When east meets west: the relationship between yin-yang and antioxidation-oxidation
When east meets west: the relationship between yin-yang and antioxidation-oxidation
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DOI：
10.1096/fj.02-0527hyp
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发表时间：
2003-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Flanagan, JA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ou, BX;Huang, DJ;Flanagan, JA
中国古代传统医学（TCM）有效地依赖于阴阳平衡理论来诊断和治疗疾病和障碍已有2000多年的历史。然而，在东方社会，阴阳被认为是一种不可理解的思想，没有明确的物理意义。因此，医学中的阴阳平衡没有用现代科学手段来研究。在西方世界，阴阳平衡经常被误解为一种宗教信仰或生活方式的原则。在此，我们试图通过将其与生物化学过程相关联来定义中医阴阳的物理含义。提出阴阳平衡是抗氧化平衡，阴代表抗氧化，阳代表氧化。我们的建议是部分支持的事实，滋阴中药，平均约6倍以上的抗氧化活性和多酚含量比补阳中药。我们的假设开辟了一条途径，系统地研究阴阳平衡及其健康影响与现代生物化学工具的使用。
Ancient traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has effectively relied on the theory of yin-yang balance in diagnoses and treatments of diseases and disorders for more than 2000 years. However, in eastern society, yin-yang is regarded as an incomprehensible ideology without definite physical meaning. Consequently, the yin-yang balance in medicine has not been studied by modern scientific means. In the western world, yin-yang balance is often misunderstood as a religious belief or a principle of lifestyle. Herein, we attempted to define the physical meaning of yin-yang in TCM by correlating it with biochemical processes. We propose that yin-yang balance is antioxidation-oxidation balance with yin representing antioxidation and yang as oxidation. Our proposal is partially supported by the fact that the yin-tonic traditional Chinese herbs have, on average, about six times more antioxidant activity and polyphenolic contents than the yang-tonic herbs. Our hypothesis opens an avenue to systematically study the yin-yang balance and its health implications with the use of modern biochemical tools.