Two Tibetan Medicines for Treating Cerebral Infarction and Stroke Sequelae
Cerebral infarction and stroke sequelae are common diseases in Tibetan regions. Because Tibetan people mostly live on the plateau, where oxygen is scarcer than on the plains, the incidence of cerebrovascular disease in China's Tibetan areas is higher than in the lowlands; accordingly, Tibetan people also have rich experience in treating cerebrovascular diseases.
The Tibetans have their own traditional medicine, though the traditional medicine of China's ethnic-minority areas is mostly closely related to Han Chinese medicine. The basic medicinal substances used in minority regions are largely common Chinese herbs, yet over long practice they have developed their own distinctive formulas.
Ershiwuwei Zhenzhu Wan (25-Ingredient Pearl Pills, or capsules) and Ershiwuwei Shanhu Wan (25-Ingredient Coral Pills, or capsules) are the characteristic Tibetan medicines used to treat cerebrovascular diseases. Both are now recorded in the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China, and several pharmaceutical factories produce them as finished medicines according to these Tibetan formulas.
The composition of Ershiwuwei Zhenzhu Wan includes pearl, nutmeg, travertine, cao guo (round cardamom), clove, saffron (Xihonghua), cow bezoar, and musk, among other ingredients. Its action is to calm the spirit and open the orifices; it is indicated for stroke, hemiplegia, deviated mouth and eye, coma, mental derangement, delirium, and mania.
The composition of Ershiwuwei Shanhu Wan includes coral, pearl, lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl, Terminalia chebula (hezi), Vladimiria souliei (Guangmuxiang), safflower, clove, agarwood, cinnabar, dragon bone, calamine, brain stone, magnetite, limonite (Yuyuliang), sesame, calabash, Aster flower, swertia (Zhangyacai), Tibetan acorus (Zangchangpu), Aconitum kusnezoffii (caowu), brachysome chrysanthemum, licorice, saffron, and musk, among others.
Ershiwuwei Shanhu Wan acts to open the orifices, unblock the collaterals, and stop pain. It is indicated for the Tibetan medicine condition of "white-vessel disease," presenting as clouded consciousness, numbness of the body, dizziness and vertigo, head pain, irregular blood pressure, headache, epilepsy, and various neuralgic pains. Clinical reports describe treating 30 cases of cerebral infarction with this medicine: 6 were basically cured, 13 markedly improved, 10 improved, and 1 ineffective, for a total effective rate as high as 96.7%.
The above diseases now fall mostly under the purview of the neurology department of Western medicine. When Han traditional Chinese medicine treats such diseases, it likewise mainly uses musk, cow bezoar, saffron, acorus, gastrodia (Tianma), uncaria (Gouteng), centipede, and scorpion as the chief ingredients. The Tibetan formulas resemble the Han Chinese formulas; this should be the result of long medical practice in which Tibetan and Han medicine absorbed and drew upon each other's experience.