Introduction:Currently, there are many people suffering from 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 Methods for Individuals with Blood Deficiency
(1) Soup is the Best for Nourishing Blood: Angelica Blood Nourishing Chicken Soup
Ingredients:
6g of Dang Gui (Angelica), 3g of Chuan Xiong (Szechuan Lovage), 6g of Gou Qi Zi (Goji Berries), 1 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 quite 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 one of the places in China where ancient customs are best preserved, and in the local markets, there are people 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 take home 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.
Researching the history of Chinese medicine reveals that the earliest prescriptions were presented in the form of vegetable soups. The Huang Di Nei Jing states: “Grains nourish, fruits assist, livestock benefit, and vegetables complete.” Many people do not understand what this means. However, those who have read Fu Xing Jue by Tao Hongjing should understand.
For example, the Fu Xing Jue mentions a small spleen-nourishing soup, which includes Gui Zhi (Cinnamon Twig), Shao Yao (Peony), and Gan Cao (Licorice). To treat illness, one must add a vegetable, a meat, a fruit, and a grain to each prescription.
It is said that Yi Yin from the Shang Dynasty was the ancestor of soup-making. The Zizhi Tongjian records: “Creating soup and liquid medicine, clarifying the nature of cold, heat, warm, cool, sour, bitter, spicy, sweet, salty, and bland flavors, light and clear, heavy and turbid, yin and yang rising and falling, suitable for the twelve meridians inside and outside. Today, the medical profession speaks of medicinal properties, all derived from Yi Yin.” This indicates that Yi Yin, 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 soups.
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, they would use some medicinal materials to make soup, nourishing their bodies back to health.
(2) A Timeless Blood Nourishing Formula: Yu Ling Gao
The most effective formula for nourishing blood is the Yu Ling Gao created by the famous ancient physician Wang Mengying.
Ingredients:
300g of Longan Meat (Dimocarpus longan), 30g of Xi Yang Shen (American Ginseng) powder.
Method:
Steam the ingredients together on low heat for 4 hours, then let cool. The longer you steam, the less heat property the longan meat will have. After cooling, take 1 tablespoon daily, steeped in hot water.
Note:
If you can buy fresh longan, you can make longan meat 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 their 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 suffered from severe fatigue and always felt weak. She said she was listless in everything she did, feeling unable to perform at work, and her complexion was pale, afraid of wind and cold, needing to wear more clothes than others, experiencing dizziness and insomnia, and unable to sleep normally, yet the hospital could not find any disease, which troubled her greatly.
When she came to me, she asked what kind of illness this was, and I was stumped.
What kind of illness is this? This is a series of symptoms. If you consider them as “illnesses,” insomnia is an illness, but what about being afraid of wind? If you really treat them as illnesses and study them one by one, I believe you will never find an answer in this lifetime. For example, if you are afraid of wind or cold, which department would you go to in the hospital? In Chinese medicine, we consider your constitution. If it is a blood-deficient 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 your ‘illness’ is, but let’s first use dietary therapy to adjust your constitution, shall we?” I then had her take Yu Ling Gao, 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, she saw significant improvement, and all her symptoms disappeared.
(3) Yu Ling Gao 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 afraid of cold, even showing some abnormal mental state. Because he couldn’t sleep well at night and had no appetite for food, he was extremely uncomfortable and 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 his health remained extremely poor, and he didn’t know what illness he had, having taken many medications with 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 Yu Ling Gao to nourish his blood.
Yu Ling Gao is very effective for treating heart and spirit issues caused by blood deficiency because dried longan meat 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 meat 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 meat, nourish the spirit, and be able to sleep, resolving the issue of blood depletion.
What effect did my relative, who was nearly on the verge of collapse, experience after taking Yu Ling Gao? 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 to Yu Ling Gao 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 bamboo steamer while cooking rice, for 100 times. I calculated that steaming 100 times would take more than your 4 hours, so I tried steaming for 40 hours, and found that at this point, the longan meat was no longer sweet—after more than 10 hours, the longan meat 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 giving it to 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 advice, and while it was effective, some experienced heat. But this friend said that after steaming the longan meat 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 meat 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 it is best not to change them lightly. The content is worth pondering and respecting. At the same time, I also deeply understood the meaning of “teaching and learning from each other”; the practices of netizens also educated me and broadened my horizons.
Dr. Luo’s Special Reminder
Avoid giving ginseng-based Chinese medicine to children, and pregnant women should be cautious with longan meat.
Who should not eat American ginseng? Children should avoid it. In fact, children should avoid all types of ginseng, but they can eat longan meat.
Additionally, pregnant women should be cautious with longan meat because it has a slightly warming property. If there is heat in the pregnant woman’s body, eating longan meat may cause fetal movement, so pregnant women should generally avoid consuming longan meat, and traditional Chinese medicine typically does not prescribe warming medicines to pregnant women.
Previous Recommendations
Use this formula for blood deficiency with cold stagnation type dysmenorrhea.Is anemia the same as blood deficiency?The four major types of internal diseases in traditional Chinese medicine: yin deficiency, yang deficiency, qi deficiency, and blood deficiency. — THE END —▶ 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. Author: Luo Dalun. Edited by: Xue Bing.
2. This platform aims to disseminate knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine culture, and the copyright belongs to the relevant rights holders. We respect knowledge and labor; please retain copyright information when reprinting. If there are any improper uses, please feel free to contact us for negotiation. Contact (WeChat): gyzdxueshu
3. We welcome everyone to submit articles; submission email: [email protected]
Every like you give, I take seriously as a sign of appreciation.