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Clear Liver Heat
Key sx burning pain in the hypo area, bitter taste, jueyin headache, irritable and easily angered, sudden tinnitus and/or deafness, genital area problems (liver meridian problems). Xia ku cao is often used for liver heat as is huang qin, long dan cao, jue ming zi, etc.
Basic formula is Long Dan Xie Gan Tang.
Keywords: damp plus heat for the LV/GB organ or meridian.
This formula is for excess and for short term use…NOT for deficiencies.
Can be used for shingles (pretty effective), herpes, ear infection, genital infection, eye infections, etc. About a 1 week turnaround for shingles can be expected in many cases. Hepatitis with liver/gb damp heat, but Hep C is a mix of excess and deficiency and you can’t really use it. Hep A is more damp heat with digestive issues. Jaundice calls for another formula than this one.
Heat is removed via the urine in this formula. (Similar to the heart heat formula from last week.) Dang gui is added because you are draining so much that you also have to protect the blood.
NOTE: Don’t base your formula upon western diagnosis! Base it up on the TCM syndrome.
Gallbladder Heat
Key symptoms for gallbladder symptoms are very similar to those of liver. There are lots of formulas for gallbladder heat also. Here’s one now:
Da Chai Hu Tang
From the Shang Han Lun.
This is draining the heat down through the bowel movement (da huang and zhi shi). Bai shao balances the formula and benefits the Liver in the face of all of that draining.
15g of chai hu is the dosage needed for clearing heat (remember this one’s function varies based on the dosage).
Stones are damp and heat. You can use this formula for stones, but you should add jin qian cao, hai jin sha, and ji nei jin.
Bladder Heat
Key sx include frequency, scanty dark urine, discomfort like pain or burning, etc. Could be lin syndrome with blood, etc. Look up the singles that help for this on your own.
Here’s one of many formulas for heat in the bladder:
Ba Zheng San
Gotta have dampness with heat. This formula clears heat and fire and promotes urination to remove obstructions. Use it if the urine is dark, turbid, scanty, difficult/painful. Patient often has dry mouth and throat. Tongue = yellow greasy; Pulse = slippery, rapid.
Works well for UTI. Acute UTI should respond within 48 hours to this formula – if no change, infection may be too strong or something else is going on. Refer to MD.
What about chronic UTI? If patient keeps getting a UTI and keeps taking this formula you need to do something different! You might need to refer them to their MD because they have a buggaboo that’s lingering….or it could be that Ba Zheng San isn’t quite right and you’re treating the symptoms only – there could be a root of a Qi xu. (Check this article out: for a pretty good run-down of other possible reasons for chronic/recurrent UTI.)
You can add single herbs to this formula for the different types of Lin syndromes (stones, blood, etc.).
Yin Deficiency
One of Yin xu’s key symptom is deficient heat. Another is dryness which can be dryness of a number of organs as well as urine and stool, skin, eyes. Headaches and tinnitus are often present. Patient might have insomnia. Signs of heat are less than you would find for an excess heat: 5 palm heat, afternoon/tidal fevers, night sweats (and by the way, as soon as the eyes open the sweating stops – you wake up sweaty, but not sweating.) Tongue is thin, red, no coat or less coating, may have yin cracks. Pulse will be thin and rapid.
Liver, Kidney, Heart, Lung and Stomach are the organs affected by Yin xu. Stomach is the only one in which there are no night sweats or hot flashes.
Single herbs for nourishing Yin
Yin xu can be divided into Yin liquid and Yin essence xu plus hyperactivity of Yang. Yin liquid xu will manifest more as dryness as the yin xu heat damages the fluids. Yin liquid problems respond pretty quickly to introduction of liquids.
Yin essence is a deeper issue – not a liquid issue and responds much more slowly which makes sense because it’s a longer term issue that developed slowly. This is more of a congenital essence problem. There are symptoms indicative of the slow degeneration of life essence – grey hair, teeth start falling out, chronic bone problems, etc.
Zeng Ye Tang
This is the basic formula for Yin Liquid/Fluid Deficiency.
Lung, Stomach and Intestines are the organs most likely to suffer from Yin Fluid Xu.
These are actually often included within other formulas (i.e., Zeng Ye Cheng Qi Tang to the right ) since you rarely see a patient with only a differentiation of yin fluid xu.
Liu Wei Di Huang Wan
This is a basic for Yin essence xu and was originally developed to address developmental problems due to Ki issues for kids.
Need to memorize these ingredients!
3 tonifications for KI, LV, SP and 3 for draining those same organs.
See information below for the reasons for the draining herbs in this formula.
Modifications:
You need to know all of the above, plus
Know that Qi Wei Du Qi Wan is usually called Du Qi Wan.
The base of all of these is to treat an essence problem plus other stuff.
Kidney Yin Xu
Zuo Gui Wan
This is the primary formula. This is a strong tonification formula, tonifying both yin and yang.
Digestion must be good in order to use this formula. If patient takes it too long can cause digestive issues. You could add chen pi to make it longer term. If you see damp/water retention in the patient, don’t use this formula!!!
Da Bu Yin Wan
This is KI yin xu with heat – the number one issue here.
Zhu ji sui is the marrow from a pig’s spine. Ew. Use salty water to take this formula pill to guide it to the kidney – doesn’t take much, just a dash.
You can add modifications for varying conditions: di gu pi for deep hidden heat for instance. You could add herbs for night sweating also.
this is the comparison of da bu yin wan to zhi bai di huang wan.
Liver Yin Xu
Eyes, tendons and menstruation are where you will see this problem. Liver yin xu and liver blood xu are different – if blood, base your formula on si wu tang. Basic formula for Liver yin xu is also a ‘di huang wan’ base.
Compare the two below to address this issue:
Liver/blood xu causing dry problems. This isn’t true for something like Xiao Yao San – still for blood (and qi), but no mention of dryness with xiao yao san.
Add yan hu suo for hypochodriac pain (qi related). Bai shao for abdominal area pain (blood related).
Lung Yin Xu
This is mostly a liquid issue. No special essence in the Lung. External heat mostly causes the xu in the lung.
Symptoms of a liquid xu in the Lung – dry nose, throat, mouth, hoarse voice, dry cough. You can also see heat signs. If this goes unchecked, the dry liquid damage yin damage. Develops to blood in the lung/sputum, etc. the recovery is much harder.
This formula nourishes yin, clrs the LU and benefits the throat.
Bei mu guides to the lung. Mu dan pi clears off xu heat.
This is another classic formula for Lung yin xu, cough/phlegm/blood, etc. Note that there’s si wu tang in here. Bai he in here is very good for the Lung. Jie geng guides to Lung.
Originally used for TB patients coughing blood.
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