Eagle Herbs

We've all been there...

We’ve all been there. Perhaps you’re there right now. Chinese herbs saved me from hours in the bathroom while traveling through Asia… and they work just as well at home in the West.

There are plenty of types of diarrhea, knowing your kind is essential for a successful treatment. Many of these remedies are sold in neighborhood pharmacies in China. Given my body’s response to some of the foodstuffs I ate while in China, these remedies were quite the blessing.

Share the gastrointestinal love! The Chinese herbal formulas for the five most common root causes of diarrhea. These formulas all include herbs for the stem symptoms as well.

Which kind of diarrhea do you have?

1. Watery diarrhea [more]
2. Watery diarrhea with cold sensitivity [more]
3. Stress induced or menstrual cycle diarrhea [more]
4. Yellow, explosive diarrhea [more]
5. Smeary poo that is difficult to clean up [more]

Spleen Qi deficiency type watery diarrhea:

• Chronic (on and off for months or years)
• Aggravated by ingestion of foods that are difficult to digest, including fatty, cold, frozen, or dairy products
• Meals induce an urgent trip to the bathroom within let’s say an hour of eating.
• Bloating and gas that smells like your regular poop.
• Lots of gurgling noises in the intestines.
• Formula:  Ginseng, Poria, and Atractylodes Powder (Shen Ling Bai Zhu San) [more...]
• Root-cause herbs address enzymatic deficiencies, while the branch-symptom herbs “dry dampness” which helps firm up the poop.

To put “Spleen qi deficiency” in more familiar terms, there are a number of enzymes, friendly bacteria, etc. that are required for proper digestion and assimilation of your food and drink. Some of these things can be deficient due to a variety of factors. The herbs provided for this particular issue are not necessarily enzymatic or include friendly organisms. However they do stimulate the function of all of these necessary digestive components leading to better formed poop. Is it so wrong to desire well-formed poop? I think not.

Spleen Yang deficiency type cold watery diarrhea:

• Same as Spleen Qi deficiency type, but with symptoms of cold as well, including:
• Cold hands and feet (not aggravated by stress, though)
• Wearing warmer clothing than others in the room
• Diarrhea may arise in the early morning hours
• Formula: Four [ingredient] Miraculous Pills ( Si Shen Wan) [more...]
• This formula’s root-cause herbs warm up the (Chinese concept of the) Kidneys which stimulate the metabolic heat for the entire body. The branch-symptom herbs in this formula are “astringent” herbs that work like a sponge to keep the poop inside long enough to get squeezed until firm at which time they can come out normally.

In Chinese medicine, the digestive system is considered something of an oven. It requires heat to work efficiently. We call metabolic heat “yang”. (Rhymes with “song” not “bang“) Some people are deficient in this yang and thus run cold. They’re putting on coats before anybody else in the room, for instance. These are the folks who’s digestive fires are running cold too. Ultimately, this condition ends up looking exactly like Spleen qi deficiency described above, but with added symptoms of cold. Cold hands and feet, aversion to air conditioning, that sort of thing. The early morning diarrhea mentioned is called “cock’s crow diarrhea” in China as the cock starts crowing just before sunrise, around the time that this form of diarrhea is most active.

Liver Attacking Spleen type stress-induced diarrhea:

• Stress induced or aggravated
• Coincidental with female menstrual cycle (either as a part of PMS or any other portion of the cycle).
• alternates with constipation or constipation first, followed by diarrhea in the same sitting
• Formula: Eagle Herbs Digestive Support #2 [more...]
• This is among the few non-traditional formulas that we provide at Eagle Herbs. This was created by one of my students, a UCLA physician and her Chinese herbalist. Together they came up with some great formulas that I was lucky enough to test. They’re so effective that I offer them here. The root-cause herbs in this formula regulate the nervous system’s effect on the Stomach and intestines. The branch-symptom herbs in this formula help to dry up the poop so it comes out more firm.

This is probably the most common form of IBS. It is invisible to biomedicine because it does not produce any altered lab values or affect the appearance of any of the gastrointestinal structures.

The movement of the entire digestive tract is made possible by the nervous system. Everything that happens from your mouth to your anus is a regulated series of muscular movements. From your ability to swallow, though the stomach, the intestines, and down to the anus, if the nervous system isn’t working just right, there will be problems.

One item that is unique to this particular type of diarrhea is the fact that it is aggravated by emotional stress (or the female menstrual cycle). When the body senses stress, it assumes that we’re being chased by a bear, not under the gun on a work deadline. So, your body assumes that you need to run away. The nervous system automatically directs its resources to the limbs, heart, and other structures necessary to evade immediate danger. However, this does not include the digestion. So, when we’re under stress, digestive activities cease leading to bloating, gas, and potentially alternating diarrhea and constipation. The good news about this gas it is tends to be mostly air, not a strong odor. It can however be a LOT of air.

Chinese herbal formulas that “harmonize Liver and Spleen” could also be described as “stimulating the parasympathetic aspect of the enteric nervous system to regulate intestinal peristalsis”. Now you know why I prefer Chinese medicine metaphors. Easier to say. :)

Damp heat type yellow, explosive diarrhea:

• Diarrhea with a yellow color
• Explosive and urgent diarrhea
• Possible painful intestinal cramping
• Very strong odor
• May also cause burning sensations in the anus
• Formula: Kudzu, Scutellaria, and Coptis Decoction ( Ge Gen Huang Qin Huang Lian Tang) [more...]
• This formula should not be taken for long periods of time. If you find that you keep needing it, then we’d need to look at some of the possible causes for this type of diarrhea to become chronic. A custom formula or the Spleen qi deficiency formula (described above) may be appropriate.

This is the kind of diarrhea that dares not speak its name. This is the one that leaves behind all kinds of gunk beneath the seat of the toilet, with an odor so potent that it causes the wall paper to peel off the walls. Oh yeah, this is trouble.

Sometimes, it arises from a local bacterial infection in the intestines. You ate bad food, or you didn’t wash your hands well enough before eating, something along those lines. Now, in the US we’re not allowed to call these herbs antibiotic, so I’m going to switch back to Chinese medicine speak. This is called damp-heat. The dampness is kind of obvious by virtue of the fact that it is wet. The heat part comes up in the yellow color and potentially a burning sensation on the anus. As it turns out, heat really smells bad too. The flatulence that can arise from this condition is that “silent but deadly” type of gas that is only a small quantity of gas coming out, but the odor is very strong.

There are some chronic conditions too that can give rise to this particular type of diarrhea, but this formula should only be taken until the heat part (strong odor, burning sensations, yellow, explosive) has been addressed. After that point, you may be well-advised to switch over the Shen Ling Bai Zhu San described above under “Spleen qi Deficiency”.

Food stagnation type sticky smeary diarrhea:

• Really severe bloating
• lack of appetite or meals feel stuck in the stomach
• bad breath
• belching that has a strong odor or taste
• diarrhea can also be soft, smeary stools that require a lot of paper to clean up
• Formula: Harmony Preserving Pills ( Bao He Wan) [more...]

The cause of this condition is generally overeating, excessive partying (is there any other kind?), gorging yourself. This is a pattern that arises when there’s simply too much stuff in the intestines to be properly digested. The formula that is indicated for this issue is full of digestive herbs. This condition is kind of the opposite from the Spleen qi deficiency mentioned above on this page. Spleen qi deficiency means that your body’s digestive functions are deficient. With food stagnation, the problem isn’t so much a weakened digestion, but eating too much food that is difficult to digest. In a way, they’re two sides of the same coin, however each has its own solution. Food stagnation mostly arises from eating foods that are too difficult to digest or in excessive quantities.

Now, food stagnation can cause Spleen qi deficiency, but that takes a while. Treating both at the same time is okay, though. Also, that Liver/Spleen disharmony (aggravated by stress or menstrual period) can cause food stagnation too. So, if you want to look at the Digestive Support #2 formula, you may see some benefit if you team it up with the Bao He Wan.