Can a "pure natural" drink under the guise of traditional Chinese medicine lower blood pressure?
China News Weekly reporter/Yuan Suwen intern/Yu Haoqing
Published in the 1046th issue of "China News Weekly" on June 6, 2022
Li Donghai carefully tore open a pack of "Qingyaling Ginseng and Wolfberry Solid Drink" (hereinafter referred to as Qingyaling), poured the white powder inside into a water glass, and drank it all.
In the golden carton next to him, there are several packs of Qing Yaling in this small package, each pack of 1 gram.
In the publicity advertisement, Qingyaling was developed by an old Chinese medicine doctor from Xiangya Medical College of Central South University after years of painstaking efforts.
Hypertension is prevalent in the population, and there are about 300 million people suffering from it in China. People's need to control blood pressure has created huge business opportunities.
The regulatory authorities have strict regulations on the production and sales of medicines and health products, but Qingyaling is neither a traditional Chinese medicine nor a health product, and the "solid beverage" indicated on the package only belongs to the category of food batch numbers.
In the past two years, consumers have been reporting Qingyaling as a blood pressure drink, selling it everywhere, and even causing some hypertensive patients to be life-threatening.
A whistleblower reported that Qingyaling had illegally added a western antihypertensive drug, so it could have a partial antihypertensive effect.
An industry insider who did not want to be named told China News Weekly that it is not uncommon to use illegally added western medicines to show the effect of products under the guise of traditional Chinese medicine. "This is a secret in the industry, and everyone knows it well." .
The commercial landscape of anti-hypertensive drinks
When high blood pressure was first diagnosed, Li Donghai, who was less than 50 years old from Changsha, could not accept it for a while.
It was the summer of 2020, and he was hospitalized due to an accidental fall. During a routine check-up, he was diagnosed with early high blood pressure.
The doctor prescribed antihypertensive medication, which he took daily.
He said, "I'm not too old, I think I'm in good health, and I'm afraid of taking medicine for life."
After a friend heard that he was diagnosed, he began to recommend Qing Yaling, the "magic antihypertensive drug" to him.
Li Donghai still remembers that it was one night in July 2020. In a friend's teahouse, his friend took out a golden carton and said that this product is "the same source of medicine and food", "pure natural and pollution-free" and "no side effects". People can even "cut the root", but since they have not yet obtained the drug approval, they can only be called solid beverages.
Li Donghai searched on the spot with his mobile phone, and there are indeed many related propaganda articles on the Internet.
"My health has always been better, and I had no symptoms of high blood pressure before." Li Donghai recalled that the friend persuaded him that not long after he was diagnosed, if he did not take western medicine and used new products for conditioning, he might be able to "cut the root".
A friend advised him to buy 10 boxes, each with 7 bags, which can be taken for a week, and the price is 990 yuan.
But under the objection of his wife, Li Donghai did not pay for the purchase at that time.
But a few days later, an express package was delivered to Li Donghai's house.
Li Donghai said that after returning home that night, a friend contacted him on WeChat, saying that "in order to benefit more hypertensive patients", he used "special authority" and only needed to pay the postage to try two boxes. "I couldn't save face at that time. , then without telling his wife, he transferred 20 yuan for postage."
Unexpectedly, on the third day of taking Qingyaling, Li Donghai developed dizziness and nausea, and his right hand was shaking uncontrollably, and finally had to go to the hospital emergency room.
"The doctor said that my heart is too big." Li Donghai said that when he told the emergency doctor to use powder instead of blood pressure medication, the doctor told him that although the powder is called "pure natural", it is neither a regular health care product nor a medicine, "I don't know at all. What are the ingredients in it?"
It is understood that Qing Yaling became popular in 2020.
On "Tianyancha", there are 17 companies related to "Qingyaling". The earliest registered company is Changsha Qingyaling Health Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Changsha Qingyaling Company), which was registered on March 24, 2020. On April 1, a week later, Qingdao Qingyaling Health Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qingdao Qingyaling Company) was registered.
Since then, in Guangdong, Shandong, Chongqing, Jiangxi, Henan, Guangxi, Zhejiang and other places, people have successively registered companies related to Qingyaling, with "health management" and "health technology" as selling points.
In Hunan, there are the most companies related to Qingyaling, with a total of 4.
The most recently registered company is in Hepu County, Guangxi, on May 12, 2021.
The tricks behind the antihypertensive effect
Around July 2020, articles promoting the miraculous power of Qingyaling began to circulate on the Internet.
An article said that a post-80s man in Chongqing wanted to walk more than 1,000 kilometers to Changsha City. The reason was that Chen Yuxiang, a professor at Xiangya Medical College of Central South University, provided him with Qingyaling for free, and he wanted to thank him in person for saving his life.
Another article said that Professor Chen Yuxiang used Qing Yaling to successfully rescue a 33-year-old myocarditis patient.
In October 2020, "Xiaoxiang Morning News" exposed Qingyaling, which claims to cure high blood pressure, but it is actually a solid beverage. Its manufacturer is only qualified to produce food, and cannot produce health care products or medicines.
From September to December 2020, the Hunan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau carried out special rectification actions for common foods such as special foods and solid beverages in the province, and severely investigated and punished non-health foods claiming health functions, common foods pretending to be sold as special foods, and other activities involving Food misinformation, fraud, and misleading consumption.
Since then, publicity about Qing Yaling has decreased significantly.
After seeing some reports about Qingyaling's false propaganda, Huang Xing, a young man from Guangxi, began to doubt the blood pressure lowering effect of its propaganda.
Huang Xing told China News Weekly that his mother's blood pressure did drop after taking Qingyaling.
In order to find out, in the second half of 2021, he purchased two more boxes of Qing Yaling and sent them to the Shenzhen Branch of Beijing Qing Analysis Technology Research Institute for testing.
On September 14, 2021, the test report came out, and the results showed that there was an excessive amount of metolazone in the Qingyaling powder he submitted for inspection.
Metopolazone is a diuretic. As an uncommonly used antihypertensive drug, it reduces blood pressure by allowing patients to urinate more frequently and reduce blood volume, but long-term use by patients may cause sequelae such as hypokalemia.
On the packaging box of Qingyaling sent by Huang Xing for inspection, the manufacturer is displayed as Wuxi Mingda Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Mingda Biology), and the factory is located in Jiangyin City, Wuxi.
The company was established in July 2017 and has obtained the "Business License" and "Food Production License", mainly engaged in the production of solid beverages and tablet candies.
Huang Xing then reported to Mingda Biology.
Jiangyin Market Supervision Bureau filed an investigation on September 26, 2021, but no Qingyaling products were found in Mingda Biological Factory.
The person in charge of Mingda Biology said that all raw materials, auxiliary materials, internal and external packaging and formulas used in the company's production are provided by Changsha Qingyaling Company, and the quality of raw and auxiliary materials, packaging printing and publicity are also controlled by the latter. Big Bio is only responsible for weighing, mixing, filling, sealing and packaging according to the recipe, and the production machines are automated.
The "Entrusted Processing Agreement" signed on November 16, 2020 shows that the entrusted manufacturer is Qingdao Qingyaling Company.
The person in charge of Mingda Biological Company said that two batches of goods totaling about 1,000 boxes had been produced before, and all of them had been shipped to Changsha Qingyaling Company.
In order to prove that no western medicine ingredients were added, the person in charge also issued a raw material inspection report.
The report issued by the Pony Testing Group included tests on 12 prohibited ingredients such as atenolol and captopril in the raw materials, but did not test for the presence of metolazone.
On October 15, 2020, the person in charge of Mingda Biology went to Jiangyin Market Supervision Bureau and said that he received 3 boxes of Qingyaling products from Changsha and sent them to Shanghai Microspectrum Chemical Technology Service Co., Ltd. for testing. The results showed that Does not contain metolazone.
"This is not a test under the witness of both parties, and there may be problems with the samples submitted for inspection." Huang Xing did not agree with the test report provided by Mingda Biology.
After that, through channels such as agents and shopping websites, he bought another batch of Qingyaling products, "there are more than 7,000 yuan of goods", hoping that the relevant departments will re-test, but has not yet received a response.
"Metolazone is a non-mainstream antihypertensive drug, which is basically not included in the routine testing of prohibited western drug ingredients in food and health products." Huang Xing said that some products with only food batch numbers are illegally added western drugs. More and more "advanced", "all of which are not on the test list", although the list of compounds for food sampling inspection by the supervision department has been expanded from time to time, but it still lags behind the emerging compounds.
The confusing mystery of the suspension of sales
In Qing Yaling's publicity advertisements, Chen Yuxiang is inseparable, saying that he is a professor and doctoral tutor of Xiangya Medical College of Central South University.
On the morning of May 20, the reporter called Xiangya Medical College, and the staff said that there was no such person. "We are an administrative management unit, and there are currently only 28 staff members, and there is no such person."
She suggested that the reporter contact the secondary departments under the medical school.
Afterwards, the reporter called the office of Xiangya School of Pharmacy, a secondary unit of Xiangya Medical College. The staff said that there was indeed a professor named Chen Yuxiang, but he retired five years ago. For about three years, I haven't come to work very much."
The staff member said that in about 2013, Chen Yuxiang was transferred to Xiangya School of Pharmacy and retired in 2017, but he did not engage in specific teaching or other work during the several years in the School of Pharmacy.
Changsha Qingyaling Company announced 4 patents on August 13, 2020, October 15, 2020, December 14, 2020, and July 7, 2021. The inventors are all led by Chen Yuxiang, and they are all related to conditioning high Preparation and method of health drinks for blood pressure or hyperlipidemia.
The reporter noticed that these patents are all in the "trial" state, that is, they are still under review after they are submitted.
A patent attorney told "China News Weekly" that patent applications in the field of medicines do not necessarily mean that there will be curative effects. "Many companies now like to publicly endorse patents, but this does not explain the effects."
On May 19, the reporter called Liu Yining, the chairman of Changsha Qingyaling Company. When the reporter revealed his identity, the other party hurriedly said "Qingyaling is no longer for sale" and hung up the phone.
Subsequently, the reporter asked through WeChat whether he knew that Qing Yaling was reported to have added western medicine ingredients, but he has not responded.
Liu Yining's WeChat name is marked with the words "non-drug therapy leader", and these words also appear in the WeChat names of other Qing Yaling agents.
In Liu Yining's WeChat Moments, until January 2022, information related to Qing Yaling is still being released.
Today, on the shopping website, the product of Qingyaling has been removed from the shelves.
However, after searching for the keyword "Qingyaling", you can still find a product link that guides the old users of Qingyaling. After the reporter contacted customer service, the customer service sent a product called "Yanqing Times Ginseng Huang Jing Cordyceps militaris" and Said "Qingyaling company is in a lawsuit, change the name, the formula is the same".
In order to prove that the new product is Qingyaling, the customer service also sent an online link, and after clicking it, an article published on the public account "Qingyaling Food" was published on October 20, 2021, with the title "Qingyaling Food". The formula does not change the packaging".
At the beginning of the article there is a voice called "Professor Chen Yuxiang talks about the inside story of (Qing Yaling) taking off the shelf".
In this 11 minutes and 43 seconds of speech, a person who claimed to be Chen Yuxiang told that Qingyaling was envied and suppressed by other pharmaceutical companies, thinking that they had robbed them of their jobs, and professional anti-counterfeiting professionals purchased Qingya from various distributors. Ling did the test and believed that it contained western medicine ingredients that should not be added, and kept reporting, appealing and claiming.
At the end of the speech, he also mentioned that Qingyaling withdrew from the market and changed the brand, but the new product was consistent with its efficacy.
According to public information, on May 25, 2020, the Hypertension Professional Committee of Hunan Health Care Association was established in Changsha.
A "red-headed document" published on its website shows that the director of the committee is Chen Yuxiang, and 3 of the 9 deputy directors are from Changsha Qingyaling Company, including chairman Liu Yining, a vice president of operations, and a marketing executive. vice president.
On May 19, the reporter called Gong Zhen, president of the Hunan Health Care Association.
The other party said, "Qingyaling is not a medicine", and there is "no direct relationship, no economic entanglement, and no interest relationship" between Qingyaling Company and the Health Care Association and the Hypertension Professional Committee of the Health Care Association.
Gong Zhen said that the Health Care Association has dozens of member companies and is unaware of the sales of the companies.
Jiang Jingen, a professor at the Department of Nephrology, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, told China News Weekly that the 13 Chinese herbal medicine formulas released by Qingyaling did not contain conventional Chinese medicines for lowering blood pressure, including oysters, chrysanthemums, gardenias, corn silk, and jujube seeds. It has mild sedative, diuretic and heat-clearing effects, and "may have a slight effect on blood pressure", but cinnamon and longan meat are hot and are not good for hypertension.
Jiang Jingen believes that, in general, "this is not a traditional Chinese medicine prescription for lowering blood pressure."
Fang Hong, chief physician of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of Shanghai Tongji Hospital, told China News Weekly that in terms of blood pressure lowering treatment, the so-called "medicine and food homologous" Chinese medicine ingredients cannot replace the current first-line antihypertensive western medicines.
"In order to enhance the curative effect, it is very common for some Chinese patent medicine products to add western medicine ingredients. This is a secret in the industry, and everyone knows it well." An unnamed chief physician of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of a third-class hospital told China News Weekly said.
According to Huang Xing, in addition to Qingyaling, there are also plant powders known to treat gout, which have been detected as caffeine; medicinal wine known as aphrodisiac, which has been detected as nafil compounds; and herbal teas, which have been detected as anti-inflammatory drugs.
Some of these businesses who illegally added western medicines have been handed over to justice.
(Li Donghai and Huang Xing are pseudonyms in the text)
"China News Weekly" Issue 20, 2022
Statement: The publication of "China News Weekly" manuscripts is authorized in writing