Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula for Red Eye Disease
In traditional Chinese medicine, red eye disease is called "Heavenly Spread Scarlet Eyes." Treatment involves clearing heat and detoxifying, dispelling wind and relieving itching, along with folk methods such as fumigation and washing, which are also highly effective.
Prevention measures:
1. During outbreaks of red eye disease, prepare a large pot of decoction using Isatis root, wild chrysanthemum, prunella, honeysuckle, great burdock seed, coptis, gardenia, and licorice for preventive use.
2. For mild cases, caused by wind-heat attacking upward: symptoms include red eyes, itching and pain, photophobia, tearing, sensitivity to heat, dryness in eyes with foreign body sensation, and yellowish-white sticky secretions. Treatment should focus on dispersing wind and clearing heat, supplemented by detoxification.
Formula: 15 grams each of honeysuckle, forsythia, wild chrysanthemum, and prunella; 9 grams each of bamboo leaf, mint, platycodon, and great burdock seed; 18 grams of reed rhizome; 3 grams of licorice. Decoct in water and divide into three doses.
3. For severe cases, due to intense fire-toxin: one or both eyes appear completely red, possibly with small hemorrhagic spots, obvious eyelid swelling, eye pain and headache, abundant thick secretions, or clear blood-tinged discharge, burning sensation in eyes, photophobia. Treatment should aim at clearing fire and detoxifying.
Formula: 15 grams each of bupleurum, Isatis root, and wild chrysanthemum; 9 grams each of Coptis, coptis, tangerine peel, great burdock seed, mint, silkworm pupa, angelica root, and rhubarb; 12 grams of scrophularia; 3 grams of licorice. Decoct in water and divide into three doses; several doses can cure.
4. 15 grams of Equisetum herb (also known as pen shell grass or pen tube grass), 250 grams of bitter melon (125 grams if dried), decocted into tea (suitable dosage for middle-aged and elderly). First wash fresh bitter melon, halve it, remove the pulp, cut into small pieces. Cut Equisetum herb into 3–5 cm segments. Place both ingredients in a clay pot, add four bowls of water, simmer gently until reduced to two bowls. Filter out residue and consume. Take once in the morning and once in the evening. One course lasts three days and can cure the condition.
5. 60 grams each of mulberry leaf (or chrysanthemum), dandelion, decocted in water for drinking as tea. Can also be cooled and used to wash eyes. This remedy typically cures within about seven days.
Red Eye Disease