Adventures in Chinese Medicine

Class: Formulas for relieving superficial syndromes Sub-class: relieve exterior with pungent and warm Indications: chills, fever, no sweat, aversion to cold, cough/wheeze, asthma, back/head/muscle ache  tongue: thin white coat  pulse: floating, tight ma huang (herba ephedra) 9g LU, BL; slightly bitter; warm release exterior & disperse cold by inducing sweating; circulate & descend LU Qi to stop wheezing gui zhi (ramulus cinnamomi) 6g HE, LU, BL; sweet; warm harmonize wei & ying qi; tonify HE yang; move yang & transform Qi; warm the channels & disperse cold xing ren (semen armeniacae amarum) 9g LU, LI; bitter; slightly warm; slightly toxic stop cough & calm wheezing; moisten intestines & unblocks bowels zhi gan cao (radix et rhizoma glycyrrhizae praeparata cum melle) 3g HE, LU, SP, ST; sweet; neutral tonify SP & Qi; moist...

Fish Creek Park in winter Winter seems to have come slowly this year.  We're well into November and still have not had much in the way of snow and only a few cold days.  I'm certainly not complaining.  But, we all know that winter is coming and with it comes "cold & flu" season. One of my favourite little formulas from school was this deceptively simple and poetically named winter saviour.  Yu Ping Feng San means Jade Windscreen Powder .  It ancient China Jade was more valuable than gold - so to have Jade in the name indicated it's value.  Windscreen was a literal name - wind was the external "evil" that brought sickness.  We can think of the TCM term wind as being analogous to viruses or bacteria.  So this simple little formula was a screen, or protective barrier, against wind/virus borne illnesses.  This formula can be taken before getting sick to help boost your immune system and prevent viruses from taking hold in the body.  Once...