Medicines that promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, and shrink the uterus

Women are likely to experience dysmenorrhea during menstruation, which means that the female's blood cannot be discharged from the body smoothly. However, they should also try to avoid taking medicine during menstruation, because the side effects of medicine on the uterus are particularly large. In addition, taking some blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing medicines will increase the amount of menstruation and make the inner wall of the uterus thinner. So what are the medicines that can activate blood circulation, remove blood stasis and shrink the uterus?

Uterine contraction effect of blood-activating and stasis-removing drugs:

Blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing drugs with the function of promoting blood circulation and regulating menstruation have the effect of strengthening uterine contraction, such as motherwort, safflower, and cattail pollen. Motherwort can strengthen uterine contraction. Its fluid extract is used as a postpartum conditioning medicine to accelerate uterine recovery and treat postpartum uterine bleeding and incomplete recovery. Safflower is often used to treat gynecological and obstetric diseases such as dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, dystocia, and postpartum lochia, so there is a saying that safflower "cures all diseases related to pregnancy and childbirth." Studies have shown that safflower has a significant contraction effect on the uterus of various experimental animals such as mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc., and is particularly evident on the pregnant uterus. Puhuang is also an important menstrual regulating medicine. It has been used together with Wulingzhi, also known as Shixiaosan, to treat postpartum blood stasis, relieve bloating and pain, and clear lochia. In modern times, it has been proven that its decoction, phenolic agent or alcohol extract can enhance uterine contraction.

Pain is an important symptom of blood stasis. Blood stasis is between the meridians and internal organs. If the blood stasis is in the upper part of the body, there may be hard and stabbing pain in the bones, shoulders, chest and diaphragm. If the blood stasis is in the middle part of the body, there may be abdominal pain, flank pain, and stabbing pain between the waist and navel. If the blood stasis is in the lower part of the body, there may be fullness and stabbing pain in the flanks and lower abdomen. Modern research shows that Chinese medicines with the effects of promoting blood circulation and relieving pain, such as frankincense, myrrh, and Corydalis, do have a strong analgesic effect. A comparison of the analgesic effects of different types of blood-activating and stasis-removing drugs shows that the blood-activating and analgesic drugs are more prominent. It should be pointed out that blood-activating and stasis-removing drugs do not necessarily relieve pain through analgesic effects. For example, improving blood supply to organs can also eliminate pain in ischemic organs.

Promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis is one of the commonly used treatments for acute abdomen using a combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. It has significant therapeutic effects on the early stages of various inflammations and different types of inflammatory infiltrations. Based on the results of treating experimental inflammation with blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing drugs, it is speculated that the principle of its anti-inflammatory effect may be due to the fact that it reduces the permeability of capillaries in the inflamed area and reduces inflammatory exudate; at the same time, due to the improvement of blood circulation in local tissues, the absorption of inflammatory exudate is promoted. In addition, some blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing drugs themselves have certain antibacterial and anti-infection effects. For example, Salvia miltiorrhiza and red peony root can inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, while red peony root and Chuanxiong can inhibit the growth of intestinal pathogenic bacteria.

In addition, in the study of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis to treat certain autoimmune diseases such as scleroderma and lupus erythematosus, it was found that the prescriptions and medicines for treating such diseases have a certain regulatory effect on humoral immunity and cellular immunity. In the study on the efficacy of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis in treating benign tissue hyperplasia such as skin warts, burn scars, tissue adhesions, etc., it was found that relevant prescriptions (such as Tongmailing) have the effect of inhibiting the production of collagen by fibroblasts.