Chinese Medicine: Do They Work? Modern medicines have been largely developed from the herbal medicines in the West. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) however remains mostly unexplored by modern drug discovery. Traditional Chinese Medicine consists of thousands of Chinese herbs and even a larger number of herbal formulas combining several Chinese herbs. TCM also includes a unique system of theories that directs the proper use of Chinese herbs. Chinese people have solely relied on Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years for their health, much the same as the Western herbal medicine did for the Europeans before the modern medicine was born from it. | |||
If you find yourself getting interested in herbal medicine, you are not alone. Herbal medicines are becoming more and more popular in the USA. Recent surveys showed that about half of the American adults have used herbal supplements within a year. Many of them can testify for the beneficial effects of herbal medicines. The often cited reasons for using the herbal remedies include the ineffectiveness of the current medical treatment on their health concerns, the high cost of the health care and prescription drugs, and the side effects of the prescription drugs etc. Backing the public demand, in 1998 the US congress approved the creation of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to explore the value of herbal medicines.
In contrast to the enthusiasm of the general public, the medical community is more skeptical towards herbal medicines in general. Surely enough, herbal medicines are not considered as drugs in USA and are hardly approvable by FDA as drugs as well. Herbal medicines are not rigorously tested by scientific studies as conventional drugs for their health benefits. Herbal medicines are not produced to the same quality standards as the conventional drugs for lot to lot consistency. The side effect profiles of herbal medicines are often not quite clear so the safety may become an issue. Ironically, while clinical studies that demonstrated the efficacy of a given herbal remedy often meet doubts from the medical community on their real benefits, any report on potential side effects of herbal remedies are taken for granted and easily accepted.
. For those who simply deny any benefits from herbal remedies, the question is if a herbal medicine can do something harmful physiologically then why a herbal medicine can not do something good physiologically as well. After all, no matter what the effect is, it all works by the natural molecules contained in the herbal medicine on the physiology of the body.
To the surprise of some people, natural molecules comprise a major part of our current drugs. As late as the last two decades (1981-2002), of the 877 New Chemical Entities drugs approved by FDA, 49% were still natural products or derived from natural products1. Not to mention the earlier decades when the drugs were predominantly developed from natural products.
Herbal medicines have been an important source of natural product drugs and the root of modern pharmacology and drug development. Take digoxin as an example2. Digoxin is a modern drug used for congestive heart failure. It is a natural molecule occurring in the herb foxglove. Foxglove was originally used in folk herbal remedies consisting of a dozen of herbs. Over 200 years ago it was found to be the active ingredient of the herbal remedies. By 1906, different preparations of foxglove were included in US pharmacopeia. No standard was there. Then standard assays were developed to monitor the bioactivity of foxglove preparations. Eventually, digoxin was identified and became a standard chemical drug.
While modern drugs were largely developed from the herbal medicines in the western world, traditional oriental medicines, mainly Chinese medicine, remain most unexplored by modern drug discovery. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) consists of thousands of Chinese herbs and even a larger number of herbal formulas combining several Chinese herbs. TCM also includes a unique system of theories that directs the proper use of Chinese herbs. Chinese people have solely relied on TCM for thousands of years for their health, much the same as the Western herbal medicine did for the Europeans before the modern medicine was born from it.
So far only one modern drug has been successfully developed from Chinese herbs and won the world acclaimation3. The drug is Artemisinin (Qinghaosu in Chinese name) from the Chinese herb Qing Hao. Qing Hao has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for many centuries to treat malaria. Artimisinin was purified from Qing Hao and further demonstrated to be superior to the standard antimalarial Quinine treatment by Chinese scientists4, 5. Artemisinin also represents a novel class of chemical structure and forms the basis for synthesizing new drugs. Artemisinin and its derivatives are playing a major role in fighting malaria in the third world. This is a big contribution of Traditional Chinese Medicine on the world health.
Chinese Herbs: Are They Safe: As someone who has done 20 years of cutting-edge biomedical research and who runs this web site, I have witnessed the debate on whether the herbal medicine works or whether it is safe to use all the time.
Take a latest case report on this month's Lancet (July, 2006). A man who took a Chinese herbal medicine developed bladder cancer. The herbal formula he took is called Long Dan Xie Gan Wan, a formula in recent years already linked to kidney damage in numerous cases. The kidney damage is due to aristolochic acid, a natural compound of a herb used in the herbal preparation at the time. (The aristolochic acid containing herb has since been replaced or removed from most Long Dan Xie Gan Wan preparations. ActiveHerb has not sold this formula because of the safety concern until May 2007 when we obtain the clean product that DOES NOT contain aristolochic acid. Please see it
Long Dan Xie Gan Wan (Pian)Concentrated Chinese Herbal मेदिसिने
Long Dan Xie Gan Wan (Long Dan Xie Gan Pian, 龙胆泻肝丸), literally "Gentiana Purge Liver Pills" in Chinese, is a famous Chinese medicine for its popular use in purging the liver fire, cleansing the liver, and hepatitis. However, in recent years it gets known to cause kidney damages in numerous cases (for example, see Herbal Safety) because of aristolochic acid the original formula contains. For this reason, we have not sold any Long Dan Xie Gan Wan till now (May, 2007) that the current product is available that DOES NOT contain aristolochic acid.
What does it do?Long Dan Xie Gan Wan clears away sthenic fire in the liver and gallbladder meridians, eliminates damp heat in the lower energizer.† The Chinese medicine is used for hyperactivity in sthenic fire in the liver and gallbladder meridians marked by headache, hypochondriac pain, conjunctival congestion, bitter taste in the mouth, deafness, otalgia. † The Chinese medicine is also effective for downbearing of damp heat in the liver meridian marked by darkish turbid urine, vaginal pruritus, vaginal swelling, scrotal swelling, leukorrhea, reddish tongue with yellowish greasy fur, wiry and slippery and strong pulse.The man took the formula for over 5 years. What can we conclude? According to the authors of the report, it "highlights the dangers of unregulated herbal therapy".
What is the formula composition?
A proprietary blend* of
| Radix Gentianae Scabrae Radix Bupleuri Chinensis Rhizoma Alismatis Orientalis Radix Rehmanniae Glutinosae Radix Scutellariae Baicalensis Fructus Gardeniae Jasminoidis Medulla Tetrapanacis Papyriferi Semen Plantaginis (Plantago asiatica) Radix Angelicae Sinensis Radix Glycyrrhizae Uralensis | (Long Dan Cao) (Chai Hu) (Ze Xie) (Sheng Di Huang) (Huang Qin) (Zhi Zi) (Tong Cao) (Che Qian Zi) (Dang Gui) (Gan Cao) |
| ||
*Long Dan Xie Gan Wan (Pian) is made of 100% pure authentic Chinese herbs of highest qualities. Traditional preparation procedures are combined with modern pharmaceutical processes to extract the active ingredients from the herbs and to further concentrate them into pills or tablets. It is produced in the certified GMP facilities of Shanghai TongHanChun Herbs Factory (Guang Ci Tang) and is imported to USA in accordance with the FDA guidelines. | ||
What is Available? One top Chinese herbs brand: Guang Ci Tang: 40 grams in 200 mg 200 tablets or 200 mg 200 pills per bottle | ||
How do I use it? Take 5 to 7 tablets or pills 3 times daily. | ||
Use Discretion | ||
Side Effects As mentioned above, Long Dan Xie Gan Wan in some formulation has been implicated in kidney damages. It is important to inspect any product of Long Dan Xie Gan Wan before use to make sure it does not contain Caulis Aristolochiae Manshuriensis (Guan Mu Tong) in its ingredients. | ||
Cautious Notes 1. Use with caution during pregnancy. 2. Use with caution if you are old, weak, or with loose stool. 3. Avoid oily (like french fries) and spicy food. 4. Do not use it together with tonic Chinese herbs. 5. Does not use it for a long time. 6. Consult your herbalist or physician before use if you have heart, arrhythmia, hypertension, kidney, diabetes liver and other chronic diseases. 7. Consult your herbalist or physician before use if you are taking other medicines. 8. Keep out of reach of children. | ||
| The man took the formula for over 5 years. What can we conclude? According to the authors of the report, it "highlights the dangers of unregulated herbal therapy". Fairly enough, also in the news of this month, is that a study finds acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, damages liver. In the study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), 40% healthy adults taking maximal doses of Tylenol for just two weeks showed abnormal liver test results. The adverse effect of acetaminophen on liver has been known for a long time but the scale of this damage still comes to the surprise. Now considering Tylenol is a nonprescription OTC medicine used by most, if not all, Americans in their life, what can we conclude here? Obviously we cannot simply conclude whether herbal medicines or OTC medicines are safe. We need to look deeper into what might contribute to the adverse effects. A common reason for drug side effects is the improper or wrong use of medicines. In the Long Dan Xie Gan Wan case, the man used it for enhancing the liver for over 5 years. However, the herbal formula is not used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as tonics but rather used for purging the liver. In addition, the herbal remedy is not suitable for a long time use. However, he used the wrong product not only for months but for 5 years. This is a clear case of both wrong and improper use of herbal medicines. In the case of acetaminophen, its accidental overdose causes 100 death and 13000 emergency room visits a year in USA अलोने. The overdose occurs because acetaminophen is included in many OTC and prescription drugs and people unwittingly combine drugs or because misinformed belief that larger doses will give faster pain relief. The well publicized side effect of ephedra belongs to its misuse as well. While ephedra is a Chinese herb, it has never been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a single herb for weight loss. Instead, ephedra is used in TCM in combination with other herbs to deal with health concerns other than obesity and no toxic effect is observed. Another reason for drug side effects relates to the poor product quality. While we can trust FDA in ensuring that every medicine on the market is made under the strict quality control procedures, bleach in quality control had previously happened in USA. Quality control of herbal medicines is certainly a major concern. One aspect of concern is the contamination of herbs by heavy metals (e. g., lead) and pesticides. There have been reports of toxicity caused by the excessive lead in herbal products. Another aspect of concern is that pharmaceuticals are mixed into herbs without being disclosed to consumers. For example, a claimed "all natural", "guaranteed to work", male enhancement product may contain the active ingredient of Viagra. It surely works. What you do not know is that really the Viagra ingredient works. This can easily get your health out of control. Here we would like to mention the herbal supplements ActiveHerb sells are strictly selected for their high quality. Finally, side effects are intrinsic to many medicines and cannot be avoided. Their use depends on whether the benefits or the adverse effects outweigh. Why prescription drugs need to be prescribed by doctors? Because they all have side effects and the doctors' role is to direct their proper use. Remember Vioxx, the blockbuster painkiller withdrawn by Merck at the end of 2004? Vioxx is estimated to have caused 140,000 serious coronary heart disease! Multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri is a different story. After linked to several patient deaths, the drug was taken off the market in early 2005. But it now comes back with more restrictions on the use. Some herbal medicines have intrinsic side effects too. However, many believe herbal medicines in general have much fewer side effects than pharmaceuticals. This notion seems to be supported by the occurrence of drug adverse reactions in China where TCM is widely used. A vast majority of drug adverse reactions reported in China are caused by chemical drugs. Most TCMs are classified as nonprescription drugs in China and have good safety profiles when used properly. Herbal medicines including TCM are regulated in USA as dietary supplements. This status of dietary supplements partly reflects their origin as food and their benign nature in action in most cases. From a historic perspective, herbal medicines have been developed on a trial and error process on human body over thousands of years, much like today we know what to eat as food and how we test drug safety in current clinical trials. In the end, what can I conclude? No matter it is a mainstream medicine or herbal medicine, we have to use the right product, made in right quality and obtained from a reliable source, for the right application at the right dose and duration. Any compromise or omission may cause our health. | ||||
