The Top Three Panacea of Chinese Medicine

Many people have chronic illnesses with many symptoms; often, one feels pain from head to toe, almost as if there’s no painless spot on the body.  Although many of these chronic illnesses aren’t too serious, they drag on and never seem to go away.  At times, the symptoms may worsen, at other times they may disappear, causing the person much distress.  The solution is actually to cultivate and nurture blood within the body, as this will increase one’s chances of recovering from a chronic illness.

                So what is the easiest and fastest way to generate new blood in the body?  Chinese medicine says that the spleen and stomach are essential in the generation of red blood cells.  Therefore, if we want to have sufficient blood in the body, then we must regulate our spleen and stomach organs, making sure that they are running efficiently and are healthy.  Some people eat just a little bit of food, but become uncomfortably full or bloated, resulting in indigestion; others can’t easily absorb the food they eat, resulting in either diarrhea, constipation, an inability to produce sperm, excess production of phlegm, or a tendency to develop muscles easily.  These problems are all a result of the spleen and stomach organs not functioning properly.  Solving this problem starts with fixing the body’s physique, allowing for it to have the right conditions of a healthy spleen and stomach.  Medicine can’t be the first course of action because if there is difficulty digesting and absorbing even grains and vegetables, then there would be even more difficulty digesting and absorbing medicine. 

                Many people familiar with Chinese medicine have weak kidney systems, so they take medicine that helps replenish the kidneys.  But because these medicines are difficult to digest, often times they fail to replenish the kidneys, instead becoming a heavy burden on the spleen and stomach organs.  In this way, the medicine which is supposed to help the body actually becomes a poison to the body’s organs. 

                A lot of people also have excessive heat in their heart and liver organs, so they must take cool-natured medicines year-round to balance this.  But what they don’t know is that taking cool-natured medicines can damage the spleen and stomach the most, especially when the spleen and stomach is already weak.

                If there is one medicine on this planet that I recommend to you, in order to help solve your chronic health and blood deficiency problems, it would be a combination of Chinese yam, Job’s tears seeds, and Gorgon fruit.  This combination is highly effective, and is the most reliable Chinese medicine you can take. 

                For frail elderly people, very young children, and also people whose conditions are very severe, my frequent suggestion is to eat porridge made of those three ingredients: Chinese yam, Job’s tears and Gorgon fruit.  These ingredients may be a little bit hard to find at supermarkets, but if you look around at health food stores or herbal stores, or ask a local practitioner, you may be able to find it. 

                Many people ask, “Is it really effective to just eat porridge? Can it really promote the growth of red blood cells very quickly?” My answer to you is, if the porridge solution doesn’t work, then I’m afraid that nothing else will.  Although normal food produces energy and blood in the body, first we use the energy already present in the body to digest that food.  If the body can’t afford to use that bit of energy to digest the food, then our only solution is to use the three ingredients mentioned, because only they can directly provide us with energy and the source of blood.

                First let’s discuss the benefits of Chinese yam.  Chinese yam has a stable, sweet nature, and doesn’t cause inflammation or excess heat in the body when restoring the body’s energy.  A Chinese medicine book discusses the benefits of the Chinese yam: “….strengthens the kidneys, restores the stomach and spleen, dissolves phlegm and mucus, cures dysentery, and moisturizes the skin and hair.”  Other benefits of Chinese yam include relieving cough and clearing the lungs. For medicinal purposes, it is more common to use dried Chinese yam, although there is fresh Chinese yam available at oriental markets.  At herbal stores, there are usually two kinds of dried Chinese yam: cooked and raw.  It is better to use the raw herb form. 

                Now let’s talk about the Job’s tears seeds—if you’re body tends to have what Chinese medicine calls “dampness”, or a “wet” nature, (such as if you are easily prone to water retention, edema, eczema,), then the seeds of Job’s tears is the best solution for you.  Job’s tears helps the body get rid of excess water, delivering this dampness out of the body.  Job’s tears seed has a slightly cool nature; therefore, it’s not very suitable for people who have excessive coldness within their stomach and spleen, or for people whose four limbs become cold easily.  Some Chinese medicine doctors also says that pregnant women should also abstain from using Job’s tears, because it may affect not only the body’s general fluids, but also the amniotic fluids in the uterus.  Although side effects have not been observed to date, it’s better to stay on the safe side and avoid any risks during pregnancy.

                The main function of Job’s tears is to strengthen the spleen and dispel dampness.  Meanwhile strengthening the spleen, it can also replenish the lungs; meanwhile dispelling dampness, it can also dissolve mucus and phlegm. Job’s tears seed can also help alleviate excess heat in the lungs. When used alongside Chinese yam, it is all the more effective.  It is recommended to use 50 grams of each ingredient to make porridge, to be eaten daily.   The question is, why do we have to wait until we are sick to eat this? The porridge itself isn’t necessarily a medicine—it can also be considered as a supplement, a source of nutrition and prevention for getting sick in the first place.  The porridge doesn’t taste bad or like medicine at all.  So even if you are not chronically ill, or don’t have any of the above mentioned problems, I still invite you to try this porridge.  The medicine should not be bitter, sour or taste like medicine—if it does, then that means the quality of your ingredients are not great.  For porridge, it is better to use fresh Chinese yam.

 

                Finally, let me discuss the benefits of Gorgon fruit.  Some people have diarrhea for extended periods of time; others produce too much sperm and are unable to control its outward flow from body; still others urinate too frequently at night, and can’t sleep well because of this.  For these conditions, Gorgon fruit is the perfect remedy. Gorgon fruit also has other benefits, such as stopping pain in the knee and back, enhancing vision and hearing, and when eaten long term it has the ability to promote longevity.  Although it’s a quite common food, its benefits are unusual and highly sought after.   This fruit not only has the ability to stop excess production of sperm, but also helps in increasing sperm production if needed—in general, it can regulate sperm production.  Additionally, it cures inflammation from excess dampness in the stomach and spleen and replenishes the kidneys. 

                Chinese yam, seed of Job’s tears, and Gorgon fruit complement each other perfectly, all three having miraculous effects on the stomach and spleen. However, they all have different specialties.  Chinese yam, for instance, strengthens five organs: the stomach, spleen, kidney, lung, and the liver.  The seed of Job’s tears can clear the lungs, clear excess water from the lungs, help the stomach, and expel dampness. Gorgon fruit, on the other hand, besides strengthening the stomach and spleen, can also stop diarrhea and stop excess sperm production.  Many people grind the three medicines into powder (if you’re using dry ingredients) and then add water to make it into porridge, adding jujubes (red dates) to the mix.  This can help cure blood deficiency, which is benefiting to problems such as anemia. 

                Although these medicines have many benefits, like all other medicines it is not suitable for everyone.  If you have excess heat or inflammation in the liver, stagnant or slow moving blood flow, low amounts of saliva, these three ingredients aren’t recommended for you. Also, if you feel that you don’t urinate very often, if you get easily out of breath in the cold, or are easily prone to constipation when the weather is hot, then the medicine isn’t good for you either.  When you want to put clean water into a fountain, first you must get rid of the dirty, stagnant water.  Likewise, if you want to receive the benefits of this medicine, first you must rid your body of these problems and conditions.  Otherwise, the blood deficiency will not be cured easily.  More will come in later blogs for ways to treat these problems.