Reply To: Herbal Bootcamp
Good morning, Florence!
What a wonderful line of thinking! Let’s take a look here, starting with the pathogenic factor. In The Foundations of Chinese Medicine by Giovanni Maciocia, he states on page 724: “Pathogenic factors include external and internal agents of disease. External pathogenic factors are climatic and they include Wind, Cold, Dampness, Dryness, Heat and Fire. Internal pathogenic factors are themselves the results of a disharmony: they then become pathogenic factors. Examples of internal pathogenic factors are Qi stagnation, Blood stasis, and Phlegm. In addition, the external climatic pathogenic factors can become internal so that there is corresponding internal pathogenic factor for each external one: for example there is external and internal Dampness.” I also like this quote from The Origin and Development of Medicine: Various Pathogens of Same Disease, “What people suffer from is called disease, and what causes disease are called pathogens.” These pathogenic factors are Excess, but remember that they may have an underlying Deficiency such as Qi Deficiency not pushing the Blood resulting in Blood Stasis. We are talking about Xie Qi which is an internally generated or externally contracted pathogenic factor.
In regards to the astringent herbs, I have checked several sources to find anything that specifically mentions Qi Stagnation, but did not find anything. The Chen&Chen says “As astringent herbs function to bind and restrain, the use of such herbs will keep any pathogenic factors within the body. Therefore, astringent herbs should not be used in conditions characterized by the presence of pathogenic factors inside the body, such as perspiration due to febrile disorders, food stagnation with diarrhea, profuse menstrual bleeding due to heat in the blood, or frequent urination due to heat in the lower jiao.” And the Bensky says, “Because it is the nature of these herbs to retain and bind, the are inappropriate for treating cases where an exterior disorder has not fully resolved, or where there is internal stagnation or dampness, or heat from constraint. The use of these herbs in such situations may prolong, and possibly aggravate, the underlying disorder.” And another book called Chinese Herbal Medicines – Comparisons and Characteristics by Yifan Yang says, “In clinical practice, the astringent herbs should be used with caution… astringent herbs should by used only in Deficiency syndromes. They are prohibited for use in Excess syndromes or syndromes in which Deficiency and Excess coexist – for instance, where there is Dampness, Phlegm and Heat. This is because these herbs are able to stabilize the Essence and Body Fluids, so they can also retain pathogenic factors within the body. There are many factors that can cause abnormal discharge of the Body Fluids and Essence, therefore correct differentiation of the syndrome is required. The astringent herbs are prohibited for use in the following syndromes: diarrhea caused by Damp-Heat in the Intestines, excessive urination or spermatorrhea caused by Damp-Heat in the Lower Jiao, shortness of breath due to accumulation of Phlegm, or excessive sweating due to Excessive- or Deficiency-Heat in the body.” In all of these examples, the abnormal loss of Qi, Body Fluids, Blood, or Essence is due to a pathogenic factor which should be cleared from the body, such as Heat or Damp-Heat, and the use of astringent herbs would retain the pathogen within the body which would worsen the condition. Qi Stagnation should be moved and soothed to resolve it – it doesn’t need to be cleared from the body the same way that Heat, Damp-Heat, or Food Stagnation should be. As well the Qi Stagnation is not the cause of the pathological leakage of vital substances in the same way that those other Excess conditions are. But Qi Stagnation can start to lead to other pathological changes such as generating Heat, Dampness, Damp-Heat, Blood Stasis, and because of this you may want to focus on resolving the Qi Stagnation prior to using astringent herbs. An example of this could be Wu Mei – the Bensky says that it is “Contraindicated in cases of internal heat from excess and stagnation, or unresolved exterior disorders.” I hope this helps, Florence!
Have a beautiful day!
Kylie