🌿 Folk Prescriptions

After the beginning of autumn, weather gradually cools, rainfall decreases, and climate becomes dry. Air relative humidity drops below 60% (people’s ideal humidity is around 70%), thus easily injuring body fluids, leading to a series of "dehydration symptoms." These include dry mouth and throat, dry nasal cavity, cracked lips, dry cough with little phlegm, dry skin, thirst, and constipation. Traditional Chinese medicine calls this "autumn dryness." Autumn dryness is a common seasonal illness, involving conditions such as upper respiratory tract infections and bronchitis in Western medicine. TCM believes it is mainly caused by dry climate or excessive consumption of pungent, dry foods in autumn. Since lung belongs to the element of dryness in the five elements, dryness-related diseases primarily affect the lung.
The ancient formula Qing Zao Jiu Fei Tang is a famous remedy for dryness, composed of gypsum 15g, licorice 3g, frost-salted mulberry leaf 10g, ginseng 6g, apricot kernel 10g, sesame seed 6g, donkey-hide gelatin 10g, ophiopogon 12g, loquat leaf 10g. Boil in water and take warm, twice daily. For clinical use, add ingredients as needed: if dry heat damages the lung and produces much phlegm, add fritillary bulb and trichosanthes; if yin deficiency with blood heat, red and dry tongue, add raw rehmannia to nourish yin and cool blood; if heat is severe with restlessness or delirium and convulsions, add rhino horn, antelope horn, or buffalo horn to clear heart fire, cool liver, and extinguish wind. Anyone whose main symptoms are cough, wheezing, sticky phlegm, dry mouth and throat, regardless of whether it is pneumonia, tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, or lung cancer, can benefit from this formula, with remarkable results.
Bai He Gu Jin Tang combined with yam paste is highly effective for autumn dryness, embodying the principle of balancing metal and water. Use Bai He Gu Jin Tang (raw rehmannia 12g, cooked rehmannia 12g, ophiopogon 15g, lily, stir-fried white peony, angelica, fritillary bulb, raw licorice each 6g, scrophularia, platycodon each 10g), adjust as needed. Simmer with water over low heat, one dose nightly. Combine with yam paste (fresh yam 250g boiled until soft, mashed into paste, mixed with sugar and a little sweet osmanthus) taken in the afternoon, once daily, five days constitute one course. Lily and ophiopogon in Bai He Gu Jin Tang moisten lungs and generate fluids; scrophularia and two rehmannias nourish yin and clear heat; angelica and white peony nourish blood and soften tissues; platycodon and fritillary bulb clear lungs and resolve phlegm. The whole formula nourishes yin and moistens lungs. Yam strengthens lung qi and nourishes lung yin. As recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica, yam “tonifies kidney qi, strengthens the spleen, transforms phlegm, and moisturizes skin and hair.” Modern studies confirm yam contains mucilage, choline, arginine, amylase, and other nutrients, suitable for health preservation.
Additionally, during autumn, drink more water, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and avoid spicy, fried foods. Besides medication, dietary adjustments at home are highly effective, often achieving cure without formal treatment.
1. Choose Anti-Dryness Foods
Autumn offers a wide variety of fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits. However, one should select foods that protect yin, nourish the kidneys, and moisten the lungs. Fish and meat options include loach, crucian carp, and white duck meat. Vegetables and fruits include peanuts, yam, white fungus, oranges, ginkgo nuts, pears, red dates, lotus seeds, grapes, sugarcane, and other moistening items. If skin dryness, cracking, or cheilitis occurs, drink more water, diluted tea, soy milk, milk, honey, etc.; if autumn dryness causes lung deficiency, use lily, coix seed, yam, honey, etc., to supplement lung qi; if yin deficiency signs appear, use walnut meat, lotus seeds, snow pear, lotus root juice, milk, sesame seeds, sea cucumber, pork skin, chicken, etc., to nourish stomach yin, liver, and kidney respectively.
2. Use Correct Dietary Therapy
Use 10g silver ear fungus soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, add rock sugar and water, boil until soft and tender—this rock sugar silver ear soup has functions of moistening lungs, generating fluids, nourishing stomach, and calming the mind. Use 10 red dates, 1 pear, and appropriate rock sugar, simmer on fire until cooked—red date stewed pear has effects of moistening lungs, strengthening spleen, nourishing yin, and relieving dryness. Use 30g lily soaked in water, 100g rice, and appropriate rock sugar, add water and cook into porridge—daily morning and evening consumption provides benefits of nourishing yin, relieving dryness, clearing heart, and calming the spirit. Mix one spoonful of treacle into a bowl, pour boiling thick soy milk over it, stir well and drink daily—this treacle soy milk helps broaden the chest, boost qi, clear heat, disperse blood, and moisten lungs to stop cough. Lily pear soup: 1 pear, 10g lily, 10g ophiopogon, 5 pieces of big sea bean. Wash and cut the pear, combine with lily, ophiopogon, and big sea bean, boil together. When the pear is about 80% cooked, add rock sugar, eat the pear and drink the soup. It nourishes yin, clears heat, relieves sore throat, and generates fluids. Honey radish juice: wash and chop radish, extract juice with gauze. Take 30ml each time, mix with 20mg honey, dilute with warm water, take three times daily. It aids digestion, moves qi, resolves phlegm, stops cough, and clears heat and detoxifies. Bamboo leaf gypsum porridge: 15g fresh bamboo leaves, 40g raw gypsum, 20g ophiopogon, 100g rice, appropriate rock sugar. First boil bamboo leaves, gypsum, and ophiopogon, collect 150ml decoction, add rice and water to cook into porridge, add rock sugar when serving. It clears heat, nourishes yin, generates body fluids, and relieves dry mouth and throat.