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Chinese Medicine for Vomiting

By Fornia • Sep 22nd, 2009 • Category: Digestion & Elimination
As with most other diseases, TCM makes diagnosis as to whether the patient is in a state of excess or deficiency. For various reasons (to be outlined soon), the stomach’s internal harmony and down-bearing functions have gone awry, causing qi to push upward instead (胃失和降，气逆而上).
 
Excess:
  1. It could be food getting jammed down there, hence baohewan is theoretically appropriate. But realistically, the food would by then be expulsed from the stomach, and the stomach would be better off resting then working further with digestives. They say this is due to food obstruction (食积).
  2. Emesis could have been a response to a viral intrusion of the gastrointestinal lining. In this case, one of those vacuum-packed concentrates of houxiang zhenqi san may come in handy. They say this is due to cold-damp (寒湿).
  3. If this is due to an over active sympathetic nervous system, the the Chinese Liver is to blame. Siqi tang (四七汤) is appropriate. Siqi tang is like banxia houpu tang (半夏厚朴汤), except that the jujubes (大枣) are also present.
  4. The most symptomatic treatment would be the usage of xiao banxia tang (小半夏汤), which uses a combination of ginger and pinella to stop emesis in its tracks. This method is termed as treating excess phlegm (实痰) but in reality, it’s actually treating the symptoms. The earlier three are treating the root, as if to prevent such vomiting incidents from HAPPENING AGAIN in the further, whether it’s due to lousy digestion, a viral infection or an extra sensitive nervous system. Note too that an oversensitive nervous system is a constitutional problem, that said, within the TCM framework, the real constitutional problem has always to do with a deficient Spleen – its is Spleen deficiency that allows a situation of Liver excess.
Deficiency: Deficiency can be due to various reasons, but it’s usually a deficient Spleen that’s causing phlegm to accumulate. Three of the cases below talk about a malfunctioning Spleen which allows phlegm to fester. Only the last case is about a ‘dehydrated stomach’ that may cause dry vomiting etc.
  1. Linggui zhugan tang is uses to treat deficient phelgm – which lengthens to translate as deficient Spleen causing phlegm accumulation.
  2. Xiangsha liujunzi tang builds the Spleen, moves qi and also gets rid of phlegm – i think of this phlegm as deficient.
  3. Lizhong wan is suitable when the Kidney yang is also weak.
  4. Only use maimendong tang if the patient shows signs of yin-deficiency. In such cases, the other three may not be too appropriate too. Maimendong tang has two main herbs that stand atop a base that protects the Spleen from further harm. These two herbs are maidong (麦冬) to boost yin fluids and banxia (半夏) to treat an inclination to vomit. Remember that the quantity of maidong has to be many times more than that of banxia. see this article on maimendong’s use in formulas:  http://www.needleplant.com/469/two-formulas-with-ophiopogon/

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