2015/11/04/dude_digs_up_skulls_for_medicine.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/indiana_jones_crystal_skull2.png

Last month, police in Jiangxi province arrested a man who confessed to digging up the graves of young women and stealing their skulls, which he then ground into powder and gave to his mentally disabled daughter.

The man had actually been doing this for months after having been advised by a quack doctor that the skull caps of young women could help cure mental illness, according to Sina News.

The man would grind the skulls into a powder and mix it with water, forcing his daughter to drink the concoction. He reluctantly admitted that his daughter's condition did not seem to have improved at all in the time since he began the bizarre ritual.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/skull_robber2.jpg

Traditional Chinese medicine is still quite prevalent in China and is becoming more popular in many Western countries as well. This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was won by a Chinese scientist, Tu Youyou, for discovering an effective antimalarial treatment based off of traditional Chinese medical practices. That said, with few clinical trials, the efficacy of most Chinese medicine is very suspect in the opinion of the medical community at large.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/skull_robber.jpg

Typically, grave robbing in China is done for less pure motives than helping cure one's daughter's mental illness. We've seen corpses stolen by officials to meet strict cremation quotas and female corpses unearthed to take part in "ghost marriages." So, let's just hope that this father's intentions were genuine and he wasn't out to make a knock-off Indiana Jones home movie -- but let's be honest -- it probably would have been better than that last horrid installment in the series.

By Kevin Engle
Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Shanghaiist in News on Nov 4, 2015 3:30 PM

GeneChing

01-08-2016, 10:57 AM

'probably not the best method prescribed by TCM of combating rheumatism' :rolleyes:

Can't get rid of the shakes? Try out TCM's latest surefire elixir 'Owl wine' (http://shanghaiist.com/2016/01/08/owl_wine.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/owl_wine3.jpg

On Wednesday afternoon, a Weibo user uploaded pictures of some Class II protected species stuffed inside jars of liquor, asking if perhaps this might need some looking into.
The post spread quickly, freaking the hell out of netizens across China with images of pale-eyed, alcohol-infused owls staring blankly out at them. Many called for quick and severe punishment for whomever was responsible.
According to Sina, a Sichuan-based journalist followed up on the post, getting the contact details of the seller and calling him up. In what must have been a true shocker, he was from Guangzhou. The TCM merchant named Li admitted to selling the 5kg jars of "owl wine" and said that it could be used to cure headaches and pain in the joints.
"The owls are all soaked alive. They are submerged inside and choke on the alcohol, that way they are infused inside and out, making the medicine more effective," Li explained.
When the journalist asked about acquiring some of Li's special product for himself, the seller was reluctant to ship all the way to Sichuan and canceled the deal.
A professor from the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine told the reporter that this was probably not the best method prescribed by TCM of combating rheumatism. Since owls are under second class protection in China, they should not be drowned alive in baijiu.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/orly_owl.jpg

However, if you are under some serious distress, a jar of liquor infused with owl AND snake might just be exactly what the (quack) doctor ordered:

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/owl_wine4.jpg

[Images via Sina]
Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Alex Linder in News on Jan 8, 2016 11:30 AM

Mor Sao

01-08-2016, 03:27 PM

I have never heard of owls being used.

Snakes, Geckoes, Bugs, placenta.

But owls?

Going to help your night vision?

SMH

Jimbo

01-08-2016, 08:23 PM

There's something particularly creepy about the owls in those jars. Maybe because out of all birds, owl faces have a somewhat 'humanoid' look to them. Anyway, I like owls and hope they put a stop to that.

herb ox

01-11-2016, 02:01 PM

Terrible. Never heard of owl's being used as medicine either. Probably just one man's way of making a living.

My body aches pretty much feel better after I drink just about anything soaked in hard liquor, though...

GeneChing

01-21-2016, 01:32 PM

...but so worthy of posting here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJZBpzgFCe8

GeneChing

02-25-2016, 10:37 AM

I almost posted this in Chinese toilets (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65867-Chinese-toilets).

Rare giant salamander is found injured in Chinese sewage plant after 'escaping from a restaurant' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3463485/Rare-giant-salamander-injured-Chinese-sewage-plant-escaping-restaurant.html?ITO=applenews)

Amphibian was discovered in Zhenzhou, central China, on February 25
Staff at the local forestry bureau rescued the injured animal immediately
The rare animal is sometimes considered to be a luxury food item in China

By CHLOE LYME FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 07:45 EST, 25 February 2016 | UPDATED: 07:45 EST, 25 February 2016

An injured giant salamander has been found at a sewage plant in central China.

The unusual discovery was made in Zhenzhou, Henan Province today, reports Huanqiu.com, an affiliation of the People's Daily Online, and the animal was immediately sent to the local wild animal rescue station.

Experts suspected the rare amphibian, which measured 27 inches in length and weighed eight pounds, had escaped from a farm or a restaurant.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/25/11/318B82E900000578-3463485-image-a-12_1456400957149.jpg
Rare: This giant salamander was found in a sewage plant today Zhenzhou, Henan Province, east China

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/25/11/318B831100000578-3463485-image-a-13_1456400962962.jpg
Escaped: Staff at the Zhenzhou Forestry Wild Animal Rescue Station suspect it came from a restaurant

The giant salamander was found at the Matougang Sewage Plant in Zhenzhou.

After it was retrieved from the processing section of the plant, the muddy animal received medical treatment for minor injuries sustained during its ordeal.

With an injured tail, the giant salamander was sent to the Zhenzhou Forestry Wild Animal Rescue Station.

The director of the centre, Dong Chaowei, told reporters that he suspected the amphibian could have escaped from a restaurant or a farm and went into the urban sewage system, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.

But Dong said it could also have been released on purpose.

The giant salamander remains in the centre where it is being carefully looked after by staff who hope for a speedy recovery.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/25/11/318B833800000578-3463485-image-a-15_1456400997885.jpg
Injured: The amphibian hurt its tail when is escaped and climbed into an urban sewage system in China

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/25/11/318B82B500000578-3463485-image-a-14_1456400968978.jpg
Tiny: This salamander is relatively small, it measured 27 inches in length and weighed eight pounds

Pictures taken after the rescue show the rare creature being washed, measured and cared for in some water.

They also show the staff at the centre carefully looking after the salamander, feeding and dressing its wounds.

Giant salamanders are the largest species of amphibian in the world, and can grow up to six feet in length.

The ancient animals are often described as the 'living fossil' because they have remained unchanged for 170million years.

They have also been declared 'critically endangered' by the Zoological Society of London.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/25/11/318B82C300000578-3463485-image-a-16_1456401020070.jpg
Shocking: Staff were working at the sewage plant in Henan Province today when they found the rare creature

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/02/25/11/318B832800000578-3463485-image-a-17_1456401024392.jpg
Emergency: The muddy animal received medical treatment for minor injuries sustained during its ordeal

The amphibians are also one of the oldest species on the planet, but have suffered from a huge dip in population over the past thirty years with human consumption the major cause of this decline.

In China, giant salamanders are called 'wa wa yu' - or 'baby fish' - because their distress call sounds like the cry of a baby

The amphibians are sometimes considered to be a luxury food item as well as an important source of traditional medicines, in spite of its rarity.

As they are slow and easy to hunt, catching the salamanders in nets is not a problem for Chinese poachers and they have been killed in droves - although they are now a protected species in China.

The creatures tend to be most commonly found in rocky mountain streams and lakes with clear fast-running water, and are known to dine on crabs, lobsters and large fish.

THE GIANT SALAMANDER: NATURE'S GRACEFUL JUGGERNAUT
The giant salamander is very heavily built, with a flat, broad head and a truncated snout
The creatures' breeding season is said to take place between August and September
The Chinese giant salamander used to be widespread in south-western and southern China
Giant salamanders occupy underwater hollows, and spend their whole lives in water
In the 1960s, more than 33,000 pounds of Chinese giant salamander meat was harvested each year from one single prefecture in Hunan province
Source: Zoological Society of London

GeneChing

08-29-2016, 08:53 AM

If ever there was a web article that was perfect for this thread, here it is. :cool:

Check Out Some Of China’s Nastiest ‘Traditional’ Medicines (http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/28/check-out-some-of-chinas-nastiest-traditional-medicines/)
RYAN PICKRELL
2:38 PM 08/28/2016

http://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/RTR2MUWA-e1472243289195.jpg

While traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatments like acupuncture and herbal remedies have gone mainstream, there is another side to TCM that will likely make your stomach turn.

Coffin bacteria, or guan cai jun, is used to treat bone cancer and associated pain. This type of bacteria grows on the inside of coffins above the mouths of the deceased. According to the TCM guide “Reflection on Traditional Chinese Medicine,” the coffin must be made of high-quality wood, and the “resident” must be a male.

The origins of the bacteria make it decidedly hard to harvest, especially considering that most people these days are cremated in China. Coffin bacteria is said to be a type of Ganoderma lucidum, which is considered to be a potential anti-cancer agent.

Rulvis glycyrrhizae extractionis sedilis, known as ren zhong huang in China, is produced by placing licorice root stored in a loose bamboo container in human feces and leaving it there for an extended period of time.

This “medical treat” can supposedly remove internal body heat and detoxify blood. It can also be used, in theory, to cure polydipsia (abnormal thirst), erysipelas (a bacterial skin infection), high fevers and ulcers.

Depositum urinae hominis, also known as ren zhong bai, or “sediment of human urine,” is exactly what it sounds like, and it’s used to clear “pathogenic internal heat” and “resolve blood stagnation.” This type of medicine can supposedly be used to cure fatigue, atrophic lung disease, nosebleeds, hematemesis (vomiting blood), sore throat, malnutrition-based gingivitis, and aphthae ulcers.

Bat dung, known as ye ming sha, or Faeces vespertilonis, also has alleged medical uses. The original name for this powdery medicine was tian shu shi, or “flying rat poop.”

Supposedly, this medication can reduce internal body heat, improve one’s eyesight, aid blood dissipation, and fix blood stagnation. Bat dung can be used to treat glandular swelling, malaria, night blindness, malnutrition, and glaucoma. This type of medicine is still apparently used frequently in China.

Dried human placenta, called zi he che, theoretically nourishes the blood and replenishes essence, as well as cures night sweats, impotence, spermatorrhea (excessive, involuntary ejaculation), hemoptysis (coughing blood), asthma, infertility, and blood and energy deficiency in women.

Ambergris, known as long xian xiang, is a substance secreted in the intestines of sperm whales that can be found floating in the ocean. This can treat asthma, abdominal pains and energy problems.

There are also treatments which involve drinking urine, eating ants, and being stung by bees.

The strangest of China’s treatments is actually a snack and a part of China’s “intangible cultural heritage.” In Dongyang, Zhejiang, locals collect buckets of urine from primary school students and use the urine to boil eggs. These urine-soaked eggs, known as tong zi niao zhu ji dan, are said to cure headaches, coughing, thirst, certain heart and lung ailments, several key gynecological problems, injuries and a variety of ocular disorders.

Jilin-based TCM specialist Wang Jian explained to The Daily Caller News Foundation that while some of these treatments are now less common, all of the above can still be found in certain parts of China. He added, “[These medicines] will probably do the trick, but they are a bit gross.”

GeneChing

09-13-2016, 09:35 AM

I've had gator back when I was carnivorous. I never really developed a taste for reptiles or amphibians. Too chewy.

TASTES LIKE CHICKEN
Why China loves crocodile meat (http://qz.com/780123/allergies-be-gone-why-china-is-crazy-for-crocodile-meat-from-africa/)
Two residents, who suffered from flood, ride on a boat with a crocodile after it was killed at a flooded residential area in Bangbuatong district of Nonthaburi province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. The crocodile was believed to have fled because of flood from a farm in other province nearby. The threat that floodwaters will inundate Thailand's capital could ease by the beginning of next month as record-high levels in the river carrying torrents of water downstream from the country's north begin to decline, authorities said Sunday.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/crocodile-e1473740516129.jpg?w=3200
Ready for sale. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

WRITTEN BYEcho Huang Yinyin
OBSESSION Life as Laboratory
September 13, 2016

I have been fighting the running nose and teary eyes that come with Allergic rhinitis, better known in the west as hay fever, for most of my 23 years. As a kid, my parents tried giving me over-the-counter anti-allergy medicines and consulted medical doctors, and relied on traditional Chinese medicine: boiling eggs with Plumeria flowers, and cooking honey produced by Chinese dark bees.
Last year they gave me a milk-shake thick, off-white stewed meat soup, which they told me was good for the respiratory system.
The soup was plain and tasted of pork, while the meat tasted like chicken. But it was crocodile meat. Many people in Guangdong province in southern China, where I am from, have tried the chicken-like meat, out of curiosity or for its medicinal effects.
This demand is part of the reason for the current crocodile farming craze in Africa, where 85% of crocodile exports go to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan combined. Last year, African countries exported some $196 million worth of crocodile to China.
“There is nothing Guangdong people wouldn’t eat in the sky, besides planes, and on the ground, cars,” is a popular Guangdong idiom describing the local craze for exotic meats. That includes the masked palm civet, a popular wild meat that was linked to the 2003 SARS outbreak.
But the crocodile’s use in traditional Chinese medicine dates back to at least the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century, when it was regarded as a highly nutritional meat that can cure respiratory illnesses like asthma caused by the prevalence of disease-causing “feng,” or wind, according to the Compendium of Materia Medicine (link in Chinese) written by Li Shizhen, a Chinese pharmacologist.
“My families said it’s good for nutrition, and every other day there would be vacuum-packed crocodile meat in the refrigerator,” said 22-year-old Kong Minying, a Guangdong native, recalling her family’s craze for crocodile meat that started several years ago. She said she didn’t know exactly where the crocodile came from, only that the meat was from the crocodile’s back, and “quite expensive,” at around 500 yuan ($78).

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/screen-shot-2016-09-13-at-12-14-52.png?w=940
(CCTV)

“It’s like a treat to eat crocodile meat,” said 25-year-old Vanty Pan, who lives in Guangzhou. “I had the crocodile soup at a fancy seafood restaurant at Zhanjiang,” a city in the southwestern part of Guangdong. He recalled the restaurant kept crocodiles.
There are many ways to cook crocodile meat, including, but not only limited to, stewing it and boiling it. A recent discovery in a Shenyang night market (link in Chinese) in northern China showed crocodile meat being fried and barbecued by hawkers and sold for 30 yuan ($4.5) per skewer.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/crocodile-barbecue-shandong-province-liaocheng.jpg?w=640
Crocodile for barbecue in Shandong Province. (Guangming Daily)

Prices for fresh crocodile meat vary from 129 yuan (link in Chinese) for 800 grams to 310 yuan (link in Chinese) for four grams on Chinese online shopping platforms, where it is advertised as curing asthma.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/screen-shot-2016-09-13-at-13-50-37.png?w=640
Crocodile meat on JD.com

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/screen-shot-2016-09-13-at-13-50-57.png?w=640
Crocodile meats on taobao

Food isn’t the only reason African farmers are farming crocodiles. The meat from one crocodile sells for $50 to $69, and the animal can yield a further $123 for its skin, which is then made into shoes, handbags and belts, Collins Mueke who raised 33,000 crocodiles in Nairobi, told the BBC.
“Don’t you think it’s a waste to toss the meat while so many crocodiles are used for making handbags?” a user known as Fat Boy (link in Chinese, registration required) on China’s version of Twitter, Weibo, told Quartz. A graduate of Zhejiang University, based in the eastern city of Hangzhou, had crocodile soup in a Guangdong-style restaurant.
Personally, I am not a big fan of crocodile handbags, or the soup. Even after eating it, the runny nose never left me. My parents decided to give up on this treatment method, but they continue to seek other traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions for my ongoing allergies.

GeneChing

10-07-2016, 09:32 AM

Magnetic therapy....on balls. :eek:

Man accidentally gets his balls stuck between two magnets while performing 'magnetic therapy' (http://shanghaiist.com/2016/10/07/balls_magnet.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/magnet_*****.jpg

On Monday, a man in Guangdong province did perhaps the worst thing you could possibly do with a pair of magnets, he got them stuck on his balls.
At 4:48 a.m. that morning, emergency services in Zhongshan city received a desperate cry for help. 10 firefighters rushed off to the scene where they found a 45-year-old man in extreme pain. According to Southern Metropolis Daily, the man explained that he was practicing some "magnetic therapy" at home early that morning and in the process had unwittingly got his testicles trapped between two powerful magnets and was unable free himself.
Understandably, the firefighters didn't know quite what to do. The commander decided that they should take the poor man straight to the hospital. At the hospital, the firefighters and doctors argued over what should be done. In a video of the delicate operation, one of the firefighters is seen explaining to the man that they have "never encountered anything like this before" and are trying to decide who will take responsibility (if something should go wrong).

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/magnet_*****2.jpg

The understandably impatient man says that he'll take full responsibility and the rescuers begin setting up to separate the magnets with a hydraulic tool. Before they go to work, they ask for permission from both the man and his wife. "You all have to pull, just one person won’t be enough," the man advises. However, doctors quickly found that there is simply no room for the giant hydraulic machine -- the magnets are stuck on there too tight.
At a loss for what to do, doctors even try calling the manufacturer of the magnets. The company proposes that the rescuers try and slide them off. Doctors also rule out this method as too risky. Once again, doctors and firefighters are stuck discussing the best course of action. At this point, the man has had his balls continuously crushed by a pair of magnets for 4 hours and is staring to get annoyed.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/magnet_*****3.jpg

Fortunately, the firefighters soon realized that the magnets aren't all that solid. They decided that they could use the hydraulic cutter to break up the magnets into smaller pieces so that they would lose their powerful pull. Following a very delicate operation, they were able to free the man's balls.
Afterward, a doctor performed a check on the man's scrotum and found no lasting damage.
Watch the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOcXcGaFHzs

Firefighters are starting to get pretty good at this kind of thing. Only last month, a man in Guangxi managed to get a ring stuck on his ***** for two days, local firefighters were able to get it off in only 90 minutes
[Images via Southern Metropolis Daily // Video via 一手Video]

For the record, this might not have been actual TCM but it did happen in China and that's good enough for me.

GeneChing

02-24-2017, 02:15 PM

Donkeys aren't all that weird, but Donkey hide jello is.

Donkey hide jello just sounds wrong.

South Africa: Donkeys Smuggled From SA to China for Medicine (http://allafrica.com/stories/201702240694.html)

http://cdn03.allafrica.com/download/pic/main/main/csiid/00370797:3d51db8a11c7d4bcd49bb415142c9474:arc614x3 76:w285:us1.png
Photo: Daily News
(file photo).

By Kimon De Greef

A Johannesburg businessman was arrested this week after falsely declaring a shipment of 300 donkey hides at OR Tambo airport. Investigators suspect that the man, a Chinese national, is the leader of a local donkey smuggling ring.

Gelatin from donkey hides is used to manufacture a traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao. Prescribed for treating anaemia, sleeplessness and excessive menstrual bleeding, among other ailments, ejiao sells for up to R5,000 per kg. (Though clinical evidence for these treatments is lacking, a small peer-reviewed study suggests ejiao may be effective for treating anaemia.)

Surging demand and a shortage of donkeys in China have led, in the last few years, to the unprecedented emergence of a global donkey market, with reports of large-scale trade across Africa. According to Grace de Lange from the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) Farm Animal Protection Unit, donkey prices in South Africa have increased more than fourfold in the last two years.

The trade, though not technically illegal, is poorly regulated, and has drawn condemnation from welfare groups following reports of donkeys being slaughtered inhumanely. "Donkeys are the latest victims of the trade in animal parts 'for medicinal purposes' to the Far East," wrote the NSPCA in a statement last September, when news of the trade first broke.

South Africa's Animal Protection Act forbids cruelty towards animals. According to Mpho Mokoena, an inspector in the NSPCA's Farm Animal Protection Unit, large numbers of donkeys have been slaughtered using knives and hammers in rural parts of Limpopo, the Northern Cape, and North West Province. "It's extremely upsetting to see the remains," Mokoena said.

In an incident last October SPCA officials intercepted a flatbed truck carrying 41 "crushed, dead or dying" donkeys in Limpopo. Four foreign African men were sentenced to 8 months in jail.

The confiscation at O.R. Tambo took place on 15 February after customs officials noticed a foul smell emanating from 39 boxes labeled 'cladding'. The boxes were destined for Hong Kong.

Four days later police raided a farm in Randfontein, confiscating more than 1,000 skins. The premises had been rented by the same man whose fraudulent shipment was blocked. (Police have not yet released the man's name, which is known to GroundUp, and did not respond to questions in time for publication.)

"Government is starting to take the illegal skins issue seriously," said Ashley Ness from the Highveld Horse Care Unit (HHCU), a welfare nonprofit that has been monitoring the trade. "Hopefully this will lead to more arrests."

Separately, the North West Department of Rural, Environmental and Agricultural Development (READ) announced on Tuesday that it was embarking on a formal "donkey production program", investing in farms and equine abattoirs for meeting Chinese demand. Provincial representatives signed a memorandum of understanding with China last year.

"The spike in donkey hide demand around the world means that donkeys and donkey products are an agricultural commodity and will contribute to [growth] in the province," the department wrote in a statement. "The Department strongly condemns ... illegal trade of [donkey] hides and meat."

But Ness, from the HHCU, feared that these initiatives would lead to further animal abuse. "Who's going to monitor the facilities? There's a risk that this will cause more welfare issues."

The HCCU launched a petition the same day calling for an end to all donkey slaughter in South Africa. By Friday afternoon it had drawn nearly 500 signatures.

Gumtree South Africa announced on Friday that is was prohibiting all sales of donkeys and donkey skins on its platform. "We decided that extreme measures would be necessary to prevent further unsavoury practises," spokesperson Claire Cobbledick said.

herb ox

03-09-2017, 05:36 PM

E jiao - aka "a$$ hide glue" :D kid you not!

Works wonders for restoring blood loss after giving birth, and stopping hemorrhage. Good for "gluing" a "slippery fetus" (i.e. fetus developing in a "prone to miscarry" mother) into place.

h. ox

GeneChing

06-19-2017, 03:19 PM

I don't mean you personally, herb ox. Do you stock and prescribe ejiao?

CHINESE MEDICINE IS USING DONKEY SKINS TO BOOST LIBIDO—AND AFRICA’S ANIMALS ARE AT RISK (http://www.newsweek.com/chinese-medicine-poaching-donkey-skin-trade-625477)
BY CONOR GAFFEY ON 6/14/17 AT 9:43 AM
CLOSE

Demand for a form of traditional Chinese medicine is putting the donkey population at risk in South Africa and other parts of the continent.

In recent years, the market in ejiao—a product made from boiled-down donkey skins mixed with herbs and other ingredients—has grown massively in China, putting millions of donkeys at risk of slaughter or poaching.

In South Africa, poor farmers who rely on donkeys as beasts of burden and modes of transport have reported having their animals stolen, only to later find their skinless carcasses.

South Africa’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has confiscated more than 1,000 donkey hides en route to China in the past year, chief inspect Mpho Mokoena told Voice of America (VOA). Mokoena fears that the growing trade in donkey skins could signal the extinction of the animal in South Africa. “In two years there won’t be [any] donkeys in South Africa,” she told VOA.

http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/full/public/2017/06/14/donkey-skins.jpg
Donkey skins dry in the sun at a licensed specialized slaughterhouse in Baringo, Kenya, on February 28. The trade in donkey skins is legal in some countries, but is putting donkey populations in parts of Africa at risk.
TONY KARUMBA/AFP/GETTY

The slaughter of donkeys and trade in their skins is on an upward trend in other parts of Africa, too. A January report by U.K.-based charity the Donkey Sanctuary found that demand for donkeys in Africa has risen so much that, in the West African country of Burkina Faso, the cost of a single animal almost doubled from £60 ($76) in 2014 to £108 ($137) in 2016.

The global donkey population stands at around 44 million, the vast majority of which are working animals, but the Donkey Sanctuary report estimated that global demand for donkey skins is between 4-10 million, with at least 1.8 million donkey skins being traded per year.

Four African countries—Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal—have banned donkey exports, as well as Pakistan. The consumption of donkey meat is also considered haram (forbidden) in Islam, meaning that the slaughter of donkeys in many countries with large Muslim populations is frowned upon.

Donkeys are under threat largely due to the rise in popularity of ejiao, according to the report. In China, some believe that ejiao has various health benefits, from anti-aging properties to boosting sex drive, and it is even marketed as a gynecological treatment that can reduce reproductive diseases in women. Demand is so high that ejiao can sell for up to £300 ($382) per kilogram, according to the Donkey Sanctuary report.

Traditional medicine in China and other parts of East Asia is associated with the decline of other animal populations and wildlife agencies have said that wild rhinoceros could be wiped out within a decade as a result of increased poaching. Rhino horn can sell for up to $60,000 per kilogram—more valuable by weight than gold or diamonds—due to myths that it can solve a wide range of medical ailments, including cancer and hangovers.

Tiger bones are also reputed to be a remedy for arthritis in traditional medicine, while ivory from elephant tusks is also used in some medications, as well as being prized for ornamental purposes in China.

GeneChing

06-19-2017, 03:19 PM

Plus I caught this on the radio last Sunday:

Amid Growing Threats, Donkey Rescuers Protect The Misunderstood Beasts Of Burden (http://www.npr.org/2017/06/18/533271568/amid-growing-threats-donkey-rescuers-protect-the-misunderstood-beasts-of-burden)
June 18, 2017 7:29 AM ET
JOHN BURNETT

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/06/16/img_3457_custom-f12375105feed0a2ae7ad634ba687a4366bb518b-s800-c85.jpg
Mark Meyers is the founder of Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue in San Angelo, Texas. His sanctuaries protect some 3,000 animals, making it the largest donkey defense organization in the world.
John Burnett/NPR

Donkeys have been loyal beasts of burden for 5,000 years, yet they still don't get a lot of respect.

In the wild, burro herds are a nuisance. In captivity, they can be mistreated. But in recent years, donkey sanctuaries have sprung up across the country. The largest among them is Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, outside of San Angelo, Texas, where the air periodically erupts with the unpeaceable sounds of donkey braying.

Just like its hee-haw, so much about the donkey is species specific. Their temperament — intelligent, cautious and playful — is unique in the equine world. Males and females are called jacks and jennies. And they're widely misunderstood.

"[People] assume they're stubborn. They assume they're stupid," says Mark Meyers, the founder and executive director of Peaceful Valley. "So there's a very negative connotation out there, the Bugs Bunny — turn into a donkey when he does something stupid."

Meyers has become America's foremost donkey defender.

Bored with the electrical contracting business, he and his wife, Amy, began adopting abused and unwanted donkeys at their ranchette outside Los Angeles. By 2005, they had accumulated 25 animals, and he decided to sell his companies and protect donkeys full time. They moved out to hot, flat, west Texas seven years ago.

When Meyers — a burly, white-bearded Buddhist — walks into a pen, he's mobbed by love-hungry donkeys.

"These donkeys here are some of our ambassador donkeys," he says, patting two affectionate beasts named Buddy and Houdini. "We do public outreach with them. We're headed to the Topeka Zoo in a few weeks to show the people how cool donkeys can be."

At any given time, his paddocks are home to 1,000 donkeys. Together with a network of sanctuaries scattered around the country, Peaceful Valley has grown into the largest donkey rescue organization in the world — sheltering some 3,000 total animals. Half are wild burros removed from public lands; half were abandoned, abused or neglected.

But the idea is not to run a home for old donkeys; the idea is to find them new homes. The ranch gives up more than 400 donkeys a year for adoption because their new owners say they make great pets.

"Like a really smart dog"

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/06/16/img_4595_custom-b1de2bb2d4995f6cade22e8536ab76c615dd50f7-s800-c85.jpg
Melissa Schurr, with her 21-year-old jack donkey, Buckaroo, at a ranch near Sacramento, Calif. She says donkeys are like dogs, for their intelligence, loyalty and playfulness.
John Burnett/NPR

"Hi, Buck ... you want a cookie?" calls out Melissa Schurr in a singsong voice. The equine dentist approaches her 21-year-old spotted jack, Buckaroo, on the ranch where they live outside of Sacramento, Calif.

Meyers helped her adopt Buckaroo, who was a wild ass in western Arizona in his youth.

"Donkeys are very dog-like creatures. They're loyal, they're sweet. It's like a really smart dog — a border collie — and the best horse you ever had, wrapped up in one animal," Schurr says.

"We've had to change how we shut our gates. He'll watch you and figure out how to open gates," she adds, rubbing the insides of Buckaroo's ears. In response, he closes his eyes and nuzzles her shoulder. "We have to latch everything. You can't just tie it. He'll untie it. They're very smart."

The Bureau of Land Management estimates there are more than 13,000 wild burros on public lands in five Western states — but thousands more are uncounted. (Some semantics: donkeys are domesticated; burros are wild.)

Feral populations can become a nuisance. Burros foul springs, overgraze, trample the ground and drive away native species.

Kevin Goode, a special assistant at Texas Parks & Wildlife, says in the outback, burros are wild.

"They are very skittish," Goode says. "They are very aggressive, both towards humans and other animals. They don't play well with others."

In the old days, people shot bothersome burros. Today, land managers typically tolerate them until the herd gets so big it has to be removed or culled. Captured wild burros then have to be gentled up before they can be adopted.

Later this month, Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue will send trailers, wranglers and herding dogs to Ajo, Ariz., to round up some 500 donkeys that have wandered over from Mexico onto public grazing land. Crossing the border may have saved their lives.

The U.K.-based animal rights group Donkey Sanctuary reports that Mexico is one of 21 countries that slaughters donkeys and exports their hides to China, which uses them to make a popular traditional medicine.

"Quite simply, supply has not kept up with demand," says Donkey Sanctuary campaigns manager Simon Pope. "Wild populations of donkeys around the world are being looked at and sized up as potential supplies to feed into this trade."

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/06/16/fullsizerender_custom-4a6a5f51bd65f72e10fc5fbcab3961e423ff6c56-s800-c85.jpg
Donkeys with "kill tags," wait in export pens in Eagle Pass, Texas, destined for slaughterhouses in Mexico. Chinese are buying up donkey skins around the world to use in making traditional medicine.
Julie Caramonte/Equine Welfare Alliance and Wild Horse Freedom Foundation

Mark Meyers and other animal rights activists report that more donkeys and burros are being sold to "kill buyers" in the U.S., and exported to Mexican slaughterhouses to feed the insatiable global skin market.

"China has increased the demand for donkey hides to 4 million a year," he says. "They've decimated their own donkey herds. They've decimated several African nations' donkey herds. So now they're turning to South America and Mexico."

So the people at Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue believe their work is more urgent than ever.

If there's more, I'll split this into its own indie thread.

herb ox

06-22-2017, 12:19 PM

Gene - to answer your question, yes, I have prescribed E Jiao in the past. It is not something that I stock or utilize currently as I prefer to use non-animal medicinals in my custom formulations. That being said, sometimes certain medicinals do the job more effectively than their substitutes. But in the name of compassion toward sentient beings, I increasingly avoid animal products in my formulations.

h.ox

GeneChing

08-16-2017, 07:48 AM

This has become enough of an issue that I'm copying the posts off our Weird stuff in TCM List it! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50433-Weird-stuff-in-TCM-List-it!) thread and creating an indie Donkey Crisis (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70416-Donkey-Crisis) thread.

Donkey forum in China to address thinning herd as demand for skins soars (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2106913/china-plots-hi-tech-path-leader-world-donkey-industry)
Donkey skins are used in traditional Chinese medicines touted as sex, beauty or longevity aids
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 15 August, 2017, 6:42pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 August, 2017, 11:21pm

https://cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2017/08/15/cb32b074-81b3-11e7-a767-bc310e55dd10_1280x720_225001.JPG?itok=KcQGICuK

Sidney Leng
sidney.leng@scmp.com
http://twitter.com/SidneyLeng

All eyes and ears in the donkey world will be focused on the rural Chinese backwater of Donge county in Shandong province this week as dozens of international researchers meet to address the country’s growing appetite for the animal.
Donkeys are big business in China where their skins are boiled for gelatin used in various traditional Chinese medicines touted either as sex, beauty or longevity aids.
China’s demand for donkey skin is so great that it is endangering donkey populations worldwide.
According to one estimate, China had 11 million donkeys in the 1990s. Now it’s down to about six million. The gap between supply and demand has forced Chinese factories to import donkey skins from other parts of the world.
On average, about four million donkeys, half outside China, are killed every year to be skinned and turned into powders, tablets and face creams.
Demand for traditional Chinese medicine fuelling rising slaughter of donkeys in Africa

https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/08/15/32d724a2-81ba-11e7-a767-bc310e55dd10_1320x770_225001.JPG

Dong-E-E-Jiao, the country’s biggest maker of a donkey-skin medicine, is hosting the three-day conference, which started on Tuesday and is being covered live by Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily and state television.
Two donkeys are pictured in front a donkey meat restaurant in Hangzhou city, east China's Zhejiang province, on Nov. 12, 2014. The restaurant used these two donkeys to let customers believe that the meat dishes in their restaurant is authentic donkey meat. (Imaginechina)
Dong-E-E-Jiao chairman Qin Yufeng said China led the world in the donkey industry and was willing to shoulder more of the burden to find solutions to its problems.
Qin said an international fund would be set up during the conference to usher in a “new era of technology and innovation” for the business of breeding and slaughtering donkeys.
The company also said it was hitching a ride on the “Belt and Road Initiative” to lead the global donkey industry.
Chinese health fad that’s decimating donkey populations worldwide
The company’s stock price has doubled on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in the last three years, with sales in the first half of 2017 rising to 2.93 billion yuan (US$439 million) from 2.67 billion yuan a year earlier.
According to the Qilu Evening News, conference organisers said the industry needed to harness the value of every animal.

https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/08/15/a88c751a-81a3-11e7-a767-bc310e55dd10_1320x770_225001.JPG
Photo taken on June 30, 2017 shows Tibetan wild donkeys in Hoh Xil of northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua)

“China is working hard to explore the maximum value of each donkey – it is closely connected with the country’s economic development,” organisers were quoted as saying.
Opening the conference, Ren Xiaowang, deputy mayor of Liaocheng, which administers the county, said authorities in Shandong offered incentives to support the industry, with subsidies ranging from 1,200 yuan for one donkey to up to 300,000 yuan for 1,000 donkeys.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as:
Thinning herd on agenda for world’s top donkey minds

GeneChing

11-20-2017, 01:07 PM

The price of eternal youth: Protected frogs are DRIED TO DEATH so shops can make traditional Chinese medicine that's supposed to help women 'look beautiful' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5082195/Protected-frogs-dried-DEATH-women-young.html)
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Hasma, a popular medicinal food in China, is made with frogs' fallopian tubes
The frogs are dried to death so their tubes could be taken at the 'highest quality'
The best Hasma is produced in north-east China from a rare type of wild frogs
Hasma is rich in protein and can supposedly improve women's skin condition
By Tiffany Lo For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 04:41 EST, 17 November 2017 | UPDATED: 08:18 EST, 17 November 2017

Sometimes, beauty comes with a very hefty price.

In China, protected wild frogs are being cruelly killed so traditional Chinese medicine vendors could turn them into a popular 'anti-ageing' food ingredient.

Hasma, or known as 'xue ha gao' in Chinese, is made with the fallopian tubes of dried-up female frogs and is supposed to help consumers look young.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/464BBE9E00000578-5082195-The_drying_process_can_trap_all_the_nutrients_in_i ts_form_before-a-66_1510850980749.jpg
Cruel: Hundreds of Asiatic grass frogs are hung and dried to death in Jilin, north-east China

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/464BBDA600000578-5082195-Asiatic_grass_frogs_once_captured_are_dried_to_dea th_with_their_-a-58_1510850980736.jpg
Dried to death: Asiatic grass frogs, once captured, are hung up for up to 30 days until they die

The best hasma is made in the north-eastern part of China and comes from Asiatic grass frogs, a protected amphibian species from the forest in the region under the Regulation on Protection of Wild Medicinal Resources.

Shocking pictures have emerged from Chinese media, capturing the production process of the popular medicinal food ingredient.

The photos are taken in Changbai mountain, Jilin Province, on November 7.

They show two full racks of frogs being hung up in front of a common grocery shop. The retailer pierced the frogs by a wire and hung them up until their death.

After the animals are killed, their collagen-filled tubes would be removed from their remains and put on sale in the shop. Their remains are thrown to the bin.

The shop owner told a reporter from iFeng.com: 'The hanging method can ensure that the hasma can be extracted at its best quality.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/4657388D00000578-5082195-Hasma_will_then_be_sold_in_boxes_for_women_in_groc ery_stores_or_-a-64_1510850980744.jpg
Hasma (pictured) is usually sold in boxes in grocery stores or Chinese medicine shops

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/4657761400000578-5082195-Hasma_is_commonly_cooked_and_eaten_as_Chinese_dess erts_along_wit-a-65_1510850980746.jpg
It's often cooked and eaten as Chinese dessert along with sugar and dried fruits (pictured)

Chen Jianping, an associate professor from the School of Chinese Medicine at University of Hong Kong told HK Economic Times: 'Pure hasma should be made from the fallopian tubes of female Asiatic grass frogs.

'However today, the hasma (on the market) might contain fallopian tubes, ovary or fat tissues from any frog families.'

In addition to the air-drying process, extra steps are apparently taken to the frogs in order to produce the best hasma.

According to Pixpo, when the frogs are captured they are cruelly knocked out with electricity before being hung up for about 20 to 30 days until they die.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/464BBEB200000578-5082195-Female_Asiatic_grass_frog_store_nutrients_in_their _oviducts_when-a-60_1510850980740.jpg
Female Asiatic grass frog store rich nutrients in their oviducts before they hibernate in winter

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/464BBF0D00000578-5082195-Each_year_thousands_of_frogs_are_hunted_and_hung_o utside_grocery-a-61_1510850980741.jpg
Two full racks of frogs are hung up in front of a grocery shop in north-east China

The same Pixpo report said female Asiatic grass frogs have rich nutrients in their fallopian tubes. The tubes, which contain high protein and oestrogen. In winter when the frogs hibernate, the nutrients become a vital source of energy for the animals.

Hasma has become a precious health supplement for Chinese women, and can be dated back to Ben Cao Gang Mu, a 16th century Chinese herbology masterpiece written by legendary herbologist Li Shizhen.

In particular, pregnant woman believe hasma could help them achieve wrinkle-free skin. In addition, it's thought that hasma could boost women's energy level and stop them from feeling tired during pregnancy.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/464BBE5700000578-5082195-Hasma_is_considered_as_a_precious_health_supplemen t_that_are_fav-a-62_1510850980742.jpg
Hasma is considered as a precious health supplement that are favoured by Chinese women

Regina Lo, 48, a mother of two from Hong Kong, told MailOnline that she consumed hasma as a health supplement during her pregnancy in 2002.

'I used to have it once every week, boil them and pour in milk or sugar and eat it as dessert,' she said.

However, she said she did not experience any obvious change.

'I didn't see any difference, but psychologically I felt my skin got smoother and more glowing.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/464BBEBB00000578-5082195-Chinese_medicine_doctors_said_that_hasma_has_high_ protein_vitami-a-63_1510850980743.jpg
Chinese medicine doctors said that hasma has high protein, vitamins and oestrogen

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/16/16/464BBDDE00000578-5082195-Female_grass_frogs_were_hung_on_wires_for_20_to_30 _days_before_b-a-59_1510850980738.jpg
Female grass frogs were hung on wires for 20 to 30 days before being dissected for hasma

Professor Cui Hequan from Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine said hasma contains very high medical value, according to a People's Daily Online report.

'Hasma contains high collagen and amino acid which could help consumers get better metabolism, thus it could regenerate new skin and make women look youthful.

'It can also help balance the hormones and boost energy level.'

Professor Cui said hasma is suitable for pregnant woman who wish to provide extra nutrients to their babies, accelerate recovery from child birth and improve their skin condition.

According to The Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China, published by the Ministry of Health, hasma can cure people who suffer from cough, sweating and insomnia.

The report recommended the food to people who have weaker health.

However, Dr Sun Lihong, a professor from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine said though hasma could beautify the skin, eating too much of it might put the consumers under the risk of cancer.

Dr Sun told a reporter from Yangtze Evening News: 'Medicinal foods of animal origin, such as hasma and propolis (a resinous substance produced by bees), we have to be cautious.'

TCM & Beauty (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70370-TCM-and-Beauty-Tips)
Weird stuff in TCM (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50433-Weird-stuff-in-TCM-List-it!)
Endangered Species in TCM (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?56248-Endangered-Species-in-TCM)

GeneChing

12-01-2017, 08:33 PM

Elderly couple try to take 200 live cockroaches onto flight for use in medicinal skin cre (http://shanghaiist.com/2017/11/29/cockroaches-check.php)am
BY ALEX LINDER IN NEWS ON NOV 29, 2017 10:00 PM

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/cockroaches_baggage.jpeg

On Saturday, workers at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport happened to notice something unusual inside of a container that had been put through the X-ray machine at one of the airport's pre-flight security checkpoints.
When they opened the container up to see what exactly was inside, out scuttled a cockroach, scaring one poor female worker.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/cockroaches_baggage2.jpeg

However, things only got worse upon further inspection. Inside the container they found a white plastic bag that was filled with around 200 live cockroaches, Knews reports.
The container's owners turned out to be an elderly couple. The old man explained that his wife had a skin condition and that the cockroaches were for a kind of traditional folk remedy. He said that the roaches were all mixed into some medicinal cream which was then rubbed on his wife's skin.
Unfortunately for the woman, security did not allow them to carry a bucket full of live cockroaches onto their flight. The roaches were all left behind at the checkpoint with staff -- who we now presume have flawless skin.
You might remember how just last month more than 100 cockroaches were mysteriously discovered on board two separate flights that landed at the Kunming airport. Authorities failed to explain how or why the roaches got there, but we may now finally have our reason. TCM!
[Images via Knews]

weird stuff (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50433-Weird-stuff-in-TCM-List-it!) - smuggling fail (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69777-TCM-Fails)

GeneChing

04-20-2018, 08:06 AM

Do cockroaches need their own indie thread here? Cuz TCM is that weird? :rolleyes:

A Chinese farm is breeding 6 billion cockroaches a year for medicine (https://qz.com/1257583/a-chinese-farm-is-breeding-6-billion-cockroaches-a-year-to-make-medicine/)

https://qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/roaches2_2.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=940
Just don't think about what's in it. (Flickr user ZoomyPhotography (Ciaran Dundson))

WRITTEN BY Zheping Huang
April 20, 2018

To most people, cockroaches are disgusting pests. To some, the insects are delicious fried snacks. To a few people, they are medicine.

A Chinese farm is breeding 6 billion adult cockroaches a year for medicinal use, the first time in human history that so many of the insects have been bred and confined in an indoor space, according to a report published this week by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The farm, operated by pharmaceutical company Gooddoctor in Xichang city in southwestern China, is equipped with rows of shelves lined with open containers of food and water in a concrete building covering an area of about two sports fields, according to the SCMP. It is kept warm, humid, and dark all year around, with an AI-powered system tracking how individual cockroaches are growing.

Cockroach-rearing is a booming industry in China—pulverized roach powder is patented as a Traditional Chinese Medicine ingredient and cosmetics companies use the insects as a cheap source of protein. There were about 100 large-scale cockroach farms in China in 2013, and farmers could earn as much as $20 a pound, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. In the case of the Xichang facility, the world’s biggest cockroach farm, the insects are made into a liquid concoction that millions of Chinese patients use to treat respiratory, gastric, and other illnesses with doctor prescriptions, the SCMP said citing a local government report. A bottle of 100 ml of the medicine costs about $4.

Apparently people consuming the medicine may not even know that it’s almost entirely made of cockroaches, because Gooddoctor only lists the ingredient as Periplaneta americana, the scientific name of the American cockroach—the reddish-brown insect that can fly when mature. One patient told the SCMP, “This is knowledge I’d rather live without.”

If, because of a human error or an earthquake, millions of cockroaches are released into nature, it would be a disaster for the near-800,000 inhabitants in Xichang and beyond. In 2013, about a million cockroaches escaped from a farm in southeastern China after someone sabotaged a nursery that was breeding the insects. Local authorities conducted a “large-scale disinfection” and urged residents to stay calm. Local authorities claimed (link in Chinese) that they properly handled the incident.

heh heh. roaches on 420.

GeneChing

04-24-2018, 10:43 AM

...or a terrifying reality. :eek:

A giant indoor farm in China is breeding 6 billion cockroaches a year. Here's why (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2142316/giant-indoor-farm-china-breeding-six-billion-cockroaches-year)
The Post turns a spotlight on the ‘disgusting’ insect with apparently remarkable medicinal qualities at the world’s largest breeding facility, where the bugs outnumber the planet’s human population
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 19 April, 2018, 9:02am
UPDATED : Thursday, 19 April, 2018, 11:42pm
Stephen Chen
https://www.facebook.com/Stephen.Chen.SCMP

https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2018/04/19/d863e004-42e9-11e8-ab09-36e8e67fb996_1280x720_231320.jpg?itok=nRUQUE4X
This photo provided by PolyPEDAL Lab UC Berkeley, shows the compressible robot, CRAM with a real cockroach. When buildings collapse in future disasters, the hero helping rescue trapped people may be a cheap robotic roach. Repulsive as they seem, cockroaches have the unusual ability to squish their bodies down to one quarter their normal size, yet still scamper at lightning speed. Add to that, the common roach can withstand 900 times its own body weight without being hurt. That’s the equivalent to a 200-pound man who wouldn’t be crushed 90 tons on his head. (PolyPEDAL Lab UC Berkeley/Tom Libby, Kaushik Jayaram and Pauline Jennings via AP)

Long, narrowly spaced rows of shelves fill a multi-storey building about the size of two sports fields. The shelves are lined with open containers of food and water.

It is warm, humid and dark all year round, with freedom to roam to find food and reproduce. Fully sealed like a prison, it has strict limitations on access to visitors. From birth to death, inhabitants never see the sun.

The world’s largest cockroach farm is breeding 6 billion adult cockroaches a year and using artificial intelligence to manage a colony larger than the world’s human population – all for medicinal use.

It is part of the production process for a “healing potion” consumed by millions of patients in China, according to the government.

There are many cockroach breeding facilities in China, for use as an ingredient in medicine or as a source of protein for livestock feed. But no other facility can match the productivity of the farm in the city of Xichang, in southwestern Sichuan province.

https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/04/19/62ce5830-421f-11e8-ab09-36e8e67fb996_1320x770_231320.JPG
Gooddoctor Pharmaceutical Group’s cockroach farm in Xichang. Photo: HANDOUT

Nearly 28,000 full-sized cockroaches per square foot are produced there annually, the Sichuan government said in a report submitted to Beijing early this year.

It is the first time in history so many cockroaches have been confined and bred in one space. The project had achieved so many “scientific and technological breakthroughs” that it deserved a national science award, the provincial government said.

The facility achieved its unrivalled efficiency partly by being controlled by a “smart manufacturing” system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, according to the report.

The system constantly collects and analyses more than 80 categories of “big data”, including humidity, temperature, food supply and consumption. It monitors changes such as genetic mutations and how these affect the growing rates of individual cockroaches.

AI is transforming China in many sectors, from powerful facial recognition systems capable of identifying 1.3 billion citizens in seconds to nuclear submarines that can help a captain make faster, more accurate decisions in combat.

In the cockroach farm, the AI system learns from past work, self-adjusting to improve cockroach production.

Dr Zhang Wei, former assistant researcher at the College of Mechanical Engineering at Zhejiang University, who was involved in the development of the system, told the South China Morning Post: “There is nothing like it in the world. It has used some unique solutions to address some unique issues.”

Rustling in the darkness

Zhang confirmed the use of AI technology in the project but declined to give details.

The farm is operated by the Gooddoctor Pharmaceutical Group of Chengdu, Sichuan, which confirmed the validity of the government document but could not answer the Post’s queries because the matter involved trade secrets.

According to a 2011 report by the government newspaper Guangming Daily, a visitor must change into a sanitised working suit to avoid bringing in pollutants or pathogens.

“There were very few human beings in the facility,” the article stated. On shelves, floors and ceiling, the cockroaches were “everywhere”.

“Hold your breath and (you) only hear a rustling sound,” it continued. “Whenever flashlights swept, the cockroaches fled. Wherever the beam landed, there was a sound like wind blowing through leaves.

“It was just like standing in the depths of a bamboo forest in late autumn. The cool breeze blows, and the leaves rustle.”

Could super-breed terrorise a city?

The sheer number of insects locked in the facility – the largest colony of cockroaches ever to have existed on the planet – conjures some nightmarish scenarios.

Every cockroach is a super-cockroach. Mother Nature has already done its job. There is little room left for us to make improvementsPROFESSOR ZHU CHAODONG, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Professor Zhu Chaodong, the Institute of Zoology’s lead scientist in insect evolution studies at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said it would be a “catastrophe” if billions of cockroaches were suddenly released into the environment – be it through human error or a natural disaster like an earthquake that damaged the building.

To Xichang’s near-800,000 inhabitants, one such accident could be “terrifying”, Zhu said. The farm is also located close to Xichang’s Qingshan airport.

“Multiple lines of defence must be in place and work properly to prevent the disaster of accidental release,” Zhu said.

Cockroaches multiply rapidly in a suitable environment, said Zhu. Given Xichang’s warm climate and ample rainfall, a dozen of them could infest an entire neighbourhood.

There are also concerns that the farm’s intensive reproduction and genetic screening would accelerate the insect’s evolution and produce “super-cockroaches”, of abnormal size and breeding capability, although Zhu said this was unlikely to happen.

Cockroaches are believed to have been around since the dinosaurs, surviving extreme environmental conditions that brought extinction for other species.

“Every cockroach is a super-cockroach,” Zhu said. “Mother Nature has already done its job. There is little room left for us to make improvements.”

Creating the potion

At the time of the government report, the farm had generated a total of 4.3 billion yuan (US$684 million) in revenue over the years by manufacturing a potion made entirely of cockroaches.

When they reach the desired weight and size, the cockroaches are fed into machines and crushed to make the potion, which had “remarkable effects” on stomach pain and other ailments, said the provincial government.

The potion has a tea-like colour, tastes “slightly sweet” and has “a slightly fishy smell”, according to the product’s packaging.

More than 40 million patients with respiratory, gastric and other diseases were cured after taking the potion on doctors’ prescriptions, according to the official report, which stated that the farm was selling it to more than 4,000 hospitals across the country.

The miracle-like cure

Cockroach has been an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. In some rural areas in southern China, infants are still occasionally fed cockroaches mixed with garlic to treat fever caused by an infection or upset stomach.

The Chinese government financed nationwide studies into cockroaches’ medical value that, after more than two decades of laboratory investigation and clinical trials, had discovered or confirmed dozens of disease-fighting proteins and biochemical compounds with huge potential value in medicine.

Thousands of pages of Chinese medical journals have detailed findings suggesting the rejuvenating effect of the cockroach potion. It could stimulate regrowth of damaged tissues such as skin and mucosa, the sticky membrane on the surface of internal organs that is difficult to heal and causes chronic pain.

Patients suffering burns or serious stomach inflammations recovered faster with the potion treatment than without, according to numerous studies.

“The potion is not a panacea – it does not have a magic power against all diseases,” said a researcher experienced in cockroach-related medicines at the Institute of Materia Medica at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) in Beijing.

“But its effect on certain symptoms is well established, and confirmed by molecular science and large-scale hospital applications.”
continued next post

GeneChing

04-24-2018, 10:43 AM

Patients learn the Latin

There is a potentially major disadvantage to the potion, according to the CAMS researcher, who requested not to be named. “The source of raw material, to most people, is disgusting,” she said. “That is an important reason why the use of the potion is not found in other countries.

“Even in China, most patients might not know the liquid came from cockroaches.”

The potion is not for sale over the counter, but the Post has bought it in a drug store in Beijing without being asked for a doctor’s prescription.

https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/04/19/7d009bd4-4222-11e8-ab09-36e8e67fb996_1320x770_231320.JPG
Bottles of Gooddoctor products. Photo: HANDOUT

A pack containing two bottles of 100ml cost a bit more than 50 yuan (US$8).

On the packaging and in the user instructions, only one ingredient was listed: Periplaneta americana, the Latin name of the American cockroach, one of the largest cockroach species.

The internet has played host to lively discussions about the medicine, known as kangfuxin ye, or “potion of recovery”.

“I searched for Periplaneta americana when drinking the potion. I saw the picture and spat it all on screen,” wrote one user on Baidu Tieba, the large Chinese online community run by search engine company Baidu.

Several patients who had consumed the potion told the Post they were not aware of its content when they drank it.

“This is knowledge I’d rather live without,” said a young mother in Beijing who was prescribed it to accelerate recovery after giving birth a year ago.

“I don’t know the effect, but I healed eventually,” said another patient, who took the potion to cure a back injury.

‘Disgusting but powerful’

Han Yijun, a representative of Gooddoctor Pharmaceutical Group in Beijing, has denied the company misleads patients by referring to the giant cockroach by its academic name.

“Our drug has been used in hospitals for many, many years and established an enormous number of fans,” she said.

Some patients with chronic stomach illness were taking the potion regularly because it could relieve their pain significantly, she said.

“They all know it’s made from cockroaches,” Han said. “It is a disgusting insect, but there are hardly any drugs on the shelves with the same effect.”

Missed the AI bit (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?51915-OT-AI-and-Artificial-Life-forms) on this when I posted this previously in Weird stuff in TCM...... List it! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50433-Weird-stuff-in-TCM-List-it!).

GeneChing

05-08-2018, 09:19 AM

I never thought this much about cockroaches (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70778-cockroaches) but clearly it deserves an indie thread distinct now from our Weird stuff in TCM...... List it (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50433-Weird-stuff-in-TCM-List-it!)! thread.

Chinese farmer unleashes swarm of hungry cockroaches to chew through mountain of food scraps (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2143886/chinese-farmer-unleashes-swarm-hungry-cockroaches-chew-through)
Former pharmaceutical worker says his waste disposal system is an environmentally friendly option to fermentation
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 29 April, 2018, 1:07pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 29 April, 2018, 1:07pm
Sidney Leng
sidney.leng@scmp.com
http://twitter.com/SidneyLeng

https://cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2018/04/29/709a0f06-4b5a-11e8-85b3-af25d27017e0_1280x720_130738.jpg?itok=_ysJT_MU

A former pharmaceutical company employee in central China has abandoned the corporate world to farm millions of cockroaches to process food waste, China News Service reports.

Li Yanrong’s farm in Zhangqiu district in Jinan, Henan province, houses 300 million American cockroaches that together munch through about 15 tonnes of food waste a day, or about a quarter of the district’s kitchen scraps.

“These cockroaches are not afraid of anything soft, hard, sour, sweet, bitter, or spicy,” Li was quoted as saying.

https://cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/04/29/b4c445b0-4b6a-11e8-85b3-af25d27017e0_1320x770_130738.jpg
Li Yanrong says he has 300 million cockroaches at his food waste disposal farm in Henan. Photo: CNSTV

China generates at least 60 million tonnes of kitchen waste annually and most of it is processed through fermentation, an expensive, inefficient system that pollutes the environment, according to the report.

A giant indoor farm in China is breeding 6 billion cockroaches a year. Here's why

Li said cockroaches offered an alternative, non-polluting way of disposing of food waste.

He said he already had about 300 tonnes of cockroaches and planned to expand that total to about 4,000 tonnes to be able to process 200 tonnes of food waste from Zhangqiu and neighbouring cities per day.

The American cockroach is one of the world’s bigger varieties, with a body around 4 centimetres long and a life cycle of around 700 days. It is often used as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine to heal wounds and repair tissue.

Cockroach farms have expanded across China in recent years, in large part to cater to medicinal demand.

The world’s biggest is in Xichang, southwestern Sichuan province, where 6 billion adult cockroaches are bred a year for the pharmaceutical industry.

Nearly 28,000 full-sized cockroaches per square foot were produced there annually, the Sichuan government said in a report submitted to Beijing early this year.

GeneChing

05-21-2019, 09:54 AM

Asia
Mongolian couple dies of plague after eating raw marmot meat (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/mongolian-couple-dies-of-plague-after-eating-raw-marmot-meat-11508848)

https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/11508864/16x9/768/432/a43d9fc8e4e5111a046c87af44819881/rS/mongolian-couple-dies-of-plague-after-eating-raw-marmot-meat.jpg
File photo of a marmot. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Francois Trazzi)

06 May 2019 11:09PM (Updated: 06 May 2019 11:10PM)

ULAANBAATAR: A Mongolian couple has died of the bubonic plague after eating raw marmot kidney, triggering a quarantine that left tourists stranded in a remote region for days, officials said Monday (May 6).

The ethnic Kazakh couple died on May 1 in Mongolia's westernmost province of Bayan-Ulgii, which borders Russia and China.

"The two dead were local people," said local governor Aipiin Gilimkhaan. "There were no cases reported after them."

A six-day quarantine was declared on residents in the region, preventing nine tourists from Russia, Germany and Switzerland from leaving.

"We are all fine. No one is ill," said a German tourist named Teresa, who did not want to give her last name.

Sebastian Pique, a 24-year-old American Peace Corps volunteer who has lived in the region for two years, said he and the tourists were invited to the governor's office on Friday to be informed about the situation.

Advertisement

"After the quarantine (was announced) not many people, even locals, were in the streets for fear of catching the disease," Pique told AFP.

The quarantine was expected to be lifted late Monday after no other cases of the plague were reported.

Authorities have warned people against eating raw marmot meat because it can carry Yersinia pestis, the plague germ.

At least one person dies of the plague every year in Mongolia, mostly due to consuming such meat, according to the National Center for Zoonotic Disease.

Some people ignore the warnings as they believe that consuming the innards of the large rodent is good for their health.

The Black Death wiped out millions of people in the Middle Ages but cases are now very rare.

Its most common form is bubonic, which is spread by fleas and causes swelling of the lymph node. The more virulent form is pneumonic plague, which can be transmitted between humans through coughing.

Source: AFP/zl
The opposite of 'good for their health' :rolleyes:

GeneChing

11-18-2019, 09:20 AM

Some European doctors think Chinese medicine should come with a health warning (https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/health/traditional-chinese-medicine-facebook-intl-hnk-wellness/index.html)
CNN Digital Expansion 2017. James Griffiths
By James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 8:53 PM ET, Sat November 16, 2019

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/170628101450-chinese-medicine-tease-exlarge-169.jpg
Workers at a Traditional Chinese Medicine store prepare various dried items, Hong Kong, December 29, 2010.

Hong Kong (CNN)Herbs to increase breast milk supply and heal the spleen. Traditional remedies which promise to cure insomnia and acne. Secret cancer treatments that have been ignored or suppressed by Western medicine.

Practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have a long history of making outsized claims, not least in the case of fertility and virility, where demand for tiger ***** and rhino horn has devastated wild populations.
Quackery and false claims exist in all branches of medicine, but doctors in Europe are concerned that unverified claims made under the guise of TCM are being spread worldwide by social media, inadvertently aided by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Two leading European scientific and medical bodies say the WHO has legitimized all forms of Traditional Chinese Medicine by including TCM in the upcoming edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a hugely influential compendium used by health practitioners around the globe.
The inclusion of TCM "may lead some to see it as a legitimization of what are actually unfounded claims," warned the European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC) and the Federation of European Academies of Medicine (FEAM) in a joint statement this month.
"There is risk in misleading patients and doctors and in increasing pressures for reimbursement by public health systems at a time of limited resources," the statement said.
More broadly, there is growing concern that people who turn to the internet for home remedies could expose themselves to serious harm. For example, black salve, which claims to treat tumors but actually burns flesh and can leave people with horrific disfigurements.
"Social media now makes it very easy to get hold of (misleading information)," said George Griffin, a professor of Infectious Diseases and Medicine at St. George's, University of London. "Unscrupulous people who wish to sell these products can easily put things on social media without any formal verification."

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/191115042449-03-traditional-chinese-medicine-exlarge-169.jpg
A woman mixes medicine in the pharmacy of the Yueyang Hospital, part of the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, in Shanghai on November 7, 2018.

Unscientific medicine

One of the basic principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as it is usually defined, is that vital energy, or qi, circulates through channels in the body which connect to various organs and functions. TCM therapies, such as cupping, acupuncture or herbal treatments, seek to activate these channels, or balance someone's qi.
Though the methods have been in use for hundreds of years, critics argue that there is no verifiable scientific evidence that qi actually exists.
While the TCM industry is worth an estimated $130 billion in China alone -- and the country's leaders have thrown themselves behind promoting the practice -- it has until recently largely struggled to gain widespread acceptance outside of east Asia.
The sheer range of claimed benefits of some forms of TCM can be staggering. In a review of acupuncture alone, the Society for Science-Based Medicine, a US-based pressure group, found practitioners offering treatments for everything from cancer, stroke, Parkinson's, and heart disease, to asthma and autism.
https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/191115042048-01-traditional-chinese-medicine-exlarge-169.jpg
A man wearing "walnut" glasses is treated with smoking wormwood to relieve his oculomotor paralysis at a hospital on July 13, 2018 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province of China.
continued next post

GeneChing

11-18-2019, 09:21 AM

In 2009, researchers at the University of Maryland surveyed 70 systematic reviews of traditional medicines, including acupuncture, herbal treatments and moxibustion, the burning of herbs near the skin. They found that no studies demonstrated a solid conclusion in favor of TCM due to the sparsity of evidence or the poor methodology of the research.
This lack of scientific rigor has created space for often outlandish claims about TCM's capabilities in treating certain disorders -- something boosted by the handful of TCM-related treatments which have been scientifically proven to be beneficial. In 2015, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in medicine for her work on malaria which drew on traditional practices and folklore.
Other products derived from herbs used in TCM have also shown benefits in scientifically-controlled experiments, vindicating TCM in the eyes of many practitioners, and there have been calls for renewed research in this area, as well as on other ancient remedies that might hold clues to future medical advances.
What concerns many scientists and doctors, however, is that instead of these experiments and findings boosting the reputation of an individual medicine, they are often held up as proof of the validity of the entire field of TCM, much of which has no basis in science and can be potentially dangerous.
"Treatments included within the wide TCM category are very different from one another," the European doctors said. "They can only be considered to form a group of therapies from the perspective of history/ethnology ('traditional') and geography (Chinese)."
Griffin, who helped draft the joint European statement, told CNN that "our concern is that in having this in the ICD, people who aren't critical, who aren't medical or scientific, they may take this as a sign the WHO has full confidence in Traditional Chinese Medicine."
A spokesman for the WHO said earlier this year that the inclusion of TCM in the new guidelines, was "not an endorsement of the scientific validity of any traditional medicine practice or the efficacy of any traditional medicine intervention."
Despite this, Dan Larhammer, president of EASAC, an umbrella body representing the national science academies of EU Member states, as well as Norway and Switzerland, said that it was "very likely that it will be interpreted this way by TCM proponents."
China's state-run news agency Xinhua seemed to confirm concerns about the move being interpreted as an endorsement by declaring it was "a major step for Traditional Chinese Medicine going global."
https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/191115042607-04-traditional-chinese-medicine-exlarge-169.jpg
A patient receives treatment with bandages filled with herbs at a Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital on July 12, 2019 in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, China.

Dubious claims

On Facebook and YouTube, dubious claims about the effectiveness of using TCM products in treating cancer and other major disorders are readily available. One page boosting TCM, "The Truth About Cancer," has more than 1.3 million likes on Facebook, and encourages users to follow along on a tour through Asia searching for alternative treatments.
"What if effective, proven, inexpensive cancer therapies were available to you? Would you choose them over toxic chemo and radiation?" Truth About Cancer says. "There is ample evidence to support the allegation that the 'war on cancer' is largely a fraud and that multinational pharmaceutical companies are 'running the show'."
The Truth About Cancer did not respond to a request for comment. Many other pages on Facebook make similar claims, both about the potential effectiveness of TCM, and against mainstream medical practices.
Tech companies have begun cracking down on misleading medical claims. In September, Google announced it was prohibiting "advertising for unproven or experimental medical techniques such as most stem cell therapy, cellular (non-stem) therapy, and gene therapy," and Facebook too has vowed to "minimize health content that is sensational or misleading."

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/191115042746-05-traditional-chinese-medicine-exlarge-169.jpg
Acupuncture therapy in Hong Kong was linked to organ and tissue injuries, infection and other adverse reactions by a 2018 study.

While Facebook and Google have been praised for their recent efforts, the crackdown has had limited effect. On both Facebook and YouTube -- owned by Google parent Alphabet -- quack health cures still abound. Their prevalence has coincided with the continued rise of the anti-vaccination movement, which has had major negative effects on public health in some countries.
While many patients may see benefits in using alternative treatments, including TCM, alongside other medicine, risks arise when people avoid intervention because they are treating themselves with unscientific cures.
Most notably, Apple founder Steve Jobs repeatedly ignored doctors' recommendations on how to treat the cancer that eventually killed him, choosing instead to use acupuncture and herbal remedies.
TCM products are not necessarily harmless either. A comprehensive review of medicines and health products being sold under the TCM label in Hong Kong last year found that many were "severely compromised by the practice of adulteration," with potentially serious side effects, while in some cases, acupuncture has been linked to organ and tissue injuries, infection and other adverse reactions.
"The most important risk is that people and patients rely on unproven methods and refrain from using evidence-based methods," said Larhammer, the EASAC president.
"Patients lose time and money by relying on useless methods that can, at best, provide placebo response which is usually transient. Some alternative medicine methods, including TCM, involve side effects, especially herbal extracts."

THREADS
Regulations (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?55741-Regulations-and-Degree-reciprocity)
Weird stuff in TCM (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50433-Weird-stuff-in-TCM-List-it!)

GeneChing

01-15-2020, 09:42 AM

Forget Snakes on a Plane...:eek:

A Chinese traveler was caught trying to smuggle 200 live scorpions out of Sri Lanka (https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/sri-lanka-200-scorpions-smuggle-china-intl-hnk-scli/index.html)
Eric Cheung, CNN • Updated 14th January 2020

https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_1092,c_fill,g_auto,h_614,ar_16:9/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets% 2F200114100827-sri-lanka-customs-scorpions.jpg

(CNN) — A unnamed Chinese traveler was caught red-handed when he attempted to smuggle 200 live scorpions out of Sri Lanka on Monday.
The 30-year-old man was scheduled to fly to Guangzhou in southern China from Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport when authorities detected the live scorpions in his checked-in luggage, Sri Lanka Customs spokesman Sunil Jayarathna told CNN.
Photos provided by Sri Lankan Customs show the scorpions packed inside at least seven plastic boxes.
"These scorpions were collected from several areas in Sri Lanka," Jayarathna said. "While the venomous scorpions are not deadly, they are protected."

https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_602,c_fill,g_auto,h_339,ar_16:9/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets% 2F200115101526-sri-lanka-customs-scorpions.jpg
Sri Lanka Customs said the live scorpions, which cannot be taken out of the country, were concealed in the man's baggage.
Sri Lanka Customs

Jayarathna added that authorities released the man after he paid a fine of 100,000 Sri Lankan rupees (US$552).
Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident.
Scorpions are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine in herbal formulas that practitioners claim can help relieve pain in muscles and nerves, according to a notice from the Hong Kong Department of Health.
Related content
Man who smuggled overweight cat into plane cabin stripped of frequent flier status
Sri Lanka is a tropical island nation home to a diverse range of wildlife, and this is not the first time that air travelers have been caught trying to smuggle live animals out of the country.
In 2014, a Chinese man was arrested in Colombo while attempting to smuggle swallow nests worth $50,000, according to CNN affiliate CNN News 18.

GeneChing

03-02-2020, 08:47 AM

http://image5.sixthtone.com/image/5/24/532.jpg

Voices & Opinion
The Challenge Facing China’s Wild Animal Trade Ban (http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005240/the-challenge-facing-chinas-wild-animal-trade-ban-?fbclid=IwAR0y7IjykNky_t8gDGFRSywZAeNONKYE8j020nZm irqWISpkWYDUkOpOwT0)
If the country is serious about curbing the wild animal trade, it needs to rethink its approach.

Feb 27, 2020 5-min read
Voices
Zhou Hongcheng
Professor of food culture
Zhou Hongcheng is an assistant professor of Chinese food culture at Zhejiang Gongshang University.

On Feb. 24, China announced it would implement a “comprehensive” and immediate ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals nationwide. The move cemented an earlier emergency ban enacted amid the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, which has killed 2,800 and sickened over 80,000 worldwide as of Feb. 27.

But whether it will have a lasting impact is another question. This isn’t the first time a zoonotic coronavirus has devastated China or sparked a legislative and popular backlash against wild animal consumption. SARS, which some scientists believe jumped to humans from masked palm civets at a wet market in southern China, killed nearly 800 people around the world from 2002 to 2004. While recent research has cast doubt on the theory that COVID-19 originated in a live animal market in the central city of Wuhan, virologists still believe it was likely transmitted to humans from wild animals, possibly endangered pangolins.

In the wake of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, China updated its existing rules governing the wildlife trade, but a combination of loopholes and muddled enforcement has continued to render them largely ineffective. If we want this time to be different, we first need to understand the cultural and commercial drivers of the trade, as well as the flaws in the current regulatory and enforcement system.

Chinese have consumed wild animals for thousands of years, though contrary to stereotypes abroad, they are hardly a fixture of the country’s dinner tables. In its most basic form, the practice was a matter of survival: China had a large population, limited arable land, and a long history of natural and man-made disasters. In times of need, many ordinary Chinese turned to wild animals and plants for sustenance.

In non-emergencies, the traditional notion that “like nourishes like” led many to believe that eating animal parts could have a beneficial effect on the diner’s corresponding body part. For example, braised beef tendon was seen as a curative for frail knees, and sheep’s ***** as a virility booster.

As the above examples show, such customs aren’t necessarily tied to the consumption of wild or exotic animals. But there is a long-standing belief in China that the rarer something is, the greater its value. Rare or hard-to-obtain meat was — and sometimes still is — thought to have extremely potent medicinal effects. It could also be a powerful symbol of filial piety, love, and respect, as in the folk story of the woman who cut flesh from her thigh to cook a medicinal porridge for her mother-in-law.

One domestic media outlet found over 100 possible exceptions to the new rules, including sika deer, red deer, and ring-necked pheasant.
- Zhou Hongcheng, professor
These customs have been reinforced by the tenets of traditional Chinese medicine, which makes liberal usage of ingredients extracted from wild animals — such as tiger bone, pilose antler, and deer fetus. Pangolins are another common source of curatives. And while the consumption of pangolin meat is illegal in the country, an exception for TCM practitioners has long allowed the scales of farm-bred pangolins to be prescribed for medicinal use — a loophole that has greatly complicated efforts to protect the species.

China has had a wildlife protection law on the books since 1988, but its single-minded focus on encouraging the commercial rearing and breeding of species over conservation has led many critics to dub it the “wildlife exploitation law.” In particular, species categorized as one of the “three haves” — having “ecological, scientific, or social value,” like pangolins — were eligible to be bred and sold by licensed farms, which have become a key pillar of rural economies in impoverished parts of the country.

In addition to forming a regulatory blind spot — the relevant authorities generally lack the resources to ensure wildlife farms are operating legally and within regulations — farm-raised wildlife muddies the waters for what is and isn’t legal to consume. The latest ban, despite its claim to be “comprehensive,” does little to clear things up. One domestic media outlet found over 100 possible exceptions to the new rules, including sika deer, red deer, and ring-necked pheasant.

It doesn’t have to be this way. On Feb. 25, the day after China announced its nationwide ban on the wild animal trade, the southern megacity of Shenzhen unveiled its own version of the rules, including a white list with just nine types of meat on it. On the city’s black list were a number of species, including turtles, snakes, and some types of birds that local authorities believed posed a risk to public health, despite still being legal to raise under national law.

That’s a far simpler and more effective approach than the convoluted new national ban, but it may not be enough on its own. One of the primary reasons China is so vulnerable to zoonotic diseases is the very nature of its cities — and the places where animals, both wild and domesticated, are sold.

Wet markets have been linked to numerous infectious disease outbreaks in China over the years, from SARS to bird flu, and their close proximity to residential areas makes them a sizeable community risk. COVID-19 might not have originated in a Wuhan wet market, but the market’s central location almost certainly helped accelerate its spread.

Wet markets’ reputations as incubators for disease makes them easy targets during epidemics, and local governments around the country have responded to the current crisis with bans and cleanup campaigns. The eastern province of Zhejiang, for example, has not just cracked down on the wild animal trade, but also the sale of live poultry.

These campaign-style enforcement efforts cannot achieve lasting change. As long as small markets are allowed to sell and slaughter live animals, resource-strapped local governments will be hard-pressed to monitor and regulate their compliance with health and sanitation codes. To reduce the risk of animal-to-human transmission, slaughter and packaging operations should be moved to large-scale, advanced, and easier-to-monitor operations away from residential areas.

The guiding principles of any legislation should be clarity and practicability
- Zhou Hongcheng, professor
Ultimately, the guiding principles of any legislation should be clarity and practicability. Banning the wildlife trade altogether while carving out a broad array of exceptions for different species and market needs clearly hasn’t been effective. And although Shenzhen’s new guidelines are admirably clear, they likely go too far: One of the delights of any cuisine is variety, and banning all but the most common livestock outright will likely cause resentment that could set back the conservation movement. We need to assess the risks and conservation needs of each individual species before making a clear and definite decision one way or the other.

Meanwhile, we should take steps to lower demand for wild animals. There is research showing young Chinese are already less interested in wild animal consumption than older generations. We should encourage this trend through health and scientific education, such as by pointing out the lack of scientific evidence for most TCM remedies. Higher taxes can also be used to slowly discourage consumption of wild animal byproducts.

Changing long-ingrained eating habits will take time. Rather than rushing in with a blanket ban, we should rationally examine the issue, identify the core problems, and work to resolve them, step-by-step.

Translator: David Ball; editors: Wu Haiyun and Kilian O’Donnell.

(Header image: A Chinese pangolin strolls in the soil, June 2017. IC)

THREADS
Pangolins (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70061-Pangolins)
covid-19 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71666-Coronavirus-(COVID-19)-Wuhan-Pneumonia)
Chinese food (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?16444-Chinese-food)
Weird stuff in TCM...... List it! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50433-Weird-stuff-in-TCM-List-it!)

GeneChing

06-12-2021, 07:55 AM

Trending in China
Chinese man who ate five live frogs ‘for strength’ hospitalised with parasitic infection (https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3136931/chinese-mans-fever-not-caused-covid-19-eating)
He had hoped the folk remedy could help him get stronger after he broke two bones in years past
Other people in China have got sick after eating frogs hoping to get stronger
Topic |
China Society
Mandy Zuo
Published: 7:00pm, 11 Jun, 2021

https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1098,format=auto/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/canvas/2021/06/11/bd9410c0-2422-4b6b-94d0-9dbe33012991_4431a13a.jpg?itok=3u4Ix7I1&v=1623398653
A man in China was hospitalised after he got a parasitic infection from eating five live frogs. Photo: Getty Images
A man in eastern China developed a parasitic infection after swallowing five live frogs because he believed they would make him stronger, a local hospital said.
The man, aged 53 and surnamed Sun, ate the amphibians after his fellow villagers told him they could give him more strength.
He was taken to hospital after he developed a persistent fever and weakness, said the First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medicine, Zhejiang University in an article posted on WeChat on Thursday.https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2021/06/11/8844d7e8-993e-43c9-acfa-f83c4ee5f17d_bc474711.jpg
The man, surnamed Sun, ate the frogs because he believed it would give him strength. Photo: Martin Williams
The farmer routinely worked the fields in the Yuhang district of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Sun told doctors earlier this month that he caught the frogs near the farmland and swallowed them whole.
Sun said he decided to try out the folk remedy because he wanted to improve his fitness after suffering breaking his collar bone and a shoulder blade several years ago.
“I caught five frogs in total and they were all quite small, about a thumb’s length each,” he was quoted as saying.
He had to go to three hospitals to find the cause of his mysterious illness. He did not realise the frogs might be the cause, so he did not tell the doctors about them until the final stop made a detailed inquiry.
By then, he had had a fever for about two weeks, and his lungs had shown multiple lesions and fibrosis, doctors said.

Every year, we receive patients infected with parasites. A great portion of them fall ill because they eat improperly.
First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medicine, Zhejiang University in an article posted on WeChat
A biopsy later suggested that Sun was infected with Spirometra mansoni, a tapeworm commonly found in frogs.
Luckily, the worms had not invaded his eyes or brain, the two organs in the human body that are most prone to infection. If that had happened, Sun would have experienced symptoms similar to a stroke.
He has now recovered after anti-parasitic treatment, according to the article.
“Every year, we receive patients infected with parasites. A great portion of them fall ill because they eat improperly,” said Qu Tingting, a doctor from the hospital’s infectious disease department, in the WeChat post.
The live frog remedy is a folk medicinal practice that is widely adopted in other parts of China.
A 26-year-old man from Changsha, Hunan province, was found to have been infected by the same parasite in the brain after he ate “plenty of” frogs during his childhood in the hopes of helping to heal a bone injury, the Changsha Evening News reported in January.
He never thought eating the frogs was risky until one day he could not speak clearly and lost the use of his limbs in early 2021, the news report said.
Other people eat frogs’ larvae, also believing they will give them strength.
In April 2018, a video showing a woman making a young girl eat live tadpoles on Weibo triggered a public outcry. The woman said they would help the kid keep healthy while serving her a bowl of swimming tadpoles with a spoon.

Mandy Zuo

Mandy Zuo joined the Post in 2010 and reports on China. She has covered a wide range of subjects including policy, rural issues, culture and society. She worked in Beijing before relocating to Shanghai in 2014.

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