The Effects of Hachimi-jio-gan on Chronic Asthma. The First Report / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the authors report four case studies of patients with chronic asthma who improved with the administration of Hachimijio-gan (in pill form). The patients involved were three women aged 63, 57 and 41, and one man, aged 42.<br>In all of the cases, asthma attacks began in adulthood and occurred perennially. They were classified into three grades of severity patient 1-mild; patient 2-moderate; patients 3 and 4-severe. The standard indications for usage (Sho) in Kampo medicine were confirmed in all four cases. The asthmatic state of patient 1 improved with administration of Hachimi-jio-gan M (Uchida Wakanyaku Inc.), but produced no response in the other three patients. However, when Hachimi-jio-gan pills that were made by hand using the steamed root of Rehmaniae Radix were administered, improvement was seen in the asthmatic state of the other three patients as well. With improvement in the asthmatic state of all patients involved, attack scores decreased, treatment scores decreased and peak expiratory flow rates in the early morning increased. Patient 3 was able to discontinue use of oral corticosteroid drugs, and patient 4 was able to decrease the dosage.<br>The results suggest that Hachimi-jio-gan improves the respiratory function in patients with chronic asthma, and that the clinical effect was increased when the steamed root of Rehmaniae Radix is used in place of the dry root.