Insights and Updates

In August 2020, the son of a 75-year-old pancreatic cancer patient surnamed Guo (with a history of diabetes) came to me, hoping I could help his father.On June 4, 2020, the patient, for abdominal discomfort, underwent CT at the Affiliated Hospital of Yan'an University, Shaanxi…

All living things are constantly evolving, and the various cells of living things are evolving too; the essence of evolution is change in a life form's adaptability to the environment. Cancer cells are no exception. Although evolutionary reversal does occur, just as humans cannot revert…

As early as the Western Han, overseas spices and medicines flowed continuously into China via the Silk Road and sea routes; these were gradually accepted by Chinese physicians and eventually merged into the Chinese medical family as part of the materia medica. Such herbs were…

Chinese history had a naturalist named Tao Hongjing; the History of the Southern Dynasties calls him "having read over ten thousand scrolls; to miss one thing was a deep shame." Tao Hongjing was expert in astronomy and calendrics, mountains and geography, medicine and materia medica,…

Wubeizi (Chinese gallnut) is a very distinctive Chinese medicine: it is the insect gall formed by the aphid Schlechtendalia chinensis or Melaphis paitan (family Pemphigidae) on its host trees Rhus chinensis, Rhus potaninii, and Rhus punjabensis. Wubeizi looks like a plant fruit, but cut open,…

I previously wrote "Old TCM Physician Li Jifang's Family Secret Formula, Xiaoyan Plaster" (click the link to see the original), introducing a family secret formula of the old physician Li Jifang; interested readers can look at that article, which describes Xiaoyan Plaster in detail. Because…

The hardest work in the world is foundational work, because it is voluminous, tedious, and dull. Most people prefer shortcuts, hoping to get there in one step, unwilling to put in the hard work to build a foundation. As a result they easily waste their…

Wangbuliuxing is the seed of Vaccaria segetalis (family Caryophyllaceae); Vaccaria is a common weed in wheat fields, widely distributed in China except the south. In folk practice Wangbuliuxing is a lactagogue; a folk proverb says, "Wangbuliuxing, taken by women, makes milk flow freely." For postpartum…

Liu Shaowu (1907–2004), former chief physician of the Taiyuan Institute of Chinese Medicine, once treated a breast cancer patient with the following formula: Chaihu (Bupleurum) 15 g, Huangqin (Scutellaria) 15 g, Suzi (Perilla fruit) 30 g, Dangshen (Codonopsis) 30 g, Xiakucao (Prunella) 30 g, Wangbuliuxing…

In Taiping Shenghui Fang (Imperial Grace Formulas of the Taiping Era) there is a formula called “Shenxiao Tingli San” (Miraculous Descurainia Powder), indicated for “the ten types of water diseases uncured by a hundred formulas, with face, eyes, and limbs all swollen, breath rushing and…