Introduction: Nowadays, there are many individuals with blood deficiency, especially among women. In response to this situation, Teacher Luo Dalun introduces commonly used blood-nourishing formulas in this article. These formulas are simple, effective, and suitable for most people.
Maintenance Formulas for Individuals with Blood Deficiency Constitution
(1) Soup for the Best Blood Nourishment: Angelica Blood Nourishing Chicken Soup
Ingredients:
6g Angelica (Dang Gui), 3g Chuanxiong, 6g Goji Berries (Gou Qi Zi), 1 whole chicken.
Method:
First, blanch the chicken in hot water to remove blood scum, then add the herbs and chicken into a pot, add clean water, and simmer to make soup.
This soup is very effective for nourishing blood, especially for women. If consumed regularly, the condition of blood deficiency can improve quickly.
As mentioned earlier, if the spleen and stomach are damaged and cannot absorb nutrients from food well, it can lead to blood deficiency; excessive fatigue and worry can deplete heart blood; various forms of blood loss can also cause blood deficiency, so the probability of blood loss in a person’s life is relatively high.
In ancient times, there were many methods for nourishing blood, and making soup is one of the more effective and common methods. Guangdong is the place where ancient customs are best preserved in China, and there are people in the local markets who specialize in selling various herbs. They will ask you about your health issues and then tell you the effects of different herbs, recommending a few for you to buy and make soup.
Many people say that they have some illnesses that cannot be treated in hospitals, but after going to the market to get some herbs and making soup at home, their illnesses improve in just a few days.
Studying the history of Chinese medicine reveals that the earliest prescriptions were presented in the form of vegetable soups. The “Huangdi Neijing” states: “Grains nourish, fruits assist, livestock benefit, and vegetables complete.” Many people do not understand what this means. However, those who have read Tao Hongjing’s “Fu Xing Jue” should understand.
For example, the small spleen nourishing soup mentioned in “Fu Xing Jue” includes cinnamon twig, peony root, and licorice. To treat illness, one must add a vegetable, ginger as a vegetable; add a date as a fruit; add maltose as a grain; and add beef as livestock.
This means that every prescription should include one vegetable, one meat, one fruit, and one grain.
It is said that Yi Yin from the Shang Dynasty was the ancestor of soup-making. The “Zizhi Tongjian” records: “Making soup liquid based on herbs, clarifying the nature of cold, heat, warm, cool, sour, bitter, spicy, sweet, salty, and bland, light and clear, heavy and turbid, yin and yang rising and falling, suitable for the twelve meridians inside and outside. Today’s medical discussions on medicinal properties all originate from Yi Yin.” This refers to Yi Yin who, while cooking for the Shang king, added these herbs and summarized some formulas.
Thus, the earliest form of Chinese medicine appeared in the form of soup liquids.
People in Guangdong love to make soup, almost every day, sometimes taking a whole day to prepare a soup. This preserves the most primitive lifestyle of ancient China. Nowadays, with the fast pace of life, few young people are willing to spend time making soup. In fact, making soup is the most nourishing for the body. When ancient people felt unwell or blood deficient, using some medicinal materials to make soup could help restore their health.
(2) Timeless Blood Nourishing Formula: Yuling Paste
The most effective formula for nourishing blood is the Yuling Paste created by the famous ancient physician Wang Mengying.
Ingredients:
300g Longan Flesh (Long Yan Rou), 30g American Ginseng Powder (Xi Yang Shen Fen).
Method:
Steam the ingredients together on low heat for 4 hours, then let cool. The longer the steaming time, the less heat the longan flesh will have. After cooling, take 1 tablespoon daily and brew with hot water.
Note:
If you can buy fresh longan, you can make longan flesh yourself. After buying longan, remove the skin and seeds, and the remaining white flesh will turn black-red after steaming.
I have been actively promoting this formula, and many people have found it extremely beneficial. I believe that blood deficiency is more common among women, especially many women experience a significant drop in constitution after giving birth, and there are too few correct methods for nourishing blood, while this formula can indeed help everyone.
There was a lady who experienced severe fatigue and always felt weak. She said she was listless in everything she did, feeling unable to perform her work, and her complexion was pale, sensitive to wind and cold, needing to wear more clothes than others, experiencing dizziness and insomnia, and unable to sleep normally, while feeling lethargic during the day. However, when she went to the hospital, no disease could be diagnosed, which troubled her greatly.
When she found me, she asked me what disease this was, and I was at a loss for words.
What disease is this? This is a series of symptoms. If you consider them as “diseases,” insomnia is a disease, but what about being sensitive to wind? If you really treat them as diseases and study them one by one, I believe you will never find an answer in this lifetime. For example, being sensitive to wind and cold, which department would you go to in the hospital? In Chinese medicine, we consider your constitution. If it is a blood deficiency constitution, we must first nourish the blood, and then the symptoms arising from blood deficiency will disappear.
So my response at that time was: “I don’t know what ‘disease’ you have, but let’s first use dietary therapy to adjust your constitution, shall we?” I then had this lady take Yuling Paste, and at first, she didn’t believe it, saying, “Can such a simple thing be effective?” I said, “Just try it!”
The result was that in just over a week, the effects were obvious, and all her symptoms disappeared.
(3) Yuling Paste Nourishes Blood and Calms the Spirit
I have a relative back home who is over 60 years old, has a poor complexion, weak spleen and stomach, lacks appetite, is very thin, and is sensitive to cold, even showing some abnormal mental state. Because he couldn’t sleep well at night and had no appetite for food, he felt particularly uncomfortable and was nearly on the verge of collapse.
He saw many doctors, and one day discovered a tumor on his pituitary gland, so he underwent surgery to remove it, but afterward, his health remained extremely poor, and he didn’t know what disease he had, and taking many medications had no effect. Later, this person found me, and I asked him to send a photo of his tongue. Upon examining the tongue and considering his symptoms, I determined that it was clearly blood deficiency, so I advised him to take Yuling Paste to nourish the blood.
Yuling Paste is very effective for treating heart and spirit issues caused by blood deficiency because dried longan flesh is red, which nourishes heart blood and calms the spirit very well. The reason our heart blood is depleted is that the heart spirit is overly active, and longan flesh can calm the spirit, reducing excessive thoughts.
This medicine is miraculous and can quickly nourish your body because when the blood is sufficient, the spirit has a foundation, and one becomes tranquil. Thus, we call this step nourishing heart blood and calming the spirit.
For example, those who suffer from insomnia can eat longan flesh, nourish the spirit, and be able to sleep. The issue of blood depletion is resolved.
What effects did my relative, who was nearly on the verge of collapse, experience after taking Yuling Paste? A few months later, he had a good appetite, his complexion changed, he gained weight, and most importantly, his mental state completely transformed.
In fact, a dietary therapy formula can resolve blood deficiency issues. Therefore, whenever I encounter someone with blood deficiency, as long as I use this formula, I can generally adjust their blood deficiency state back to normal.
However, there is another secret in Yuling Paste that enhanced my understanding of this formula later. A netizen emailed me saying, “Dr. Luo, you said these two ingredients should be steamed for 4 hours, but Wang Mengying’s original text states that it should be steamed in a steamer while cooking rice, for 100 times. I calculated that steaming 100 times would take more than your 4 hours, so I figured it would take about 40 hours to steam. I tried steaming it for 40 hours and found that at this point, the longan flesh was no longer sweet—after more than 10 hours, the longan flesh began to taste bitter, and it became increasingly bitter, but the medicinal effect was excellent, and it didn’t cause heat, and the results were immediate. After I gave it to my friends, they all felt their sleep improved significantly!”
This email surprised me. I had previously simplified this formula to 4 hours because I thought modern people wouldn’t have the patience to steam for dozens of hours. However, indeed, some people followed my instructions, and while it worked, some experienced heat. But this friend said that after steaming the longan flesh for 40 hours, it was no longer sweet, didn’t cause heat, and had excellent medicinal effects. So I tried it and found it to be true; after steaming for 10 hours, the sweetness of the longan flesh began to decrease and then turned bitter, while the medicinal effect became stronger. The practice of the netizen made me reflect deeply; it seems that the things written by ancient people are indeed based on experience and should not be easily altered, and the content is worth pondering and respecting.
At the same time, I also deeply understood the meaning of the phrase “teaching and learning mutually benefit each other”; the practices of netizens have educated me and enhanced my knowledge.
Dr. Luo’s Special Reminder
Avoid giving ginseng-based Chinese medicine to children, and pregnant women should be cautious with longan flesh.
Who should not eat American ginseng? Children should avoid it. In fact, children should avoid all types of ginseng, but longan flesh is safe for children.
Additionally, pregnant women should be cautious with longan flesh because it has a slightly warming nature. If there is heat in the pregnant woman’s body, consuming longan flesh may cause fetal movement, so pregnant women should generally avoid longan flesh, and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners typically do not prescribe warming medicines to pregnant women.
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▶ Copyright Statement:
1、Source: This article is excerpted from “Illustrated Tongue Diagnosis—Stick Out Your Tongue and All Illnesses Disappear,” published by Jiangxi Science and Technology Press, authored by Luo Dalun.Edited by Ning Zhichao.
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