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Blood-rectifying formulas

理血剂 〔理血劑〕lǐ xuè jì

Medicinal formulas that treat blood stasis and bleeding. Rectifying the blood includes quickening the blood and transforming stasis in the treatment of blood stasis and stanching bleeding in the treatment of blood loss.

Blood patterns include blood vacuity, blood stasis, and bleeding. blood vacuity is treated by supplementing the blood. blood stasis and bleeding are treated using blood-rectifying medicinals.

Cautions

First, although blood patterns fall into no more than three basic categories, the causes are numerous and severity varies considerably. It is important to establish the cause, differentiate the root from the tip, and the acute from the chronic.

Second, stasis-dispelling medicinals, especially the stronger ones (called stasis expelling medicinals), easily damage right qì, whereas excessive use of blood-stanching agents can easily give rise to blood stasis. For these reasons, when using blood-quickening stasis-dispelling agents, it is often necessary to include medicinals that support right, to ensure that the treatment does not damage right qì. When using blood-stanching agents, it is important to establish the factors at play, so that if there are signs of blood stasis or stagnation, blood-quickening stasis-transforming medicinals can be added to prevent any further development of blood stasis.

Third, blood-quickening stasis-transforming medicinals should not be used in profuse menstruation or pregnancy since they can cause bleeding.

Subcategories

Blood-Quickening Stasis-Dispelling Formulas

Blood-quickening stasis-dispelling formulas treat amenorrhea, menstrual pain, concretions and conglomerations, hemiplegia, and blood stasis due to external injury. blood stasis is typically marked by stabbing pain of fixed location, dark purple tongue, purple speckles on the tongue, lumps in the abdomen or other locations that are hard to the touch, are of fixed location, and that are painful and reject pressure.

Main agents

Often added to these are qì moving agents, since when qì moves, blood moves. Because blood patterns arise from cold, heat, vacuity or repletion, other agents can be added to address these. So, when blood stasis occurs in a cold pattern, channel-warming cold-dispelling agents can be added. When occurring in a heat pattern, heat-clearing blood-quickening agents can be included. When blood stasis occurs with water swelling, water-disinhibiting agents can be used. When right qì is depleted in any way, supplementing agents can be used.

Representative formulas

Blood-Stanching Formulas

Blood-stanching formulas treat bleeding patterns, including vomiting of blood, nosebleed, coughing of blood, bloody stool, bloody urine, and flooding and spotting.

bleeding is complex; may occur in cold, heat, repletion and vacuity patterns, different locations, and differing degrees of severity. Treatment can involve warming, clearing, dispersion, and supplementation, and requires skill in gauging the importance of the root and tip.

Heat pattern bleeding due to frenetic movement of hot blood is treated by cooling the blood and stanching bleeding. Bleeding due to insufficiency of yáng qì failing to contain the blood is treated by warming yáng, supplementing qì, and containing the blood. Chronic bleeding requires an emphasis on treating the root or treating both root and tip. Acute conditions of sudden onset of massive bleeding require emergency treatment to treat the tip, with emphasis on stanching bleeding. In qì following the blood into desertion, it is necessary to provide great supplementation of original qì to rescue the patient from qì desertion. When bleeding is accompanied by blood stasis, blood-quickening stasis-dispelling medicinals have to be given to prevent stagnation. In sum, treatment for bleeding focuses on the root by stanching bleeding but may apply other methods. It is important to determine treatment according to cause and to treat disease, seek the root.

Main agents

The main cold blood-stanching medicinals for heat-pattern bleeding include the following:

The main warm blood-stanching agents are as follows:

The main warm blood-stanching agents are as follows:

  • Mugwort (Artemisiae Argyi Folium, 艾叶 ài yè)
  • Oven earth (Terra Flava Usta, 伏龙肝 fú lóng gān)

    • The main stasis-dispelling blood-stanching agents are as follows:

    Upper-body bleeding not be treated with uplifting agents; medicinals such as achyranthes (Achyranthis Bidentatae Radix, 牛膝 niú xī) and Rhubarb (Rhei Radix et Rhizoma, 大黄 dà huáng) may be carefully added to conduct blood downward. Similarly, lower-body bleeding should not be treated with downsinking agents; medicinals such as charred schizonepeta (Schizonepetae Herba Carbonisata, 荆芥炭 jīng jiè tàn), charred cimicifuga (Cimicifugae Rhizoma, 黑升麻 hēi shēng má), and astragalus (Astragali Radix, 黄芪 huáng qí) can be used help upward movement.

    Representative formulas

    See rectifying the blood.

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