Why Chinese Medicine Coptis Can "Reduce Fire"
Coptis was first recorded for medicinal use in the "Shennong Ben Cao Jing". In medicine, Coptis is mainly used for vexation and mental confusion, irritability and insomnia, damp-heat with epigastric fullness, abdominal pain and diarrhea, red and swollen eyes, eczema, etc. In the "Ben Cao Zheng Yi": "It is used to clear wind-fire eye diseases, to calm the liver and stomach from vomiting, and to relieve abdominal pain and diarrhea, all of which are effects of drying dampness and clearing heat." Coptis is extremely bitter and cold, and it enters the heart, liver, stomach, and large intestine meridians. It has a strong effect of clearing heat and drying dampness. It is good at clearing damp-heat in the middle jiao, treating damp-heat obstruction with epigastric and abdominal fullness, and is especially a key medicine for treating damp-heat diarrhea and dysentery. It is also good at clearing heart heat and purging stomach fire, making it an excellent remedy for vexation and insomnia due to heart heat, and vomiting due to stomach heat. It can also purge fire and cool the blood, treating bleeding from excessive heat in the blood. It is also commonly used for carbuncles, sores, toxins, damp sores of the skin, red and swollen eyes, etc. It has the effects of clearing heat, drying dampness, purging fire, and detoxifying.
Modern pharmacological research has found that in addition to the above effects, Coptis also has the effects of lowering blood pressure, regulating blood lipids, lowering blood sugar, anti-arrhythmia, and protecting the myocardium. For example, using berberine (an extract from the roots and rhizomes of Coptis or Phellodendron, a pure Chinese medicine) to treat hypertension and lower blood sugar, take 0.4-0.6 grams orally each time, three times a day. If used to lower serum cholesterol and triglycerides, take 0.5 grams orally four times a day, with one month as one course of treatment. The effect can be seen after one course. If using pure Chinese medicine Coptis to lower blood pressure, lipids, and sugar, it is better to combine it with other Chinese medicines.
Coptis with Gastrodia:
Gastrodia is good at calming wind and stopping spasms, treating internal wind stirring due to various causes of cold, heat, deficiency, and excess, such as convulsions and spasms. It is also good at suppressing liver yang, treating dizziness and headache from various causes, and is an excellent medicine for stopping dizziness. It can also expel external wind, unblock meridians, and stop spasms and convulsions, treating limb numbness, spasms and convulsions due to wind invading the meridians, as well as rheumatic arthralgia, stiffness, and numbness. Modern pharmacological research shows that Gastrodia lowers blood pressure quickly, can improve cerebral blood flow, and reduce the resistance of cerebral, peripheral, and coronary blood vessels. Coptis purges fire and lowers blood pressure; the combination of the two doubles the therapeutic effect. For example, use 1 gram of Coptis and 2 grams of Gastrodia, steep in boiling water, drink as a tea substitute, once a day, for 15 days as one course of treatment.
Coptis with Hawthorn:
Coptis with Trichosanthes Root: