For thousands of years, Chinese medicine has offered treatments for a wide variety of conditions. These days, an increasing number of controlled, double-blind, randomized studies are using refined Western analysis to determine the safety and effectiveness of the elixirs, herbs, and even insects that are used.

One study published in JAMA examined the benefits of Tongxinluo (a formulation containing seven herbs and parts of creatures such as cockroach, scorpion, cicada, centipede, and leech) compared to placebo when given to people who suffered a STEMI heart attack, which affects the heart's lower chamber, causing a dangerous interruption of blood flow to the heart. It also changes how electrical activity registers on a diagnostic test. 

When 3,777 people who experienced that kind of heart attack took the Chinese medicine compound for 12 months, they had fewer major cardiac events (3.4% versus 5.2%) and fewer deaths (3% versus 4.2%) than people taking a placebo.

The researchers concluded that when Tongxinluo is used as a complement to well-established Western treatment guidelines for STEMI, it improves both 30-day and one-year outcomes.

I applaud the rigorous examination of this Chinese medicinal treatment, and hope it ushers in more reliable studies of Chinese therapies that have been time-tested, but not rigorously evaluated.