Liuwei Dihuang Pill is composed of Radix Rehmanniae Preparata, Cornus officinalis, Rhizoma Dioscoreae, Alismatis Rhizoma, Cortex Moutan and Poria. The earliest is "Eight Flavor Dihuang Pills", which is found in Zhang Zhongjing's synopsis of the golden chamber. Later, Qian Yi, a famous doctor and pediatrician in Song Dynasty, removed aconite and cassia twig, which are warming drugs in Bawei Dihuang Pill, and turned it into Liuwei Dihuang Pill now, and used it to treat children's congenital deficiency, developmental retardation and other diseases.
Later, there was a school of Chinese medicine in the Ming Dynasty who highly praised the role of kidney, believing 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 the Ming Dynasty, was the best at tonifying kidney. He advocated that Liuwei Dihuang Pill should be used for kidney yin deficiency and Bawei Dihuang Pill for kidney yang deficiency. Xue Ji's practice has been recognized by many later doctors, and their viewpoint of tonifying kidney has a great influence on later generations.
Suitable for kidney yin deficiency
It can be seen from the opinions of historical doctors 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 (tonifying kidney yin, liver yin and spleen yin), for example, Radix Rehmanniae Preparata can tonify kidney yin; Cornus officinalis, on the other hand, supplements both liver and kidney, and achieves the purpose of tonifying kidney by supplementing liver; Yam can invigorate the spleen and kidney, and replenish the day after tomorrow by invigorating the spleen. It can be seen that Liuwei Dihuang Pill is only suitable for yin deficiency, but not for yang deficiency.
How to judge whether it is yin deficiency or yang deficiency? The typical symptoms of kidney yin deficiency are hot flashes, night sweats, upset palms and feet, dry mouth and throat, in addition to nocturnal emission, wet dream and premature ejaculation. The typical symptoms of kidney-yang deficiency are weakness of waist and knees, fatigue intolerance, frequent fatigue, cold limbs, and aversion to heat and cold. Some people with insufficient kidney yang may also have sexual problems such as erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and spermatorrhea.
So, is there more kidney-yang deficiency or kidney-yin deficiency in middle-aged people at present? For the normal population, it is meaningless to make such a distinction. Yin deficiency and Yang deficiency refer to the symptoms after kidney deficiency develops to a certain extent. Most people may only be in a state of slight deficiency of kidney qi, far from the degree of kidney yin deficiency or kidney yang deficiency.