"If I could have stopped her and let her take her medicine on time, maybe the tragedy wouldn't have happened!" Aunt Liang's wife said reproachfully.
Aunt Liang, 62 years old this year, was diagnosed with high blood pressure a few years ago, and she used to take blood pressure medication on time, and her blood pressure has been controlled very stable, but since a year ago, Aunt Liang has always felt dizzy, in fact, because Aunt Liang always forgot to take blood pressure medicine, resulting in unstable blood pressure.
But Aunt Liang felt that it was a side effect of antihypertensive drugs, so her best friend recommended her to take Panax notoginseng powder to help lower blood pressure and prevent cerebral infarction. After drinking Panax notoginseng powder soaked in water for a while, she felt as if her body was getting better, so she simply stopped all the blood pressure medications and only drank Panax notoginseng powder soaked water every day.
Last weekend, when Aunt Liang got up in the morning to go to the toilet, her wife saw that she had not returned to her room for a long time, and went out to look for it, only to find that Aunt Liang had fainted on the ground, and after being sent to the hospital, Aunt Liang could not be saved, and the doctor announced that Aunt Liang had died of acute cerebral infarction.
This tragedy is difficult for the whole family to accept! Isn't it said that Panax notoginseng powder can prevent and treat high blood pressure and cerebral infarction? Why did Aunt Liang suffer from cerebral infarction while eating Panax notoginseng powder?
1. Can drinking Panax notoginseng powder every day prevent cardiovascular disease?
Panax notoginseng is also known as Tian Qi, Jin Buchang, etc., it is very productive in Yunnan, Guangxi and other places in the mainland, its taste is sweet, slightly bitter, warm, generally used to treat various bleeding symptoms inside and outside the body, such as vomiting blood, coughing up blood, blood in the stool and traumatic bleeding, etc., some bleeding and stasis are also applicable.
Modern pharmacology believes that the ingredients of notoginseng saponin, notoginseng and notoginseng can play a pharmacological role in promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, stopping bleeding, reducing swelling and relieving pain, and also have a certain role in regulating the three highs, improving immunity and preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Many middle-aged and elderly people like to use Panax notoginseng powder made of taproot to soak in water and drink, believing that this can prevent myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction. In this regard, Huang Qinghai, deputy chief physician of the Department of Neurosurgery of Shanghai Changhai Hospital, pointed out that the so-called effects of Panax notoginseng are based on the results of in vitro, animal or observational tests, and there is no definite clinical evidence that Panax notoginseng can prevent stroke, so it is not recommended to take it blindly for a long time.
Lin Chen, chief physician of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Fujian Provincial Hospital, reminded that most of the elderly patients with hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases are relatively poor. The sensitivity and tolerance of these people to drugs are worse than those of young people, and blind consumption of Panax notoginseng is easy to cause some adverse reactions in the body, and the gains outweigh the losses.
2. Excessive consumption of Panax notoginseng powder will also have side effects
For ordinary people, the daily intake of Panax notoginseng can be kept at 3~5g, and it should be taken in small amounts and many times. For example, if you eat up to 5g a day, you can divide this 5g into 3 doses, and the effect is the same. But be careful not to eat more than 5g per day, otherwise it is easy to have side effects.
Long-term overdose of Panax notoginseng is prone to dry mouth, emotional restlessness, insomnia, nausea and vomiting, and blood in the sputum, and other discomforts, and even affects the heart conduction system in serious cases, manifested as palpitations, sweating, irregular heart rate, etc., and even life-threatening.
Yao Xiaoying, deputy director of the Instrument and Hygiene Materials Management Center of Daqing Oilfield General Hospital in Heilongjiang Province, suggested that when taking Panax notoginseng, you must choose a regular pharmacy or hospital to buy it. And it is necessary to clarify whether it is suitable for yourself, pregnant women, menorrhagia, people without congestion, people with allergies to notoginseng, and adolescents and children are not recommended to take notoginseng, otherwise it is easy to bring additional burden to health.
3. Can Panax notoginseng powder replace aspirin and prevent cardiovascular disease?
When it comes to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, Panax notoginseng powder and aspirin are popular options in the eyes of many people, some people think that Panax notoginseng powder is a traditional Chinese medicine, and the side effects are relatively mild, aspirin is a Western medicine, and the side effects will lead to the risk of cerebral hemorrhage and gastric bleeding, so they want to replace aspirin with Panax notoginseng powder, which is not feasible?
Aspirin is a platelet cyclooxygenase inhibitor that is widely used in clinical antithrombotic therapy, such as transient cerebral ischemia, myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, and thrombosis after other surgeries, and also has a relieving effect on unstable angina.
Compared with Panax notoginseng, the advantage of aspirin is that there is sufficient clinical evidence to confirm its indications, dosage, dosage form and toxic side effects, and it is the authoritative drug for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in the authoritative drug guidelines of various top academic institutions in the world.
There are few large-scale clinical studies on Panax notoginseng, and the specific dosage, course of treatment, and toxic side effects are not clear, so it is not recommended that patients who have been diagnosed with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases blindly take Panax notoginseng and take aspirin according to the doctor's instructions. As for some low-risk people with no previous cardiovascular disease but high blood lipids, they may be able to take Panax notoginseng as prescribed by their doctor to alleviate the progression of the disease.
Since it can't be replaced, can notoginseng and aspirin be taken at the same time?
Aspirin has a typical side effect of bleeding while treating the disease, and taking Panax notoginseng with aspirin is likely to increase the risk of bleeding. Therefore, it is not recommended for patients who need to take aspirin for a long time, so as not to increase the body's bleeding tendency.
Panax notoginseng is a common Chinese herbal medicine, but it is not recommended for everyone to consume it blindly, nor can it be used as a substitute for medicine, otherwise it is easy to bring some irreparable consequences to health!
Resources:
[1] "Understanding the Chinese Medicine Around You - Panax Notoginseng Activating Blood Pain Relief Gold Does Not Change". Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine 2021-03-31
[2] "Panax notoginseng powder is good, but the side effects of overdose will come to the door", China Women's Daily 2023-08-29
[3] "Panax notoginseng powder ≠ aspirin". Aeromedical Cardiac 2020-12-10
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