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Herbs that warm the interior and expel cold are pungent and hot.
They warm the spleen and stomach, expel cold and stop pain in interior
cold syndromes. The interior cold
syndromes can be caused either by invasion of exogenous pathogenic cold leading
to deficiency of Yang Qi in the spleen and stomach, or by weakness
of Yang Qi giving rise to excessive Yin and cold in the
interior.
Manifestations
of interior cold syndromes include: cold pain in the epigastric and abdominal
regions, vomiting and diarrhea; or cold extremities, pale, profuse and clear
urine, pale tongue with white coating and deep and thready pulse. In
serious cases, there is collapse of yang with ice-cold extremities and weak-thready pulse.
Herbs
that warm the interior are used in combination with herbs that release the
exterior when an exterior syndrome accompanies the interior cold syndrome.
Herbs that promote Qi circulation are used with herbs that warm the interior for
interior cold and stagnation syndrome. Herbs that strengthen the spleen in
the transformation of dampness are combined with herbs of this category for
interior cold and dampness syndromes. Herbs that tonify the spleen and
kidneys are added to the combination for deficiency of the spleen and kidneys.
Herbs that tonify the source Qi are used with these herbs for collapsing yang
and Qi.
These
herbs are contraindicated during heat syndromes, yin deficiency with heat signs
and during pregnancy.
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