Does the development of traditional Chinese medicine need to keep pace with The Times?

November 23, 2018 China pharmaceutical network

Recently, the journal science translational medicine published an article named "aristolochic acid and its derivatives are related to liver cancer in Taiwan and other parts of Asia", and the issue of aristolochic acid soon attracted the attention of many countries.

It is known that aristolochic acid, also known as total aristolochic acid, phagocytic acid or xyloxane, is a class of nitrophenyl carboxylic acid. The expert inside course of study expresses, aristolochic acid has apparent nephrotoxicity, basically injure renal tubule epithelial cell. However, excessive intake of aristolochic acid can easily lead to aristolochic acid nephropathy.

As early as 2002, the world health organization (WHO) international agency for cancer research listed aristolochic acid as a potential carcinogen, and in 2012 it was listed as a class 1 carcinogen.

However, many people in China are lack of knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine. After learning that aristolochic acid can cause kidney disease, the relevant discussion immediately exploded. Some of them have criticized traditional Chinese medicine, saying, "now I just know that the traditional Chinese medicine I have been drinking for more than a year contains aristolochic acid. Is traditional Chinese medicine a pseudoscience?"

"Other people said," Chinese medicine is mainly to regulate the body, but do not abuse Chinese medicine, especially not long-term use of Chinese medicine containing aristolochic acid!

This is about the scene, the emergence of a group of "TCM powder" and a group of "TCM black". In fact, compared with debating whether traditional Chinese medicine is "pseudoscience", the author believes that what should be paid more attention to is whether traditional Chinese medicine left over from thousands of years should keep pace with The Times and make more scientific and rigorous improvement in modern times.

As is known to all, traditional Chinese medicine has developed for thousands of years and is now a precious treasure of the Chinese nation. Traditional medical treatment concepts, such as cupping, acupuncture and moxibustion, have been gradually accepted by the people and even the world, and attracted more and more attention. There's nothing wrong with that.

But at the same time, it also causes a variety of problems. Some studies have shown that after long-term use of some traditional Chinese medicine, due to its toxicity, it can cause kidney failure and other functional failure in people, and even lead to death in serious cases.

From an objective point of view, the ingredients contained in Chinese herbal medicine are indeed complex, the content is not accurate, the efficacy is more difficult to maintain the same. Compared with modern medicine, traditional Chinese medicine is obviously not strict enough.

Specifically, the medical treatment and drugs of modern medicine require detailed records of clinical trials. In addition, all drugs have to go through the experiment of pharmacology, pharmacology, toxicity, teratogenicity and carcinogenesis, and pharmacokinetic side effects.

But from most of our Chinese patent medicine instructions, it is often seen that adverse reactions, taboos, precautions show "unclear". Come so, also can let a person doubt unavoidably, how to prove traditional Chinese medicine exists toxicity? What if I get poisoned?

In addition, the curative effect of traditional Chinese medicine also needs to be further clarified. Most of the statement is that the processing techniques are different, the medicine may not be the same. Undoubtedly, the processing of traditional Chinese medicine does have a certain impact on the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine.

According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the processing of traditional Chinese medicine is in accordance with the needs of dialectical treatment and medication, drug properties, as well as the different requirements of preparation and preparation, further processing and production of the net medicinal materials processed by the origin, including the processing methods of fire system, water system and water-fire co-system, etc., the resulting product is Chinese medicine yinpian. Its function is to remove toxicity and improve curative effect.

About the processing standards, the "Chinese pharmacopoeia" mentioned that the processing of traditional Chinese medicine on the net preparation, cutting, firing, and other aspects of a total of 4 content, and stressed that the quality of traditional Chinese medicine yinpian including internal and external quality of two aspects. It can be seen that with the relevant standards, the implementation of processing of traditional Chinese medicine will be more scientific, and the quality of drugs will be guaranteed.

From this point of view, if traditional Chinese medicine wants to develop better and be gradually recognized by the world, it must undergo reform and take the road of modern scientific reform.