Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic Record
"Dr. Zhu, I have completed chemotherapy and radiotherapy now. I have calmed down and started drinking Chinese medicine for conditioning. Can I take one sea cucumber a day?" the patient asked.
"Sea cucumber? I don't recommend it, nor am I against it." I said.
"Dr. Zhu, why is this? Don't they all say that sea cucumbers can fight cancer and improve immunity?" the patient asked.
"This issue is going to be a long one, because I think there is a bit of a problem with this statement. At least the understanding of sea cucumbers by Chinese medicine and the views of ordinary people may still be different," I said.
Ancient and modern records of sea cucumbers
Whether sea cucumbers are used as Chinese medicinal materials is an important criterion for judging the medicinal value of sea cucumbers. If a thing has existed for a long time in history but has not been used for medicinal purposes, then at least its traditional Chinese medicine The effect may be insignificant. So what is the status of sea cucumbers in the world of traditional Chinese medicine? Next, let’s sort it out from ancient times to the present.
The earliest records about sea cucumbers can be found in the Sui Dynasty's "Records of Foreign Objects in the Linhai Water". The book records that there is an object called "local meat" that is basically consistent with sea cucumbers. The original text is: "Local meat, black, as long as a child's arm, five inches long, with a middle It has an abdomen, no mouth and eyes, and three legs, which can be eaten when cooked." This may be the earliest record of sea cucumbers in ancient books. However, the book does not record the traditional Chinese medicine effects of sea cucumbers, only that it can be eaten.
Subsequently, there were few records of sea cucumbers in the long history. The earliest record of sea cucumbers as a nourishing book was in the book "Wuzazu" written by Jinshi Xie Zhaozhe in the 30th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1602), which mentioned the benefits of sea cucumbers. The origins and experiences were recorded. The original text is very short, saying: "Sea cucumber, found on the seashore of Liaodong , is a sea man. Its shape is like a man's, which is also the opposite of mussels . Its nature is warm and tonic, and it is sufficient for ginseng. , hence the name sea cucumber." But Xie Zhaozhe is not a medical doctor, and "Wuzazu" is just a record of his experiences, so his record of the efficacy of sea cucumber is actually very questionable, because any Chinese medicine clinician will know that sea cucumber cannot replace ginseng. Yes, the effect is different. However, it is precisely because there is a record of a Jinshi rather than a medical doctor that it may have changed the understanding of sea cucumbers by traditional Chinese medicine after that.
After this, there was another book called "Min Xiaoji" with more detailed records about sea cucumbers. However, the author of this book was not a medical doctor, but a scholar. The records of sea cucumbers can be used as a reference, but the credibility is not high.
Sea cucumbers were recorded in medical books and did not appear until the "Compendium of Materia Medica" in the late Qing Dynasty. It is said to be "sweet, salty and warm. It nourishes the kidneys and essence, aphrodisiacs and treats impotence. It is produced in Liaohai. Those with thorns are named sea cucumber. Those without thorns are called guangshen." Perhaps the traditional Chinese medicine effects of sea cucumbers have been recorded since then.
Sea cucumbers are also recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" of the Qing Dynasty, and their effects are similar to those in "Compendium of Materia Medica" and are also recorded as tonic. However, what is very unusual is that in most medical books, there are few records of sea cucumbers being used for treating diseases and as medicine. Instead, they appear more often in ancient dietary books and in the dietary records of emperors and empresses of the Qing Dynasty.
It can be seen that sea cucumbers were expensive and rare products at that time, so they were mostly used by the royal family rather than for folk medicine. Therefore, various records of sea cucumbers must be treated objectively.
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Sea Cucumber
Since the records of sea cucumbers in the field of traditional Chinese medicine are not very rich, famous doctors, especially famous prescriptions, who use sea cucumbers are very rare. There is no record of sea cucumbers in the university textbook "Chinese Materia Medica", and there are no prescriptions related to sea cucumbers in "Prescriptions". Sea cucumbers are not included in the " Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China ". Therefore, it is a bit far-fetched to label sea cucumbers as a Chinese medicinal material. However, if it is said to be a nourishing ingredient, it should be a more objective evaluation. .
However, with the progress of modern pharmacological research, many studies on the active ingredients of sea cucumbers are also emerging. Research on anti-tumor is particularly interesting. However, at present, the anti-tumor effect of edible sea cucumber extracts is still unknown. Just stay in the lab. It is still unknown whether sea cucumber anti-cancer drugs will eventually be invented. At present, there is no strong basis for sea cucumber’s anti-cancer effects.
The successor of Zhu’s Internal Medicine is here to summarize again!
Sea cucumber is expensive but abundant, and the market supply is not scarce, because its growth cycle is not long, not as long as ginseng, which lasts for several years or decades.
Currently, cancer patients can eat some sea cucumbers in moderation as a nutritional supplement. However, the current nutritional value of sea cucumbers is mainly protein, and protein can be replaced by many other foods.
Can sea cucumbers increase the levels of white blood cells , red blood cells , and platelets in patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy? Personally, I have not seen very obvious clinical effects so far.
Here I would like to remind you that no matter how good the food is, it must have good spleen and stomach functions for transportation and transformation before it can be absorbed by the body. If your spleen and stomach function is not good, I suggest you postpone or not eat one sea cucumber a day. , otherwise it will have the opposite effect.
