What are the benefits of Gastrodia elata? A detailed guide
Gastrodia elata is a commonly used and relatively precious traditional Chinese medicine, clinically used mostly for headache and dizziness, limb numbness, infantile convulsions, epilepsy, spasms, tetanus and other conditions. Because Gastrodia elata has a marked effect on headache and dizziness caused by liver-yang rising, it is often taken as a "tonic". Whenever dizziness appears, people use Gastrodia elata indiscriminately, regardless of whether the constitution is deficient or excess, or whether qi and blood are abundant or declining, and the result may be the same adverse reactions as in the above patients.
The common adverse reactions from taking Gastrodia elata include: dizziness, nausea, chest tightness, skin papules with itching, etc., and in individual cases facial or general edema, or even hair loss. Not only can these reactions occur with Gastrodia elata used alone, but some people who take decoctions containing Gastrodia elata, such as Banxia Baizhu Tianma Tang, or Chinese patent medicines such as Tianma Wan and Tianma Armillaria mellea sugar-coated tablets, will likewise develop symptoms of allergy to Gastrodia elata.
The ancients long ago recognized the side effects or contraindications of Gastrodia elata. For example, the Compendium of Materia Medica says: "Taken over a long period, Gastrodia elata causes red eruptions all over the body." The Ben Jing Feng Yuan also says: "Although Gastrodia elata is not drying in nature, it is after all a wind-dispelling agent; if there is blood deficiency without wind, or headache due to flaming fire with dry mouth and constipation, it must not be used indiscriminately."
The famous Qing dynasty physician Wu Yiluo stated even more directly: "It is contraindicated in those with depleted blood and in those who do not have true stroke." Modern pharmacological experiments have shown that Gastrodia elata has certain toxic side effects; the toxic dose of Gastrodia elata is above 40 g, and the latent period of poisoning is 1 to 6 hours.
Functions and indications
Gastrodia elata is moistening but not drying, mainly enters the liver meridian, and is especially good at calming the liver and extinguishing wind; for all patterns of internal stirring of liver wind and dizziness of the head and eyes, whether deficiency or excess, it is an essential medicine.
1. Calming the liver and extinguishing wind: Gastrodia elata is moist in quality and rich in fluid, can nourish blood and extinguish wind, and can treat headache and dizziness due to internal stirring of liver wind with blood deficiency; it can also be used for infantile convulsions, epilepsy and tetanus.
2. Dispelling wind and relieving pain: used for dizziness caused by wind-phlegm, migraine and general headache, limb numbness and hemiplegia.
Gastrodia elata is suitable for dizziness caused by internal wind. There are three types of headache caused by internal wind: first, the liver-yang rising type, with symptoms of headache and dizziness appearing at the same time; second, phlegm turbidity obstructing the middle, with symptoms of frequently feeling heaviness on one side of the head; third, kidney deficiency patients, with symptoms of headache and dizziness accompanied by memory decline. Gastrodia elata is not suitable for headache and dizziness caused by the common cold.
Gastrodia elata has sedative, analgesic and anticonvulsant effects; it can increase cerebral blood flow, reduce cerebrovascular resistance, mildly constrict cerebral blood vessels and increase coronary blood flow; it can lower blood pressure, slow heart rate and protect against myocardial ischemia; Gastrodia elata polysaccharides have immune activity.
Pharmacological effects of Gastrodia elata
1. Analgesic effect: Tianma injection prepared from Gastrodia elata has a marked analgesic effect on trigeminal neuralgia, vasoneurotic headache, headache due to cerebrovascular disease and toxic polyneuritis. In recent years, through clinical trials by some medical units in more than 1000 patients, the effective rate reached 90%.
2. Sedative effect: some medical units used synthetic gastrodin (gastrodoside) to treat patients with neurasthenia and neurasthenic syndrome, with effective rates of 89.44% and 86.87% respectively. It can also inhibit caffeine-induced central excitation and enhance the sleep-prolonging effect of pentobarbital sodium.
3. Anticonvulsant effect: Gastrodia elata has a certain therapeutic effect on facial nerve twitching, limb numbness, hemiplegia and epilepsy. It also relieves smooth muscle spasm and alleviates angina pectoris and biliary colic.
4. Blood pressure-lowering effect: Gastrodia elata can treat hypertension. Taken over a long period, it can calm the liver and boost qi, strengthen the waist and knees, and strengthen the bones and muscles; it can also increase peripheral and coronary arterial blood flow and has a protective effect on the heart.
5. Effects of improving vision and enhancing intelligence: Gastrodia elata also has the effect of improving vision and significantly enhancing memory. Gastrodia elata has a clear protective and regulatory effect on the human brain and nervous system, can enhance the resolving power of the optic nerve, and has now been used as a brain health food or brain health medicine for high-altitude flight personnel. In Japan, Gastrodia elata injection is used to treat senile dementia, with an effective rate of 81%.