My View on Interstitial Lung Disease—September 25, 1995

My View on Interstitial Lung Disease—September 25, 1995

In the Year of Yi Hai, I treated many cases of interstitial lung disease. The characteristic of this disease is difficulty breathing, wheezing, and chest tightness, often more severe than typical lung and bronchial diseases. Western medicine typically uses prednisone as the first choice, combined with antibiotics. I have used formulas such as Gui Zhi Shao Yao Zhi Mu Tang, Dang Gui Liu Huang Tang, Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang, Ting Li Da Zao Xie Fei Tang, and Xie Bai San to treat this disease with considerable success. Purple Quartz, Agarwood, and Cinnamon can be added as supplementary medicines. Li Kongding from Mianyang Municipal Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Sichuan Province advocates "promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis" in treating lung diseases. For those with chest tightness, fatigue, little phlegm, and cough, he often adds peach kernels, red peonies, and curcuma to the formula; for deficiency syndromes, he adds dan shen and chicken blood vine; for chest distension, he adds xiang fu, yu jin, and jiang xiang; and for blood stasis and phlegm congealing, he adds safflower and zelan. He believes that peach kernels can both promote blood circulation and relieve cough, making them a good medicine for this condition.