"A traditional Chinese herbal treatment may reduce fever from HN swine flu influenza just as well as the prescription medication Tamiflu a new study suggests. For thousands of years Chinese herbs have been used to treat influenza study coauthors Dr. Chen Wang and Dr. Bin Cao of Beijing ChaoYang Hospital Capital Medical University in China said in an email. The pandemic influenza  gave us the opportunity to evaluate a standard Chinese herb formula designed to target the flu they added. Cao and Wang who specialize in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology said the herbal recipe  known as maxingshiganyinqiaosan MY  is easily accessible throughout China and much less expensive than Tamiflu oseltamivir. However finding the medicine in the United States is difficult if not impossible given that it contains the stimulant ephedra. The United States has banned or restricted the sale of ephedra products because of concerns about possible complications such as heart attack stroke and even death related to its use as a weightloss supplement. The authors discuss their findings in the Aug.  issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The  HN swine flu pandemic sparked influenza cases around the globe resulting in nearly  deaths the authors said. Per World Health Organization WHO recommendations in most instances Tamiflu was the treatment of choice where it was available. However it is often out of reach in less developed parts of the world such as rural China where traditional herbal medicines are a likely default treatment. The MY flu preparation is composed of  herbs ephedrae zhimu qinghao shigao yinhua huangqin chaoxingren lianqiao bohe zhebeimu niubangzi and gancao. To compare the relative effectiveness of MY and Tamiflu in treating HN influenza the authors focused on  previously healthy patients who were diagnosed with a very mild form of the illness. The men and women were relatively young with an average age of . They were being treated in  different medical facilities across four Chinese provinces during the height of the pandemic between July and November of  to prevent spreading the flu not because their symptoms were severe. Within  hours of the onset of symptoms the patients were assigned to one of four fiveday treatment groups. One group was given  milligrams of Tamiflu twice a day in capsule form a second group received  milliliters of MY four times a day in liquid form a third group took the same dosages of Tamiflu and MY together and a fourth group received no treatment. All of the herbs were screened for quality and the MY mixture was deemed to meet Chinese safety standards. The results Both MY and Tamiflu were effective at eliminating fever whether administered on their own or in combination. All three approaches helped to resolve fever sooner than no intervention whatsoever the authors said noting it appeared that fever dissipated fastest when MY and Tamiflu were given together. However none of the treatment methods appeared to be superior in terms of overall viral control and side effects were minimal in all cases. Even though the ephedracontaining herbal is not readily available in the United States the MY herbal formula is available in many countries besides China including Korea Japan India and Germany the study authors noted. Duffy MacKay vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition which represents the dietary supplement industry believes that fears over ephedras use as a weightcontrol agent have overlooked its more traditional and much safer role as a medicine against lung inflammation. MacKay said that in China traditional medicine is seamlessly integrated into everyday medical practice.  Here in the U.S. we do things differently he said. We have our prescription drugs on the one hand and then we have dietary supplements on the other. But MacKay continued it should also be understood that these two treatments actually work very differently. Tamiflu works to stop viral replication. But the herbal formula is working on symptoms to help people become more comfortable. And those are two very different goals he noted. So our advice MacKay added is that because HN can be very serious its very important to see your doctor. And once youre under the care of your licensed physician theres certainly a lot of things in the world of botanicals that might help. More information For more on the flu and traditional medicine visit the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine httpnccam.nih.govhealthfluD_GTF.pdf. SOURCES Chen Wang M.D. Ph.D. and Bin Cao M.D. department of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology Beijing ChaoYang Hospital Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine Capital Medical University Beijing Duffy MacKay N.D. vice president scientific and regulatory affairs Council for Responsible Nutrition Washington D.C. Aug.   Annals of Internal Medicine"