Everyone who studies Chinese medicine will prescribe the wrong prescription, and I have experienced it myself. Such an experience is unforgettable.
When I was still studying Chinese medicine, it was many years ago. Once in a Chinese medicine clinic, I met a rural woman who suffered from a strange disease. She was thirsty and wanted to drink water. According to her husband, She has to hold a thermos bottle every day and drink a lot of water, but she is still thirsty. She went to many hospitals for examination of this disease and took a lot of medicines, but none of them worked.
At that time, I checked her pulse together with everyone, and then I looked at her tongue. It was a thick layer of white coating, which was very thick, but I was not proficient in tongue diagnosis at that time (now I know what is going on, but I understood it at the time. Not deep), after feeling strange in my heart, I started to analyze from the symptoms, and analyzed to everyone confidently: Of course, thirst means a great loss of body fluid, it must be yin deficiency, and nourish yin!
As a result, after discussing with everyone, I prescribe three prescriptions for nourishing yin.
Then, the woman grabbed the medicine and left.
I came back a few days later and said that there was basically no effect, and I was still so thirsty, so I drank a few thermos bottles of water every day.
At that time, we thought that the potency of the medicine might not be enough, so we prescribed three prescriptions for nourishing yin.
As a result, it still had no effect.
I was dumbfounded, thinking that the disease was not that simple, and I was helpless. Later, when I heard that she was going to Beijing to visit her child, I told her to go to Beijing to find a famous doctor.
This matter has been in my mind for so many years. This is a place where I have been very guilty. I prescribed a prescription before I was sure. When I thought about it, I felt that if I met this rural woman again, I must bow and apologize to her.
Later, I read a lot, and I knew that such a situation was not due to yin deficiency, but because the water in the body was too heavy, and the water was accumulated in the bladder, which led to unfavorable gasification, which would cause the entire system of distributing water to go out. Problem, so the body is still in a state of water shortage. At this time, there is a lot of water in some parts, but the other parts are short of water, so you will be thirsty, but the water you drink will be quickly urinated.
At this time, it is necessary to use Zhang Zhongjing's water-reducing prescriptions, such as the famous Wuling powder.
I met several cases of such patients later, and I feel comforted that I have dealt with this problem correctly afterwards.
For example, there was a middle-aged woman who was thirsty, drank water constantly, and urinated profusely. She described it as rectal, and she would urinate after drinking. She drank two thermos bottles of water a day, but she was still thirsty. I had an examination and suspected that there was a tumor in the brain, but it was later confirmed that there was no tumor.
When I saw this woman, I felt like I was going back in time. I felt that this was a long time ago, and the case I encountered in school appeared again. I thought to myself, this time, I can't make another mistake.
Which expert is talking about it? One cannot stumble in the same place.
So I observed carefully that the woman's tongue coating was a thick and greasy layer covering the entire tongue, and the tongue coating was covered with saliva. This kind of tongue phenomenon is the expression of water in the body.
So, I prescribed Wulingsan with added flavor. After three doses of medicine, the woman began to drink less water. Later, after taking a few more doses, she basically returned to normal. Everyone was shocked. They thought this disease should be a very dangerous disease, but they recovered so quickly. This is the charm of Jing Fang.
Later, there were several other cases. For example, there was an old woman whose daughter-in-law came to me for treatment. She also had the same problem. She drank water every day, and at the same time, she was afraid of the cold. She wore several more clothes than others, and her tongue The elephant was also covered with white moss, so I also used Wuling powder to add flavor. Later, the patient was basically cured without many side effects. I wrote this medical case into the last part of the book "This Is Traditional Chinese Medicine".
There are also some strange patients, for example, at a fixed period of the year, they will definitely have a fever and a low-grade fever. I have also encountered a few cases of this, repeated low-grade fevers, and it has been like this for several years. Finally, I analyzed that it is also water storage. Bladder, qi is not good, also used Wuling powder, and the result was quickly cured.
Therefore, we must read more books, and we must study more about the mysteries of body conditioning that Zhang Zhongjing's ancestors thought out with great pains, otherwise we will not understand our own body.
So, what is the truth behind this Wuling powder?
It turns out that the composition of Wuling powder is: Polyporus, Poria, Alisma, Atractylodes macrocephala, and Guizhi. As you can see, in the Lingguizhugan Decoction we talked about before, except Zhigancao, other three herbs are in it. Poria cocos removes dampness, Atractylodes macrocephala nourishes the spleen, and cassia twig warms yang and transforms qi. At the same time, Zhang Zhongjing also added two medicines of Polyporus and Alisma.
In it, there is a lot of meaning and a lot to say.
Polyporus and Alisma are both purging the bladder meridian and kidney meridian, so this means that when we are more sure that the problem of water dampness is mainly concentrated in the bladder, we can use Wulingsan, its The medication site is more concentrated, which we call targeted therapy in traditional Chinese medicine.
In "Treatise on Febrile Diseases", the symptoms treated by this prescription include: difficulty urinating, thirst, mild fever, thirst for drinking water, vomiting when water is ingested, etc.
The general interpretation of this prescription is that Wuling powder treats the unsolved evils on the exterior of the sun, and transmits the sun to the bladder internally, which causes the bladder to be unfavorable for gasification, and the water accumulates in the lower coke, resulting in the same disease of the sun meridians and viscera.
It is estimated that everyone will feel dizzy when they read this. It is all terminology. I will use the form of a picture to give you a metaphor.
For example, there is a big river, which is our mother river. We built a reservoir in the middle of the river. The reservoir is responsible for many water conservancy projects. These water conservancy projects send part of the water to the vast farmland and part of the water to the downstream. It is a water conservancy system. Compared to our human body, this reservoir can be regarded as a bladder.
In Chinese medicine, the concept of the bladder is different from that of Western medicine. The bladder in Chinese medicine is a place where water and fluid gather. It is completed under the steam of kidney qi. In western medicine, the bladder is basically a place to store urine.
Now, the yang qi in our body is insufficient, and as a result, the function of qi transformation is weakened, and water cannot be distributed throughout the body, or it is excreted from the body, and as a result, water accumulates in the bladder. It's like a reservoir that's frozen and can't send water to the fields.
What happens at this point? There is no water in the farmland, so I called the upper reaches of the river and told to put more water, so the upper side began to increase the amount of water, hoping to irrigate the fields.
However, when the water arrived at the reservoir, it was found that it was covered with ice and had no function of dividing water, so it went across the river, went straight downstream, and quickly flowed into the sea. Water, so the upstream requires more water, and as a result, more water flows into the sea.
This is also the case in the human body. Water is stored in the bladder, where the cold is condensed and cannot be vaporized. The body is not irrigated, so we are in a hurry, so we drink water continuously. However, after drinking in, the bladder does not work, and the water is directly absorbed. Expelled, the body is still short of water, helpless, still in a hurry.
See, that's why such patients drink water constantly, but are still thirsty.
At the same time, there will also be a problem that because the reservoir is frozen, a lot of water is not completely discharged directly from the body, and some of it flows to various parts of the body and becomes abnormal water, which will cause many problems.
At this time, the water flowing out is less, so there is a problem with the amount of urination. This is called dysuria. It always happens, but the urine output is not much each time. This is very different from the previous urine output of diabetes insipidus. Collapse is how much you drink and urinate. And the decrease in urine output is unfavorable for urination.
If you don't urinate completely, the water will run around in your body.
Let's imagine a picture again. The human body is like a strange stone in a Suzhou garden. It is hollow inside and has many holes on the outside. It is excreted from the urine of the human body. Now we freeze the bottom of the strange stone and block the holes below, so what will happen? Water will come out from the various holes on the top.
The same is true in the human body. There are many medical records to prove that Wulingsan can treat many diseases caused by excessive water and dampness.
For example, a doctor once used Wuling powder to treat pseudomyopia. He saw that the patient had a thick and greasy tongue coating and was thirsty for drinking water, so he prescribed Wuling powder. After fifteen drugs, the patient's vision improved significantly.
There are also doctors who use Wuling Powder to treat tinnitus, which is also caused by water and dampness. This patient has tried many medicines for purging fire or nourishing the kidney, but none of them are effective, so he uses Wuling Powder. The patient recovered.
I have also used Wuling powder to treat such a patient. The patient’s main tinnitus, I saw that her tongue was covered with coating, which was obviously wet. Therefore, no matter what her disease was, she should go to the water damp first, and then look at the remaining symptoms. Where there is a disorder, adjust it again. So I prescribed Wuling San with flavored ingredients, and after a few doses of medicine, the tinnitus disappeared. This also made me understand the truth of Chinese medicine again. Chinese medicine believes in the body's own repair ability. Chinese medicine may not distinguish what kind of disease the patient is suffering from, but just remove the internal problems of the patient's body, and then let the patient's body repair itself. to recover.
There are also doctors who use Wuling powder to treat epilepsy. Zhang Zhongjing mentioned this disease in "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber". For epilepsy caused by heavy dampness, this method of dehydration can achieve good results, because the brain is the home of Qingyang, if the water is heavy, there will be various problems. Of course, there are other types of epilepsy that require dialectical treatment.
In addition, Wuling powder is also used to treat dizziness, vomiting, fever, sweating and other diseases caused by severe water dampness. The principle of Chinese medicine is: no matter what disease you are suffering from (the name of the disease is endless, we chase the name of the disease, it will never be exhausted), we just look at what caused your disease, if it is caused by water, we will Just remove the moisture, and then your own body will try its best to recover.
There is a term in traditional Chinese medicine called "different diseases with the same treatment", which means: although the names of the diseases are different, if the cause of the disease is the same, then we will remove the cause of the disease, and the disease will be eliminated.
After I have said so much, you may feel that it has nothing to do with me. Anyway, I don’t have diabetes insipidus, nor do I feel dizzy and tinnitus. In fact, what I want to talk about is that our modern people are very wet because we don’t exercise much. There is less sunshine, because there are air conditioners, and because there are more opportunities to drink cold drinks. In short, it is estimated that the water humidity must be heavier than that of the ancients. Anyway, it must be heavier than people in the 1950s and 1960s. People at that time were malnourished. Insufficiency of Qi and blood is a characteristic, and today's people are characterized by heavy phlegm dampness and uncomfortable liver qi. Sometimes, when I examine people's pulse and check their tongue, I find that the vast majority of people have severe water dampness, and many people have tongue coating. Therefore, getting rid of dampness is an important task for people in our era to maintain their health.
I don't mean to let everyone become classics. What we study is the principles of health preservation in Zhang Zhongjing's prescriptions. Zhang Zhongjing's prescriptions describe to us how water and dampness are harmful in the body, and how we should change them. Into normal water, keep our body healthy.
Therefore, Wuling Powder and Lingguizhugan Decoction are very instructive, as well as Zhenwu Decoction used when yang deficiency is heavy, all of which are Zhang Zhongjing's series of prescriptions for treating water dampness. It is said that in "Yiyin Decoction", There are famous gunpowder and water (Shuiqi), which were famous prescriptions at that time. Mr. Liu Duzhou analyzed that prescriptions such as Wuling Powder and Lingguizhugan Decoction were famous water medicines. In "Treatise on Febrile Diseases", we must grasp the two aspects of water and fire in order to gain something.
When I am recuperating your body now, because most of the people I meet have the problem of water dampness, I will remove the dampness first, otherwise the next step of recuperation will be affected. For example, some people directly use nourishing method, as a result, moisture and nourishing Chinese medicine are mixed together, and the more tonic, the more chaotic.
However, Wulingsan is a traditional Chinese medicine prescription, so you should not just use it, you need to find a nearby doctor, analyze your own constitution, and then the doctor will prescribe a prescription, remember.
