Insights and Updates

The Japanese say that the untransmitted secret of Chinese medicine lies in the dosage. Herbal dosage is indeed a problem, but is this secret really "untransmitted" or merely "hard to transmit"? In my view it is not that it is not transmitted, but that it…

While reading the Waike Zhengzhi Quansheng Ji (Treatise on Surgical Patterns of the Quansheng School), I came across the author Wang Hongxu's entry on "ruyan" (breast rock, i.e., today's breast cancer), in which he mentions that treating ruyan with Xihuang Wan often brought about a…

Sal ammoniac (naosha) is one of the Chinese herbal medicines that genuinely works against esophageal cancer; purple sal ammoniac (zi naosha) is especially effective. Recently I observed several patients treated with purple sal ammoniac products for esophageal carcinoma, and all achieved very obvious short-term results—results…

Exploit the benefit while controlling the harm—this is a point to which particular attention must be paid when using Chinese herbs. In fact, it applies more broadly: a good Western physician must consider the same thing. For example, when using aspirin, one must fully take…

Guizhi (Cinnamon twig) 9g, Chishao (Red peony root) 9g, Zhigancao (Honey-fried licorice) 6g, Qianghuo (Notopterygium) 6g, Duhuo (Angelica pubescens) 6g, Chuanxiong (Sichuan lovage rhizome) 6g, Jianghuang (Turmeric) 6g, Gegen (Kudzu root) 18g, Shengjiang (Fresh ginger) 12g sliced, Dazao (Jujube) 5–7 pieces broken open. Decoct in…

Because patients and their family members are not professional Chinese medicine physicians, and because clinicians cannot monitor everything a patient does, unpredictable high-risk events frequently occur, sometimes even causing death. I have written this article to alert patients. The first point is that a vital…

Dōmoto Kyūshin (汤本求真) was a leading figure of Japan's Ko-ha (ancient-form) school—what in China is called the jingfang, or classical-formula, school. He lived 1867–1941, and Ko-kan Igaku was completed in 1927. Once published, it spread widely through the Confucian cultural sphere of China, Japan and…

This article is excerpted from a paper by Zhao Tianyong, a disciple of Duan Fengwu; copyright belongs to the original author. Duan Fengwu was the nephew (and adopted son, since Duan Futing had no sons) of Duan Futing, the towering figure of Chinese TCM external…

The prescriptions I write are mostly inexpensive. This has to do with my peasant background; the patients I see are mostly among the urban poor. Sometimes, going home and seeing fellow villagers who cannot even afford cheap medicine, I teach them to identify wild herbs…

Today a cancer patient from Shandong, treated by me for nearly a year, came for follow-up. Compared with his first visit last year, his complexion and general condition are much better; his scans show ascites and tumor markers also markedly improved. He came to me…