Clinical Experience in the External Use of Liushen Pills for Detoxification, Swelling Reduction and Pain Relief

A few days ago, while picking vegetables in my small garden, I was wearing athletic shorts and was accidentally bitten by a venomous insect hiding in the grass. At first I thought nothing of it, assuming that applying something like essential balm would do. But this insect was very venomous; essential balm did not work, and neither did Tiger Balm. After two or three days, a large patch on my leg swelled up; walking felt distended and painful, with a numb sensation, and I even woke with pain in the middle of the night. It seemed I had been seriously poisoned.

It so happened that I had three boxes of Liushen Wan (Six-Miracle Pills, the artificial-musk version) at home. I took Liushen Wan internally twice (10 pills each time), but felt little effect. So I took the remaining 40 pills from the opened box, soaked them in about 10 ml of white vinegar, and before bed dabbed a little on the bite with a cotton swab. After a night's sleep, the pain was gone by morning and the swelling had subsided; the effect was surprising.

After the leg swelling went down, some of the prepared Liushen Wan vinegar solution remained. I could not bear to throw it away, so I used it to dab a small patch of ringworm that had appeared on my calf at some unknown time; the effect was surprisingly good.

Of course, there was a slight side effect after using Liushen Wan: after dabbing some on another insect bite on my neck, the nearby skin became allergic and broke out in a millet-sized rash, which only faded after more than ten minutes of washing with water.

Liushen Wan contains musk (Shexiang), bezoar (Niuhuang), borneol (Bingpian), pearl (Zhenzhu), toad venom (Chansu), realgar (Xionghuang) and plant soot (Baicaoshuang). Its main action is to detoxify, reduce swelling and stop pain. According to the package insert, Liushen Wan "clears heat and detoxifies, reduces inflammation and stops pain," and is used for ulcerative throat with scarlet-like rash, sore throat, wind-type throat and throat abscess, unilateral and bilateral tonsillitis, childhood heat-type ding, welling-abscesses and boils, breast abscess and back lesions, and nameless swellings and toxins.

I often use Liushen Wan to treat cancer, because most of the seven herbs in it have anticancer and swelling-reducing effects. Musk, bezoar, toad venom, realgar and pearl are especially important anticancer and swelling-reducing drugs; they are also rare and precious, and the four—musk, bezoar, toad venom and realgar—are generally unavailable in ordinary places. I mostly use Liushen Wan to treat leukemia, esophageal cancer, laryngeal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, breast cancer, oral cancer, tongue cancer, tonsillar cancer, gastric cancer, skin cancer and melanoma. Literature reports that Liushen Wan can achieve complete remission in a few leukemia patients and can improve the dysphagia and chest pain of esophageal cancer patients. Combined with other anticancer herbs, the effect is even better.

I mostly had tumor patients take Liushen Wan internally and rarely used it externally. Inspired by my own experience this time, I began to try having some patients with superficially palpable tumors use Liushen Wan externally: also soaked and dissolved in vinegar, dabbed on the affected area with a cotton swab, three to five times a day.

The standard dose of Liushen Wan is 10 pills three times a day for adults, 30 pills a day. In fact, when used anticancerously, the daily dose should reach 90-180 pills; in my own experience, this amount is also safe. It should be noted that Liushen Wan pills are very small, even smaller than rapeseed; 180 pills together are no bigger than 10 soybeans.

Liushen Wan is made so tiny partly because it is too precious and partly because it is toxic; making them small keeps the dose low and the side effects controllable. But this dose has little effect on cancer patients; if the patient is using Liushen Wan made with artificial musk and artificial bezoar, this dose simply cannot achieve the desired therapeutic effect. However, when taking Liushen Wan internally, adults should start at 10 pills and, if there is no discomfort, gradually increase to 60 pills each time; the elderly and young children should reduce the dose appropriately.

This formula evolved from the ancient She Xiong San (Musk-Realgar Powder), a TCM external-medicine powder based on musk and realgar, a classic famous formula for reducing swelling and stopping pain, detoxifying and dissipating nodules. The main ingredients of Xingxiao Wan, handed down in the family of the Qing-dynasty external-medicine master Wang Weide, are musk, realgar, frankincense and myrrh; no manufacturer produces it now. I often combine Liushen Wan with Xihuang Wan to replace Xingxiao Wan; the combination has some therapeutic effect on cancer patients whose syndrome is attributed to accumulation of heat-toxin.

The realgar in Liushen Wan is an arsenic compound and is quite toxic, and toad venom is also somewhat toxic; they must not be used for prolonged periods, and pregnant women should use them cautiously. Liushen Wan comes in versions made with natural musk and with artificial musk; natural musk is expensive and a heavy financial burden, so for regular use the artificial-musk version may be considered.