Drink this bowl of "bitter water" and your anger will subside

I hate Mondays the most in life. I have outpatient clinics for half the morning, meetings for half the afternoon, and social events at noon. I don’t like this day at all. No matter whether you like it or not, you still have to live your life, and you have to live it one day at a time. I saw nearly a hundred patients this morning and I was so tired that I almost vomited blood. Excluding patients with skin diseases and sexually transmitted diseases, I saw several internal medicine patients. I don’t know why, but these people all said that they had excessive liver fire and needed to be regulated. I said okay, depending on how severe your liver fire is, I will help you regulate it.

Liver fire is a very traditional Chinese medicine term, but it is often used by modern people. The textbook says this about liver fire. Liver fire syndrome is a broad concept. It includes two categories: external fire and internal fire. Internal heat refers to a series of pathological reactions caused by dysfunction of qi, blood, body fluids and internal organs in the human body. Because it has pathological characteristics such as burning flames, rising and rushing, consuming yin fluid, causing substance corruption, generating wind and moving blood, and burning body fluid into phlegm, common clinical symptoms include red face and eyes, swelling and pain, headache, irritability, insomnia, dry mouth and preference for cold drinks, yellow urine and constipation, or bleeding, sudden deafness, red tongue, yellow tongue coating, rapid pulse, etc. These manifestations all have the characteristics of fire such as "heat", "red", "dryness" and "urgency", so they are called fire syndrome by analogy. The liver is a hard organ, with fire stored inside it. It is yin in nature but uses yang. Its nature likes to be smooth and it is active and ascending. Therefore, endogenous pathological fire has a very close relationship with the liver. Therefore, any condition in which the liver's fire (yang energy) is too strong or excessive, and causes heat symptoms and counter-current phenomena, is generally called liver fire.

Modern people generally consider a quick temper to be an important symptom of excessive liver fire. In fact, I have seen so many patients, and few of them suffer from excessive liver fire. Most of them have personality problems. Especially among city girls, few of them have hot tempers, but there are indeed many who have quick tempers and bad personalities. Obviously, Chinese medicine for treating liver fire has no effect on this type of patients. For this type of patients, I often suggest that they go to the countryside, to some places with poor living conditions, and slowly calm themselves down.

There is a prescription in traditional Chinese medicine that is used to treat excessive liver fire, and it is called Longdan Xiegan Pills. The name of the prescription contains the words "Xie Gan", which means it is used to relieve liver fire. The first two words in the prescription, "Gentian", refer to today's protagonist, Gentiana scabra, a good medicine for relieving liver fire, and also one of the bitterest medicines in traditional Chinese medicine. Longdan Xiegan Pills are mainly used to treat diseases caused by liver and gallbladder fire inflammation, and liver and gallbladder damp heat. The treatment is mainly focused on clearing away the excess fire in the liver and gallbladder, and clearing away the dampness and heat in the liver meridian. The clinical manifestations are headache and red eyes; the gallbladder meridian runs in front of the ear and exits the ear, so deafness and ear swelling occur. The gentian in the formula is very bitter and cold, which can not only clear away the excess fire in the liver and gallbladder, but also clear away the damp heat in the liver meridian, so it is the main medicine.

Longdan Xiegan Pills were very famous for a period of time, and many people regarded them as a must-have medicine. Take Longdan Xiegan Pills for weight loss, take Longdan Xiegan Pills for deafness, take Longdan Xiegan Pills for excessive leucorrhea, take Longdan Xiegan Pills for red and swollen eyes. Until one day, people discovered that these people developed kidney failure after taking Longdan Xiegan Pills, and everyone was shocked. At that time, I was a nephrologist and had seen many such patients. But the main cause of renal failure in these patients is not gentian, but Aristolochia strychnifolia.

Gentiana enters the liver and gallbladder meridians. It is specially used to clear away heat and dampness, and relieve liver and gallbladder fire. It is often used for damp-heat jaundice, swelling and itching of the vagina, leucorrhea, strong middle-Jia, itching of eczema, red eyes, deafness, pain in the ribs, daytime bitterness, and convulsions. It is easy to understand that Gentiana is specifically designed to purge the liver, so it is one of the best liver-purging medicines. Some patients have some knowledge of Chinese medicine and ask if they can drink gentian soaked in water to reduce liver fire. I told you not to do that. Gentiana is very bitter and you won’t be able to drink it. Anyone who knows something about medicine knows that gentian is the bitterest ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. The bitterness can go straight into your heart and lungs, leaving you with an unforgettable memory for a lifetime.

Through this article, you will know one thing: Gentiana is a good medicine for relieving liver fire, and it is also the bitterest medicine in traditional Chinese medicine.