至尊英语阅读资料之健康与卫生专题第494集.pdfVIP

health articles 494 [12326]Hormone Replacement Therapy and Black Cohosh Modern experience with Black Cohosh dates back to the mid-1950s. In Europe, doctors concerned with finding an alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which even then had recognized unwanted side effects, reported success surrounding the treatment of menopausal symptoms. In the early 1960s many medical reports (although not controlled clinical trials) involving over 1,400 women were published in Germany. Health care practitioners documented benefits in premenopausal and menopausal symptoms including reduction in hot flashes and improvement of depressive moods. Furthering the advancements, five clinical studies since 1979 have compared Black Cohosh extracts with placebo and estrogen replacement in the treatment of menopausal symptoms. One study that was done in several clinics with information on 629 patients reported favorable results in more than three quarters of the participants after six to eight weeks of treatment. Improvements included relief of stereotypical problems: hot flashes, sweating, headache, dizziness, and rapid heartbeat. Some side effects that were not documented were reported in less than 10% of participants, but were not significant enough to stop taking. Black Cohosh was actually introduced into medicine by Native Americans, who placed a high value on it. American Indians boiled the roots in water and drank the beverage for a variety of conditions ranging from rheumatism, diseases of women, and the pain of sore throats. Its subsequently used, especially by the Indian medicine man, for all these conditions but mostly for so-called uterine difficulties (regularity of cycles). Scientific studies have shown that a methanol extract of black cohosh contains substances that bind to estrogen receptors of rat uteri. Cohosh extract also causes a selective reduction in luteinizing (luetinizing is a female hormone produced by the anterior lobe of the p