Insights and Updates

Songjie (Pine Nodule, Lignum Pini Nodi) is the knot of the branches of Pinaceae species such as Pinus tabuliformis, Pinus massoniana, Pinus densiflora, and Pinus yunnanensis. As an easily obtained analgesic plant, it has been used in traditional Chinese medicine since early times. TCM holds…

In my hot-blooded youth I held many unrealistic fantasies. I believed that through hard work we could surely conquer disease, and that the social problems plaguing us all would one day vanish completely. Even more absurdly, I harbored lofty ideals, believing that through revolution and…

Recently, a person with a mental disorder in Xiaowu Township, Xiaochang County, Hubei Province, attacked people with a knife during an episode, killing eight people, including his mother, in a devastating incident. The patient, a 53-year-old man surnamed Lu, was preliminarily classified as a level-3…

In 2023, Nature published a study by Li Ming's team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center showing that, under a normal diet, breast cancer cells overexpressing the oncogene MYC become the competitive winners: they outcompete MYC-low breast cancer cells, causing them to die, absorb the…

The Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine published an empirical prescription for herpes zoster in 1985. Its composition: 5 parts of Haijinsha (spora lygodii) and 1 part of Qingdai (indigo naturalis). Mix and grind evenly, then blend with sesame oil into a thin paste and apply…

Rupixiao Pian (Rupixiao Tablets) is a commonly used Chinese patent medicine listed in the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China, Volume I, 2005 edition. It is composed of Lujiao (deer antler), Pugongying (dandelion), Kunbu (kelp), Tianhuafen (trichosanthes root), Jixueteng (spatholobus stem), Sanqi (pseudoginseng), Chishao…

I am full of polar opposites: despair and hope, love and hate, coldness and warmth, stillness and motion, inferiority and confidence — too many to list. It is like the drop of a bungee jump, switching freely from one mode to another. I am a…

The Wulong Wan (Black Dragon Pill) formula comes from the Puji Fang (Prescriptions Universal Relief, quoting the Jingyan Fang, Experienced Prescriptions). Its composition is as follows: "One whole Zaoshe (Zaocys, pit viper; use the entire snake, remove the head and tail, cut into segments of…

Recently, the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study on how a high-fat diet accelerates tumor growth. The research showed that a high-fat diet increases the population of a certain bacterium in the mouse gut and suppresses the immune system,…

The Ling family had practiced medicine for generations, specializing in external medicine. Both Ling Yunpeng and his late father treated breast cancer. In his book Zhenyu Yide Lu, Ling Yunpeng introduces his own experience in treating breast cancer and also recounts a case treated by…