Traditional Chinese Medicine and Vascular Disease

According to the epidemiological survey, vascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world. Vascular disease includes any condition that affects your circulatory system, such as peripheral artery disease. This ranges from diseases of your arteries, veins, and lymph vessels to blood disorders that affect circulation. With the world population aging, hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, and diabetes incidences are increasing year by year. These diseases seem to be independent; in fact, vascular disease is able to cause all these diseases. However, the recent studies suggest that traditional Chinese medicine (“TCM”) is a potential candidate for the preventative treatment of vascular disease. For example, Tongxinluo capsule for the treatment of atherosclerosis has been recognized around the world. TCM is an integral part of Chinese culture, which includes pharmacology of traditional Chinese medical formulae, Chinese patent medicines, and Chinese herbal monomer. Today both of TCM and western medicine are being used in providing medical and health services in the whole world. TCM, with its unique diagnostic methods, systematic approach, abundant historical literature, and materials, has attracted many attentions from the international community. TCM has been very effective in the treatment of vascular disease, but it still has the following problems. (1) Many mechanisms of TCM for diseases are not clear. (2) Large-scale clinical trials based on evidence are lacking. Therefore, we encourage investigators to contribute original research articles as well as comprehensive review articles on the treatment of vascular diseases with TCM. We are particularly interested in articles reporting the clinical trials or revealing the action mechanisms of TCM by using cellular or animal models.