Heat Clearing Herbs

Disease Progression and the Four Levels

  • The progression of a disease involves moving through different levels:

    • Wei Level (Exterior)

    • Interior:

      • Qi Level

      • Yin Level

      • Blood Level

Wei Level (Defensive)

  • Corresponds to the exterior of the body.

  • Includes:

    • Skin

    • Pores

    • Nose

    • Mouth

    • Upper respiratory tract

Qi Level

  • Encompasses the channel system.

  • Includes:

    • Channels

    • Collaterals

  • A wider area than the Wei Level.

  • Can be located in:

    • Muscle layer

    • Lungs

    • Stomach

    • Intestines (small and large, and by extension, urinary bladder)

Yin and Blood Level

  • Disease location is in the blood vessels.

  • Indicates heat has penetrated deeply.

Understanding Defensive (Wei), Nutritive (Ying), and Blood Levels

  • Defensive (Wei): Defensive.

  • Chi: Where the chi is.

  • Nutritive (Ying): Nutritive level.

  • Blood: Blood.

Nutritive Qi

  • Chi that flows inside the channels.

  • Manipulated when needling acupoints.

  • Defensive Qi runs outside the channels.

  • Blood vessels contain mostly blood with some nutritive Qi.

  • Inside channels: 90% Chi (nutritive), 10% blood.

  • Hitting a blood vessel during needling:

    • 90% blood.

    • 10% Qi (nutritive).

Organ Associations

  • Wei Level: Exterior.

  • Qi Level:

    • Lungs

    • Stomach

    • Intestines (small and large)

    • Urinary bladder (by extension of the small intestine).

  • Yin/Blood Level:

    • Heart and pericardium

    • Liver and kidney

Heat Progression Example

  • Wind heat enters the Wei Level:

    • Upper respiratory tract.

  • Progresses to Qi Level:

    • Typically to the lungs.

    • Upper respiratory infection -> Bronchi (bronchitis) -> Lungs (pneumonia).

  • Proximity of lungs, heart, and pericardium:

    • Heat can move from lungs to pericardium.

  • Alternatively, heat can skip the Qi Level:

    • Go directly from Wei Level through the lung into the pericardium (yin level).

Heat Entering the Pericardium

  • Example herb: Coptis:

    • Goes to both the stomach (Qi level) and heart (Yin level).

    • Can clear heat from the pericardium.

Defensive Qi Location

  • Not overflow but distinct from Yin Qi, though they support each other.

  • Specific locations:

    • Skin, pores, under the skin

    • Between skin and muscles

    • Between muscles

    • Fascia

    • Joints

    • Nooks and branches of organs

Example of Heat Entering the Pericardium Directly

  • Elderly person catches flu.

  • Quickly progresses from upper respiratory tract to lungs.

  • Develops pneumonia.

  • Hospitalization, ventilator, loss of consciousness, delirium.

  • High fever, extreme thirst.

  • Crimson (dark red) tongue.

  • Severe dehydration, treated with IV fluids.

Han Shui Shi

  • Dosage: 10-15 grams, grinded into a fine powder for decoction or topical use

  • Cautions:

    • Contraindicated in patients with deficiency cold syndromes of the spleen and stomach because:

      1. It is very cold in nature.

      2. It is a mineral (harsh on the stomach).

      • Contraindicated because it is very, very cold.

  • Comments:

    • Is formed as a crystalline precipitate when a saturated solution of is cooled down to room temperature.

    • Even though Mang Xiao and Han Shui Shi have similar functions, they are not interchangeable.

    • Mang Xiao comes, clears heat from the stomach, while Han Shui Shi has a much broader effect to clear heat from the lung, the stomach, and the large intestine.

    • Mang Xiao is essentially your magnesium sulfate or sodium.

    • You supersaturate a solution: heat up water, and dissolve the Mang Xiao into the water.

    • As you increase the temperature of a solvent, it generally dissolves more of the the different salts and whatever compounds in it.

    • Cool down the the solution thereafter, a supersaturated solution, the the extra dissolved stuff will come crashing out of the solution and recrystallize.

    • After having gone through the process of recrystallizing, it turns into Han Shui Shi and it no longer has the effect of, softening hardness and promoting a bowel movement.

    • It is then used to clear heat from the stomach as well as the heart.

    • Han Shui Shi is not as commonly used. Shi Gao, which we just talked about previously, is a lot more commonly used.

Zhi Mu

  • Literally means "No Mother".

  • Bitter, sweet, cold.

  • Enters the lung, stomach, and kidney.

  • Functions:

    • Clears heat and purges fire for excessive heat syndromes of the lung and stomach.

      • High fever, excessive thirst.

      • Similar to Shi Gao.

      • Zhi Mu and Shi Gao are used together, very, very often as a pair.

  • Nourishes Yin and Moistens Dryness: Treats cough due to lung heat or dryness.
    * Tidal fever due to Yin deficiency.
    * Thirst due to consumption of body fluids.

  • Good for diabetes (fluid deficiency).

  • Used with Shi Gao in the White Tiger Decoction.
    * For clear heat from the qi level.
    * High fever, excessive thirst, profuse sweating, forceful pulse.

Properties of Herbs

  • Zhi Mu: bitter descends.

  • Shi Gao: pungent floats and ascends because of its pungency.

Topical Use of Han Shui Shi

  • Grind into powder and apply directly.

  • Examples:

    • Mouth ulcer due to stomach heat.

    • Burns.

Zhu Mu for Diabetes

  • Cold & Sweet helps moisten the fluids.

  • Diabetes due to Yin deficiency.

    • Thirst.

    • Consumption of body fluids.

    • Constipation due to intestinal dryness.

  • Combine with Shan Yao and Tian Hua Fen

    • Clinically proven to control blood sugar levels.

  • Dosage: 6-12 grams in decoction.

  • Two forms:

    • Raw: Harvested, cut up, and dried without further processing. For clearing heat and purging fire.

    • With Salt: Stir baked with salt solution - Nourishes Yin & Reduces Fire.

  • Contraindicated: Diarrhea due to deficiency cold of the spleen and stomach.

    • A lot of these herbs are cold in nature and therefore are not very kind to the digestive system.

Explain Nourishing Yin

  • Two major categories of substances in your body, yin and yang.

  • Yin: everything that is material, everything that is cooling in the body. Cooling, moistening, lubricating, nourishing.

  • Yang: active, warming, moving. Is more immaterial.

  • Nourishing yin: replenishing those fluids, those the substances that are nourishing and moistening and lubricating.

    • Blood or synovial fluid or semen, for example, that's all yin in nature.

    • Yang would be the pumping of your heart or the movement of your muscles.

Lu Gen

  • Reed Root.

  • Sweet, cold.

  • Enters into the lung and the stomach.

  • Function ability to Clear heat, promote the production of body fluid, stops vomiting and also relieves restlessness.

  • Febrile diseases, damaging body fluids, heat.

  • Vexation with thirst.

  • Vomiting due to stomach heat.

  • Coughing due to lung heat.

  • Dosage: 10-30 grams dry herb in decoction.

    • 30-60 grams of the juice

  • Caution: use with caution in patients with deficiency cold of the spleen and stomach.

Tian Hua Fen

  • Root of the plant. NOT the pollen.

  • Slightly bitter, sweet, and slightly cold.

  • Enters into the lung and the stomach.

  • Actions:

    • Clears Heat and Promote Body Fluid Generation: Similar to Zhi Mu and Lu Gen.

      • Febrile diseases, damaging body fluid, heat

      • Vexation with thirst.

      • Diabetes.

      • Dry cough due to lung heat.

      • Nausea, vomiting due to stomach heat

    • Dispersing Swelling and Expelling Pus

      • Abscesses, disease of heat type, ulcerations, carbuncles, furuncles.

  • Dosage: 10-15 grams in decoction.

  • Contraindicated: During pregnancy. Reason number one, bitter in nature (downward action). Reason number two

    • Incompatible with Wu Tou, which is poisonous aconite or wolfsbane (increases toxicity)

  • Generation of body fluids being saliva, fluid in your lungs.

Dan Zhu Ye

  • Flavorless Bamboo Leaf.

  • Sweet, bland, and cold.

  • Enters into the heart, the stomach, and the small intestine.

  • Actions:

    • Clear heat and relieve restlessness:

      • Heat, vexation with thirst, and mouth ulcerations.

    • Promotes urination to relieve:

      • Helps relieve with difficult and painful urination .

  • Heart fire transferred to the small intestine causing, you know, basically, like a UTI causing very dark, painful, scanty, difficult urination.

  • Excellent herb for Heart Heat.

  • Dosage: 6-15 grams in decoction.

  • Bitter herbs contraindicated in pregnancy?* Not all of them. Has lost of exceptions

Chi Zi (Shan Zhi Zi)

  • Fruit of Gardenia.

  • Bitter and cold.

  • Enters into the heart, the lung, the stomach, and the San Jiao.

  • Purges fire and relieves restlessness. febrile diseases with vexation and high fever with agitation.

  • Clear heat and: drain dampness - damp heat jaundice, or reduced urine output with a brownish urine heat stranguria, blood stranguria

  • Cools blood, helps to detoxify, bleeding due to blood heat.

  • Dosage: 6-9 grams, crushed.

  • Raw: more effective in clearing heat and purging fire.

  • Carbonized Heat: More suitable for stopping bleeding.

  • The process by which you filter and maintain water in your body is referred to as San Jiao

  • Caution: Contraindicated for patients with poor appetite and loose stools due to deficiency cold of the spleen and stomach.

San Jiao (Triple Burner/Warmer)

  • San means three, Jiao means burner or warmer.

  • Three Divisions:

    • Upper Jiao: Dominated by the lungs. Like Fog - Deals with light types of water or nutrients

    • Middle Jiao: Dominated by the spleen. Cistern - Deals with liquid water

    • Lower Jiao: Dominated by the kidneys. Gutter - Deals with thick, dirty fluids (waste products).

  • Driven by Qi Hua (Qi Transformation)

    • Taking a substance and splitting it into two parts.

      • The Clear (Qing): What the body wants to keep. Sent upwards

      • The Turbid (Zhuo): Waste the body doesn't want. Sent downwards

    • Qihua: Happens in all three Jiao.

      • Clear goes upwards. Lung distributes it.

      • Turbid goes downwards. Excreted through urination and defecation.

  • So when we say clear heat and drain dampness, this means that jutsu is able to clear heat and drain dampness from all three diao. Okay?: so it's able to take advantage of the fact that we're descending the turbine is basically taking advantage of this natural sort of downward flow of waste products. And to it, we have heat, if we have, dampness, k, it's gonna send it down, along with the rest of the waist. K? And it usually comes out through the urination.
    Descending and Clearing herbs

  • Eliminating.

  • Draining (part of elimination).

  • Reducing. Eliminating (or reducing) Pathogens therefore detoxifying. Also purgatives.

So, with that said, let's talk a little bit more about its ability to clear heat and drain dampness. We says we said that it enters into the sanjiao. K? The sanjiao. And I think I've talked about this in the past.

The next one is also a very, very important herb called a Xia Ku Cao

Xia Ku Cao (Summer Wilt Plant)

  • Name Meaning: Wilts in the summer.

  • Bitter, pungent, cold.

  • Enters into the liver and gallbladder.

  • Primary function:

    • Clear liver heat.

    • Liver fire flared up w/ red eyes and headache, scrofula/goiter.

  • Lowers blood pressure.

    • Good for Hypertension, especially if that hypertension is due to liver fire flaring upwards!

  • Disgusting to drink.

  • Dosage: Nine to fifteen grams (very important).

Jue Ming Zi

  • Typically, means it's a it's a seed, or at least a seed like herb.

  • Sweet, bitter, slightly cold.

  • Enters into the liver as well as the large intestine.

  • Clears the liver: improving the vision because the liver opens to the eyes.

    • Redness, swelling, and pain of the eye that's burning pain.

    • Bluish blindness (Glaucoma, cataracts, and night blindness).

  • Pacify the liver to subdue.

    • Redness, dizziness, and tinnitus or ringing in the ears!

  • Moisten the intestines and relax the bowels.

  • Constipation due to heat stagnation or dryness of the intestines.

  • Dosage: 9-15 grams, use with caution in patients with loose stole due for QI deficiency

Mi Meng Hua

  • Flower

  • Sweet and slightly cold.

  • Enters Into the liver and the gallbladder meridians.

  • Clears the liver.
    *Improves the vision.

  • Removes nebula.

    • Red eyes due to liver heat!

    • Blurred vision with nebula photophobia, and also excessive tearing.

  • Contraindicated in patients with eye diseases due to wind heat in the live channel (from the exterior of the body).

Qing Xiang Zi

  • Bitter and cold.

  • Enters into the liver meridian
    *Clears heat from heat from the liver.
    *Purging fire, removing nebula, and improving the vision.
    *Dosage: six to fifteen grams in, decoction for oral administration (Contraindicated for the defic

Gu Jing Cao

Neutral that enters into the liver ad the Stomach to help disperse wind heat and help vision. This is something that you can use to disperse wind heat and improve with you can not use the others on wind from an injury outside of

Those are herbs. When the heat enters into the EN blood level in a warm disease. Let's talk more about that that and what that has for mean

Heat attacking to body: Then that warm it means that's easy to understand. But remember what that: but level but what that means level means that the has made it way that are we talking exactly.

So what's our blood a little Okay.