{
    "slug": "exterior-deficiency-spontaneous-sweating",
    "name": "Exterior Deficiency with Spontaneous Sweating",
    "pinyin": "Wei Qi Bu Gu",
    "chinese": "卫气不固",
    "organ": "Lung",
    "nature": "deficiency",
    "family": "qi-deficiency",
    "summary": "The body's outer guard, the defensive qi, has thinned. You sweat in the daytime for no reason, dislike wind and drafts, catch every cold going, and feel tired and pale. The screen between you and the weather has holes in it.",
    "picture": "The defensive qi is a screen around the body that keeps the weather out and the fluids in. When it wears thin, sweat leaks out and wind gets in, which is why the same pattern gives both sweating and colds.",
    "signs": {
        "key": [
            "Sweating in the daytime for no reason, worse with mild effort",
            "Dislike of wind and drafts",
            "Catching every cold, one after another",
            "Tiredness, a pale face",
            "Hay fever or a runny nose that flares with wind"
        ],
        "common": [
            "Shortness of breath on effort",
            "A weak voice",
            "Feeling cold after sweating",
            "Chronic hives that come with wind"
        ],
        "tongue": "Pale with a thin white coat.",
        "pulse": "Floating and weak."
    },
    "causes": [
        "Lung and Spleen qi deficiency",
        "Repeated colds that each took a little more",
        "Long illness or overwork",
        "Too much sweating from heat, exercise, or saunas"
    ],
    "tell_apart": [
        {
            "slug": "lung-qi-deficiency",
            "how": "The same root with the breath and voice signs leading. This pattern is the surface version: sweating and colds."
        },
        {
            "slug": "kidney-yin-deficiency-with-empty-heat",
            "how": "Yin deficiency sweats at night with heat and a red tongue. Exterior deficiency sweats in the day, cool, with a pale tongue."
        }
    ],
    "formulas": [
        {
            "slug": "yu-ping-feng-san",
            "role": "primary",
            "when": "The jade screen. Built for this pattern, taken when well.",
            "pinyin": "Yu Ping Feng San",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/yu-ping-feng-san",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/yu-ping-feng-san"
            }
        },
        {
            "slug": "bu-zhong-yi-qi-tang",
            "role": "with exhaustion",
            "when": "When tiredness and sagging join the sweating and colds.",
            "pinyin": "Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/bu-zhong-yi-qi-tang",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/bu-zhong-yi-qi-tang"
            }
        },
        {
            "slug": "gui-zhi-tang",
            "role": "during a cold",
            "when": "A cold with sweating and chills in this kind of person. Harmonizes rather than forces a sweat.",
            "pinyin": "Gui Zhi Tang",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/gui-zhi-tang",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/gui-zhi-tang"
            }
        }
    ],
    "herbs": [
        {
            "pinyin": "Huang Qi",
            "role": "Astragalus firms the surface and stops the sweat.",
            "herb_slug": "root-of-membranous-milkvetch",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/root-of-membranous-milkvetch",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/root-of-membranous-milkvetch"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Bai Zhu",
            "role": "Atractylodes feeds the defensive qi from the Spleen.",
            "herb_slug": "rhizome-of-largehead-atractylodes",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/rhizome-of-largehead-atractylodes",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/rhizome-of-largehead-atractylodes"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Fang Feng",
            "role": "Siler patrols the surface against wind.",
            "herb_slug": "root-of-divaricate-saposhnikovia",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/root-of-divaricate-saposhnikovia",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/root-of-divaricate-saposhnikovia"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Fu Xiao Mai",
            "role": "Light wheat holds the sweat in.",
            "herb_slug": "light-wheat",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/light-wheat",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/light-wheat"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Mu Li",
            "role": "Oyster shell stops sweating.",
            "herb_slug": "oyster-shell",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/oyster-shell",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/oyster-shell"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Wu Wei Zi",
            "role": "Schisandra holds in both sweat and Lung qi.",
            "herb_slug": "chinese-magnoliavine-fruit",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/chinese-magnoliavine-fruit",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/chinese-magnoliavine-fruit"
            }
        }
    ],
    "conditions": [
        "spontaneous-sweating",
        "immune-deficiency",
        "common-cold",
        "respiratory-infections",
        "sinusitis",
        "urticaria"
    ],
    "habits": [
        "Keep the neck covered in wind; the back of the neck is the gate.",
        "No saunas or hard sweating until the screen is rebuilt.",
        "Warm cooked food to feed the Spleen that feeds the guard.",
        "Start the formula before cold season, not during a cold."
    ],
    "watch": [
        "Daytime sweating eases within two to three weeks.",
        "Colds come less often over a season.",
        "The dislike of drafts fades as the surface firms."
    ],
    "sources": [
        {
            "title": "Maciocia, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 3rd edition",
            "note": "Defensive qi deficiency."
        },
        {
            "title": "Bensky, Scheid, Ellis and Barolet, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies, 2nd edition",
            "note": "Yu Ping Feng San."
        }
    ],
    "meta": {
        "status": "published",
        "last_updated": "2026-10-12",
        "reviewed_by": null
    },
    "_links": {
        "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/pattern/exterior-deficiency-spontaneous-sweating",
        "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/pattern/exterior-deficiency-spontaneous-sweating",
        "index": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/patterns"
    }
}