Transcript for:
Herbs that Regulate Qi

in this video we're going over the category herbs that regulate the cheat first we'll talk about what it means to regulate G then we'll go over the individual herbs in this category and finally we'll just introduce a few formulas where these herbs pop up if you want to follow along you can download the slides or download the flashcards there are links to those below and there you'll also find a practice test you can take afterwards and this video is brought to you by students like you to everyone who supports the YouTube channel and the website tcmstudy.net thank you if you've been getting value out of these videos and would like to give something back consider joining the patreon or making a one-time donation through buy me a coffee there are links to those below but let's go ahead and get into herbs that regulate the chi so these are herbs that regulate the cheat what do we mean by regulating cheap well here this means two things number one we want to make sure that the cheat is moving as in it's not stagnant and number two we want to make sure that the cheat is moving in the Pro proper direction so if you remember in fundamentals different organ systems have different directions associated with them the lung has a function of the puritive down bearing when we breathe in the chi of the air the lung is supposed to send that g downwards in the middle gel the spleen has an upward Direction it raises the clear but the stomach has a downward Direction It's supposed to down bear food into the small intestine because that's the direction of digestion for the liver the liver generally moves upward but it's also supposed to spread outwards spreading Qi into the limbs remember that the liver belongs to the wood phase and when we say wood we actually mean a tree so trees grow upwards but they also spread their branches outwards and that's the direction of the liver so there are certain situations when the chi can start moving in the opposite direction that's supposed to and we call that rebellious Chi so if the lung Chi moves upwards instead of downwards that presents as cough if the stomach Chi Rebels upwards instead of moving downwards we might see nausea vomiting hiccup or belching and the liver is a little bit weird because the liver already has an upward Direction and if anything the liver moves upwards too much and we call that liver young rising or hyperactive Ascent of liver young but what can happen is the liver fails in its function of free coursing and it no longer spreads the chi outward so we have like cold hands and feet because the liver is not spreading outwards we might call that Rebellion or counter flow but that's what we're dealing with in this category to put it another way these herbs treat two conditions they treat Chi stagnation and rebellious Chi and these two kind of go together if the chi stagnates it might eventually start to Rebel upwards or move in the opposite direction like think about a toilet that gets clogged or a sink that the drain get the drain pipe gets clogged the actual clog would be the stagnation the water can no longer move but if you keep trying to flush water down there it's eventually going to start to come back up and so the same thing happens like if the QI gets stuck in the middle gel it will eventually start rebelling back upwards so when we get into our slides we can kind of recap everything that we just said and if you're a little bit nerdy and you like to know the Chinese terms for things here they are so we talk about regulating Chi the conditions we're treating are Chi stagnation as in the chi is not moving or or she knee rebellious to you or counterflow cheat as in the chi is moving in the opposite direction that it's supposed to and the way we treat this is we use herbs that regulate Chi to regulate the chi or rectify the chi and this means one or two things we can move the chi ching Chi or we can descend the chi or down bear the cheat so these are some of the terms we'll see pop up when we start talking about the actions of these herbs if we wanted to get a little bit deeper and maybe a little bit more nerdy when we talk about the QI not moving we can say chijer as in Chi stagnation but another term we might see Pop Up is which wise men translates as Chi depression or depressed Liberty orbensky uses the term Chi constraint and this is just referring to a specific type of stagnation that's due to the liver failing and its function of free coursing or failing in its function of dredging and draining the channels so this is a type of G stagnation that's a little bit more systemic or all over the body so if I had elbow pain for example I might say that there's Chi stagnation in the Yong Ming Channel and that would be chidur or Chi stagnation but when you say chi we're really talking more like the chi of the entire body becomes sluggish and that's due to the liver not doing its job so I just like to bring this up because sometimes people will ask what's the difference between Qi constraint and Qi stagnation or they'll see this Wiseman term and they'll be like what do we mean by depressed Chi does that mean that the chi is sad and it can't get out of bed and get moving in the morning and it's like no when we say depressed Chi we mean that the chi is pressed down it's constrained and that's because the liver is not doing its job properly so that's another term we might see pop up when we're treating this depressed Chi or cheek constraint we usually say we course the chi we coarse Liberty or we relieve constraint and when we talk start talking about treatment we can say that we move the chi or descend the chi or another thing we might see is Ho Chi to break the chi or break up Qi stagnation and really this is kind of the same as moving Chi it's just much stronger in its action so a lot of times I think about the Kool-Aid Man bursting through a brick wall and shouting oh yeah that's kind of the mental image I have for breaking the chi so it's the same as moving to it's just much more forceful much stronger in action so that's another term we might see pop up as we go through these herbs so what kind of chi can we regulate well basically the ones that we already talked about we can regulate chi in the middle jowl for a spleen stomach Chi stagnation or rebellious team we can regulate liberty for liberty stagnation or we can regulate the lung Chi so we talk about regulating chi in the middle gel uh if we have middle child Nation we might see things like abdominal fullness distension and pain that all that stuff is stuck there so you feel distension and pain we can have gas and bloating which is kind of the same as distension like all this stuff is stuck there it starts fermenting you get bloated and feel distended we can have vomiting nausea and belching when this Qi gets stuck and might start to Rebel back upwards and so vomiting gnawzing belching acid reflux these are all examples of things moving in the in the opposite direction we can also have loss of appetite if all this stuff is stuck here the the spleen can't do its job of movement and transformation so you don't feel hungry and then we say constipation or diarrhea and it's kind of like these are two opposite things how can it be both it kind of depends sometimes if the chi is stuck and things aren't moving then you'll feel stuck and feel constipated but sometimes when things get stuck in the middle jowl that dampness can start forming and then you might have diarrhea so with middle jow cheese stagnation it can go either way depending you can have constipation or diarrhea we talk about regulating liberty for liberty stagnation we can see things like headache uh rib side pain or a stifling sensation in the chest because the liver Channel goes to the chest and Rib sides we can have depression or irritability that the liver uh the liver is about anger and so you can think about anger irritability or depressed emotions this can this can kind of go both ways that if the liver tea is stagnant you can have emotional issues but also emotional issues can cause liver cheese stagnation so it kind of goes both ways kind of chicken and an egg thing and then also very common to see irregular Menses or breast tenderness because the liver Channel goes to the lower jaw and has a lot to do with menstruation but also the liver Channel goes to the breast so this is a very common sign for liver cheese stagnation so basically if you have a patient with a lot of sharp stabbing pain and clots that might be more indicative of blood stasis where if you have more like cramping pain diffuse pain especially breast tenderness that might Point more towards liver Chi stagnation a lot of times people end up with both we talk about lung Chi stagnation we can say cough wheezing or shortness of breath honestly I think the word the term lung Chi stagnation is a little bit weird it's not something we use a lot oftentimes we'll say something like non-diffusion of lung Chi and what we mean there is it's not like the lung Chi itself gets stuck usually there's some other pathogen in there so we have like a wind cold pathogen gets into the lung and it blocks the diffusion of lung Chi and so the lung can't spread the QI or performance action of the puritive down bearing or we have phlegm in the lung and that phlegm blocks a diffusion of long Chi and so the lungs the chi starts rebelling back upwards so we usually I feel like that's a more common term you might see is non-diffusion of lung Chi or non-disemination of long Chi and it turns out this one we don't really address in this category like we said we have a separate category of herbs that relieve coughing and wheezing and the those were the herbs that were dealing with uh non-diffusional lung Chi or rebellious long Gene so those are just in a separate category in this category we're more dealing with the first two so either middle gel cheese stagnation or liver T stagnation and this is just a repeat of that slide but I wanted to remind myself to mention that yeah we say herbs in this category tend to be warm accurate in drawing so be careful about that but also herbs in this category may relieve pain by moving to you so maybe you've heard of this saying in Chinese which means where there's lack of free flow there's pain where there's pain there's lack of free flow and so it's kind of like stagnation equals pain so it's very common that if we have Chi stagnation that will have some sort of pain like headache rib side pain abdominal pain and so by moving the chi by relieving or breaking up that stagnation that will alleviate the pain so that's something we'll also see in this category is many of these herbs have a pain relieving action as well because they move the chi so we look at the properties of the herbs in terms of taste uh these herbs can be accurate in taste because the accurate flavor moves and disperses they can be aromatic especially the ones that are good for the middle gel tend to be aromatic in nature and so we can think that it's Awakening the spleen so it's can perform its function of movement and transformation remember movement is part of the spleen as well so they might be aromatic and then some of the herbs are also bitter not necessarily because they clear heat or dry dampness but just remember the bitter flavor has a downward Direction and so that's what we're using to treat the rebellious chi I think we saw the same thing in the category herbs that relieve coughing and wheezing like Shing Ren has a bitter flavor because it redirects cheat downward to treat that rebellious G so those are the ones we might see acrid aromatic if it goes to the middle gel and bitter if we're dealing with rebellious t in terms of temperature many of these herbs are warm in temperature but some of them are not so that's something though that we'll want to pay attention to that most of them are warm in temperature but we do have a few that are cool or cold in temperature and that makes them stand out so that's something we'll want to pay attention to in terms of entering channels these either enter the spleen and stomach channels if they're dealing with middle gouchy stagnation or they enter the liver gallbladder channels if we're dealing with liver T stagnation so whichever whichever type of chi we're regulating those are the channels that we enter the action of these herbs is they regulate or Rectify Chi for cheese stagnation or rebellious Chi hopefully that makes sense by now cautions and contraindications we want to pay pay attention to number one these herbs are very warm accurate and drying so they may cause heat signs or damage the yin basically they're warm so if you give someone too much they might start developing Heap they tend to the aromatic acid tends to be drying so be careful if the patient is already has the in deficiency or if they're or if you're using these long term you might inadvertently dry the patient out the other thing is these herbs disperse Chi so use caution in cases of deficiency so basically we're using the accurate flavor to move and disperse stagnation but we have to be careful that we don't end up dispersing the upright Gene sometimes an analogy we would use sometimes as like think about when you move Chi it's like revving the engine on a car so you don't want to rev the engine if you don't have enough oil you'll actually cause damage and so that's kind of the same thing here if we try to strongly move the chi when the person doesn't have enough Qi to begin with that's going to cause problems you might stir up wind or deplete the QI even more so that's another thing we have to be careful about is with uh Qi deficiency so especially um when you talk about the herbs that break the chi that's something we'll want to be careful of another one we should mention here is some of these herbs we have to use caution in cases of pregnancy that they're not outright contraindicated but some of the these herbs because they're treating rebellious G they have a strong downward Direction so you need to use caution in cases of pregnancy so here we have our list of herbs it looks kind of long but some of these are actually kind of related so we can go through them quickly and then there are a couple more not listed here that we'll talk about the end but anyway our first herb here is Chen P citric reticulati pericarpium Chen P citric articuloti pericarpium and this is age Tangerine peel so the skin of a tangerine that we dry out and let it age I think it gets more potent as we let it age but anyway Chen P regulates middle giauchi and strengthens the spleen for all of those things we talked about like abdominal fullness distension and pain gas and bloating but Chen p is especially useful for nausea and vomiting so when that Qi gets stuck in the middle gel and starts to Rebel back upwards we can use Chen P notice that Chen p is accurate in flavor to disperse the chi but it also has a bitterness to send things downward to deal that rebellious G esides regulating a t 10p also dries dampness and transforms phlegm so again that bitter flavor has a drying quality to it so this could be phlegm in the lung so it's good for cough due to phlegm damp or this could be dampness in the middle jowls and dampness and obstructing the spleen and stomach for abdominal distension loss of appetite loose stools and a thick greasy coat so Chen P it turns out is a really good all-around herb for the spleen remember we said that the spleen has a function of movement and transformation so Chen p is taking care of both of these things it's strengthening the spleen it's helping to move the chi and it's helping to transform the dampness we also say that the spleen is the source of phlegm and the lung is the house or the container of limb and it turns out that Chen p goes to both of those areas to treat the phlegm so Chen p is also a really good phlegm herb as well we look at these notes at the bottom uh first this one is kind of funny it says in practice Chen P's dosage is usually limited to use three to six grams due to its uh unpleasant taste that was a note from my Chinese teacher I'm not sure if that's really true but I think it's kind of funny because two Americans all Chinese herbs have an unpleasant taste so it's not like using a large dosage of Chen pee I don't think that's going to make a difference to the American palette I think no matter what you use the patient is always going to say your herbs taste bad but that's kind of a funny note so I left it in there then we also say chenbi Chen P can be used to prevent stagnation from certain tonifying herbs that are very sticky and cloying so I think we talked about this before we talked when we talked about Shah Ren cardamom or a Momi Fructis that sometimes when you when we use tonifying herbs they're very sweet and they can be sticky and cloying and they can very easily cause stagnation in the middle gel so sometimes as a preventative of measure we might use certain herbs like shahren or Chen Pi which move the chi and prevent stagnation or we can say they help digest those herbs but it's also like we're trying to tonify Chi we don't just want to tonify the QI and have it sit there once we tonify the chi we want to make sure that it's moving so we might use herbs like Chen P to make sure that it keeps moving so that Chen P the name means aged peel next is Joo Hong citrine reticulati exocarpium rubrum citrary reticulati exocarpium rubrum this is red Tangerine peel this is specifically the outer layer of the Tangerine so with Chen P when we looked at that picture you can see there's the peel but then when you flip it over there's that white stuff in there too because it's the entire peel with juhong it's just that outer layer the red part without that white stuff in the middle uh you can maybe think that exocarpium refers to the outer layer and rubrum means red so juhong is pretty much the same as Chen P it's just that it's warmer and drier in nature so um I feel like this is used regionally it's like in certain parts of Eastern China and in Sichuan they might be more likely to use juhong um but I think in most of our formulas we tend to just use the Chen P version of things there are some formulas where the original ingredients will say use juhong but then in the footnote it will just say substitute Chen P so I think nowadays you might see ju Hong in your clinic but when it comes to formulas we pretty much always use Chen P but just the difference between these two they're both from tangerine but juhong is the outer red layer and it's warmer and drier and better at transforming dampness and phlegm and gen P where Chen P might be a little bit more moderate so that's juhong the name means Tangerine red after that is Ching Pi citri reticulati very day pericarpium Ching P citrine reticulati varied a pericarpium this is green Tangerine peel or an unripe Tangerine before it turns orange or red it's green and so maybe you can think that the Latin name means green like uh in uh in Spanish or French um vert trying to remember what it is in in Spanish anyway very day sounds like green so this is green Tangerine peel and that's important to know because remember green is the color of wood green is the color of the liver and Ching pee strongly moves liver Chi uh we can say when you say strongly moves we can say it breaks the cheese so it's that very strong movement of moving Liberty so with Chen P more about the middle gel the spleen and stomach Ching pee because it's green in color it's definitely used for liver Chi stagnation so this could be for pain and distension in the chest rib size and breast because that's where the liver Channel goes to the rib size and chest or can be used for Shone disorder which is a hernia type pain so think about the liver Channel also goes to the inguinal area and lower abdomen as well and then Ching P like we said it because it breaks the chi that's a very strong action sometimes it can be too strong so this can be uh too warm too drying or it's action of moving the cheek and almost be too strong so we have to be careful and monitor that closely we also say that Ching P resolves stagnation and clumps and this is part of it's breaking the chi it's strong movement so it's for severe food stagnation it can break through that and push it through or for masses and nodules this is something we'll talk about a little bit more in the uh regulate blood category that Qi and blood stagnation can cause certain nodules to form especially in the abdomen and so Ching pee can because it breaks the G it can break up those uh clumps and masses so that's another action of chingpi referring to its strong action of breaking the chi and so Ching P the name means green peel Ching is a color that means green so here I would think that Ching means green this is green peel green is the color of the liver hopefully that can help you remember that Ching Pi is for liver Chi stagnation and it's strongly breaks up the cheese stagnation after that is fructus immaturis sure sure arante fructus immaturis and this is unripe bitter orange so you can see so far we're dealing with a lot of citrusy things like oranges and tangerines so this is the unripe bitter orange and so this is another one that it breaks the chi and reduces accumulation so this moves chi but it's very strong and it's action of moving cheap and we specifically say this one moves the cheat downward in Direction so remember this is bitter orange it's obviously bitter in flavor and the bitter flavor moves things downward so durasher moves downward in direction for constipation it's actually um it's common that we might combine sure with certain purgative herbs so like da Huang and gersher are often used together to treat constipation because they both have a strong downward action and move things and even break up the chi so this can is also for epigastric or abdominal pain or food accumulation because it's moving things downward dersher also transforms phlegm so kind of a common theme here with our citrusy things for chest and epigastric distension due to phlegm obstruction in the chest and then kind of a modern application is we can say that Jersey can raise low blood pressure and they've done certain studies on this in China and I think they only use this in IV form that if a person had low blood pressure could raise it which is kind of kind of interesting I'm not sure we would ever use that here in America um but also I think in uh there's some modern studies that say it's good for angina pain and things like that part of opening up the chest that's Jersey we should also know that you're sure because it has that strong downward Direction it's not it doesn't just move the cheat it breaks the chi and it moves downward that means we should use caution during pregnancy that we don't want so much downward motion that it moves the baby right out so that's Jersey arante fructus immaturis which is unripe bitter orange next we have Jerka arante Fructis jerk arante fructus and this is ripe bitter orange or if it's not ripe it's at least more ripe than der sure so Jerka it's it's more ripe so it basically does the the same things as you're sure it's just not as strong in its action so we still say it regulates middle job cheat but it's a little bit more mild because it's not the unripe version it's not quite as bitter so it's not quite as strong as in its actions but we also do say it expands the chest that was something we said about gersher and transforming Fleming to expands the chest we might say that Jerka is even better at expanding the chest and then it can also be used for a cough abdominal distension and constipation by regulating the QI and moving downward because it's still bitter in flavor so here we say Jerka is similar to jurassure but it's much milder and safer to use so the action isn't quite as drastic we don't say it breaks up the chi the same way that Jer sure does but even though it's more mild and safer to use uh according to benski we should still use caution in cases caution for pregnancy so that's jericher and Jericho so the way I remember these is one sure in the Latin name that says immaturis so that means it's not yet ripe it's not yet matured and so that means it's more bitter in flavor so it's stronger uh but main difference there is Joshua is stronger but we could also say if we wanted to make a difference that some commentator will say that Jericho Works more on the upper body so it's better for expanding the chest whereas durasher Works lower down so it's better for things like constipation so that's maybe one thing you can think of but really I would think that you're sure has an s in it that means it's stronger in its action and also durasher is the one that because of its strong we're downward Direction it's good for constipation so durasher makes you poop so that's jericher versus Jerka bitter orange and unripe bitter orange next is dafu p orekkai pericarpium pericarpium and this is Beetle nut husk that later will learn an herb Bing long which is the beetle nut it's the thing inside here dafu p is the husk around that nut um so a wreck eye pericarpium so tafu Pi moves middle and again directs G downward in terms of its movement it has a downward Direction and it's good for gas and bloating or especially incomplete bowel movements and so this is a thing that sometimes we ask our patients when we do go through the 10 questions and talk about stool sometimes um people will say they have incomplete bowel movements as in they they go to the bathroom but it feels like not everything came out like there's still something in there and they just can't get it out so we might use something like dafu P to create movement to create downward movement in that situation and then we also say that dafu P promotes urination especially for super superficial edema or edema Under the Skin so we can say dafu p makes you pee or this is a kind of a common thing we've seen before where this is the p means skin or peel or bark so this is the outer layer the outer husk of that Beetle nut since it's the skin of that nut it's good for the skin of your body or edema Under the Skin So I think we've seen that pop up before with things like fooling versus fooling pee as a skin of fooling so it's good for edema Under the Skin song by P is a skin of Mulberry root so it's the skin of Mulberry so it's good for edema Under the Skin shengjong p is the skin of Ginger so it's good for edema Under the Skin so here we have another one that dafu P makes you pee it's the skin of Bing long so it's good for edema under the skin and this is another one that we say it has that downward Direction so we need to use caution during pregnancy next is rhizoma Xiang Foo so I periorizoma this is an important one Xiang Fu first of all regulates liver cheat especially for pain in the rib sides or pain in the abdomen but also the specialty of Shang fu is that it regulates menstruation and alleviates pain now really I would say that this function falls under the category of regulating Liberty because the liver Channel goes to the lower jaw the liver has something to do with menstruation so it makes sense that by regulating Liberty we would regulate menstruation and alleviate pain but it turns out that Xiang fu is so good at this its action is so famous we list it as a separate function so shanfu regulates menstruation and alleviates pain for irregular Menses painful Menses or breast distension I think we talked about this before that the liver Channel goes to the lower jaw but it also goes to the rib sides and goes to the breast so this would be kind of a very common sign of liver cheese stagnation in women before the period if they feel some breast tenderness that might be a sign that they're they have some liver tea stagnation and this is uh Xiang fu is very famously used for women's health conditions or OB GYN conditions so I think we could definitely say that's the specialty of Xiang fu I guess the other thing that makes it stand out here is we have this note down here that um most of the herbs in this category are warm in temperature but Xiang fu is actually neutral or even slightly cool in temperature and so that's another thing that makes it stand out number one because liver tea stagnation often leads to heat so it's nice that we have an herb that's neutral or cool in temperature but also that means it's safer for long-term use that with some of those other herbs like Ching Pi we might have to worry that it's too warm too drying over time it might damage in or things like that whereas Xiang Fu because it's neutral in temperature we can we can use a little bit more long term and then I also have a note down here that even though it's used for a menstruation problems and pain Xiang food does not move blood and I think this is just some something that people tend to get confused about when they say when they see regulates menstruation and alleviates pain they might think of blood and they might think that Xiang Fu also has an action of invigorating blood and it turns out no it does not Xiang Fu only moves Qi it does not move blood and I think it's just I had a teacher who very often asked this question and so many students got it wrong that I started very specifically pointing out that xionfu does not in fact move blood it does treat menstruation problems but only by moving he so that's Xiang Fu this is a very commonly used one a very important one to know so remember that Xiang Fu moves Liberty its specialty is in treating women's health conditions or OB GYN conditions and it's neutral in temperature so that's those are the things that make Xiang fu stick out mushong oaklandia Radix oaklandi Radix uh mushong regulates mil jauchi and stops pain so that's the specialty of this one if we want to look for something that stands out mushong goes to the middle jail and especially useful for stopping pain so this is for abdominal distension and pain due to G stagnation when it comes to regulating T we can also say that it regulates liver Chi or liver gallbladder t as well and we will see this pop up in a few a few formulas where it's more of a liberty thing but I think that tends to be that the liver Chi is overacting on the spleen basically I tend to think of mushong more as a spleen stomach herb but it does have this action of also regulating liver tea as well and that's and then um so in regulating Liberty it's good for rib side pain and soreness but then something that's also interesting here is you also see it moves large intestine cheese stagnation which is not something we really talked about or something we see very often so it moves large intestine cheese stagnation for stagnation in the large intestine transforming into damp heat and so this would be like diarrhea dysentery and tenesmus tenesmus um I had one teacher who described tenesmus as like the dry heaves of the anus which is kind of a funny mental image but um tenesmus it's a diarrhea it's often painful diarrhea and then we say there's uh this Sensation that uh even after you empty the vowels you feel like you have to urgently go again right away even if there there might not be anything there but so it's like you uh it's diarrhea and you go and then you immediately feel like you have to go again so that's tenesmus but kind of the idea here is remember when we talked about constipation one of the patterns of constipation is if Chi stagnates then the stool can't move through the large intestine so if Chi stagnates the stool is not moving that can eventually uh Fester into damp heat and large intestine and cause things like diarrhea and dysentery so this is kind of an interesting action here that it also moves Qi through the large intestine as well if you have things like constipation due to cheese stagnation or more likely it's transforming into the amp Heat so that's mushong but overall I would think of this more as a spleen stomach herb we also say mushong is very warm and very drying so this is another one that we might want to use caution in case for patients with Yin deficiency or for using it over a long period of time we want to make sure that we don't dry out the patient too much and then mushong is also used to prevent stagnation for tonifying herbs so I think these are the main ones that we've learned so far for that we see used to prevent uh stagnation was sticky and clawing herbs we had shahren a mommy fructus the cardamom seed we had Chen p h Tangerine peel and now we have mushong oaklandi erratics um those are the very common ones we add to formulas to prevent stagnation from tonifying herbs either tonifying Chi or tonifying blood those can be sticky and cloying and cause stagnation so mushong knows other herbs will prevent that uh mushong I forgot to put it here but the name mushong means wood fragrance the word hyang actually means aromatic or fragrant and so even though we don't list this as aromatic in property it turns out a lot of times some of our source texts don't actually list things as aromatic in their in their taste and temperature it would just when it when it discusses the herb then it would say it's aromatic so the fact that we don't actually say it's aromatic in The Taste and temperatures we could still say it's aromatic because the word aromatic is in the name but maybe you can remember uh mushong means would uh wood fragrance or tree fragrance so it's good for moving Liberty and the aromatic thing that can maybe make you think of the spleen and stomach but for mushong I would think of regulating middle doubty and especially stopping pain next is lindura Radix ooh Yao Linda erratics regulates Chi but it's good for regulating all kinds of cheese so it moves middle gouchy it moves Liberty and it also stops pain so by moving stagnation it can relieve pain but something we should probably know about Wu Yao is besides moving Chi it's also warm in temperature so we say it warms the interior and warms the channels so it's good for stagnation with cold or stagnation due to cold So when you say it warms the interior and warms its channels we can say it warms the liver Channel especially for hernia pain shine disorder or painful Menses so like we said the liver Channel comes up the leg it goes to the inguinal area and then it goes to the lower jaw so if we have cold stagnating in the liver channel it's very common to have things like painful Menses or hernia pain or Shone disorder there's often cold stagnation in the liver channel so is especially good for that because it's warming the channel and also moving the chi we can also say that we out warms the UB or warms the kidney for urinary frequency or incontinence due to kidney young deficiency so so those are the warming actions means uh means black or dark I think it actually means like Crow or Raven so it's referring to the color of those birds but we translate it as dark or black I think it's the same character when we talk about long t as in black tea uh ooh means dark Yao just means uh medicinal so we talk about Chinese herbs just means herb or medicinals is dark medicinal I remember that it uh regulates Chi but it also warms uh warms the interior warms the channel and is especially good for treating Sean disorder or hernia pain so that's ooh yeah next is Chen Chang aquilaria lignum resonatum Chen Chang aquilaria lignum resinatum this is not I don't I don't think this is a very commonly used herb but we should probably know that it regulates middle child especially for stagnation due to coldness so again this is one that's warm in temperature so it's good for stagnation due to coldness and it also stops pain and it moves downward in direction for hiccuping belching and nausea vomiting so we say that Chen Chong regulates middle jail Chi we should say that it specifically moves it downward for the rebellious uh stomach g and it's good for cold or stagnation due to cold and as part of its warming function it can also warm the kidney especially for young deficiency related respiratory problems so this is not sure if we talked about this before but this is uh when you breathe in Air uh the chi goes into the lung and the lung is supposed to descend it but also the kidney is supposed to reach up and grasp it and so that's what we what we mean when we say young deficiency related respiratory problems that's when kidney young is deficient the kidney can't reach up and grasp the lunges so that's something that Chen Xiang is good for and so notice with uh Chen Chong the dosage is a lot smaller than average it's one to 1.5 grams and this is one that you can actually take it as a single herb you can grind it into a powder and just swallow it with warm water but the dosage is very small also again the term hyang means aromatic because this one is aromatic in property this is one that we have to add during the last five minutes of cooking in order to retain its aromatic property name Chen Chang means sinking fragrance so maybe that can help you remember that sinking means that this one is moving downward to treat things like nausea vomiting Hiccup and belching and the Xiang can let you know that it's aromatic in property next is tan Shang santali Alibi lignum tan this is Sandalwood so tanchong also regulates Chi and stops pain it's good for moving the old jaochi to stop abdominal pain it also opens the chest treat chespie honestly these last two I'm not sure they're very common herbs Chen Xiang and panchang tanjong I can't think of any any formulas that we learn where tan Chong is an ingredient maybe I'm not remembering well but these aren't really common herbs so tanchiang if you remember I might remember regulating Lil yachi and stopping pain but also opening the chest makes this one stand out dosage is also slightly smaller than average that's Chen Chiang and tanchong and kind of finally is Chuan lienza Tucson Don Fructis Chuan lien the Tucson Don Fructis this is a seed that I think it comes from a Chinese Pagoda tree but Chuan lienza what we should know about this one is Chuan lienza regulates Liberty and stops pain but this is another one that stands out because in regulating Liberty it's also cold in temperature so this is especially good for liver tea stagnation with heat sometimes the two go together or sometimes the liver cheese stagnation once that g stagnates that turns into heat so Chuan lienza is a very useful herb to use in that situation but by regulating Liberty it also has a specialty of stopping pain and it's used in heat conditions Chuan lienza also has an action of killing parasites I remember in Chinese medicine we say kill parasites that can mean two things that can mean real parasites like roundworm pinworm and tapeworm or that can mean more like skin infections like fungal infections tinea athlete's foot jock itch things like that Juan lienza does both so Tron leonza can be used internally for roundworm and tapeworm and actually here I think Bensky has a note that Chuan lienza is not actually good at expelling the parasites it's just that Chuan lienza has a good pain relieving action and so that's why it's used in these situations that if you have round worm you might have some or tapeworm you might have some abdominal pain so Chuan lienza isn't actually expelling the parasites it's just helping with the pain that results from the parasites how rich one lianza can also be used externally for fungal infections on the scalp I think the term we use here is tinea capitis so a lot of a lot of times you will use the term tinea and people ask me what is tinea tinny as a fungal infection I think the most the one you're probably most familiar with is athlete's foot that's tinea Pettis that's tinea on the foot but turns out you can have tinea in other places as well like in the groin and the armpits or in this case on the head so this is good for fungal infections on the head and that's Chuan lienza this one it's kind of interesting according to the books we say Chuan lienza you should crush it first and this one it's just kind of like this is very difficult to crush and so if you have a mortar and pestle because they're very round and so they're they're kind of not quite walled at size but they're they're sizeable and they're round and so when you try to crush them with your mortar and pestle it's very likely that they'll just slip and pop out and so I've never really had much success with crushing these but honestly when I usually when I order this herb it comes like the picture here where it looks like they were sliced in half before they were dried and so I'm assuming that if they come this way you don't actually need to crush them that there was one time when we ordered them and we got them the whole seed as just a round thing and I think in that situation you would have to crush them but a lot of times you'll see them come like this already broken in half and I'm hoping that means that you don't have to crush them because they're really hard to crush if I did have to crush them I would probably like put them in a Ziploc bag and hit them with a hammer or hit them with a rolling pin or something like that because they're they're very difficult to crush with a mortar and pestle um but Chuan lienza it turns out also goes by the name Jin lingza which means Little Golden Bell or Golden Bell scene and so that just comes up we do have one formula that is called jinling's asson so in that one you would probably want to remember that uh Jin lingza is just another name for Chuan lienza and so it's very good for moving liver cheat it's very good for stopping pain but especially moving liver cheat during heat conditions so that Chuan lienza next we have a few herbs that at least when I was in school these were not on the syllabus but maybe that's changed maybe you have to learn them or maybe you don't but it turns out that these are on the nccom herb list so if you're studying for Nationals you probably want to take a look at these herbs the first one here is macrostmi bulbous Ali macrostemi bulbas this is Chinese chives or Chinese garlic so think what we need to know about shiabon is that it unblocks the QI and disperses phlegm and especially for chest B due to hold phlegm basically when we get to formulas we'll learn a formula called wallow by Johto and this is the only formula we learn where shibai is an ingredient and it turns out that that is a formula for chest b or chest impediment due to Chi stagnation and phlegm so if you remember one thing about Shea Bai I remember chest B due to Chi stagnation and phlegm we also say descends Qi and reduces stagnation for diary or dysnery with tenesmus due to damp stagnation and large intestine kind of similar to what we talked about with mushon but again for Shiba if you remember one thing I would remember chest B next is for show citri sarcodactylus fructus for show Citrus sarcodactylus fructus this one regulates Chi and kind of regulates all of the cheese so we say it regulates Liberty for rib side pain and stifling sensation in the chest it regulates middle jail Chief or epigastric pain poor appetite belching and vomiting and then it also transforms phlegm and stop cough or enduring cough with copious phlegm so when we talked about all the systems where we can regulate Chi Fu show kind of covers all of them I'm just not sure it's especially strong um for example in transforming Flem and stop and cough we say enduring cough that if you had an acute cough with phlegm full show is just not strong enough so we'd go to other herbs but if you had an enduring cough then maybe we can use full show um but it turns out full show this this herb does not appear as an ingredient in any of the formulas that we learn so it might still be nice to know you might still see it in your clinic um I have a I had a co-worker who used this very often for liver overacting on spleen that basically whenever he made xiao-san he would just as a rule add in full show because it's good for liver cheese stagnation and middle jow cheese stagnation but in terms of the formulas that we learn full show is not really is not ever an ingredient the name is kind of this interesting for means Buddha so this is Buddha's hand um if you look at a picture of this it's like a lemon with finger so it's kind of a funny looking lemony thing but again it's a it's a citrus thing it's very common for citrusy things to regulate G like tangerines and bitter oranges and Buddha's hand so that's whoosho and finally we have meguehua rozai rugosi floss is rosebud or Chinese Rosebud and this is another one that it regulates Liberty and middle jouoty and it's especially good for liver overacting on spleen so we could say it harmonizes the liver and spleen stomach for a stifling sensation in in the chest belching rib side pain and poor appetite due to either liver overacting on spleen or liver overacting on the stomach sometimes when the liver get gets angry we say it attacks horizontally so liver cheese stagnation can lead to spleen stomach g stagnation and then that chicken start to Rebel back upwards so that's what we're dealing with here and also gently regulates Chi and blood so for irregular Menses uh like we're talking about breast tenderness due to G stagnation and the liver Channel very common to happen before a period and painful menses Chinese Rosebud as far as I know this does not appear in any of the formulas that we learn but it's something that maybe you'll add it in as a modification or I have a friend that she likes to make um teas for people that there are certain patients that they they just don't like to take Chinese herbal formulas that they don't like to cook them for a long time and it smells bad and tastes even worse and so sometimes for those patients she'll make some custom teas and make way Hua is a very common ingredient that you can just add to a tea so that's our category of herbs that regulate cheese and what I like to do here is just to introduce a few formulas just to give some context to these herbs this is not meant to be a formula class but sometimes when you see these herbs in isolation it's it's hard to get a sense of what they actually do so we'll just introduce a few formulas and talk about how these herbs can be used as ingredients in these formulas and what types of conditions they treat so our first one here we talked about before is arten Tong two aged herb decoction archentong two-h to coptchen and this one is for phlegm dampness in the spleen and or lungs so you see things like cough with copious white easy to expect right sputum focal distension and stifling sensation in the chest and diaphragm palpitation and nausea and vomiting as in a rebellious Gene the tongue is going to have a greasy coat the pulse is going to be slippery because of the phlegm and so here we the two main ingredients are two herbs that we've learned in the semester so bonsha was in the category uh transform phlegm it transforms cold phlegm and then Chen p h Tangerine peel is the one that we just learned in this category so these two herbs are very commonly used together because remember both of them have an action of transforming phloem bonjour comes from the transform phlegm category but 10p we also said it it enters both the lung and the spleen Channel and it dries dampness and transforms slim then remember that both of these also have a downward direction that bonchial we said is very good for redirecting rebellious stomach g downward for nausea vomiting and morning sickness Chen P also has that bitter flavor that it sends things downward so it's very common to use these two herbs together also for that nausea and vomiting so here's an example of where we're using Chen P specifically to deal with uh flam damp because it does have that action besides regulating Qi it kind of does a lot of good stuff for the spleen another one is chai hu shugansan blue plurum Powder to dredge the liver chai hu shugans on Dre so we use this term dredge the liver that's that's kind of the term we use for one of the actions of the liver that it dredges and drains the channels as in opening them up so that the the free flow of chi can occur so this one is for liver Chi constraint here Bensky is using that word constraint Chi so we have flank pain stifling stifling sensation in the chest because the liver Channel goes to the chest and the rib sides and kind of make a note here that usually the way this manifests as in deep sighing or difficulty taking a breath you usually don't have a patient that comes in and says oh I have a stifling sensation in the chest usually what will happen is there's chi stagnating in this area so it's difficult then for them to take a deep breath or they'll have frequent deep Sun like they're trying to expand their chest and move Qi through the liver Channel suppress the motions and feelings of frustration and anger again emotional things can be due to Liberty stagnation then abdominal distension and fullness pulse is going to be wiry indicating stagnation and what's interesting here is the chief herb is actually chai who it's it's not even from this category if you remember back in the very beginning at in cool accurate herbs that release the exterior we learned chihu blue pluribratics that it's good for Xiao Yong disorder but it also has an action of moving liver Chief so it turns out that a lot of our formulas for liver cheese stagnation are actually based on chai who so that's another one that we've learned that regulates Chi but then notice that we have a lot of other of our herbs that we learned here so Jerka the bitter orange the The Ripe bitter orange rhizoma is especially good for liver G stagnation and then we also have Chen P here as well so remember Jerka it's kind of more of a spleen stomacher but we remember we said that jerk has a distraction of expanding the chest so that might be why we're using it here for this stifling sensation in the chest that we said Jerka has an action of opening the chest Xiang Fu very good for moving liver Chi it's also neutral in temperature so we don't a lot of times deliver cheese stagnation turns into heat but here chihu baishal are cool in temperature Shang fu is not going to cause those heat signs then we add in some Chen P it's very common like we said when the liver T stagnates it can attack horizontally and cause stomach problems so we have things like belching and abdominal distension and fullness that Liberty has caused some middle Jiao Chi stagnation as well so we use some Chen p h Tangerine peel to help with those symptoms as well so here's an example of regulating CHI with these herbs this is the formula we talked about wallow I think this is a very fun one to say and this is for chespie or painful obstruction in a chest so a pain in the chest that often radiates to the upper back we can have wheezing and cough with copious sputum and so here the two herbs are gualo trichosanthus fruit this is an herb that we learned in the phlegm heat category gualo besides transforming phlegm heat remember it's sweet in flavor it makes the phlegm thinner and easier to expectorate but we also said that gualo has an action of unbinding the chest or expanding the chest for chest beat and that's what we're using it for here in combination with which also unblocks uh unblocks the chi transforms lemon it's good for chest beat so as far as I know this is the only formula where he buy presents so again if you remember one thing about Shiba I would remember chest being uh this is the one that we said that remember he said that Chuan lienza also goes by the name Jin lingza um uh Golden Bell seed and so this is the this is the one time that comes up we learned one formula called jinling's on and this is for liver Chi constraint transforming into heat and so that's basically what we said that Chuan lienza was good for Chuan lienza's specialty is that it moves chi it stops pain but it's also cold in temperature so it's good for Liberties transforming and heat so intermittent epigastric and hypochondriac pain hernia pain or menstrual pain that is aggravated by the that is aggravated by the ingestion of hot food or drink so we have these those were liver cheese stagnation signs but we say they're worse when you eat hot things or drink hot things so that's how we know that it's heat a heat condition accompanied by irritability and a bear taste in the mouth again the liver has to do with anger and irritability bitter taste in the mouth is a very Xiao young thing the tongue is red with a yellow coat red because of heat yellow coat because of heat the pulse is wiry rapid wiry because of the stagnation rapid because of the Heat and there we use Chuan lienza because it moves liver Chi but it's also cold in temperature so this is the perfect herb for this situation so that's an example of using Chuan lienza this formula has Wu Yao in the name so Tien taiwu yasan is good for Sean disorder or hernia pain due to cheese stagnation with cold in the liver channel so lower abdominal pain radiating the testicles or swollen and distended testicles again the liver Channel goes up the leg it goes to the inguinal area and we say it wraps around the external genitalia so if we have cold stagnation in the liver Channel these are some of the symptoms that may present and kind of the point here is maybe you're not learning formulas yet but it turns out we have a formula with Wu Yao in the name and that formula is good for Sean disorder probably means it's important to know that is good for Sean Disorder so remember we out regulates middle geology regulates liver Chi and it's especially it's warm in temperature so it moves chi through the liver Channel but also warms the channel for this shond disorder due to cold then notice we also have some other herbs that we learned here we um mushong we said is uh it moves chi but it's also good for stopping pain um so that's maybe why it's here when we said mushong is I think a bit more of a spleen stomach herb but this is an example where we might say it's moving Liberty instead Ching Pi is green peel this is the the green Tangerine peel so it's green in color green is the color of the liver so it's good for moving Liberty for our Shaun disorder then Chuan lienza again we said it's good for moving Liberty and this one it kind of doesn't match the temperature but I think it's we have enough other warm herbs in here that we're using Chuan lienza because it's good for moving Liberty and stopping pain not necessarily because of its temperature but because of its pain relieving quality so again these are some situations where we might use herbs that regulate Chi and I kind of just use this to emphasize that is good for Sean disorder or hernia pain so those are just some formulas um that maybe helps give some context to these herbs do a review here we have um a list of the herbs if you're if you have the notes and you print them out these two slides are I think are on one page so what I might say is if you're reviewing these first I'd go through and make sure you know which ones are better for Middle Jiao G stagnation and which ones are better for liver tea stagnation or which ones are good for both but for separated out by which what type of chi does it regulate number two I might go through and look at which ones are warm in temperature versus cold and temperature so the majority of these are warm but we have some that are neutral in temperature like Xiang Fu and then some that are cold in temperature like Chuan lienza so that might be another important thing to know is separate these out by temperature and then just start to look at what are their Specialties or what other things do they do so Chen tea is also good for dampness and phlegm um Jerka opening a chest dafu P makes you pee and we get the other ones Shang Fu its specialty is in menstruation issues mushong especially good for stopping pain it's very warm it's good for Shawn disorder Chen Chong tanjiang I think there's like one formula that where one of these come up so I just remember it regulates Chi and tanjong opens the chest I think we have one formula tanchong in it Chuan lienza definitely remember it regulates Chi um it's good for stopping pain and it's cold in temperature so that those are the kind of things I would look for as you're going through this is a little bit larger category so make sure you can separate these by what kind of chi um they're regulating what's the temperature and then either what's their specialty in regulating tea or what other things they would do so those are the things I would look at when reviewing herbs that regulate Chi so that's our category herbs that regulate that she thanks for sticking with me on this one it's kind of a long one but like we said before these are videos that kind of go into a lot of detail about each herb this is really good if you're taking an herbs class and you want to follow along with your weekly lecture these videos go into a lot of detail if you're reviewing for finals or year ends or your board exams it could be that you don't want to go into this much detail when you're reviewing a large volume of information so if you're studying for those big tests you can also take a look at the herb review courses there's a single herb review course that goes through all of the single herbs and just touches on the main points of each herb so it's a good way to quickly review and then there's also a formula review course that goes over all the formulas on the nccm list and so that's a good way to review all the formulas but as we go through each formula we talk about the single herbs in each form formula and the way Yao pairs in each formula so it's a good way to review formulas due Pairs and single herbs all at the same time so if you're studying for finals or year ends or board you should check those out as well there are links to those below but thanks for being here this is a long one I can tell my voice is getting kind of scratchy so thank you for being here we'll see you in the next one which is herbs that regulate blood I think starting with herbs that stop bleeding so thanks for being here we'll see in the next one