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eCAM Advance Access published online on February 27, 2008
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nen017
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Traditional Chinese Medicine for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Rui Chen1,2, Junji Moriya2, Jun-ichi Yamakawa2, Takashi Takahashi2 and Tsugiyasu Kanda2

1Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Union Hospital Affiliated to Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China and 2Department of General Medicine, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Japan

More and more patients have been diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in recent years. Western drug use for this syndrome is often associated with many side-effects and little clinical benefit. As an alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has provided some evidences based upon ancient texts and recent studies, not only to offer clinical benefit but also offer insights into their mechanisms of action. It has perceived advantages such as being natural, effective and safe to ameliorate symptoms of CFS such as fatigue, disordered sleep, cognitive handicaps and other complex complaints, although there are some limitations regarding the diagnostic standards and methodology in related clinical or experimental studies. Modern mechanisms of TCM on CFS mainly focus on adjusting immune dysfunction, regulating abnormal activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and serving as an antioxidant. It is vitally important for the further development to establish standards for ‘zheng’ of CFS, i.e. the different types of CFS pathogenesis in TCM, to perform randomized and controlled trials of TCM on CFS and to make full use of the latest biological, biochemical, molecular and immunological approaches in the experimental design.

Keywords: chronic fatigue syndrome – herbal therapy – traditional Chinese medicine

For reprints and all correspondence: Prof. Tsugiyasu Kanda, Department of General Medicine, Kanazawa Medical University, 1-1 Daigaku, Uchinada-machi, Kahoku-gun, Ishikawa 920-0293, Japan. Tel: +81-76-286-2211 ext. 3841; Fax: +81-76-286-2702; E-mail: kandat{at}kanazawa-med.ac.jp

Received March 8, 2007; accepted February 8, 2008


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