3. Activating Blood Circulation and Removing Stasis

3. Activating Blood Circulation and Removing Stasis

“The Plain Questions · On the Discussion of Bi” states: “When a disease persists for a long time and penetrates deeply, the flow of nutritive and defensive qi becomes sluggish, the meridians become blocked, and circulation is impeded.” This indicates that prolonged illness leads to blockage of the meridians and blood stasis. Chronic nephritis is a protracted disease, and some patients often experience gingival bleeding, nasal bleeding, and subcutaneous hemorrhages; others may even show obvious ecchymoses on the tongue. All these clinical manifestations are consistent with the syndrome of “blood stasis.”

Based on this, adding a few blood-activating and stasis-removing herbs such as peach kernel, safflower, motherwort, kelp, kombu, sanleng, and ezhushi to prescriptions for treating chronic nephritis often yields good results. In particular, the use of kelp, motherwort, sanleng, and ezhushi can gradually help patients with long-term proteinuria recover. Among them, motherwort can be used at around 30 g, according to my clinical experience in recent years. According to research conducted by the Shanxi Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Yishen Tang formula incorporates Taohong Siwu Tang as one of its components, precisely following this principle in its formulation.