Liuwei Dihuang Pill consists of Radix Rehmanniae Preparata, Cornus officinalis, Rhizoma Dioscoreae, Alismatis Rhizoma, Cortex Moutan and Poria. The earliest is "Bawei Dihuang Pill", which is found in Zhang Zhongjing's synopsis of the golden chamber. Later, Qian Yi, a famous doctor and pediatrician in the Song Dynasty, removed the warm tonics of Fuzi and Guizhi from Bawei Dihuang Pill, and changed it into Liuwei Dihuang Pill, which was used to treat children's congenital deficiency, developmental retardation and other diseases.
Later, in the Ming Dynasty, a school of Chinese medicine praised the function of kidney and thought that kidney was the "innate foundation" of human beings. For a time, many famous doctors advocated tonifying kidney. For example, Xue Ji, a famous doctor in Ming Dynasty, is best at tonifying kidney. He advocated using Liuwei Dihuang Pill for kidney yin deficiency and Bawei Dihuang Pill for kidney yang deficiency. Yukime's practice has been recognized by many physicians in later generations, and their views on tonifying kidney have a great influence on later generations.
Suitable for kidney yin deficiency
It can be seen from the viewpoints of doctors in past dynasties that Liuwei Dihuang Pill mainly nourishes kidney yin; In addition, from the composition of the prescription, it can achieve the effect of tonifying three yin (kidney yin, liver yin and spleen yin), for example, Radix Rehmanniae Preparata can tonify kidney yin; Cornus officinalis is a tonic for both liver and kidney, and the purpose of tonifying kidney is achieved by nourishing liver; Yam can tonify the spleen and kidney, and tonify the day after tomorrow by strengthening the spleen. It can be seen that Liuwei Dihuang Pill is only suitable for yin deficiency, not for yang deficiency.
How to judge whether it is yin deficiency or yang deficiency? Besides nocturnal emission, wet dream and premature ejaculation, the typical symptoms of kidney yin deficiency include hot flashes, night sweats, vexation of hands and feet, dry mouth and throat. The typical symptoms of kidney-yang deficiency are weakness of waist and knees, fatigue intolerance, frequent fatigue, cold limbs, aversion to heat and cold. Some people with kidney yang deficiency may also have erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, nocturnal emission and other sexual problems.
So, is there more kidney-yang deficiency or kidney-yin deficiency in middle-aged people at present? For normal people, it is meaningless to make such a distinction. Yin deficiency and Yang deficiency refer to the symptoms after kidney deficiency develops to a certain degree. Most people may only be in a state of mild deficiency of kidney qi, far from the degree of kidney yin deficiency or kidney yang deficiency.