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| many of them in my own practice. I am always astounded, therefore, when someone (sometimes a physician treating one of my patients) claims there is no evidence or proof that herbs are beneficial; that they may, in fact, be potentially dangerous; and are, in any case, a waste of money. |
| Fu-zheng |
| One Chinese herbal system, called fu-zheng, is widely used in Chinese hospitals as an adjunct to radiation and chemotherapy for cancer; in more progressive U.S. hospitals, it is beginning to be used in the same way. Fu-zheng successfully protects the immune system and increases survival rates by enhancing the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy without negative side effects. Interestingly, fu-zheng literally means to promote or enhance the natural host defense mechanism by strengthening one's resistance. |
| Studies show that a full 91.5 percent of patients in China who received both chemotherapy and fu-zheng therapy responded with tumor shrinkage, compared to 46.9 percent of patients who received chemotherapy alone. Doctors at Beijing Institute for Cancer Research also found significant differences in response rates as well as survival times between the two groups. It is important to note that in every study conducted, the group receiving fu-zheng herbs plus chemotherapy showed more improvement and longer survival time than the group that received chemotherapy alone. When fu-zheng herbal therapy was used as an adjuvant to radiation therapy to treat pharyngeal cancer, the five-year survival rate was more than twice as high (53 percent) as in a group not receiving the herbs (24 percent). 1 |
| The most common herbs used in fu-zheng are blood-vitalizing herbs, including astragalus, milletia, reishi, panax ginseng, schizandra, jujube, ligusticum, hoelen, salvia, ho shou wu, cordyceps, atractylodis, and codonopsis. Studies continue to demonstrate that these herbs have a dramatic impact on the enhancement of an immune system weakened by chemo and radiation therapies. They not only protect the immune and endocrine systems but also inhibit such diseases as influenza, upper respiratory infections, fungal infections, and chemically induced hepatitis. These diseases can cause serious complications for the person with cancer, requiring an interruption in treatment and a course of antibiotics that can lead to diarrhea and other debilitating problems. |
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