A Special Chinese Herb for Cancer Pain: Shifu (Woodlouse)
The Chinese herb Shifu (woodlouse) is the whole body of the common pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare (family Armadillidiidae, genus Armadillidium), or of Porcellio scaber (family Porcellionidae, genus Porcellio). It is also known as shifuchong, chaosichong, dishi, xiebanchong, shuishengchong, and xiguachong. Woodlice are widely distributed around the world; they prefer dark, damp environments rich in humus, are light-avoiding, and mostly live under damp stones or rotting wood.
TCM has used woodlice as medicine for a very long time; it appears in the earliest classic, the Shennong Bencao Jing (Divine Husbandry's Materia Medica). Woodlice are usually caught from April to September each year; after capture they are scalded to death in boiling water and dried in the sun or by baking for storage. Woodlouse insects are easily damaged by worms, so dried woodlice must be stored in a lime jar.
Woodlice have many functions. TCM holds that Shifu is sour and salty in taste and cool in nature, entering the Liver and Kidney meridians. It has the effects of breaking blood and expelling stasis, attacking hardness and dissipating accumulations, unblocking the channels and promoting diuresis, and resolving toxin and relieving pain. It is mainly used for malaria with masses (niemu), abdominal masses (zhengjia), blood-stasis amenorrhea, urinary obstruction, convulsions, toothache, sores and ulcers, and thrush.
In fact, some of the above diseases are tumor-type diseases. In Zhang Zhongjing's Biejia Jianwan (Turtle Shell Decoction-Pill), woodlouse is one of the ingredients; this formula has a certain efficacy against liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Modern pharmacological research has found that woodlice's main action is analgesic. Woodlice not only significantly relieve pain in the mouse tail-flick test induced by hot water, but combined internal and external use of woodlouse preparations can markedly relieve moderate to severe cancer pain, with a total effective rate reaching 87.5%.
Using woodlice to treat cancer pain can be done orally or externally, and internal-external combination is best. The oral method is: take 60 g of dried woodlice, add an appropriate amount of water, decoct twice, obtaining about 240 ml of medicine liquid, divided into four doses per day. In addition, 120 g of dried woodlice can be soaked in 500 ml of white liquor for 3 days for external use. When using, dip a brush in an appropriate amount and rub the painful area 3–5 times, 4–6 times a day.
Woodlice have a clear effect on cancer pain with relatively few side effects. But they are not entirely side-effect free; woodlice may cause hyperproteinemia. A recent late-stage lung cancer patient I treated, from Jiangxi, had poor pain control with other drugs; after using woodlice on his own, his cancer pain was markedly relieved.
Woodlice can treat not only cancer pain but also postoperative pain. When using woodlice for pain, one need not follow the above methods but can instead make self-prepared woodlouse capsules. Clean woodlouse insects can be ground, mixed with an appropriate amount of starch to make a powder, and packed into capsules, each containing 0.1–0.5 g of woodlouse. Depending on the degree of pain, take 0.2–2 g each time, 3–4 times a day. Patients taking woodlouse capsules can start with a small dose, 0.2 g each time, and gradually increase if ineffective.
Woodlice can also treat obstruction caused by esophageal and cardiac carcinoma. The formula Kaiguan San (Tube-Opening Powder) is made from equal amounts of woodlouse and Qingmengshi (chlorite schist), ground into a fine powder. Take 1–2 g of Kaiguan San each time, 4–6 times a day, placed at the base of the tongue and allowed to dissolve. It can improve symptoms in patients with cardiac obstruction; those with complete obstruction can take semi-liquid food after use. Of course, relying on this formula alone to treat esophageal and cardiac cancer is not effective; this relief is only temporary, but it can buy some time for other treatments.
Woodlice have a certain diuretic effect, so they can also be used to treat ascites, especially ascites caused by liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, where the effect is more marked, and they also relieve pain. Used together with turtle shell (Biejia), curcuma (Ezhu), immature bitter orange (Zhiqiao), white peony (Baishao), polyporus (Zhuling), and poria (Fuling), woodlice have a certain efficacy against ascites, abdominal distension, and cancer pain in liver cancer patients, and can prolong survival and improve quality of life.