🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Intestinal infections result from bacterial, viral, or protozoal pathogens causing infectious diarrhea. In addition to antibiotics, combining TCM enema therapy significantly improves symptoms and shortens treatment duration, yielding satisfactory results. Infectious diarrhea falls under categories such as diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, and abdominal pain in TCM. TCM differentiates between exterior and interior causes, deficiency and excess, cold and heat patterns. This discussion focuses solely on the integrated treatment of wet-heat type intestinal infection.
1. Treatment Methods
1.1 TCM Treatment
Main Symptoms: diarrhea with loose or pus-blood stools, urgent bowel movements or unsatisfactory defecation, anal burning sensation, abdominal pain, tenesmus, irritability, thirst, short red urine, red tongue with yellow greasy coating, rapid or slippery pulse. Treatment Principle: Clear heat, resolve dampness, detoxify, move Qi, broaden the middle, and relieve pain. Formula: Bai Tou Weng Tang with modifications: White-headed Old Man 15g, Coptis 10g, Phellodendron 10g, Cortex Fraxini 10g, Kudzu Root 10g, Angelica Sinensis 10g, White Peony Root 10g, Sandalwood 10g, Areca Seed 10g, Atractylodes 10g, Magnolia Bark 10g, Raw Licorice 10g. White-headed Old Man clears heat in the qi level and cools blood to detoxify; Kudzu Root releases muscle tension, clears heat, raises yang, and stops diarrhea; Cortex Fraxini clears liver heat and stops heat-induced dysentery; Coptis and Phellodendron clear heat and resolve dampness, consolidate yin, and stop diarrhea; Angelica Sinensis, White Peony Root, and Licorice promote blood circulation, nourish the nutritive essence, and relieve spasms and pain; Sandalwood and Areca Seed move Qi and guide stagnation; Atractylodes and Magnolia Bark dry dampness and broaden the middle. Add honeysuckle and Scutellaria if heat is prominent; add Poria, Alisma, Plantain Seed, and Eucommia if dampness is dominant; add Hawthorn and Shenqu if food stagnation is present; add Astragalus, Codonopsis, and Donkey-hide Gelatin if deficiency is evident. Administration: One dose boiled twice; 100–150ml each time, taken twice daily via retention enema. Remove needle from IV tubing, insert into anus, drip slowly at 30 drops per minute, retaining as long as possible for better effect. Enema solution must be filtered through gauze to prevent clogging.
1.2 Western Medicine Treatment
(1) Infection Control: Select appropriate antibiotics based on causative pathogens. Common choices include ampicillin, co-trimoxazole, and nalidixic acid. Fluid Replacement: Mild dehydration managed orally with oral rehydration salts; severe dehydration treated with intravenous fluids. Shock Management: Correct microcirculatory disorders and acidosis using vasodilators and alkaline agents. Supportive Symptomatic Treatment: Use antidiarrheals if diarrhea is frequent. For complications such as heart failure, cerebral edema, shock lung, or disseminated intravascular coagulation, early symptomatic treatment is essential.
2. Experience
Wet-heat type intestinal infection is the most common form of intestinal infection. It frequently occurs in late summer and early autumn. External exposure to damp-heat epidemic toxins invades the intestines and stomach, stagnating in the middle burner. Damp-heat steams and agitates, causing obstruction of qi and blood, which combine with damp-heat toxins to form pus and blood. Impaired transmission and transformation lead to diarrhea. Heat in the intestines causes urgent defecation; damp-heat intermingling results in unsatisfactory bowel movements; damp-heat descending causes anal burning. Internal damp-heat leads to irritability and thirst, short red urine. Red tongue with yellow greasy coating and slippery rapid pulse all indicate damp-heat. This condition typically appears in acute phases.
During active phase or peak severity, high fever persists and symptoms progressively worsen. Monotherapy with antibiotics yields limited results. If TCM differentiation confirms wet-heat type intestinal infection, TCM retention enema therapy can achieve excellent outcomes.
Bai Tou Weng, Coptis, and Phellodendron have broad-spectrum antibacterial effects according to modern pharmacological studies. They inhibit pathogens including Shigella, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Paratyphi, Vibrio cholerae, and Entamoeba histolytica trophozoites. Bai Tou Weng has astringent effects on intestinal mucosa, thus helping stop diarrhea and bleeding. Combined with other herbs, it significantly improves symptoms. When combined with Western medicine, it enhances antibacterial effects and aids symptom relief. The purposes of TCM retention enema are twofold: first, direct delivery of medication to the site of infection to inhibit intestinal bacterial growth; second, clearing bacteria and their metabolic products and harmful substances from the intestine, reducing intestinal mucosal damage, restoring colonic function, and maintaining a normal internal environment. TCM retention enema has a wide range of applications but strict contraindications exist: severe hemorrhoids, extreme exhaustion, serious cardiac disease, or intestinal bleeding patients should avoid it. Patients with intestinal obstruction due to colon or rectal cancer should only use it under close physician supervision.