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Wind-eliminating formulas

治风剂 〔治風劑〕 zhì fēng jì

Medicinal formulas that treat external or internal wind in the treatment of external or internal wind, mostly using exterior-resolving agents and liver-calming wind-extinguishing agents.

External and internal wind are two broad classes for a multitude of complex phenomena. External wind is wind evil that enters the body from outside, affecting the exterior, the skin and body hair, the channels and network vessels, sinew and body, and the joints, and may be combed with cold, dampness, or heat; hence, there are wind-cold, wind-heat, and wind-damp patterns. There is also wind evil toxic qì, which enters the body to cause lockjaw (tetanus). The main signs of external wind are headache, aversion to wind, itchy skin, numbness of the limbs, hypertonicity and pain of the sinews and bone, inhibited bending and stretching, deviated eyes and mouth, and arched-back rigidity.

Internal wind is wind that arises from within the body as a result of disturbances of functions such as liver yáng transforming into wind, extreme heat engendering wind, blood vacuity engendering wind, or yīn vacuity stirring wind, which are collectively known as liver wind stirring internally. The signs include dizziness, tremor, convulsions, sluggish speech, deviated eyes and mouth, and loss of the use of the legs. In some cases, sudden loss of consciousness leaves the patient with hemiplegia and deviated eyes and mouth, indicating wind stroke.

External wind is treated by coursing and dispersing, while internal wind is treated by calming and extinguishing.

Cautions

First, it is important to distinguish between external and internal wind, since treating one as the other in either case can have adverse effects.

Second, it is important to identify vacuity and repletion and the presence of cold, dampness, heat, phlegm, or stasis, so that agents can be included to dispel cold, dispel dampness, clear heat, dispel phlegm, or quicken thè blood and dispel stasis.

Third, external and internal wind can occur together, in which case it is important to determine their relative importance.

Subcategories

  1. External wind formulas
  2. Internal wind formulas

1. External Wind Formulas

Wind is the chief of the six excesses and the chief of the hundred diseases. It easily combines with other disease evils to create a multitude of different conditions. External wind affects the fleshy exterior, giving rise to exterior patterns. These are treated with exterior-resolving formulas. Formulas that course and disperse external wind address exterior wind that enders the flesh, channels and network vessels, sinews and bone, and joints, giving rise to headache, wind papules, eczema, deviated eyes and mouth, impediment patterns, and lockjaw.

Main agents

Frequently combined with these according to need are heat-clearing, blood quickening, blood-nourishing, tetany-checking, network-freeing, and phlegm-dispelling medicinals.

Representative formulas

2. Internal Wind Formulas

These treat liver wind stirring internally. Sù Wèn (Chapter 74) states, All wind with shaking and dizzy vision is ascribed to the liver (诸风掉眩, 皆属于肝 zhū fēng diào xuàn, jiē shǔ yú gān). Liver wind stirring internally takes several forms, which are treated differently. Extreme heat stirring wind is characterized by persistent high fever and convulsion of the limbs. Liver yáng transforming into wind is marked by dizziness, hot head, and headache, red face as if drunk, and in severe cases clouding collapse, leaving the patient with deviated eyes and mouth, and hemiplegia. These two patterns are repletion patterns and are treated by calming the liver and extinguishing the wind.

Main agents

Extreme heat engendering wind can damage the fluids and give rise to phlegm; hence treatments may include agents that clear heat and enrich yīn, ones that nourish the blood, and ones that transform phlegm.

Representative formulas

Yīn vacuity stirring wind occurring in the final states of warm disease, marked by hypertonicity of the sinews and wriggling extremities, is a vacuity pattern which is treated by enriching yīn and extinguishing wind, mainly using ē jiāo (阿胶 Asini Corii Colla, ass hide glue), med>egg yolk (Galli Vitellus, 鸡子黄 jī zǐ huáng), bái sháo (白芍 Paeoniae Radix Alba, white peony), biē jiǎ (鳖甲 Trionycis Carapax, turtle shell), guī bǎn (龟版 Testudinis Carapax et Plastrum, tortoise shell), and guī bǎn (龟版 Testudinis Carapax et Plastrum, tortoise shell).

Representative formulas

Wind-eliminating Formulas

External Wind Formulas

Internal Wind Formulas

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