A few days ago, an aunt came to see me. She looks like she is in her sixties. She said that she always cramped her right leg on time when she was sleeping at night, so she learned a method from her relatives at home. She can drink shisong soup for a while, but the effect is not very good. She also has cramps at night, which greatly affects her sleep quality. So I asked her to stick out her tongue and have a look. After careful observation, I found that her tongue was a little red and her pulse was a little thin, so I gave her a small prescription that could nourish blood, knead tendons and relieve pain. The prescription comes from Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise on Febrile Diseases, and there are only two simple medicinal materials, Paeonia lactiflora and Radix Glycyrrhizae Preparata.

We can see that the aunt's tongue is red with little moss and her pulse is still counting slightly. Most of this can be regarded as due to the deficiency of liver yin and blood. Why do you say that?

Chinese medicine believes that our liver stores blood, which can control the fascia of the whole body and bind tendons in the body. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is called meridians, and the liver stores blood, and nourishing liver blood can soften tendons. If the liver is full of qi and blood, the fascia of the whole body will be nourished and the tendons and veins will be strong and elastic. However, if the liver and blood are deficient, there will be a phenomenon that blood does not respect tendons, just like the lack of portal vein axis.

Radix Paeoniae Alba in the prescription is a good medicine for nourishing blood, astringing yin, calming the liver, softening the liver and relieving pain. Its taste is bitter, sour and cold. Entering the liver and spleen meridian can nourish blood, soften the liver, relieve pain, astringe yin and stop sweating, and has a good improvement effect on people with hand and foot colic, spontaneous sweating, night sweats and fever due to liver and blood deficiency.

Licorice can play a role in tonifying the middle energizer. Licorice is sweet, and peony is sour and sweet, which can eliminate yin, so it can nourish yin and blood, relax tendons and activate collaterals. The combination of the two drugs can improve the pain and spasm caused by deficiency of liver yin and liver blood deficiency, which leads to blood failing to nourish tendons.

The above two drugs can usually be combined with Radix Paeoniae Rubra, Fructus Chaenomelis, Radix Achyranthis Bidentatae, Cortex Moutan and Semen Persicae, which can not only nourish the liver and nourish blood, relieve pain, but also promote blood circulation, cool blood, relax tendons and activate collaterals, and promote blood circulation and dredge menstruation. This is a simple and effective method. If you have such people around you, you can collect them and seek TCM syndrome differentiation.