"It is said that this traditional Chinese medicine is a secret recipe passed down from ancestors. Who knew it would cause kidney failure."

Ms. Zhang from Guangxi never expected that she, who originally wanted to maintain health, would end up taking her own health. "Nurture" led to kidney failure.

A few years ago, Ms. Zhang entered the age of 60 and felt that her energy was not as good as before. She felt very tired after even a little exercise, and it was difficult to relieve herself after resting. One day when I was chatting with my neighbor, I mentioned this matter. The neighbor introduced Ms. Zhang to an "old Chinese doctor" and told Ms. Zhang that she felt particularly energetic after taking the traditional Chinese medicine prescribed by the old Chinese doctor.

Ms. Zhang was very moved by these remarks, so she asked for the old Chinese medicine doctor’s address and rushed there the next day. The old Chinese medicine doctor prescribed some "magic medicine" to Ms. Zhang. These medicines are ground and can be brewed directly when taking the medicine.

After taking the traditional Chinese medicine, Ms. Zhang went home and took it for a week. After taking it for just 2 days, Ms. Zhang found that her symptoms were relieved. But after taking the medicine for a week, her body developed symptoms such as abnormal urination, nausea and abdominal pain. After the family found out, they rushed Ms. Zhang to the hospital for examination. The examination found that Ms. Zhang's blood creatinine had reached 1,700umol/L, which was more than 10 times higher than ordinary people. She was diagnosed with acute renal failure.

After asking about the medical history, the doctor was very sad. Most of the cases were acute renal failure caused by drug abuse. Examples like Ms. Zhang's are common in clinical practice.

However, Ms. Zhang strongly disagreed with the doctor's diagnosis. She said that her symptoms were obviously relieved after taking it for 2 days. How could it cause kidney failure?

Many people believe that Chinese medicine is natural and pollution-free and will not pose a threat to the body, so there is no harm in taking it at will. As everyone knows, this idea is very wrong, and the abuse of traditional Chinese medicine may bring some irreparable consequences.

Ms. Zhang’s question is understandable. Yes, why did the symptoms obviously ease after taking it for two days, but ended up with kidney failure?

There are two forms of TCM treatment of diseases. The first is slow conditioning, which is mainly aimed at sub-healthy people. The second is rapid symptom relief, which is mainly aimed at severe patients.

Ms. Zhang is obviously the latter, but this type of traditional Chinese medicine often contains traditional Chinese medicine with relatively strong potency, such as traditional Chinese medicine containing arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metal substances. However, this type of traditional Chinese medicine often has strong potency. Toxicity, the added dosage is very knowledgeable. Once overdosed or used incorrectly, it may cause kidney failure.

In addition, some unscrupulous merchants will add some hormone drugs to traditional Chinese medicine, and hormone substances can have a certain anti-inflammatory effect after entering the body. Therefore, when you first take the medicine, you may feel that your symptoms are significantly improved, but the symptoms are treated but not the root cause. After stopping the medication, the symptoms will rebound again, and the body will develop hormone dependence, causing some other complications.

And this is why Ms. Zhang felt her symptoms were relieved in the first two days, but ended up with kidney failure.

For many years, Chinese medicine has been considered to be purely natural and has no toxic side effects. However, as early as in the "Huangdi Neijing", it was said that medicines cannot cure diseases without toxicity. In other words, as long as they can The Chinese herbs that improve your symptoms are poisonous.

The most basic treatment principle of traditional Chinese medicine is syndrome differentiation and treatment. The same disease can show different symptoms, and different diseases can also show the same syndrome. Before prescribing medicine, Chinese medicine practitioners need to clarify the patient's cause, symptoms, disease progression, etc., so as to match the medicine suitable for the patient. This is very similar to the examination in Western medicine. The difference is that one uses instruments for screening and the other uses consultation. If it is not taken according to the symptoms, the condition of mild cases will not improve, and the condition of severe cases will become worse and worse.

In addition, Chinese medicine also pays attention to fighting poison with poison when treating certain diseases. The toxic ingredients contained in traditional Chinese medicine are often the most effective ingredients in treatment.

The special toxicity contained in traditional Chinese medicine is used to "poison" the inducements in the body. After the toxicity in the traditional Chinese medicine reacts with the bacteria in the body, it will naturally not pose a threat to health. For example, arsenic is used clinically to treat leukemia, erythritis, and leukemia. Sedum treats breast cancer and more.

All Chinese medicines are toxic. Once abused or used incorrectly, it will cause great harm to kidney health.

Traditional Chinese medicine has toxic and side effects, so what do we need to know before using traditional Chinese medicine?

1. Uncertainty in clinical medication

As mentioned above, traditional Chinese medicine treatment mainly focuses on syndrome differentiation and treatment. However, there is no unified standard for the selection of specific prescriptions and drugs. Take our common Mahuang Decoction, which has only four traditional Chinese medicines, as an example. Through different sources and processing methods of traditional Chinese medicine, the medicines and medicinal effects obtained are completely different. They all say that they are using Mahuang Decoction, but which one is it? , the concept is a bit vague.

In layman’s terms, there is no fixed prescription for traditional Chinese medicine, which needs to be adjusted by professional traditional Chinese medicine practitioners according to the patient’s condition. Therefore, whenever you hear about “miracle medicine” and “cure all diseases” "Don't believe any Chinese medicine prescriptions.

2. Traditional Chinese medicine also has toxic and side effects

After using traditional Chinese medicine, the body may have a series of side effects, common ones include digestive tract system symptoms, neurological symptoms, etc. Systemic symptoms, urinary system symptoms, etc. Patients may experience one or multiple side effects. Before taking medication, it is necessary to clarify the possible side effects before deciding whether to take the medication, so as to achieve the optimal solution for the efficacy of the medication.

3. Use Chinese medicine in a flexible manner

When applying Chinese medicine for treatment, you need to maintain sufficient flexibility. When the condition is more complex and a single traditional Chinese medicine cannot satisfy all the conditions, you can choose to use a variety of Chinese patent medicines or combine them with Western medicines for combined treatment. During treatment, it is necessary to fully consider some principles of synergy and attenuation that may arise from the use of multiple drugs, and avoid repeated use of drugs with the same effect.

These three principles need to be paid great attention to when using traditional Chinese medicine. In addition, there is another issue that everyone needs to understand. Pure natural Chinese medicine is actually very toxic.

Now that we have learned some broad knowledge points about traditional Chinese medicine, let’s talk about the more toxic traditional Chinese medicines in detail. We encounter them in daily life and it is recommended that you do not use them casually.

From a current clinical perspective, particularly toxic traditional Chinese medicines generally contain a substance called aristolochic acid.

Aristolochic acid is a biological toxin that is generally found in Aristolochaceae plants such as Aristolochia and Asarum. There is even a patent for kidney disease caused by Chinese herbal medicines containing this substance. The term is "Aristolochic acid nephropathy".

As early as the 1990s, some unscrupulous foreign merchants added aristolochic acid-rich traditional Chinese medicine into "purely natural" Chinese herbal weight loss packages, which caused aristolochic acid poisoning in many women and caused horse racing. Dorichoic acid nephropathy occurs.

At present, the clinical triggers of aristolochic acid nephropathy are not clear. Some studies have pointed out that after aristolochic acid enters the body, it will damage renal tubular epithelial cells and cause interstitial fibrosis. , which in turn causes kidney damage, induces kidney disease and even kidney failure. Kidney disease caused by aristolochic acid is irreversible once it occurs, so what we need to do is to avoid consuming traditional Chinese medicine containing aristolochic acid as much as possible.

Common traditional Chinese medicines containing aristolochic acid include Tripterygium wilfordii, Guanmutong, Trichosanthes trichosanthes, Sage mushroom, Senecio, Pulsatilla, Achyranthes achyranthes, etc. Do not use these traditional Chinese medicines blindly. Even if medication is needed, professional medical guidance is required.

Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history in our country. Although it is very natural, it is also a kind of medicine after all. There is a certain truth in the saying that medicine is three parts poison. No matter what medicine is used, it needs to be taken under the guidance of a doctor.

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