yunnan bai yao pre surgery

[Guest guest]

In the Pulse of Oriental Medicine, Brian Carter writes (in a question and

answer format):

 

Question: A friend recommended something... There is a tiny pill that she

said folks can take two days before any surgery. It helps prevent blood

clots and potential strokes that may result from the surgery. I believe

the name is Yunan Bai Yawl (there are variations thereof. You buy a little

$2 bottle of the powder (which is used on cuts, external problems) and the

little red pill is in the bottle. I think I may have butchered the

phonetic spelling. She says her acupuncturist/ doctor

swears it would do away with 60% of complications from surgery.

 

[ANSWER]: WHOA! If I had your phone number I'd call you right now (note: I

did get an email to this woman in time). This makes me very nervous. Why?

Because Yunnan Baiyao is an herbal formula that stops bleeding. That means

it is a coagulant. The herbs in Yunnan Baiyao do slightly move blood

(similar to a 'blood-thinning' action) according to Jake Fratkin's

" Chinese Herbal Patent Formulas. " But the main indication is bleeding, and

overall it stops bleeding. It actually would make you more likely to have

clots and a stroke than to prevent it. In all my training, I have never

heard any Traditional (TCM) doctor recommend this formula

pre surgery.

 

entire text at: http://pulsemed.org/yunnan-baiyao-chinese-patent-medicine.

htm

replies: I personally do not recommend this medicine pre-surgically.

However I believe I have heard this recommendation made by others. But

I cannot recall if I ever actually heard a chinese doctor advise this or

actually read it in a reputable source. Others?

 

research suggests the results of using san qi - the main ingredient in

YPY- are mixed (see first abstract below). While san qi lowers blood

pressure and is vasodilatory, it does also stop bleeding, which suggests

vasocontriction. However it appears that it coagulant effect is not due

to vasoconstriction (see second abstract below). Chen advises san qi in

angina, but cautions in hypertension due to possible mixed effects. But

based on his abstract, this actually seems to be more of a concern for dan

shen than san qi, which is not vasoconstrictive at any dose and is

antihypertensive. san qi is said to stop bleeding without causing stasis

and it is also used for moving stasis when one wants to insure that

bleeding does not occur. I don't think it is fair to say that YPY overall

stops bleeding as the package insert indicates it equally for conditions

of pain and stasis without bleeding. San qi is a very important pain herb

and its ability to move blood is given equal footing with its hemostatic

effects by all texts and teachers of mine. As an example, it is highly

regarded for angina pectoris by jiao shu de.

 

While I would not advise this herb (and thus YPY) presurgery without more

evidence to support this contention, I believe it may be excessive to

suggest this YPY would be more likely to cause a stroke than prevent it.

In fact, san qi is widely used as a longevity herb in some parts of china,

as a treatment for heart attack and to increase oxygenation of the blood.

My hunch would be that its balanced effects on the blood and its

antihypertensive nature would actually make it a good stroke-preventive by

itself. How this translates to the patent as a whole is unclear however.

So I also urge erring on the side of caution until more evidence and

anecdote is reported visa ve surgery.

 

1. Am J Chin Med 1986;14(3-4):145-52 Related Articles, Links

 

Cardiovascular pharmacology of Panax notoginseng (Burk) F.H. Chen and

Salvia miltiorrhiza.

Lei XL, Chiou GC.

The cardiovascular pharmacology of two Chinese herbs, Salvia miltiorrhiza

(SM) and Panax notoginseng (Burk) F. H. Chen (PNG) were studied both in

vivo and in vitro. Extracts of both herbs suppressed systemic blood

pressure in albino rats and rabbits, an effect which was blocked or

reversed by atropine, propranolol, and chlorpheniramine plus cimetidine.

This reversed hypertension was blocked by phenoxybenzamine. These results

indicate that these herbs have multiple effector sites in the

cardiovascular system. This could be due to an increased utilization of

extracellular calcium ions since the activity of SM on isolated blood

vessels of rabbits was enhanced by 2 mM Ca++. The effects of aqueous

extract of SM and purified active principles of SM (tanshinones) on rat

and rabbit blood vessels in vitro were very similar both qualitatively and

quantitatively. Both caused vasodilation of coronary arteries at all

concentrations tested but induced vasodilation of renal, mesenteric and

femoral arteries only at low concentrations. At higher concentrations,

vasoconstriction was induced in these vessels. These results indicate that

an economical decoction of SM is as efficacious as the more expensive

isolated tanshinones. Both SM and PNG would be useful as antianginal

agents since they dilate coronary vessels. Their use in hypertension is

questionable since they induce both vasodilation and vasoconstriction

depending on dose and target vessel.

 

 

2. Am J Chin Med 1976 Summer;4(2):147-52 Related Articles, Links

 

The haemostatic effects of the Chinese herbal drug Yunnan Bai Yao: a pilot

study.

Ogle CW, Dai S, Ma JC.

The effects of Yunnan Bai Yao on the bleeding time in rats and the blood

clotting time in rabbits and man were studied. The medicinal preparation

markedly shortened both the bleeding and clotting times; the decreases

were significantly more intense than those inconsistently produced by

starch or by starch with calcium. These preliminary findings suggest that

the action of Yunnan Bai Yao appears not to be due to its pH (5.2) or to

vasoconstriction, but other factors such as its calcium content or the

physical effect of its particle size cannot yet be excluded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre

minds " -- Albert Einstein