Zhenggu Water Can Relieve Symptoms in Some Cancer Pain Patients

Zhenggu Water is a topical medicine commonly used in Chinese orthopedics and traumatology. It has the actions of activating blood and dispelling stasis, reducing swelling and relieving pain, and soothing the tendons and unblocking the collaterals; clinically it is mainly used for traumatic injuries. Zhenggu Water is a wine-red liquid, an OTC product; it may be sprayed or applied to the affected area.

The most commonly used Yulin-brand Zhenggu Water contains as its main ingredients menthol, camphor, Jiulongchuan, Muxiang (Aucklandiae Radix), Haifengteng (Piperis Kadsurae Caulis), Tubiechong (Eupolyphaga Seu Steleophaga), Douzhijiang (Litseae Rhizoma), Zhuyazao (Gleditsiae Fructus Abnormalis), Xiangjiapi (Periplocae Cortex), Ezhu (Curcumae Rhizoma), Mameteng (Gnetum Montanum), and Huzhang (Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma), among others. According to traditional Chinese medical theory these are all herbs that move qi, expel wind, activate blood, and reduce swelling; modern pharmacological studies find their most marked effect is anti-inflammatory and analgesic.

Cancer cells in cancer patients metabolize and produce large amounts of lactic acid. Lactic acid is familiar to us: after over-exercising or heavy physical labor, our muscles ache because of lactic acid production. Zhenggu Water is also commonly used to relieve muscle soreness after sports injury, so it is not hard to understand that Zhenggu Water has a role in relieving cancer pain. When cancer patients reach the terminal stage and become cachectic, the whole body hurts; such pain is hard to relieve entirely with Zhenggu Water, but using it can still reduce the patient’s pain intensity and cut the amount of opioid drugs with their greater side effects that the patient uses.

Zhenggu Water is somewhat irritating to the skin; sprayed or applied to the skin it soon produces a stinging sensation, but this quickly eases, leaving a pungent yet refreshing feeling, and the patient’s pain is thereby reduced; the analgesic effect usually lasts more than 30 minutes. But Zhenggu Water must not be sprayed or applied to broken skin or into the eyes. Patients with low pain tolerance should also not spray it on more sensitive areas of the body, such as the scrotal skin.

Zhenggu Water may be used several times a day; patients with severe pain may use it once an hour. A few patients develop skin allergy after using it; if skin allergy appears, they should stop. Being a topical medicine, Zhenggu Water is very safe and does not harm the liver or kidneys. It must not be taken internally, lest it damage the gastric mucosa.

Patients with localized moderate or mild pain, or cancer pain caused by bone metastasis, mostly obtain temporary relief after using Zhenggu Water. A few patients with surface lumps find that the lumps shrink after using Zhenggu Water; the lumps shrink mainly because the inflammation around them is reduced by the Zhenggu Water.

Zhenggu Water is also very cheap; usually a bottle costs only ten to twenty yuan, embodying the Chinese-medicine features of being “simple, effective, and inexpensive.”

By the way, at home I often put Zhenggu Water to clever use for anti-inflammatory and antibacterial purposes, with ideal results. Sometimes when a family member has an inflammatory lesion on the body surface, I spray on some Zhenggu Water, and it rapidly relieves redness, swelling, and pain.