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Adaptability, Dynamic Disease and Chinese Medicine Research

Adaptability, Dynamic Disease and Chinese Medicine Research. William E. Herfel, BSc, PhD wm.herfel@yahoo.com.au Centre for Complementary Medicine Research University of Western Sydney Australia. What is “dynamic disease”?.

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Adaptability, Dynamic Disease and Chinese Medicine Research

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  1. Adaptability, Dynamic Disease and Chinese Medicine Research William E. Herfel, BSc, PhD wm.herfel@yahoo.com.au Centre for Complementary Medicine Research University of Western Sydney Australia

  2. What is “dynamic disease”? “The normal individual displays a complex mosaic of rhythms in the various body systems. These rhythms rarely display absolute periodicity. … Whether or not one interprets normal dynamics as chaos or some other type of dynamical behavior, it is clear that many pathologies are readily identifiable by abnormal rhythmicities.” Glass & Mackey 1988

  3. Dynamic processin Chinese medicine As soon as expiration and inspiration stop, all organic processes and transformation cease; and as soon as upward (yang)and downward (yin) movements cease, all established energy flows are in risk of collapse. Therefore, birth, growth, maturity, aging, and dying are possible only with the presence of expiration and inspiration; and birth, growth, transformation, harvesting, and storage are possible only with the presence of upward and downward movements. Huangdi Neijing SuwenChapter 68

  4. MotivationDynamics in Chinese Medicine Health and disease are characterised dynamically Flows(e.g. qi)are crucial for life & health Zang-fu is a system of coupled oscillators Pulse palpation yields data on the state of bodily flow dynamics Environmental variation (circadian & seasonal) taken into account

  5. How do we study “dynamic disease”? • Gather detailed physiological data for healthy and diseased subjects • Observe how this data varies over time • Use analytic techniques (time series analysis) to discern differences in “complexity” of various data • Evaluate treatment in terms of improvement in terms of complexity

  6. Time Series:Systolic BP (N = 1)

  7. Complexity and Adaptability • In general, dynamic disease research operates under two assumptions: • Increased complexity reflects increased adaptability • Organisms exhibiting more adaptability in their physiological behaviour are healthier

  8. Example Approximate Entropy (ApEn) analysis comparing heart rate in healthy infants vs. infants with an aborted SIDS episode (Pincus 2001)

  9. Infant Heart Rate Time Series Pincus 2001 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 954, 245

  10. Approximate Entropy ApEn measures the logarithmic likelihood that runs of patterns that are close (within r) for m contiguous observations remain close (within the same tolerance width r) on subsequent incremental comparisons. The opposing extremes are perfectly regular sequences, (e.g., sinusoidal behavior, very low ApEn), and independent sequential processes (very large ApEn). Pincus 2001 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 954, 245

  11. ApEn Time Series: Infant Heart Rate ApEn A (SIDS) = 0.742 ApEn B (Normal) = 1.457 Pincus 2001 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 954, 245

  12. Approximate Entropy • Measures complexity in terms of regularity • Complexity & adaptability • Adaptability & health

  13. Conclusion • Adopting a dynamic disease approach to Chinese medicine research will: • Produce research compatible with the Chinese medical conception of disease • Lead to outcome parameters better suited to testing Chinese medical interventions • Further the medical understanding of adaptability & health

  14. Thank You William E. Herfel, BSc, PhD wm.herfel@yahoo.com.au Centre for Complementary Medicine Research University of Western Sydney Australia

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