Insights and Updates

The veteran physician Zhu Yongxian has an empirical formula for treating vertigo caused by vertebral artery sclerosis and insufficient blood supply. The herbs are Danggui, Chuanxiong, Taoren, Honghua, Sanqi powder, Danshen, Heshouwu, Sheng Shanyao, Juemingzi (Cassiae Semen), and Zexie. For patients with severe symptoms and…

Some leukemia patients have a low white blood cell count, which falls even lower after chemotherapy. In practice I have found that, for such patients, simply fortifying the spleen and kidney and supplementing qi and blood not only fails to raise the white cells, but…

Zhufu Tang (Pig-Skin Decoction) is a formula in the Shanghan Lun for treating shaoyin throat pain. The original text: "In shaoyin disease, with diarrhea, throat pain, chest fullness, and heart vexation, Zhufu Tang governs. Zhufu Tang: one jin of pig skin. Boil this one ingredient…

Zhang Jingyue, the great Ming-dynasty TCM physician, created many formulas of excellent clinical efficacy; Zuogui Wan (Left-Restoring Pill) and Yougui Wan (Right-Restoring Pill) are two of them. Zuogui Wan supplements kidney yin; Yougui Wan supplements kidney yang. The best known of Zhang Jingyue's medical ideas…

Liuying Wan is a commonly used TCM remedy for acute tonsillitis, epiglottitis, and other throat diseases, but it can also be used to treat cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. For cancer, Liuying Wan may be taken orally, or crushed, steeped in yellow rice wine,…

I am often asked: can a bad mood, being easily angered or irritable, or tense interpersonal relationships, cause breast cancer? This is a question many women care about, and a great many TCM books also name a bad mood as the chief culprit behind breast…

In a lifetime we meet many people and go through many things. As the ancients said, of ten things, eight or nine go against our wishes; the people and events we meet that fall short of our hopes outnumber those that match them. When things…

The history of Chinese medicine is extraordinarily long, and to this day it remains flourishing within the former Confucian cultural sphere, even spreading to the whole world and winning the welcome of many patients. The reason is simple: it has definite clinical efficacy. As a…

Some cancer patients develop aplastic anemia after radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or TCM "using poison to attack poison" treatment. Clinically this presents as decline of the bone marrow's hematopoietic function, with a tendency to anemia, bleeding, or infection. Epistaxis and gingival bleeding are common, and even cerebral…

Patients with malignant lymphoma often develop night sweats: profuse sweating begins as soon as they fall asleep, day or night, and stops the moment they wake. Night sweats seriously disturb sleep; many lymphoma patients have recurrent episodes lasting months at a time, severely impairing quality…