Search Here

Traditional Chinese medicine may help reduce insomnia-related anxiety, according to a new study.

While ghrelin, a brain-gut peptide, increases anxiety and other abnormal emotions, Wen Dan Tang, a traditional Chinese medicine remedy, reduces insomnia-related anxiety. Researchers said the latest findings suggest the changes by the herbal plant may correspond to changes in the brain-gut axis.

Chinese researchers from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine said that the latest findings suggest a relationship between Wen Dan Tang's pharmacological mechanism and the brain-gut axis.

Researchers orally administered Wen Dan Tang to a sleep deprivation rat omdel and found that the herb significantly reduced insomnia-related anxiety and prevented Ghrelin level decreases following sleep deprivation. Researchers found that the effect was particularly pronounced in the hypothalamus.

The study also revealed increased expression of Ghrelin receptor mRNA in the hypothalamus, suggesting that the Wen Dan Tang reduces anxiety by regulating the Ghrelin-Ghrelin receptors.

The findings are published in the Neural Regeneration Research.