Buyang Huanwu Decoction for Healthcare: Evidence-Based Theoretical Interpretations of Treating Different Diseases with the Same Method and Target of Vascularity
Buyang Huanwu Decoction for Healthcare: Evidence-Based Theoretical Interpretations of Treating Different Diseases with the Same Method and Target of Vascularity
Ji-huang Li,1 Ai-ju Liu,1 Hui-qin Li,1 Yan Wang,2 Hong-Cai Shang,3 and Guo-qing Zheng1
1Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325027, China
2Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325027, China
3Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China
Received 6 April 2014; Revised 14 May 2014; Accepted 21 May 2014; Published 14 July 2014
Academic Editor: Aiping Lu
Copyright © 2014 Ji-huang Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Buyang Huanwu Decoction (BHD) is a famous herbal prescription that has been used to treat stroke for centuries. Recent studies reported that the use of BHD had been extended to treat various kinds of disorders according to the TCM syndrome theory of Treating Different Diseases with the Same Method (TDDSM). Here, an overview of systematic reviews (SRs) of BHD for healthcare was conducted to interpret the TCM theory of TDDSM and its target of vascularity in an evidence-based manner. Literature searches were carried out in 5 databases to search SRs of BHD for any indication up to August 2013. Thirteen eligible SRs were identified which reported a wide range of vascular conditions. Based on the Overview Quality Assessment Questionnaire scores, the quality of included SRs was varied, with an average score of 4 points. We found that there is premature evidence for the use of BHD for healthcare, whereas BHD was well tolerable in all patients. BHD can be used to treat many disorders with the same therapeutic principle of invigorating Qi to activate blood circulation, which is essentially a manifestation of the TDDSM and is likely to account for targeting the specific pathogenesis of vascular diseases.
1. Introduction
ZHENG, also known as a syndrome or pattern, is the basic unit and a key concept of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory that summarizes the nature, location, and pattern of diseases and has been used in China for over 3,000 years [1, 2]. Syndrome differentiation is the comprehensive analysis of clinical information gained by the four main diagnostic TCM procedures: observation, listening, questioning, and pulse analyses, which is the essential guide to treatment with TCM [3]. All diagnostic and therapeutic methods in TCM lie primarily in the syndrome differentiation [2]. Based on each individual syndrome, the precisely tailoring Chinese herbal prescription for individuals can help the improvement of efficacy of the selected TCM herbal prescription intervention [1, 3]. One example of high-quality study published in JAMA [4] indicated that using the individualized Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome is more effective than prescribing a common hypnotic prescription. Following the TCM syndrome theory, patients suffering from the different diseases might be categorized with the same syndrome (same TCM syndrome for different diseases) and may be treated by a same therapeutic approach known as Treating Different Diseases with the Same Method (Yibing Tongzhi, YBTZ) [2]. Therefore, the core of YBTZ is the TCM syndrome. Since syndrome demonstrates the specific part, cause, and property of a disease and reflects the essence of pathological changes at a stage of disease’s development, a herbal prescription for YBTZ may target the specific pathogenesis of diseases. The success of personalized medicine relies on having accurate diagnostic tests that identify patients who can benefit from targeted therapies [5]. However, when the target of treatment administration is not focused but a herbal prescription so widely promulgated indications where is the target of investigation. Hence, a better understanding of the TCM theory of YBTZ and its potentially therapeutic target may contribute to evidence-based theoretical interpretations of TCM syndrome and enhance evidences of syndrome-based efficacy of CHM.
Buyang Huanwu Decoction (BHD) is a well-known classic traditional Chinese herbal prescription for stroke, which was first recorded in the Yilin Gaicuo (Correction on Errors in Medical Classics) written by Wang Qingren in 1830 during late Qing Dynasty [19]. BHD is composed of seven kinds of Chinese medicine: (A) Radix Astragali (huang qi), the dried roots of Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge. var. mongholicus (Bge.) Hsiao; (B) the coda part of Radix Angelicae Sinensis root (gui wei), the dried lateral roots of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels; (C) (...truncated)