TCM Internal Medicine ⁽³³⁾

The patient suddenly feels a burst of qi surging upward from below—from the lower abdomen, or from the navel, or from the throat—as if a little pig were running inside the body, with a sensation of oppression so severe as to feel near death. At…

Pulmonary edema is most often seen in patients with chronic lung disease (such as lung cancer, interstitial pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, or asthma) combined with cardiac or renal insufficiency, and is not uncommon among elderly patients with chronic lung disease. It typically causes four main symptoms—cough,…

Professor Shao Changrong was one of the pioneers in China of integrated Chinese-Western medicine for lung disease. Shao originally studied Western medicine, then responded to the national call to "study Chinese medicine as a Western-medicine physician," undergoing three years of full-time TCM study, and thereafter…

Good sleep is crucial for health, yet poor sleep quality is widespread in modern society. Many physical and mental illnesses are associated with poor sleep, and poor sleep in turn worsens those illnesses, creating a vicious cycle. Improving sleep quality is very important, and cultivating…

Pattern differentiation and treatment (bianzheng lunzhi) is the foundational clinical skill of Chinese medicine. It comprises three parts: first, eight-principle pattern differentiation; second, six-channel, triple-burner, defense-qi-nutrient-blood, and zang-fu pattern differentiation; third, formula-pattern and herb-pattern differentiation. The level of one’s pattern differentiation determines the level of…

Li Dongyuan, one of the four great Jin-Yuan masters and founder of the Spleen-Stomach school, lived in an age of plague and war. Poor conditions and epidemics caused many spleen-stomach diseases—then the epidemic disease. This gave him rich clinical experience and made him the school's…

This is an earlier article I wrote, reorganized and republished today. When I wrote it, my clinical experience was not as rich as it is now, and I inevitably leaned toward Chinese medicine while undervaluing Western medicine, so the article has its flaws. But my…

Constipation is a very common problem; eighty percent of people have experienced it. But most people's constipation is easy to resolve — just take a mild laxative. However, some patients with habitual constipation have a much more serious situation, and in winter their constipation worsens.

The biggest cold wave of this century is upon us; this morning I saw news that the monkeys at Beijing Zoo are huddling together for warmth. This winter is indeed very cold; in my family of three, two of us developed shoulder and neck pain…

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…