Herbal extract (Cervus elaphus Linnaeus, Angelica gigas Nakai, and Astragalus membranaceus Bunge) ameliorates chronic fatigue:... 2024 Ahn et al

Full title: Herbal extract (Cervus elaphus Linnaeus, Angelica gigas Nakai, and Astragalus membranaceus Bunge) ameliorates chronic fatigue: A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial

Abstract

Background
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) reduces the health-related quality of life in the working-age population; however, studies have rarely investigated this group. A mixture of Cervus elaphus Linnaeus, Angelica gigas Nakai, and Astragalus membranaceus Bunge (CAA) may be an effective anti-fatigue supplement. However, few clinical trials have explored the anti-fatigue effects of herbal medicines in human participants. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of the CAA herbal complex on muscle fatigue and endurance capacity in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.

Methods
In an 8-week trial, 80 patients with chronic fatigue symptoms were randomly assigned to the CAA (43.5 ± 1.2 years) or placebo group (41.8 ± 1.3 years). Fatigue and cardiorespiratory endurance were measured at baseline, interim, and post-intervention. Fatigue-related blood biomarkers were assessed before and at the end of the intervention.

Results
A significant improvement in overall fatigue scores was observed on the fatigue severity scale (p = 0.038), multidimensional fatigue inventory (p = 0.037), and 24-hour visual analog scale (p = 0.002) in the CAA group compared to those in the placebo group. Fatigue improvement was observed in the CAA group, as well as physiological variables, such as increased maximal exercise time to exhaustion (p = 0.003), distance until exhaustion (p = 0.003), and maximum oxygen consumption (p = 0.039).

Conclusion
CAA positively and significantly affected fatigue and cardiorespiratory endurance in patients with chronic fatigue, suggesting the potential use of herbal supplements for treating chronic fatigue.

Open access, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213422024000659

 

Claims to be about 'CFS', however
"The inclusion criteria for this study were as follows: (1) agreed to participate in this study and provide written consent; (2) healthy men and women aged 30–59 years, with a score of 28 or higher on the fatigue severity scale (FSS)32,33 and a body mass index (BMI) of 18.6–29.9 kg/m2."

 

“Kwangdong Pharmaceutical is a company that aims to provide healthy life and human health care by combining oriental and western medical science. It has a vision of achieving 1 trillion corporate value, sales, and operating profit by 2020”
Quote from the company’s website. The 1 trillion is South Korean Won.

 

The first herb is interesting. It has four legs and antlers - the Red Deer or American Elk.
Presumably some sort of virility component.

 

The only herb I recognize on that list is Astragalus. It's described as an "adaptogen". I took this in combination with a couple of other herbs and it gave me the same effect as Amitriptyline that was prescribed to me by an ME specialist. I had to stop taking it after 2 weeks because it me feel drugged.

 

I dug into this more as it mentioned changes in creatine kinase and that’s been mentioned in other studies. But if I’m looking at the data correctly both groups seem to show changes here over time (from week 2 to week 8) more significant than between placebo and treatment groups?

As @Andy and @Trish Self mention, it’s self reported ‘fatigue’ so not ME or even any accepted CFS criteria.
And exercise measurements ate taken immediately after then 30 minutes after exercise so no interest in PEM.
They also say “participants were instructed to engage in strenuous exercise for 48 h before each visit”. Is this supposed to read to not engage or have these people just been exercising more? Implying they (1) can and (2) maybe that had more impact than anything else.

They seem to be more interested in measuring the impact of these supplements they happen to make on people who say they feel tired than anything.