黄芪桂枝五物汤

• Actions: Tonifies qi and warms the channels, harmonizes the blood and frees blockage.
• Core pathomechanism: Insufficiency of defensive-qi, nutritive-qi and blood, allowing wind-cold pathogens to invade during this vulnerability, resulting in sluggish blood flow and undernourished skin and flesh.

1. When it is used

This formula is derived by modification from Gui Zhi Tang (Cinnamon Twig Decoction) and is a dedicated formula for "blood impediment" (xue bi).

2. Pattern and presentation

• Main symptom: Numbness of the body (localized numbness of the skin and muscles with loss of sensation), resembling wind impediment (may be accompanied by mild pain).
• General and accompanying symptoms: Most often seen in constitutionally weak individuals; may be accompanied by aversion to wind, fatigue, sweating and other signs of defensive-qi insufficiency.

3. Tongue and pulse

• Tongue: Pale red tongue, or pale and swollen, with a thin white coating.
• Pulse: Faint and choppy, or faint and tight.

4. Granule conversion and dose

• Calculation of the total raw herb weight in the original formula:

o Huang Qi (astragalus root) 9 g + Gui Zhi (cinnamon twig) 9 g + Bai Shao (white peony root) 9 g + Sheng Jiang (fresh ginger) 18 g + Da Zao (jujube) 36 g = 81 g.

• Conversion to 5:1 granules: