%0 Journal Article
%T A Preliminary Study of the Effectiveness of Chinese Therapeutic Food on Regulating Female Reproductive Hormones
%A Lulu Fu and Hong Xu
%J Integrative Medicine Insights
%D 2012
%I 
%R 10.4137/IMI.S5782
%X This study investigated the effectiveness of Chinese therapeutic food on female reproductive hormones in a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Chinese kiwi fruit extract (Hong En No. 1) was provided for Australian peri-menopausal women for one month. Chinese medical assessment and urinary 2-hydroxyestrone (2-OHE) and 16alpha-hydroxyestrone (16alpha-OHE) tests were conducted. Twenty-six urinary samples (pre and post-trial) which met the requirement of testing were analysed, the ratio 2-OHE:16alpha-OHE of pre-trial (1.18 ¡À 0.34) and post-trial (0.97 ¡À 0.29) in the control group (n = 6) decreased but showed no significant change, this ratio of pre-trial (1.44 ¡À 0.16) and post-trial (1.65 ¡À 0.21) in the treatment group (n = 7) indicated an improvement (P = 0.066), which results in beneficial hormone regulation. The Chinese medicine assessment indicated that the patterns of disharmony mainly include Liver Qi stagnation and Liver-Kidney Yin deficiency patterns. No significant change observed in the control group, significant score reduction of the patterns of disharmony was achieved at post-trial in the treatment group, which indicates an improvement of general health condition.
%U http://www.la-press.com/a-preliminary-study-of-the-effectiveness-of-chinese-therapeutic-food-o-article-a2570