Dang Gui Four Combination (Si Wu Tang) Aids Reinvigorating New Hair Growth
TCM Industry News
Dang Gui Four Combination (Si Wu Tang) Aids Reinvigorating New Hair Growth
When 35 year-old Mr. Huang just retired from military service at the age of 22, he had already started noticing his receding hairline. The hair on the top of his head seemed to be thinning more and more, just like his elder and younger brother. At the time, he predicted that his hair troubles was being caused by androgenic alopecia, so he started applying minoxidil formulas to his scalp and to his disappointment, it did not work for him. Two months ago he sought treatment at the Taipei City Hospital Zhong Xing Branch's Traditional Chinese Medicine Department, and through TCM Dr. Tsai-Yu Lin's prescription, a modified formula of Dang Gui Four Combination (Si Wu Tang), his hair condition has improved and new hair has started to grow once more.
Dr. Tsai-Yu Lin points out that Dang Gui Four Combination is composed of Angelica (Dang Gui), Ligusticum (Chuan Xiong), White Peony (Bai Shao Yao), and Cooked Rehmannia (Shu Di Huang). Its earliest record as the epitomic formula for gynecologic problems was in the Song Dynansty's materia medica Prescriptions from the Great Peace Imperial Grace Pharmacy as a formula which regulated menstruation, tonified blood, and activated blood.
Dr. Lin points out that, accordingly to the Chinese materia medica Explanation of Collection of Medical Formulae, Dang Gui Four Combination treats: “All relating to blood stagnations (similar to anemia) and menstrual diseases.” Therefore, any signs of blood deficiency, regardless of your sex, can be treated with Dang Gui Four Combination. Blood deficiency symptoms include: feeling of fatigue, paleness of the face either white or yellow, lip color having a whitish hue, pale whiteness of the nails, both the eye and face turning appearing to be white, dizziness, blurred vision, and palpitations.
Dr. Lin indicates, traditional Chinese medicine theorizes that "Hair is the remnants of blood", and since growing hair requires the body's blood to supplement nutrients, by observing the hair's healthiness, one can determine whether blood is exuberant, debilitant, overabundant, or deficient. Only those with adequate blood and qi can nourish the brain to enrich the hair, resulting in fine moist hair. When blood is deficient, the insufficient nutrients are supplied to the hair, which causes hair to lose its moisture and fall. In Mr. Huang's case of androgenic alopecia, a modified formula of Dang Gui Four Combination can help tonify the blood and aid hair to regrow.
Dr. Lin would like to reminds people who are deficient in both the blood and qi that they are prone to hair loss. Daily diets of green vegetables, grapes, cherries, and apples can tonify the blood; training in qi gong or exercises such as fast walking, can increase blood circulation and tonify qi. However, if your body constitution is such with dry-ness heat or internal fire, and have symptoms of red eye, excessive eye rheum, dry mouth, swollen gums, proness to growing acne, or easily constipated, then Dang Gui Four Combination may not be right for you. It is suggested to first have a trained TCM Doctor to diagnose your body constitution, and then find a suitable prescription to address your balding crisis.