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Background Chronic migraine is a disabling condition that negatively affects many aspects of migraineurs’ lives. Patients who use pharmacological agents experience various side effects. Some studies have reported clinical improvement following wet cupping therapy in migraine patients. This study examined the effectiveness of wet cupping therapy on headache severity and its complications in patients with migraine. Methods In this study, a total of 29 patients previously diagnosed with migraine were treated with wet cupping therapy and followed up for headache severity. The severity of pain was measured before therapy, 1 h after therapy, and one month after therapy. The wet cupping therapy was performed by an experienced nurse who was not part of the research team. Results The mean age of the patients was 36.17 (Sta. Deviation: 10.74 years; range: 22–68 years), and on average, patients had experienced migraine for 11.14 years. The severity of headache pain was decreased significantly from 6.66 (very intense pain) before cupping therapy to 2.48 (discomforting pain) 1 h after cupping therapy and 0.72 (very mild pain) one month after cupping therapy (p<0.001). The observed complications were skin pigmentation (6.9%), skin scarring (24.1%), and itching in the cupping region (31.0%). Conclusions The present study suggests a significant improvement in the severity of headache in migraine patients 1 h and one month after wet cupping therapy.

Background: Doctors and academicians should have a basic understanding of the methods of epidemiology and biostatistics so as to conduct, analyze and report results of medical research. Surveys of medical literature estimated a high rate of wrong or incorrect analyses and interpretation. The main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge of the basic biostatistics and methods of research among teaching staff of the five medical sciences colleges at University of Duhok. Methods:In this cross-sectional study, a pre-designed questionnaire was distributed to all the teaching staff in the five medical sciences colleges at the University of Duhok as a google form. The questionnaire composed of ten multiple choice questions about the knowledge regarding basic methods of research and data analysis. Results:The rate of participation was 82% with a mean age of 45.25 years and 70.3% were males. Their educational qualification was master degree for 38.2% and a Ph D or medical board in 61.8%. The rate of correct answers to all questions was low with the highest rate of on the question about Randomized Clinical Trial (54%) and the lowest on the question about p-value (11%). The study found that the number of correct answers was increased with increasing the number of published papers by the participants (P=0.0199). Conclusions:The knowledge of the teaching staff in the five medical science colleges at UoD regarding research method and statistical analysis of data is below average in a time that they do research continuously.

Guiera senegalensis (GS) reflects the reduced glucose exposure of erythrocytes over a preceding time frame proportional to erythrocyte survival. GS is thus an anti-diabetic function of the glucose-time curve, an educationally useful concept to aid teaching and clinical judgment. Sixty-one newly diagnosed patients with an average age of 48.2 years and weight of 64.9 kg have participated in the study. Participants were significantly different in their educational, socioeconomic levels, and most of them have no family history of diabetes. To evaluate the hypoglycemic effect of GS, the patients were divided into four groups (G1, G2, G3 and G4) and treated with four different doses of the aqueous extract of the herb ( 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 Oz of GS boiled for 10 minutes in 0.5-litre water). The experiment has lasted for five days for each group, and the blood glucose level of the patients was checked using GOD –POD method, at fasting (FBS) and following two hours after the breakfast (RBS). Another group of 30 patients (control) received Douniel drug (5mg/day/person) instead of the GS herb extract and checked for glucose level with the same procedure mentioned above. The results revealed that blood glucose level (mg/dl) for all patients lowered by 9% after every 24 hours of the treatment and by 35% at the end of the treatment. The average fasting and random blood glucose levels were significantly (P<0.001) reduced from 326.21 and 322.95 mg/dl at the start of the treatment to 213.57 and 202.87 mg/dl sequentially at the end of the treatment. The herb significantly (P<0.001) reduced the blood glucose levels, however, with negligible side effects (vomiting on two patients of group G4). Similar hypoglycemic effects on random blood sugar for both the herb extract and Daniel drugs noticed. However, the average fasting blood glucose level of patients treated with herb extract (266.21 mg/dl) was significantly (P<0.001) lower than that of patients treated with the Daniel drug (280.47 mg/dl). Accordingly, the action of this herb may be similar to that of Douniel drug. However, it might have more prolonged action than Douniel. The study strongly recommends GS as a potential herb for the treatment of type II diabetes.