Do you really understand the effects and side effects of Astragalus?

Astragalus is a common Chinese medicinal material in daily life and is a component of many Chinese medicine preparations. However, many people do not know the effects and side effects of Astragalus. In fact, Astragalus has 11 effects on human health. Of course, Astragalus also has many side effects. Let us take a closer look at it below!

The efficacy of Astragalus

1. Enhance immune function

Astragalus can enhance the phagocytic function of the reticuloendothelial system, significantly increase the number of white blood cells and multinuclear leukocytes, and significantly increase the phagocytic percentage and phagocytic index of macrophages, and has a promoting effect on both humoral immunity and cellular immunity. After normal people take it, plasma IgM and IgE increase significantly, and the whole herb has the best effect. Astragalus can promote the formation of serum hemolysin, enhance the hemolytic ability of plaque-forming cells, and has obvious carbon particle clearance effect and the effect of increasing spleen weight. The above effects exist under normal physiological conditions and also have obvious effects when the immune function is low. Astragalus not only has a strengthening effect on low immune function, but also has a bidirectional regulatory effect. The active ingredient F3 of Astragalus membranaceus was shown to have a complete restorative effect on the lymphocyte function of cancer patients in in vitro experiments, and was shown to completely reverse the immunosuppression caused by cyclophosphamide in in vivo animal model experiments, suggesting that Astragalus membranaceus components may be a very promising biological response modifier in immunotherapy. Astragalus can enhance the activity of natural killer cells (LAK) activated by lymphokine (interleukin-2).

2. Effect on interferon

Astragalus can greatly enhance the ability of viruses to induce interferon. People who are prone to colds can take Astragalus, which can greatly reduce the number of colds, and can also make cold symptoms lighter and shorten the course of the disease.

3. Enhance the body's ability to tolerate hypoxia and stress

Astragalus polysaccharide has a significant anti-fatigue effect, can significantly prolong the swimming time and increase the weight of adrenaline in hydrocortisone-depleted mice, has a significant tolerance to various hypoxia models in mice, can significantly reduce systemic oxygen consumption and increase tissue tolerance to hypoxia. Astragalus polysaccharide has a significant effect of resisting low temperature and can significantly prolong the survival time of normal and impaired mice.

4. Promote body metabolism

Astragalus can enhance the physiological metabolic capacity of cells in the body, which is mostly achieved through the regulation of intracellular cAMP and cGMP. Astragalus can also promote the renewal of liver protein and serum, and has a promoting effect on protein metabolism, which is another aspect of Astragalus's tonic effect.

5. Improve heart function

Astragalus has the effect of strengthening the contraction of a normal heart. Its cardiotonic effect is more significant on a heart that has failed due to poisoning or fatigue, which is manifested by increasing the amplitude of cardiac contraction and the amount of blood discharged. 100% Astragalus injection can strengthen and accelerate the contraction of isolated heart. Astragalus can improve left ventricular function in patients with viral myocarditis and has a certain anti-arrhythmic effect, which may be due to prolonging the effective refractory period.

6. Antihypertensive effect

Subcutaneous or intravenous injection of Astragalus decoction, water extract, and alcohol extract into anesthetized animals (dogs, cats, and rabbits) can lower blood pressure with a rapid effect and short duration. The antihypertensive effect is the result of direct dilation of peripheral blood vessels. Injecting Astragalus injection into the coronary arteries, vertebral arteries, superior mesenteric arteries, cerebral blood vessels, intestinal blood vessels and other visceral blood vessels of experimental dogs can reduce the vascular resistance index. However, when injected into the renal artery, the renal vascular resistance index increases instead, indicating that the effect of Astragalus on renal blood vessels is different from that on blood vessels in other parts of the body.

7. Liver protection

Astragalus can prevent the reduction of liver glycogen and has a protective effect on carbon tetrachloride hepatitis in mice. Astragalus also has a certain effect on the conversion of positive hepatitis B virus surface antigen to negative, and the difference is significant compared with the control group (P<0.05). The clinical effective rates of chronic hepatitis in the liver depression and spleen deficiency type and liver and kidney yin deficiency type were 92.1% and 88.5%, respectively, which were better than those in the control group (P < 0.05), indicating that the efficacy of using only Astragalus membranaceus to treat chronic hepatitis is not ideal.

8. Regulate blood sugar

Astragalus polysaccharide has a bidirectional effect on regulating blood sugar. It can significantly reduce the blood sugar level of mice after glucose load, and can significantly counteract the increase in blood sugar level of mice caused by adrenaline, but has no obvious effect on insulin hypoglycemia. Just ask about health

9. Antibacterial and antiviral effects

Astragalus has inhibitory effects on Shigella dysenteriae, Pneumococcus, hemolytic Streptococcus A, B, C, and golden, lemon, and white Staphylococci. Astragalus also has a certain inhibitory effect on the pathogenicity of oral viruses and influenza Sendai BB1 virus, but has no direct inactivation effect.

10. Hormone-like effects

Astragalus has a hormone-like effect, can prolong the estrus period of mice, and has a good effect on the development of mice.

11. Others

Astragalus membranaceus can significantly reduce the blood rheology indexes of rabbits, and its properties and strength are the same as those of Danshen injection. 100% Astragalus injection has excitatory and contractile effects on the isolated uterus of rats. Astragalus injection has a growth-promoting effect on chicken embryo femur in vitro. Astragalus can also promote the increase of hemoglobin, serum protein and albumin in patients with aplastic anemia.

Common side effects of Astragalus

The most common side effect is the rapid onset of "heat" symptoms, such as flushing, irritability, poor sleep or insomnia, sore throat, high blood pressure or dizziness, etc., which may even aggravate or reverse the condition. Clinically, people often use Astragalus alone for tonic or take a large amount at one time, which is a dangerous behavior of looking for illness when there is no illness or aggravating the illness. When taking Astragalus for tonic purposes, it is generally necessary to start with a small amount and increase the dosage gradually. While taking it, observe whether there are any signs of getting angry, whether the original disease in the body has worsened, or whether there is a feeling of stuffiness or pain. If so, the dosage should be discontinued or taken with other medicine. If symptoms such as fatigue, sweating or shortness of breath are alleviated, and the mental and physical strength are improved without the above-mentioned side effects, the dosage can be increased. A safer way is to use Codonopsis pilosula first, and then add or switch to Astragalus after it is effective without side effects. When using Astragalus, increase the dosage gradually to the level that the body can tolerate without side effects. The safest way is to use the formula.