Aidus & E-Fong Herbal Solution
Herbal Formula for Eliminating Dampness and Diuretic
                                        
                                  Chapter 13

Herbal Formula  for Eliminating Dampness and Diuretic


This group of formulae is mainly composed of dampness-eliminating herbs, with the effects of diuresis and removing
dampness, treating stranguria and dispelling the turbid and is used for damp diseases, is generally known as
dampness-eliminating formulae.
The dampness belongs to yin-evil and is characterized by heaviness, turbidness, stickiness and stagnancy. Damp
diseases may last long period of time. The damp and water share different names but pertain to the same category, and
the damp is mild water and water is the accumulation of dampness. Damp diseases are usually caused by two kinds of
pathogenic factors: The first is exogenous dampness. It may occur most commonly in case of deficient genuine qi
induced by prolonged raining, frequent exposure to water or living in damp conditions and places, or wearing clothes
damped by sweat. Its clinical manifestations include aversion to cold, fever, distending pain of the head, heaviness of the
body, arthralgia, or facial edema,jaundice. The second is endogenous damp. The condition may appear when internal
injury of the spleen and stomach due to indulgence in taking raw and cold food, or overeating fat and delicious food and
drinking wine lead to weakness of the middle-yang and failure of the spleen in transportation, marked by stuffy chest
and abdomen, vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice stranguria with turbid urine, and edema of ankle. For there is exterior-interior
relationship between the surface of body and viscera, exterior damp may transmit to the internal organs, and
endogenous damp may overflow the muscle and skin. Thus, exogenous damp and endogenous damp can influence each
other in causing diseases.
As far as the human body is concerned, water metabalism is dominated by the kidney, controlled by the spleen,
regulated by the lung, transformed by the urinary bladder and managed by the triple jiao. Therefore, weakness of the
spleen may lead to formation of endogenous damp; deficiency of the kidney may cause flooding
of water-damp; failure of the lung qi in dispersion may impair its regulating waterways; dysfunction of the urinary bladder
may cause dysuria; obstruction of transformative function of qi in the triple-jiao may lead to failure of it in water
excreion. All of the conditions are related to damp diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to pay close attention to function
of the viscera when using dampness removing formulae.
According to the principles of that" Dryness can dispel dampness" and" Discharging method can resolve stagnation"in
the "ten kinds of formulae" ,dampness diseases should be treated by methods of eliminating dampness and diuresis. Sine
damp-evil usually work together with wind, cold, summer-heat or heat to create disorders. Constitutions of the patient
are different in deficiency and excess, sturdiness and weakness. The affected parts are different from the upper and the
1ower, the exterior and the interior, and the diseases also differ in cold transformation and heat transformation.
Therefore, this type of formulae is divided into kinds: formulae for drying dampness and resolving the turbid, formulae
for clearing away heat and excreting dampness, formulae for facilitating diuresis to remo 'dampness, formulae for
warming and resolving water-dampness, formulae for excreting the water by purgation and formulae for expelling wind
and dampness.
Damp is characterized by heaviness and turbidity, stickiness and stagnancy, and it is apt to disturb functional activities of
qi, therefore, some herbs for regulating qi are usually added to the formulae to get the result that" Transformation "
function of qi can lead to dispersion of dampness".
This type of formulae is mainly composed of herbs with pungent and aromatic flavor and warm and dryness properties,
or herbs of sweet and tasteless flavor with effects of excreting dampness, which tend to consume the body fluids. So
they should be used carefully to cases of insufficiency of the body fluids, weak constitution due to illness and pregnant
women.