Gui Pi Tang - a classical formula

Many of the people I see in my clinical work have some variety of digestive distress and/or sleep challenges going on, with different levels of intensity. Chinese medicine takes digestive health and sleep hygiene very seriously, and almost all of the time, restoring digestive function while regularizing sleep is central to the health protocols I work with clients on.

In previous weeks, I wrote in more detail about the role of the Spleen and Stomach in digestive health, the connections between mental health and digestion, and the way that chronic worry can impair digestion. I write about these topics so often because the importance of digestive health really can’t be overstated. Similarly, it is very hard to heal any part of oneself without adequate sleep. The truth is that any healing journey is bound to be much more difficult if the foundational aspects of health that come from good digestion and sleep are not in place. Most of the time, that’s where I begin when a new client and I start working together.

Lately, the presentation of patterns I see in clients has led me to recommend a classical formula called Gui Pi Tang, also known as Restore the Spleen Decoction or Ginseng and Longan Combination. The formula dates back to the year 1529 CE. I love this formula for its carefully selected combination of herbs and its indication for so many of the health issues that arise today in modern life. I also really like that this formula can be easily modified in granule form to become even more nuanced for the client’s individual presentation if needed.

Gui Pi Tang contains 12 different herbs, combined with carefully selected ratios to tonify Qi, Blood, Heart, and Spleen. Let’s explore some of these deficiencies a little bit so we can start to understand why we may want an herbal formula to help us support ourselves as we move toward restoring our health.

These descriptions are not comprehensive but are described here to share the general sense of these pattern presentations.

  • When Qi is deficient, we often feel tired, weak, sluggish, and listless. Our limbs may feel numb and weak, we may feel dizzy often and experience palpitations, abnormal periods, and spontaneous sweats during the day. Digestively, weak Qi can lead to loose stools.

  • When we are Blood deficient, it is common to experience insomnia and anxiety. It might be hard to remember things, and we may notice dryness in our hair, skin, and nails. Blood deficiency may also present with numbness and tingling in the limbs, as well as excessive dreams or sleep that is disturbed by dreams. Menstrual irregularities can also be linked to Blood deficiency.

These patterns can all present together in one person at any given time. As a reminder, Chinese medicine works with patterns, rather than diagnoses. “Blood Deficiency” is a pattern. So, for example, instead of finding a formula that treats fatigue, we look at the details of the individual’s presentation in order to better understand what underlies that fatigue and how different organ systems might be involved. Then, different herbs are combined in formulation to support the underlying causes, rather than only treating the fatigue. A Chinese medicine practitioner may observe your pulse, tongue, nails, skin, general demeanor, and symptoms in order to reach an assessment of the patterns you present.

When I first started learning about Chinese herbal medicine, I was just astonished by the elegance and efficacy of the formula designs, which are hundreds - and in some cases, thousands - of years old. Great masters of different lineages dedicated countless hours across lifetimes to understand how these herbs could be combined in order to yield synergistic effects, such that the abilities of the herbs are potentiated or balanced out when they are used together. To me, this is part of nature’s brilliance. Plants can be put together to create blends where the whole is so much greater than the sum of each part and we can use these blends as herbal medicine.

I hope this gives you some more insight into how Chinese herbal formulas can have a wide variety of supportive actions.

Warmly,

Artemisia

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