mTGV in Refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients (2002)
This small study examines the safety and efficacy of medicinal Thunder God Vine (mTGV) in the treatment of patients with refractory RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis). In a word, refractory RA means that for these people, therapies with conventional DMARDs had failed.
mTGV = medicinal Thunder God Vine = Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F = TwHF = Lei Gong Teng
Download the full study for free:
Medicinal Thunder God Vine is an established treatment in active Rheumatoid Arthritis
mTGV is a common Rheumatoid Arthritis natural treatment in China for the past 30 years. Physicians consider it as a natural DMARD that is both safe, usually as, and often more effective than conventional drugs.
Quoting the conclusion of the study
” In conclusion, the ethanol/ethyl acetate extract of TWHF (mTGV), at a dosage of 360 mg/day, appears to be safe in RA patients. The symptoms and signs of inflammation and the physical functioning of most of the patients in the trial improved.”
Summary of the study
The duration of the study was of 20 weeks (5 months). The clinical trial included 35 patients with active refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis. Patients were required to have failed an adequate treatment with at least 1, but no more than 4 DMARDs.
3 Groups: Placebo / Low dose extract / High dose extract
- The first group took a placebo,
- The second group took 180 mg/day of Thunder God Vine TEA medicinal extract,
- The third group took 360 mg/day of Thunder God Vine TEA medicinal extract.
TEA medicinal extract ?
The Thunder God Vine TEA medicinal extract goes for Texas Ethanol/Ethyl-Acetate extract. The TEA was developed in Texas. It is closely related to its Chinese counterpart, the CEA extract. You can read more about it on this page: The different types of Thunder God Vine extracts.
Their dosage is different, around 3 to 4 times that of the usual T2 mTGV, which is a Chloroform / Methanol extract.
Other interesting facts
Patients stopped their treatments 4 weeks before entering the trial. Some patients took anti inflammatory drugs such as Prednisone not over 7.5 mg per day and/or NSAIDs. They were required to take the same stable dosage throughout the trial.
The most common side effect was diarrhea. It caused 1 patient in the high-dose group to withdraw from the trial. The trial is on a very small number of persons, but the results are nonetheless highly significant.
I quote: “The ethanol/ethyl acetate extract of TWHF (mTGV) shows therapeutic benefit in patients with treatment-refractory RA. At therapeutic dosages, the TWHF extract was well tolerated by most patients in this study.”