Spleen Yang Deficiency

How to recognize Spleen Yang Deficiency

The signs that point most strongly to this pattern:

1. Cold belly that aches and likes warmth and pressure
2. Watery stools with undigested food, often early in the morning
3. Cold hands and feet
4. Worse after cold or raw food
5. Tiredness and bloating

Also common

• Pale, puffy face
• Swollen limbs
• Clear, copious urine
• No thirst
• A thin, watery vaginal discharge

Tongue

Pale, swollen, wet, with a white coat.

Pulse

Deep, slow, and weak.

Formulas for Spleen Yang Deficiency

Herbs that matter most for Spleen Yang Deficiency

• Gan Jiang Dried Ginger Dried ginger warms the middle. The chief herb for a cold Spleen.
• Bai Zhu Rhizome of Largehead Atractylodes Atractylodes strengthens the Spleen and dries damp.
• Dang Shen Dang Shen Root Codonopsis restores the qi.
• Rou Gui Cassia Bark Cinnamon bark warms the middle and the Kidney.
• Fu Zi Prepared Aconite Lateral Root Processed aconite for deep cold, always in a formula.
• Zhi Gan Cao Honey-Fried Licorice Root Honey-fried licorice warms and harmonizes.

How Spleen Yang Deficiency differs from its look-alikes

• Spleen Qi Deficiency Qi deficiency is weak but not cold: tired, bloated, loose stools, but no cold belly and no cold limbs. Add the cold and the formula warms.
• Spleen and Kidney Yang Deficiency When the cold back, the night urination, and the dawn diarrhea join in, the Kidney fire is low too and the formulas add Kidney warmers.

What drains into Spleen Yang Deficiency

• Years of cold and raw food, iced drinks, and salads in winter
• Long Spleen qi deficiency
• Cold weather and cold damp living conditions
• Long courses of cold or bitter medicines
• Kidney yang deficiency spreading to the Spleen

Food and habits that help Spleen Yang Deficiency

• Nothing cold, nothing raw, nothing iced. Warm cooked food only.
• Ginger, cinnamon, lamb, chicken soup, cooked grains, cooked root vegetables.
• A hot water bottle on the belly in the evening.
• Keep the belly covered, especially at night.

What should change as Spleen Yang Deficiency improves

• The cold belly and the watery stools improve within one to two weeks of warming.
• Cold hands warm over a month.
• The wet swollen tongue dries and shrinks.

Conditions where Spleen Yang Deficiency shows up