Use Huang Qi (Astragalus) Well: Fight Tumors and Lengthen Life
Huang Qi, also written Huang Qi, is the rhizome of Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. var. mongholicus or Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. of the Fabaceae family. It is the most commonly used qi- and blood-tonifying herb in TCM.
As early as the era when the Shennong Bencaojing appeared, people had already discovered its anti-cancer and longevity effects. The Shennong Bencaojing lists Huang Qi as an upper-grade herb, holding that Huang Qi “is sweet in taste and warm in nature. It mainly treats carbuncles and deep-rooted sores, long-unhealed ulcers, expels pus and stops pain, treats great wind and leprosy, five types of hemorrhoids, and scrofulous fistulae; it supplements deficiency and treats a hundred diseases of children.” The Rihuazi Bencao records that “Huang Qi assists qi, strengthens sinew and bone, grows flesh and nourishes blood, breaks up concrete abdominal masses, scrofula, goiter and tumors, intestinal wind, blood collapse, vaginal discharge, red and white dysentery, all diseases before and after childbirth, irregular menstruation, wasting-thirst, and phlegm cough; it also treats head wind, heat-toxin, and red eyes.” The Bencao Beiyao records that Huang Qi can “generate blood and flesh, expel pus and support interiorly,” and is a “sacred herb for sores and carbuncles.”
Huang Qi is one of the most-used herbs among TCM doctors through the dynasties. Its nature is mild; TCM holds it enters the Lung and Spleen meridians, with the effects of boosting qi and lifting yang, consolidating the defensive exterior, promoting diuresis and reducing swelling, generating fluids and nourishing blood, moving stagnation and unblocking impediment, supporting toxin and expelling pus, and healing sores and generating flesh. Huang Qi is also one of the most-studied herbs in modern pharmacology; through various animal experiments and human trials, modern pharmacology has confirmed that Huang Qi improves the immune system, improves the body's metabolism, improves hematopoietic function, protects the cardiovascular system, and has antiviral, anti-cancer, and anti-liver-injury effects.
Huang Qi has very low toxicity. Animal experiments confirmed that mice given oral Huang Qi decoction at 75 g/kg showed no obvious side effects; the LD50 of intraperitoneal Huang Qi extract was 40 g/kg. This means the clinical doses commonly used will not cause side effects. When I treated a patient with an ulcerated facial tumor, my daily dose of raw Huang Qi was 300 g, with no adverse reaction. After combining raw Huang Qi, Bai Ji (Bletillae Rhizoma), and Jin Yin Hua (Lonicerae Flos), the patient's tumor sore, which had ulcerated, discharged pus, and even bred maggots, actually closed over. This proves the ancients' claim that Huang Qi helps close and heal sores was not empty talk.
Judging from the ancient literature, Huang Qi's greatest efficacy is in treating tumors and ulcer-type diseases: concrete abdominal masses, carbuncles, unhealed sores, scrofula, scrofulous fistulae, goiter and tumors all belong to this category. That is why the Bencao Beiyao calls Huang Qi a “sacred herb for sores and carbuncles”; it is the most commonly used toxin-supporting, pus-expelling herb in TCM external medicine. In treating sores and carbuncles, Huang Qi both supports toxin and expels pus and closes and heals the sore.
Modern pharmacological experiments have confirmed Huang Qi's good cancer-preventing and anti-cancer effects. In an animal experiment inducing rat lung cancer with 3-methylcholanthrene iodized-oil solution, the cancer incidence in rats given intramuscular Huang Qi injection was 16.28%, versus 51.52% in the control group; this experiment shows Huang Qi injection can markedly lower cancer incidence in experimental animals. In an animal experiment on mice with spontaneously arising melanoma, mice injected with astragalus polysaccharide saw their survival extended from 15.71 days to 21.57 days, showing that astragalus polysaccharide prolongs the survival of tumor-bearing mice. Clinical trials on patients with cancerous ascites caused by gastric and ovarian cancer also confirmed that astragalus polysaccharide can activate the lymphocytes of cancerous-ascites patients; the activated lymphocytes cluster around the tumor cells and ultimately promote tumor-cell apoptosis.
These pharmacological experiments confirm Huang Qi's inhibitory effect on cancerous masses and verify that the ancient TCM records of Huang Qi treating “carbuncles, scrofula, goiter and tumors” are correct. The renowned contemporary TCM master Professor He Ren, after developing cancer in middle age, long persisted in eating porridge cooked with Huang Qi and Yi Yi Ren (Coicis Semen); he lived to over ninety, in good health and still seeing patients until shortly before his death.
Huang Qi also has anti-aging effects. The ancients named it “Huang Qi” because it is suitable for the elderly (“Qi” in classical Chinese means an elderly person) and can lengthen the years of the old. Animal experiments have confirmed that Huang Qi has a marked antioxidant effect and can increase the weight of immune organs such as the spleen and thymus, so it is rightly the “thymosin” of Chinese herbs.
Huang Qi is also one of the best blood-tonifying herbs. It raises the counts of white blood cells, red blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets in the blood; its effect on raising red cells and hemoglobin is especially marked, and it has a bidirectional regulatory effect on white blood cells. Traditional TCM says Huang Qi supplements qi, which may relate to this effect. Hemoglobin carries oxygen to all tissues of the body, so raising hemoglobin markedly improves the body's oxygen-deficient state, turning a listless patient into one full of energy. The famous TCM Huangqi Blood-Tonifying Decoction uses a heavy dose of Huang Qi and a light dose of Danggui (the amount of Huang Qi is five times that of Danggui); in the past this was mostly explained as urgently supplementing qi on the verge of desertion, but in fact the ancients may have found that heavy Huang Qi improves anemia faster, and modern pharmacology confirms Huang Qi's blood-tonifying effect is direct, not indirect.
Huang Qi also has a good diuretic, swelling-reducing effect. For frail patients with pleural effusion or ascites, I often use a large dose of Huang Qi combined with other diuretic, swelling-reducing herbs such as Fu Ling (Poria), Zhu Ling (Polyporus), Che Qian Zi (Plantaginis Semen), and Hu Lu (Lagenariae Fructus). When the Huang Qi dose is raised above 60 grams, the patient's urine volume clearly increases, without the risk of the body becoming weak after the fluid is drained.
TCM holds that any pattern of spleen-lung qi deficiency with central qi downward may be treated with Huang Qi. So whenever there is poor appetite and loose stool, coughing and wheezing, sinking central qi, lassitude and fatigue, blood in stool or urine, rectal prolapse, uterine prolapse, or gastroptosis, Huang Qi may be used alone or combined with other herbs. My teacher's wife suffered asthma for many years; in recent years I used heavy Huang Qi combined with Danggui, Yi Yi Ren, and Huang Jing (Polygonati Rhizoma) to make pills for her to take consistently, and the frequency of her asthma attacks dropped greatly.
Many cancer patients fear Huang Qi; some even believe that after receiving Western immunotherapy they can no longer use Huang Qi. These claims lack large controlled-trial evidence and are mere prejudice. In my clinical cancer practice, I have used Huang Qi in the formulas of over 80% of patients, with benefit and no harm. One patient who developed a serious side effect on PD-1 therapy was given heavy raw Huang Qi by me; not only was there no side effect, but the patient's problem was resolved. That patient has now been in CR (complete remission) for over two years with no sign of recurrence.
As long as it is properly combined, Huang Qi can prolong the lives of most tumor patients. Besides tumor patients, various other deficiency-type chronic and geriatric diseases are also indications for Huang Qi. But limited by space and the scope of my research, I will not say more about those other areas here.