Insights and Updates

I got up in the morning, strolled around the yard, and by the way took the household's recycled water to water the potted vegetables in the yard. The potted vegetables do not grow very well, bearing few and small fruits, but they still have a…

Sijiqing (Four-Season Green) is an anti-cancer medicine commonly used by doctors in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region. It is the leaf of the Chinese holly (Ilex chinensis), a plant of the Ilex genus in the Aquifoliaceae family; hence it is also called holly leaf (Bencao Shiyi), commonly…

Recently, a rheumatologist at a Grade-A tertiary hospital came to consult me about her mother's illness. Since her mother fell ill, she has grown much more haggard. Being unable to solve the problem of her closest relative has made her doubt whether the medical knowledge…

Honggencao (Red-Root Herb) is a folk medicinal herb; most TCM pharmacies or TCM hospitals do not carry it, and one must go to a large medicinal-herb wholesale market to buy it, or harvest it oneself. Honggencao is the whole herb with roots of Salvia prionitis…

When my son had a fever, he said to me: "Dad, I can't let my brain get addled by the fever; in the future I'll need my brain to study mathematics and physics. Let's discuss the laws of thermodynamics." And then he really did discuss…

The afternoon before yesterday, after my child came home from school, he kept complaining of dizziness. School lets out at 3:40, and it is the height of the sweltering season; by the time he was walking home, the sun was blazing overhead, exactly when heatstroke…

Ermiao Wan and Erzhi Wan are two commonly used TCM pills; their formulas are extremely simple, yet their therapeutic effects are outstanding. Ermiao Wan is composed of equal parts of Huangbo (Phellodendri Cortex) and Cangzhu (Atractylodis Rhizoma); Erzhi Wan is composed of equal parts of…

I am often confronted with the question of death. Death is a law of nature: where there is birth, there is death, and death is the fate that no one can escape. We rarely give much thought to how we will die, but when aging…

Beijing has entered the scorching summer, and my family can hardly stand it either, so we sleep with the air conditioner on. After sleeping several nights in an air-conditioned room, yesterday afternoon I developed a sore throat, with inflammation of the right tonsil and a…

A powder composed mainly of indigo naturalis (qingdai) and realgar (xionghuang) is called Qing Huang Powder. The ratio of indigo naturalis to realgar varies—there are versions at 9:1, 8:2 and 7:3. Qing Huang Powder is the dedicated TCM formula for treating leukemia; a large number…