What is My Blue Pillbox?
My Blue Pillbox is a resource website for physicians and for persons with an autoimmune condition looking for information about medicinal Thunder God Vine 10mg tablets (mTGV).
The website aims to bring together and make available the existing documentation about medicinal Thunder God Vine and and its uses.
What is medicinal Thunder God Vine (mTGV)?
Medicinal Thunder God Vine (mTGV) is a natural product that has a successful history of 30 years of prescription to relieve the symptoms of a number of autoimmune conditions and inflammatory disorders.
It is approved by the Chinese FDA in Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, and Ankylosing Spondylitis.
It’s a medicinal plant extract.
It’s not considered TCM and is mostly prescribed by Western style physicians in Western style hospitals in China.
Which conditions can benefit from mTGV?
mTGV benefits a number of autoimmune conditions and inflammatory disorders. The main indications are:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus,
- Psoriasis,
- Crohn’s Disease,
- Ankylosing Spondylitis,
- Nephrotic Syndrome
- …
20 000 Rheumatoid Arthritis cases every year with mTGV in this only hospital.
As an example, this is the PUMCH, the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. It has a high reputation in the country and is one of the most advanced in the world. It’s also the 3rd referral hospital in China.
It addresses a total of 30 000 cases of Rheumatoid Arthritis every year. 2/3 of the patients (20 000) are treated with medicinal Thunder God Vine (Ref1).
Physicians prescribe it as a monotherapy or combine it with conventional drugs in low dose (DMARDs such as Methotrexate, Leflunomide, Hydroxychloroquine…).
The clinical use shows it is safe and usually more effective than the 5 first intention conventional drugs. (Ref2)
Ref1: https://arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13075-018-1563-6 (mTGV) “TwHF has been approved to treat RA in China. Our clinical experiences from treating more than 30,000 patients with RA each year in Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) also support the high cost effectiveness of TwHF or a combination of MTX + TwHF…”
Ref2: Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F versus conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs as monotherapy for rheumatoid arthritis. Ranking by the SUCRA values showed that TwHF (mTGV) had the greatest probability for being the best treatment option according to ACR 20 and ACR 50, and the highest probability to be in the second ranking position after leflunomide (Arava) according to ACR 70.
Warning regarding the botanical
Natural is not a synonym for safe in the case of Thunder God Vine: the plant is dangerous.
The powder extracts sold as supplements on internet in pouches or in capsules are not medicinal extracts (Ref3).
They are water and ethanol extracts found on the Chinese marketplace Alibaba with price ranging from 10 to 50USD a Kg.
These extracts have a known toxicity on the liver and kidney. Moreover they are not normalized and there is no way to know the dosage as it was never medicine in the first place. They may be safe to use externally (poultices).
Ref3: https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/thunder-god-vine from the Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine.