🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Dampness obstruction refers to dampness pathogen blocking the middle jiao, impairing the transformation and transportation functions, primarily presenting with epigastric fullness, heavy limbs, and poor appetite. This condition commonly occurs during summer rainy seasons, especially in southern China, coastal areas, and other humid climates, affecting people’s work and lives to varying degrees. Laboratory tests in such patients often show no abnormalities, and modern medicine categorizes them under gastrointestinal dysfunction. TCM considers dampness obstruction as caused by dampness pathogen, located in the spleen and stomach, with the main pathogenesis being dampness obstructing the middle jiao and disrupted ascending-descending functions. Based on clinical manifestations and pathogenesis, TCM generally classifies dampness obstruction into the following types for differential treatment.
Dampness Impeding the Spleen and Stomach Type: Symptoms include heavy and weak limbs, head feeling wrapped, chest tightness and epigastric distension, poor appetite, sticky tasteless mouth, loose stools, possibly with chills, pale tongue, white greasy coating, and soft, slippery pulse. Treatment: aromatic to transform dampness. Formula: Huoxiang Zhengqi San with modifications. Ingredients: Huoxiang, Purple Perilla, Tangerine Peel, White Atractylodes, Magnolia Bark, Pinellia, White Atractylodes, Large Belly Peel, Poria, Jianqu, Licorice.
Dampness-Heat Blocking the Middle Jiao Type: Symptoms include heavy limbs, epigastric fullness and dull pain, bitter and sticky mouth, thirst without desire to drink, poor appetite, yellow and scanty urine, unsatisfactory bowel movements, possible fever, sweating without fever reduction, red tongue, yellow greasy coating, and soft, rapid pulse. Treatment: clear heat and resolve dampness. Formula: Wang’s Lianpu Drink with modifications. Ingredients: Coptis, Gardenia, Pinellia, Magnolia Bark, Stonecrop, Reed Rhizome, Talc, Fresh Lotus Leaf, Job’s Tears, Tangerine Peel, Jianqu, Licorice.
Spleen Deficiency with Dampness Stagnation Type: Symptoms include fatigue in limbs, epigastric fullness and discomfort, preference for pressure, loose stools, fatigue, aversion to greasy food, pale tongue, thin greasy coating, or pale, swollen tongue, and soft, slow pulse. Treatment: strengthen the spleen and resolve dampness. Formula: Xiangsha Liujunzi Tang with modifications. Ingredients: Codonopsis, White Atractylodes, Poria, Pinellia, Tangerine Peel, Sandalwood, Amomum Seed, Kudzu Root, Agastache, Job’s Tears, White Bean, Jianqu, Licorice.