When the meridians are unobstructed,the body and mind are at ease.
1. Eliminating Dampness
This refers to the method of using medicinal substances to expel dampness evil.
Dampness is a heavy, turbid, and sticky pathogenic factor. It can combine with other evils such as wind, cold, summer heat, and heat.
Dampness can also transform into heat evil or cold evil.
Dampness in the upper jiao needs to be transformed, in the middle jiao needs to be dried, and in the lower jiao needs to be promoted.
The spleen governs the transformation and transportation of water and dampness. It can also be obstructed by dampness. Therefore, treating dampness also requires attention to the spleen.
2. Transforming Dampness
1.Expelling the exterior and transforming dampness: When dampness evil is in the upper jiao or on the surface. Symptoms include aversion to cold, heavy and swollen head, sticky mouth, and a slippery pulse. Use Fang Feng (Siler), Qin Jiao (Gentiana), Cang Zhu (Atractylodes), Huo Xiang (Agastache), Chen Pi (Aged Tangerine Peel), Sha Ren (Amomum), and Sheng Gan Cao (Raw Licorice). These are mostly aromatic and light herbs that disperse upward.
2.Clearing heat and transforming dampness: When damp-heat is present at the onset of a warm epidemic, with evil in the qi level, no sweating, irritability, or sweating without relief, chest fullness, abdominal distension, red urine, constipation, or diarrhea with difficulty, foul-smelling stools, and a greasy or dry yellow tongue coating. Use Gan Lu Xiao Du Dan (Sweet Dew Dispersing Pill) (Talc, Yin Chen (Artemisia), Huang Qin (Scutellaria), Shi Chang Pu (Acorus), Mu Tong (Akebia), Chuan Bei Mu (Fritillaria), She Gan (Belamcanda), Lian Qiao (Forsythia), Bo He (Mint), Bai Dou Kou (White Cardamom), and Huo Xiang. This is a powder formula. If dampness is heavier than heat, the disease is primarily centered in the spleen.
3.Detoxifying and transforming dampness: When damp-heat is steaming and accumulating toxins. Symptoms include fever, thirst, chest oppression, abdominal distension, sore throat, red urine, fatigue, and jaundice. Use aromatic dampness-transforming herbs combined with heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs.
The method of transforming dampness primarily targets the middle jiao spleen and stomach pathology, followed by upper jiao pathology. Dampness-transforming herbs are mostly pungent, warm, and aromatic, suitable for cold-damp, summer-damp, and damp-heat syndromes. This includes expelling the exterior and transforming dampness, clearing heat and transforming dampness, and detoxifying and transforming dampness. Transforming dampness means to eliminate dampness, implying self-absorption. Strengthening the spleen and transforming dampness can be achieved with Bai Bian Dou (White Hyacinth Bean), aromatic dampness transformation with Bai Dou Kou (White Cardamom), clearing heat and transforming dampness with Huang Lian (Coptis), and warming yang to transform dampness with Pao Jiang (Dry Ginger).
3. Promoting Dampness Dispersal
This refers to the method of using diuretic and dampness-dispersing herbs to expel dampness evil through urination. It is suitable for symptoms caused by water-damp obstruction, such as lower abdominal fullness, turbid red urine, frequent painful urination, dribbling urination, or even urinary retention, turbid urine, and edema. There are methods such as mild diuresis, warming yang to promote dampness dispersal, nourishing yin to promote dampness dispersal, clearing dampness to promote dampness dispersal, clearing heat to promote dampness dispersal, and warming the kidney to promote water metabolism. This means to open the water pathways, disperse water and dampness, and facilitate the downward discharge of damp-heat within the body.
Commonly used herbs include Ze Xie (Alisma), Che Qian Zi (Plantago Seed), Che Qian Cao (Plantago Herb), Hua Shi (Talc), Mu Tong (Akebia), Tong Cao (Rice Paper Plant), Bi Xie (Dioscorea), Dong Gua Pi (Winter Melon Peel), Yin Chen Hao (Artemisia), Chi Xiao Dou (Adzuki Bean), Deng Xin Cao (Juncus), Di Fu Zi (Kochia), Mu Fang Ji (Dichroa), and Yu Mi Xu (Corn Silk).
4. Permeating Dampness
Permeating dampness refers to the use of mild diuretic herbs that are neutral in nature and have a mild flavor, which can help to expel dampness evil from the body through urination, such as Fu Ling (Poria), Hua Shi (Talc), Che Qian Cao (Plantago Herb), Ze Xie (Alisma), Qu Mai (Dianthus), and Bian Xu (Polygonum).
Permeating dampness means that water and dampness disperse through permeation and does not necessarily have a diuretic effect. Strengthening the spleen and permeating dampness can be achieved with Yi Yi Ren (Job’s Tears), while diuretic permeation can be achieved with Zhu Ling (Polyporus), and clearing heat and permeating dampness can be achieved with Di Fu Zi (Kochia). Yi Yi Ren and Di Fu Zi do not have diuretic effects, while Zhu Ling has a mild diuretic effect.
Heat-clearing and dampness-drying herbs treat diseases with damp-heat properties, such as eczema and allergic diseases, including Ku Shen (Sophora), Huang Bai (Phellodendron), Huang Lian (Coptis), and Huang Qin (Scutellaria). Dampness-drying is often used for cold-damp constitutions, where cold-damp obstruction can manifest as aversion to cold, cold limbs, nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, diarrhea, a white greasy tongue coating, and fatigue. Herbs such as Chen Pi (Aged Tangerine Peel), Cang Zhu (Atractylodes), and Hou Po (Magnolia Bark) can be selected.
5. Drying Dampness
Drying dampness is one of the methods in TCM to expel dampness. It mainly uses bitter and drying herbs to eliminate dampness evil. It is used for conditions of excessive dampness in the spleen, stomach, and intestines. Depending on the cold or heat nature of the disease, the drying dampness method can be divided into bitter-warm drying dampness and bitter-cold drying dampness.
1. Bitter-warm drying dampness: This method uses bitter and warm herbs to expel cold-damp pathogens (or dampness without heat symptoms). It is suitable for symptoms of dampness or cold-damp obstructing the middle jiao spleen and stomach. Commonly used herbs include Cang Zhu (Atractylodes), Hou Po (Magnolia Bark), Chen Pi (Aged Tangerine Peel), Bai Dou Kou (White Cardamom), etc., with representative formulas such as Ping Wei San (Calm the Stomach Powder). When the middle jiao is obstructed by cold-dampness, symptoms include chest oppression, vomiting, nausea, abdominal distension, clear and thin stools, and a white greasy tongue coating. Use Hou Po (Magnolia Bark), Ban Xia (Pinellia), Bai Dou Kou (White Cardamom), and Fu Ling (Poria).
2. Bitter-cold drying dampness (also known as heat-clearing and drying dampness): This method uses bitter and cold herbs to expel damp-heat pathogens. It is suitable for warm-heat disease syndromes. Commonly used herbs include Huang Lian (Coptis), Huang Qin (Scutellaria), Long Dan (Gentiana), etc., with representative formulas such as Long Dan Xie Gan Tang (Gentiana Decoction). The drying dampness method is often used in conjunction with aromatic dampness transformation and strengthening the spleen to transform dampness. When the middle jiao is obstructed by damp-heat, symptoms include abdominal pain, abdominal distension, thin and foul-smelling stools, and a yellow greasy tongue coating. Use Huang Lian (Coptis), Huang Qin (Scutellaria), Zhi Ke (Bitter Orange), and Zhu Ling (Polyporus).
6. Overcoming Dampness
Dampness-overcoming herbs are mostly pungent and warm, and they often have a drying and intense nature. They are used for the obstruction of wind, cold, and dampness that lingers in the muscles, joints, tendons, and meridians. Common symptoms include heaviness in the limbs, joint swelling and pain, numbness of the skin, and muscle spasms. They can both expel dampness and dispel wind, hence the term overcoming dampness. Overcoming dampness herbs can dispel wind and relieve pain, but when wind-damp is obstructed in the meridians and does not heal for a long time, they are often used in conjunction with blood-activating and blood-nourishing herbs, which follows the principle of “treating wind by first treating blood; when blood flows, wind will naturally dissipate.”
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(This article is sourced from various online resources)
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