TCM Book Club Issue 2119
Daily updates to accompany the growth of TCM practitioners
IIntroduction: Huang Qi (Astragalus) has the effects of tonifying Qi, stopping sweating, promoting tissue regeneration, and diuresis. It is suitable for conditions such as Qi deficiency, shortness of breath, mental fatigue, weakness in limbs, poor digestion, excessive sweating, Qi deficiency leading to prolapse of the rectum, and uterine prolapse. It can also be used for edema and chronic ulcers that have not healed for a long time. (Editor/Qian Cheng)
A Single Herb: Huang Qi (Astragalus) Saves a Mother
Author/Wang Li
In mythology, there is a story of Erlang Shen Yang Jian splitting a mountain to save his mother. Today, I will tell you a real-life version of how a single herb, Huang Qi, saved a mother.
Just a few days ago, an old friend from Guangzhou called me to share a very special case she personally experienced. Here is the transcription.
Let me tell you something. This case might be very useful for you in the future. My mother is now over 90 years old. 26 years ago, in 1993, she had surgery for breast cancer. After the stitches were removed, the wound opened up and wouldn’t close for over a month. I was at my wit’s end, so I checked medical books at home and used Huang Qi (Astragalus) to stew a type of fish with patterns on its body, which we in Guangzhou call ‘Sheng Yu’ (live fish). The doctor said cancer patients shouldn’t eat this type of fish, but I didn’t care; I just wanted the wound to heal. After three consecutive days of eating it, the wound started to heal. That was my first experience with the magic of Huang Qi.
Later, my aunt also developed breast cancer and had a similar issue with her wound not healing after surgery. I told her about this method. My aunt is in Shanxi, and they don’t have this type of fish, so she used regular fish instead. After a few meals, her wound also healed. It was truly miraculous.
The medical book I used was a small booklet left over from our family, printed during the Cultural Revolution. It’s very thin, less than a centimeter thick, with a small format, and has no author name. It was probably compiled by some old experts at that time. I’ll look for it later.
Because my mother has poor immunity, suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, and has severe uterine prolapse, she has tried various estrogen medications and creams, but nothing worked. Later, I tried using Huang Qi as per the book’s instructions. There was some improvement, but not much; she still felt weak. At that time, we had a caregiver who would buy the medicine from a nearby pharmacy. This went on for several years. Eventually, my mother got older and I couldn’t find a suitable caregiver, so I sent her to a high-end elderly care center near my home. However, my mother refused to take any medicine other than Huang Qi. Since there was no caregiver to help me buy the medicine, I went to a well-known pharmaceutical factory nearby to buy Huang Qi and brewed it for her every day.
The dosage remained the same, just one cup a day. As a result, within half a month, her uterus stopped prolapsing. This pharmaceutical factory is very famous, and many top hospitals in Guangzhou use its medicines. I realized that good medicine is indeed different from the average pharmacy’s medicine; the difference is significant. This continued for almost three years, and I almost forgot about it. Later, as my mother aged, her uterus started to prolapse again, which was very painful and distressing. So, I tried using wild Huang Qi. The next day, I saw results. After using wild Huang Qi, her uterine prolapse gradually improved.
After using wild Huang Qi, I noticed she started to have some constipation. I thought maybe the wild Huang Qi was too strong for her. I switched back to the regular cultivated Huang Qi, and it was fine for a few more years. However, over time, I became careless, and her heart failure symptoms began to appear, leading to this recent situation.
My mother has severe gallstones and has suffered from pancreatitis twice but survived. Twelve years ago, in 2007, it was discovered that her kidney function was not good. Perhaps it was because she had been using Huang Qi all these years; she never needed dialysis or other medications. My mother refused to take any other medicine except Huang Qi water; she wouldn’t even drink anything with red dates. I thought my mother had suffered enough, so I just wanted to make her comfortable and not let her suffer too much.
Recently, my mother was hospitalized in the cardiac intensive care unit (CCU) due to pneumonia and heart failure. Her condition was very serious, and they were feeding her anything, but she wouldn’t eat, not even Huang Qi water. As a result, her uterine prolapse worsened, she had reduced urine output, and developed acute kidney failure to the point of acidosis and confusion, where even I couldn’t recognize her. The situation was extremely critical. Yesterday, I felt it was hopeless, so I signed to withdraw all medication and resuscitation measures, keeping only oxygen. I completely entrusted her care to faith. I used wild Huang Qi, boiled it into a thick juice, and mixed it into egg batter to feed her. Miraculously, today she woke up, very lively, and even complained about how painful the injections were and wanted to file a complaint against the nurse, saying she would complain to the head nurse. Seeing her today made me very happy, but her creatinine level rose from 250 to 410.
A week later, my friend called and said, “I am grateful; my mother in her 90s has finally been discharged from the hospital. For the past few days, I have been carefully preparing meals for her, relying solely on two meals of Huang Qi water mixed with baby rice flour, plus a cup of yogurt and a tomato. Amazingly, my mother has been getting better every day until all her vital signs returned to normal, and she was discharged. All the medical staff involved in her treatment and care were amazed.”
After a few days, my friend really found that old medical book and sent me a photo. Wow, how familiar! I should say I have one too. I rummaged through my things and found it; it was identical—”Commonly Used Chinese Medicinal Herbs,” published by Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House in 1958 and reprinted in 1965. The author’s name was removed in the reprint. Under the entry for Huang Qi, it states: “Huang Qi has the effects of tonifying Qi, stopping sweating, promoting tissue regeneration, and diuresis. It is suitable for conditions such as Qi deficiency, shortness of breath, mental fatigue, weakness in limbs, poor digestion, excessive sweating, Qi deficiency leading to prolapse of the rectum, and uterine prolapse. It can also be used for edema and chronic ulcers that have not healed for a long time. Modern medical conditions such as chronic nephritis, diabetes, chronic pulmonary tuberculosis…” Haha, this friend really did well; it all fits perfectly.
Oh, the book didn’t mention the “live fish” part. I called my friend again, and she replied: “The live fish is a custom among people in Guangzhou. This fish is a type of scaleless, patterned, carnivorous fish. It is said that stewing (actually steaming) live fish after surgery can help the wound heal better (eating it too early, for example, right after surgery before the stitches are removed, can cause excessive growth of granulation tissue, which looks unsightly).”
The live fish was accompanied by a photo, and I thought it was some magical fish, but it turned out to be the ‘Cai Yu’ (financial fish), also known as ‘Heiyu’ (black fish) or ‘Wuyu’ (black fish). In the “Shennong Bencao Jing” (Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica), it is referred to as ‘Li Yu’ and classified as a superior herb. Many later herbal texts do not include this herb, but the 2006 edition of the “Chinese Herbal Medicine Dictionary” published by Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House states under the entry for Li Yu: “It has a significant effect on promoting wound healing” (p3865). Look, everything connects perfectly, and it can even create innovative combinations. It shows that while there may not be masters everywhere in the folk, there is indeed survival wisdom everywhere.
Recommended Reading
Pure Practical Knowledge | Huang Qi’s Ten Combinations, Effective for Treating Difficult Diseases
Deng Tietao: Six Methods of Huang Qi Application
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