kevin_wallbridge

There is a trick from Chinese Gongfu Cha. When the bubbles are as big as crab eyes the water is 70 degrees (good for lighter teas: green, white, fragrant wulongs, etc.). When the bubbles are the size of fish eyes the water is 90 degrees (good for more robust teas: reds, pu'er, etc.).

Hi Vajra Fist. Yes I would watch out for tonics if you have weight and appetite issues. Self diagnosing is virtually impossible in Chinese medicine. We are too close to our own experience to really get an honest appraisal. Not absolutely impossible, just really really difficult. Diagnosis is the real skill in Chinese medicine. Needling is relatively easy. Formulae have been built over centuries and there is tons of clinical experience in the literature (especially in Chinese) for usage of the herbs. The trick is correctly identifying the unique syndrome that has arisen. Its important to keep in mind that we don't treat diseases in Chinese medicine, we treat syndromes within the categories of disease. For example: liver profusion insomnia and heart blood deficiency insomnia will treated entirely differently from each other despite being the same disease. However, palpitations from heart blood deficiency and insomnia from heart blood deficiency will have almost the identical treatment.

Yes both are quite mild. 灵芝 Lingzhi/Reishi is a mild tonic and thermally neutral. It is considered beneficial for the Qi of all of the 脏 Zang organs, and especially for deficiency due to overwork. 绞股蓝 Jiao Gu Lan is a little cooler and so has mild anti-pyretic effects. Basically a mild anti-inflammatory, so it can be a problem if the person runs to Yang deficiency (metabolic cold or hypo-thyroidism, that sort of thing). Otherwise it is not problematic. Both are considered to mildly calm the 神 Shen and so help with insomnia and other kinds of mental excitation.

Yup, it is a Catch 22. Cang Zhu is quite drying and once it was working that would have been the time to switch strategies to strengthening and supporting the spleen. Combined problems are always more complex to unravel. In your case it depends on what the signs of Yin deficiency are and where they are manifesting. Then in Chinese medicine we would use a full formula, rather than a couple of supplements to adjust the body's circumstances. At this point I would recommend just using diet alone to control the issue and leaving the supplementation aside. See an herbalist if you want to move forward in this direction. A formula that is often the base for this kind of thing is Zhu Ling Tang 猪苓汤. While originally for when the body's fight against cold that has entered the Yang Ming 阳明 or Shao Yin 少阴 stages had led to damage to the fluids by heat (thus a circumstance where water and heat are clumped due to the disturbance of the water pathways), this is now also used for Yin deficiency dampness. Now this formula is close to Wu Ling San 五苓散 which is more for interior problems that show edema. Since, in your case, the problem is actually externally induced the former formula is a more likely start. Taking apart the 5 herbs shows how the thinking goes: 猪苓 Zhu Ling (sclerotium polypori umbellati/polyporus fungus) is one of the chief herbs and promotes urination, leeches dampness and facilitates fluid metabolism. In this formula it is the latter function that is its main contribution. 苻苓 Fu Ling (sclerotum poria cocos/poria fungus) is the other principle herb. It tonifies the spleen, eliminates dampness and calms the heart-mind. This has a long observed functional synergy with Zhu Ling each making the other stronger. 澤泻 Ze Xie (rhizoma alismatis orientalis/water plantain) is the deputy. It aids the chief herbs in their promotion of urination. 滑石 Hua Shi (talcum) is the assistant herb. it clears heat and can unblock painful urinary dysfunction (a common complication of dampness and Yin deficiency). 阿胶 E Jiao (gelatinum corii asini/donkey hide gelatin) is a Yin tonic that prevents the urination from becoming excessive, which would cause more damage to the Yin. So this formula promotes urination, the major way to clear accumulated dampness from the body, without creating further damage to the Yin. So the first three act as the drainers to leech the dampness out. The talcum is cold and heavy frees up the fluid pathways that are often disturbed by Yin deficiency. Finally the E Jiao is the real key to the whole operation as it enriches Yin while anchoring the floating vitality that shows as deficiency heat. Understanding the complex way in which herbs interact is a key part of the training of an herbalist. Now I am NOT recommending that you self dose with Zhu Ling Tang. What I am trying to point out is how involved the use of herbs in Chinese medicine actually is and to caution you about using them. This is the kind of formula that you may take four or five bags of before adjusting to something different as the body goes through changes. Diet and exercise (养生法/Yang Sheng Fa) are for everyday. Herbs are for making changes. There is an old Chinese saying (成语) that goes 画蛇添足 Hua She Tian Zu. It means to "paint a snake and add feet." It means doing extra when one has already completed the task to the point of ruining the original work. Overuse of herbs and formula is often like this. Good luck.

A little context.

The idea of the Kidneys opening to the ears is from the observation that certain sense organs have stronger associations to certain organs especially in terms of pathology. A very common human circumstance is the decline of the kidneys in ageing. This is accompanied by many common symptoms among which is loss of hearing. So the hearing loss is often seen as a part of a constellation of other symptoms, all of which can be traced to kidney function. As well, something that can also be seen is tinnitus or ringing in the ears. While there are many other causes of tinnitus, especially liver and gallbladder issues, there is one particular manifestation (low-grade persistent tinnitus) that is often seen in kidney decline. As for texts... one of the most common in English is Macciocia's The Foundation of Chinese Medicine. While it is very complete it suffers from errors and some poor interpretations. The current editions use the publishing trick of highlighting quotations in blue; I often point out to my students (I do use this text when teaching fundamentals) that if you see lots of blue quotes it is because he is out his depth and doesn't know how to explain that topic. He is clearly a medical guy and probably not a trained or practising Daoist, so the most important philosophical level in this book is rather weak, in my opinion. An older text is the Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine by Ellis and Wiseman. I actually like the presentation quite a bit better than Macciocia and they include more Chinese headings and such. For example if they are going to talk about an aphorism or common saying used in Chinese medicine they will give the characters for the phrase, something Macciocia does not do (and frankly should). The downside to the Ellis and Wiseman text is that is just not as complete as Macciocia, which is broader in scope. That being said, I prefer to steer people here who are not going to study the medicine as a profession.... OK, just browsing Amazon and I see that the prices go from $120 up to about $3500! Ridiculous, even if it out of print, it is a $50 book. What is it like to see the world through such a lens of greed? Well, you should still be able to get it through an inter-library loan. I just did a quick search through books.google.com and found several libraries near me that have it.

He Shou Wu is very mild. It can loosen the bowels for treating constipation so a good way to know you have taken too much is if you get loose stools. The most common side effect is lustrous hair (hence the name "Mister He's head is black as a crow"). It is mostly used for women as their menstrual cycle can be effected by mild imbalances of the liver and kidneys, both of which are benefited by Heshouwu.

Well, yes and no. Fresh ginger is mildly warming and has tropism for the spleen and lung, though I wouldn't call it a spleen and lung tonic. It is at best mildly tonifying. When it is said that it balances Yin excess they mean in this case cold, especially externally contracted wind 外感风寒, it won't prevent the build up of pathological metabolites. Say for example, if a child eats too much ice cream and gets abdominal cramps and vomiting then ginger will do a fine job of warming the middle burner and stopping the retching. However, the phlegm that builds up from the overconsumption of milk fats (think the chubby kid whose every whine is met with placation with junk food) won't be affected much by the ginger. 桂枝 Cinnamon twig is similar, an exterior resolving herb, certainly warmer than ginger, yet still with its strongest effects felt in the periphery. When it appears in formulae that effect the core of the body it is often there to support the effect of another herb with deeper penetration. On its own it will more likely give you warm hands than do anything at all to accumulations of turbid phlegm. One thing that often causes problems for outsiders to Chinese medicine is the convention within the classics for context to be assumed to be clear. This is especially true of Yin Yang terminology. While it is true that both accumulations of pathological metabolites and cold are classed as "Yin Excess" we never use the term "Yin Excess" to describe any kind of condition. Its like cancer in biomedicine, a patient may understand "I have cancer," but their doctor will not treat "cancer" they will treat "acute lymphoblastic leukemia" or "hepatocellular cancer" because each one is a different kind of problem. So while phlegm and cold are technically Yin conditions we don't call them that. When we do use the terms Yin and Yang is when we are talking about changes in the physiological substrate one the one hand and changes in the metabolic activity on the other. So there are no syndromes within Chinese medicine that are actually named as Yin excess , say like 心肾阴实 heart and kidney Yin excess. Even though that could be used to describe a situation where breakdown of kidney function has led to fluid accumulations (Yin) that are overbearing on the heart, such as in pleural effusion. We would call it 心肾不交 loss of the ferrying function between the heart and the kidney. This is because the fluids that are accumulating, while originally the product of normal physiology, are now pathological and excessive and so not a part of the healthy substrate of the body that balances and contains the metabolism, and so no longer a part of what we refer to as Yin when talking about a person. Classed as Yin but not labelled as Yin. Yang excess is very similar, all heat syndromes are classed as Yang, but called heat or fire. So when we do use the terms Yin and Yang when referring to the circumstances of a person's pathology we say 阴虚 Yin Deficiency to refer to situations where the substrate has declined until the point that the healthy metabolic function cannot be contained and appears to "float" giving rise to signs of heat (deficiency heat); and we say 阳虚 Yang Deficiency to refer to metabolic hypo-function where a person appears as if they are cold (deficiency cold). Otherwise YIn Yang do not come up, they are foundational theory, not terms thrown about in clinic. So to come back to ginger and cinnamon twig, while both are Yang in nature they are not classed as Yang tonics and they cannot help balance the body by helping Yang turn to Yin or vice-versa.

Well, you can't go too far wrong with things like heshouwu, gouji and ginger, as these all fall into an area called kitchen herbs. While they can be used in medicinal doses in combination with other herbs to create precisely balanced formulae, they are also used in cooking simply for nutrition or flavour. Ginseng 人参 and dongchong xiacao 冬虫夏草 (cordyceps) are another matter. They are strong herbs that change the body's balance and do not make good supplements. Xu Dachun wrote a great polemic against the misuse of ginseng in his 1757 text 醫學源流論 Yi Xue Yuan Liu Lun. While it stirs up the minister fire 相火, and so can make people feel like they have more energy, it is not the ginseng itself that we are feeling, it is our own life force being agitated. If a person has issues with depletion of functional Yang in their body (things like hypothyroidism or age related metabolic decline) then the use of strong Yang tonics may be called for; but if there is no actual decline all you are doing is stimulating the body system to run hot. Burning the candle twice as bright burns it half as long. Too much ginseng at a young age will shorten your life, full stop. There are no panaceas in Chinese medicine, nothing is good taken all of the time. When I said this here before someone pointed to anecdotal tales of Li Qingyun 李清云 taking heshouwu everyday. The thing is that the elderly are in a state of constant decline, so they often have to take herbs everyday to deal with that decline. The herbs and formulae they take may not change often, but over time they will need to change. This is not the same thing as a younger person looking to feel better or have more pep. There are two likely negative results that come from self-dosing with Chinese herbs. The first is increased or hyper-metabolism which we would call heat in classical terms. It can show as an extremely wide range of symptoms and often seems unlinked to the herbs. Such things as: increased appetite, weight loss and not the good kind, insomnia, rashes, constipation, irritability, reckless behaviour, addictions, and so on. The second is the accumulation of pathological metabolites, phlegm. This is exactly the excessive Yin Jing the OP was asking about. If we take in clear essences and they are more than we can handle then they will be stored by the body in some way. If it is rich nutrition then we will store it as fat. If it is a tonic that stimulates the moist structural base of the physical body then we will get thick fluids and phlegm. Combine the two and you get the very best recipe for Qigong sickness or Kundalini syndrome that there is. Make some phlegm and then set it on fire, nothing is crazier than that. Want a personality disorder? Then play with Chinese herb tonics and Qigong. It is my professional opinion as a trained herbalist, professor of Chinese medicine and 30 year Qigong practitioner that ginseng and cordyceps should never be taken without a prescription. As an aside, where people tend to use ginseng as a pick-me-up there is a better option. Using ginseng for a buzz is like Michael Jackson using propothal to go to sleep, killing flies with a hammer. Consider astragalus 黄芪 huangqi, it is those things that look like yellow tongue depressors. They are often available in Chinese groceries. Throw one or two into any soup stock or congee that you make and you have a nice mild spleen tonic that boosts the acquired constitution without messing with the substrate of your metabolism.

Too many rich tonifying herbs creates phlegm/痰. In the use of formulas, tonics are always mixed with Qi movers to prevent side effects from sticky herbs. If you are going to take Chinese herbs you really may want to consider seeing a trained herbalist.

No one else builds your buttons for you. As the old Zen saying goes "the cawing of the crow does not change your essential nature," so what power do another's words really have that you do not give them?"

Just because the first person you lie to is yourself doesn't make it OK. His take on meridian theory 經絡學 would be laughable if he wasn't trying to educate. As someone who teaches a class every Fall on meridians by going character by character through the relevant sections of the Neijing and Nanjing I am baffled by his conclusions. Its not even in the category of alternate view, it just plain 100 kinds of wrong. It shows that he has NEVER had the classics open in front of him. In one minute I could prove him wrong in person.

Tonics are for tonifyng. There is no tradition within Chinese medicine of using daily supplements. The herbs and formulae are used to engender changes and are intended to be monitored and modified as the condition evolves. So if you are thinking of taking Heshouwu my question is why? Do you need more liver blood? Do you want blacker hair? Playing with herbs can have some rather serious consequences. Heshouwu is relatively benign, but the whole practice is dangerous. Many of the herbs that people like to take, renshen for example, can create major problems: overstimulating the metabolism or creating the accumulation of pathological metabolites. That being said, if the sides of your tongue are slightly pale, or you have just finished your period, the Heshouwu will probably do you some good. The best daily tonic is take things less seriously and not live with a mind out of equilibrium.

I am not very active here but I am a professor of Chinese Medicine and have been teaching it for 20 years.

Kubba, if I may offer a suggestion. Get your head out of your head, and stick it in your ass. Of course I am teasing, but the confrontational statement is intended to shock your attention. I don't know chakras but I do know Chinese medicine and you describe the typical symptoms of Liver Qi or Liver Yang rising (your tongue and pulse will clearly show which). While the underlying cause is probably more to do with how you respond the frustrating pressures of your life, the attention you are paying to your head and points of focus within it are likely exacerbating the problem So, I would suggest you look at 氣沉丹田 sink the Qi to Dantain as a safer route for your meditation that anything that leads things upward. Settle into your tailbone and put your attention on the root of your body if you are practising seated meditation. You show the signs of someone who can easily move Qi with thought, and this is a blessing and curse in equal measure. This means that you do not need to train your mind any further than your body can come along. You have proven that you can move energy to your head, now try not to use your whole being to do it. Be in the meditation without leaving your buttocks to do so. The other thing is to look at how you move through the world. How do relate to planning and action? How do you deal with frustration? Do you have a temper? In relationships do you keep score (you got to this so I get to do that...)? Do you have buttons to push? Do you sigh much? Do you ever feel like there is something caught in your throat? Do you ever feel an uncomfortable fullness under the base of your ribs? Again, I hope are not offended by how I started. It was a test of reactivity. Ask yourself how it really made you feel and why. As the Zen saying goes, "the cawing of the crow does not change your essential nature, what matter the words of a person?"