Side effects of long-term use of Astragalus membranaceus
Astragalus membranaceus is warm in nature, but its potency is rising (invigorating qi and strengthening yang). At the same dose, its efficacy and potential are not easy to monitor in clinic, and its compatibility is also difficult to be fully coordinated, which makes its use in internal medicine very limited. More importantly, it is easy to tonify fire (warming and invigorating qi) and help evil (diseases or some pathogenic factors) when using Astragalus in TCM clinic. Once there is no accurate and comprehensive level of syndrome differentiation and technology to control its side effects, the entrance of tonic may become poison, which is very harmful. The most common side effects are rapid symptoms of "getting angry", such as blushing, upset, poor sleep or insomnia, sore throat, high blood pressure or dizziness, and even aggravating or reversing the disease. It is precisely because of the above shortcomings of Astragalus that Zhang Zhongjing, who is regarded as a sage of traditional Chinese medicine, widely uses ginseng (mainly refers to codonopsis pilosula) to invigorate qi in his classic book Treatise on Febrile Diseases, and only uses a small amount of Astragalus, which shows that the sage knows that Astragalus is difficult to use and should not be abused. Astragalus membranaceus has therapeutic effect on atrial premature beats and ventricular premature beats, but it has a course of treatment. Sticking to 3 days 1 can often achieve the effect of eliminating premature beats. Stopping astragalus has no effect on the heart.