Earthworm (Dilong) Has Some Efficacy for Lung Cancer, Asthma, and Other Respiratory Diseases
The earthworm is a commonly used TCM herb, also known as Dilong ("Earth Dragon").
In October 2017, researchers at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland, found in experiments that earthworm coelomic fluid can kill nearly 80% of lung-cancer cells. This news was widely reported, but unfortunately no follow-up has appeared. This may be because human-drug trials abroad require complicated applications and drug research takes a long time.
At the time, the research team at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University was inspired by the fact that earthworms live in soil and their coelomic fluid digests large numbers of microorganisms; they decided to study the medicinal value of earthworms and accidentally discovered they could kill lung-cancer cells. Earthworms have powerful immune and digestive systems, which let them live in soil despite harmful microorganisms.
Earthworms are recorded in the earliest TCM materia medica, the Shennong Bencao Jing (Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica), which says they "maintain snake abdominal masses, expel the three worms, hidden corpse, ghost-zha, gu poison, and kill long worms." Exactly what diseases these ancient names refer to is hard to verify today. But across successive dynasties, TCM materia medica record earthworms as clearing heat and stopping convulsions, as well as calming wheezing and promoting diuresis; some sources also record them as reducing swelling and stopping pain.
Earthworms clear heat and stop convulsions because of their antimicrobial effect. The Zhouhou Beiji Fang (A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies) records: "For typhoid fever six or seven days with extreme heat, vexation in the chest, delirious speech, and wanting to get up and walk: take one large sheng of earthworms, slit and remove the (earth), boil in human urine until cooked, remove the dregs and drink. Drinking the raw expressed juice or decocting in water also works well." From this record we can see that the ancients already used earthworms to treat persistent high fever from infectious disease. The Zhouhou Beiji Fang is highly reliable; it was precisely from this book that Professor Tu Youyou drew the inspiration that led to artemisinin's anti-malarial effect and her Nobel Prize.
If earthworms are antimicrobial, their use in respiratory disease is not hard to understand; we know many microorganisms damage the respiratory tract. So earthworms' cough-suppressing and wheezing-calming action should relate to their antimicrobial effect. The ancients also used earthworms for acute and chronic infantile convulsions. A Chinese patent medicine for chronic cough and wheezing called Chuanking Tablets is made mainly from earthworms; it is used for cough and wheezing from respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis and asthma.
In modern biology, earthworms are classified as decomposers. Not only do they digest large numbers of microorganisms, they also break down organic matter into inorganic matter and release energy. The mucus earthworms secrete aids digestion, so earthworms are also an effective drug for digestive-tract disease.
Li Yongji et al. treated digestive-tract ulcers with earthworm powder, observing 78 cases randomly divided into a treatment group of 40 and a control group of 38; ulcer types and counts were similar in both groups. One group was treated with dried earthworm powder, the other with other drugs. The treatment group averaged 36.44 days of treatment, with 34 cured and 6 markedly effective, an 85% cure rate; the control group's cure rate was only 63.2%, averaging 44.03 days of treatment. (Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1988, 2: 46)
Earthworms also have a strong diuretic effect, especially for urinary retention due to heatstroke. The Wentang Jiyi Fang records: "For heat syndrome, urinary retention from heatstroke: pound earthworms, stir in cool spring water, let settle, take half a bowl of the supernatant, and urination is immediately restored." This diuretic effect often worries patients when treating certain diseases. For example, when I use earthworm-containing herbs for lung cancer, patients often notice increased urine output and worry that their disease is changing, so I have to explain the reason to them and their families.
In my experience, earthworms' diuretic effect also helps with pleural effusion from respiratory disease, especially when combined with Sangbaipi (Morus root bark) or Tinglizi (Descurainia seed). I have used earthworms, toad venom (Chan-su), scorpion (Quanxie), and musk (Shexiang) to treat lung cancer patients who had not received Western chemotherapy or targeted therapy; several have survived more than three years, some with tumors that disappeared and have not recurred on follow-up. But results are less ideal in patients who have already had repeated chemotherapy and targeted therapy than in those treated with herbs alone; this may be because cancer cells evolve to become more complex after chemotherapy and targeted therapy.
Some of my lung-cancer case records have been published; see my articles"Treating Lung Cancer and Pulmonary Nodules with 'Same Disease, Same Treatment': Three Cases"and"Using 'Same Disease, Same Treatment' to Shrink Another Lung-Cancer Patient's Tumor". Because there are not yet enough lung-cancer cases treated this way, I am continuing to accumulate case data, hoping one day to launch a dedicated study of TCM treatment of lung cancer.
I have written separately on the anti-cancer mechanism of earthworms in "The Anti-Cancer and Thrombolytic Effects of Dilong and Its Side Effects" (click the title to read it), so I will not repeat it here; interested readers can consult that article.