Chinese Herbs That Expel Cold And Warm The Interior

Theprimary function of these herbs is to deal with cold inside the body. Cold has a tendency to contract, congeal, slow things down and cause stagnation. We can even have certain pain conditions due to cold stagnation. The kind of signs and symptoms we’re going to see with coldness depends on where it is in the body.

When cold is in the lung, that cold is going to congeal the fluids and create phlegm. That phlegm is going to be copious, thin, clear white and even be foamy, bubbly or stringy. When cold enters the spleen, we’re going to see digestion problems, things like abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and that diarrhea is going to be thin, watery and without the foul smell.

Cold in the kidney is going to cause urination problems. When kidney yang fails in its function of transforming the fluids, we’re going to get frequent, profuse, clear urination. On the other hand, we can also have urine retention. What’s happening here is a cold pathogen is obstructing lower jiao and blocking the smooth flow of urine out of the body, so we end up with urinary retention.

Like we said, cold can also cause stagnation and pain. Cold in the liver is going to cause blood stagnation leading to things like painful menstruation, a fixed sharp stabbing pain that’s characteristic of blood stagnation. The liver channel runs up the leg and wraps around the external genitalia. So cold in the liver channel can also cause hernia pain or pain and contraction of the testicles, known as shan disorder (mounting disorder or bulging disorder).

A more serious condition of coldness is something Chinese medicine in Tarzana we call Tuo syndrome, Yang collapse or yang desertion. This is a condition of extreme coldness – cold limbs, fatigue, curling up into the fetal position or even certain Shen problems. Some of the herbs in this category are good for treating these conditions (i.e.,tuo syndrome). They warm the original yang or “rescue” devastated yang.

Herbs with the function of warming original yang and treating tuo syndrome will enter the heart channel. We can also have cold in the channels, with symptoms like cold extremities, cold hands and feet, pain or bi syndrome due to cold stagnation. The pulse, of course, is going to be slow or tight and the tongue is going to be pale or even blue.

Common features of the herbs in this category; The temperature is going to be warm or hot and taste is going to be acrid. remember the function of the acrid flavor is to disperse and so here we’re making use of the acrid flavor’s ability to disperse cold. The common function here is of course to warm the interior, but we want to pay attention here is, which herbs warm which systems as that’s going to determine what the entering channels are.

If an herb warms the spleen, it’s going to enter the spleen channel. If an herb warms the kidney, it’s going to enter the kidney channel. If an herb rescues devastated yang, then it’s going to enter the heart channel.

Cautions and Contraindications

Because these herbs are very warm or even hot, they may cause heat signs, and because the taste is acrid, they may also cause dryness, so use caution in cases of yin deficiency or blood deficiency.

Now onto the actual herbs themselves.

The three herbs are what we call the three hot herbs in Chinese medicine. These are some of the warmest herbs in our materiamedica. With each herb, what you want to pay attention to is:

1. Within its category function, what this this herb’s specialty? All of these herbs warm the interior but what makes each one special? Is it particularly good at treating vomiting, does it rescue collapsed yang, etc.?

• Besides warming the interior, what else does it do? What other special functions make this herb useful?

ZhiFu Zi

The first of our three hot herbs is zhifuzi. The first thing to know about this herb is that it’s hot, acrid and toxic. This is aconite, which is toxic in its raw form. This herb is prepared by cooking it with ginger juice. But even in its prepared form, we still have to follow the special instruction of cooking it longer than the rest of the decoction in order to eliminate the rest of its toxicity.

The entering channels here pretty much line up with its functions. It enters the kidney channel because it warms the kidney, it enters the spleen channel because it warms the middle jiao and it enters the heart channel because it warms the original yang to treat that tuo syndrome. It also warms the channels for pain due to coldness and for bi syndrome due to coldness.

Gan Jiang

Gan Jiang is more commonly known as dried ginger. This is one of our best herbs for warming the middle jiao. In fact, our main formula for treating cold in the middle is cold li zhong wan (regulate the middle pill). Gan Jiang is the chief herb in this formula and it is very important for warming the spleen and stomach.

Combined with zhifuzi, this herb also warms the original yang to treat yang collapse. In fact, our formula for treating devastated yang is called sini tang (frigid extremities decoction). It only has three ingredients: zhifuzi, ganjiang and zhigancao. Both zhifuzi andganjiang appear here because they have this ability to rescue collapsed yang.

What sticks out here was ganjiang because this herb also warms the lung. We don’t have a lot of four herbs that have this function. They can help treat the profuse, copious, thin, white phlegm that’s bubbly, foamy or stringy. So again, not many herbs have this function so that makes ganjiang very special in this regard.

Rou Gui

The third of our hot herbs is rougui or cinnamon bark. Similar tozhifuzi, this herb warms the kidney, the middle jiao and the channels. Notice that this one does not have that function of rescuing collapsed yang but what is special about rougui is that it has this ability to guide heat to descend or “to anchor floating yang.

The idea here is when kidney yang is deficient, yang floats up and harasses the heart causing certain Shen problems like anxiety, restlessness and insomnia. Our diagnosis here is kidney and heart not communicating. In this situation, we can use rougui internally or apply it externally to the bottom of the foot at kidney 1 point.

Finally, rougui, by virtue of its yang properties, has something to do with aiding in the generation of qi and blood. So we can see that in addition to being acrid, this herb is also sweet and flavor, but we don’t really say that it has a direct action of tonification. Instead, we can combine it with tonifying herbs, and rougui’s warming yang nature will assist those herbs in tonifying qi and blood.