經方學

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We learn about in our Chinese medicine textbooks, a certain kind of insubstantial mix of phlegm and qi that collects in the throat... 咽喉異物感Plum Pit Qi.

It is a pretty little diagnosis. Sounds very….Asian…Sounds very beautiful, and somehow exotic, but I have yet to have have a patient Western, or Asian, walk into my clinic and say “I have plum pit qi.”

Dr Huang talks about this particular condition as a subjective feeling on the part on the patient where there is some kind of odd sensation involving the throat. It could be that there is a feeling that something is stuck in the throat, something that can neither be swallowed or coughed out. It could be a bit of phlegm, or an irritation or tickle that constantly has someone clearing their throat.

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Or, it could be some kind of issue that causes problems with speaking, or leaves people with a feeling of chest stuffiness, that the breathing is somehow off, or the words that one seeks to speak come out not quite right, or that somehow something is causing the functions that run through the throat to not quite work so smoothly.

This kind of presentation could have its roots in either an emotional issue, or some physiological process that has gone astray. It really does not matter the origin, what matters is the patient has arrived at this juncture in their state of health, and there are formulas that treat it, and treat it well.

As practitioners, it is our job to figure this stuff out, to take what our patients say, express, or leave out, and see if matches what we know about the particular uses of an herb or formula. Ban xia hou po tang, is the formula that is famous for treating “plum pit qi.” But, if we can begin to see under the iceberg of “an odd feeling in the throat”, we can begin to see a whole constellation of patterns and situations where this formula may be of benefit.

And it helps if you understand something about Ban Xia Constitution, which was talked about here.

We learned this in our first quarter of Chinese medicine school, and if you read through the advertisements and support materials for any of the multitude of herbal products you will see this……

Jade Windscreen is for building the immune systems in those who easily get colds.

I’m one of those people.I’ve easily gotten colds my entire life.I wish it were not so.I remember reading about Jade Windscreen and thinking my troubles were over. But, after taking it for a week or so, I woke one winter night in a panic thinking the house was on fire.It was not, but I had this odd smell of burning paper in my nose. Which followed me around for a few days until I stopped the Jade Windscreen.Let’s look at this from the point of view of constitution. The main herb in Jade Windscreen is Huang Qi. And the body type associated with Huang Qi tends to be a bit on the heavy side, and what in the usual Chinese medicine lingo we would say is damp, with a bit of a fluid metabolism problem. The Bai Zhu in that formulas also is one of the main herbs that Zhang Zhong-Jing used to correct water metabolism problems. The Fang Feng? While it does release the exterior, it also can be a bit drying as it promotes the expulsion of water via the sweat.For a guy like me that tends toward dryness it is little wonder this stuff kindled an internal fire!

Consider that different body types have affinities for different herbs, and need to be regulated in different ways.

Someone who does not tend toward dampness, likely will have trouble with drying formulas like Jade Windscreen. Perhaps you have noticed in your clinical work that some textbook seemingly easy to apply formulas are terrifically ineffective.Huang suggests if you have a Cinnamon Twig person who frequently gets colds in front of you, see how they do on Gui Zhi Tang. Likewise, if they are a Bupleurum type consider Xiao Chai Hu Tang. There may also be opportunities to combine Jade Windscreen with these more constitutional formulas as well. As always, by the presentation, chose the herbs!

When I studied Chinese in Taiwan, I always recorded my classes into a little MP3 player. I found that usually I needed to listen to the recording about three times before I really heard and understood everything the teacher said.

All of Huang’s lectures in October were recorded for the same reason. There is always something that slips by in the moment of an intrusive car horn honk, or slamming hotel door, or moment of mental stutter as Chinese and English words play ping-pong with meaning across a frayed synapse.

So, the other day I caught this on the way to work

Huang: Cinnamon is the Chinese 阿斯匹林. It acts like aspirin to invigorate the blood, improve circulation and keep the heart healthy.

Simple. Effective.
And one of the few Chinese herbs that actually is tasty.

In Chinese medicine school we learned that ban xia is a premier herb for dispersing phlegm, a great medicinal for those kinds of people that were soggy and damp, phlegmy and with the accompanying lethargy that comes from fluids gone rubbery with stagnation.But, none of my books in school made mention of the constitutional type that benefits from this herb.Indeed, while I learned about how people can fall into the roulette wheel slots of the Five Phases, I did not even have a clue that us human beings had a tendency to fall into a certain herb category.Now, us human beings love to divide up the world into categories, and then take those maps and try to make sense of our experience. Are you a wood type? A water person? A year of the Rat Sagittarian? An Enigram number 7, or Meyers-Briggs ENTP? The list goes on and on. And not without merit, so long as we remember that we laying our maps onto reality.Look at any group of people, and it is clear that some of us are more alike and others quite different. I suspect we inhabit groups and types. Whether it is influence or destiny is a question to which I’ve no answer. But, in my recent clinical experience, I am beginning to see that understanding the herb that confirms a person’s constitutional type is useful when selecting formulas to treat them.

I am beginning to understand this.That there are constitutional types who respond well to particular herbs.

As Dr Huang outlines in The Ten Major Formula Families there are a number of different families of which we tend to be a part. Those of the Ban Xia family are a most interesting part of the family tree.Ban xia types, unlike my original concept of a person phlegmy and dull with fatigue, according to Huang these people are lively, vivacious and extremely emotional. They have big, expressive eyes that spark like those of a movie star. Their presence is felt when they enter a room. They tend to be rather photogenic too.And they are sensitive. Very sensitive. Often, they are artists. They make good actors, performers and speakers. They are that kinds of people that are very involved with their own emotions. These are the people that have odd symptoms for which no amount of blood work, CAT scans or X-rays will show a cause. They often experience problems with the throat, and easily get worked up into insomnia.There are some kinds of phlegm that are not substantial. For these people the ban xia based formulas are a tremendous benefit.