An alternative therapy for graves' disease: clinical effects and mechanisms of an herbal remedy.

Graves' disease, the most common cause of hyperthyroidism, is an autoimmune disorder. Antithyroid drugs have been selected as the first-line treatment of Graves' disease in Korea, Japan, and European countries. However, antithyroid drugs such as methimazole (MMI) and prophylthiouracil (PTU) have limitations in clinical applications because of their side effects. In this study, we performed a clinical trial and in vitro study to investigate the clinical effects and action mechanism of Ahnjeonbaekho-tang (AJBHT), an herbal remedy for Graves' disease. In a clinical study of Graves' disease patients who had side effects from antithyroid drugs, we found that treatment by AJBHT resulted in a reduction of serum triiodothyronine (T3) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels and an increase in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels (T3: p<0.0001, FT4: p=0.0012, TSH: p=0.0370, respectively). In vitro, AJBHT significantly inhibits FRTL-5 cell proliferation, DNA synthesis, cyclic AMP production, T4 synthesis, and the expression of thyroglobulin (Tg) mRNA in comparison with the control. These results suggest that AJBHT might suppress T(4) synthesis by modulating adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) and Tg expression, and therefore, AJBHT could be an alternative therapy for Graves' disease patients who have side effects from antithyroid drugs.

[Encounters of the Korean body with the traditional and modern medical systems].

The body has been an intense focus of attention since the 1990s both in academic and mundane discourse. In philosophy, literature critique, sociology and anthropology the body has been found to have various implications and auras around it.I try to explain the body as the subject of medicine rather philosophically, in terms of nature, culture and phenomena. And then I look into the Korean body of the late 19th century when western biomedicine was first introduced. The Korean body was encountering traditional and modern biomedical medicines in three different spaces i.e., corporal, social and moral. The corporal space was the space into which direct intervention such as surgery was performed. The body was also situated in the social space where imperative social measures such as sanitation and sterilization was imposed. The body also had the moral space, invasion into which evoked great moral upheaval. It was when the government ordered the public to cut the long and bound hair, which had long been the symbol of their identity. Reflecting upon the philosophical perspectives and examining concrete cases of the encounters of the body with the two medical systems, I argue that we should have new perspectives that embodies the historical and phenomenological experiences of the body.