Clinical
Manifestations
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- Bai He Syndrome – “Lily Disease,” named for the major herb that treats it, is a form of mental depression with depressed emotions, anxiety, taciturnity, a desire to sleep without being able to, a desire to walk without being able to and a subjective feeling of Cold or Heat. It follows either a warm disease, in which case it is of sudden and recent onset, or emotional problems which have damaged Heart Yin, in which case it is enduring and progressive in nature.
- The name Bai He has two meanings: 1. Bai means ‘hundred’ and He means meeting/communicating’. There is a saying “All the hundred branches (i.e. the channels and collaterals) originate in the Heart and meet in the Lung”. Thus the syndrome mainly relates to the Lung; 2. Bai He is the name of the herb (Bulbus Lilii) in the Chinese pharmacopoeia which nourishes Lung Yin and Heart Yin and pacifies Heart-Fire, and is used to treat this syndrome.
The main symptoms of Bai He syndrome are:
Absentmindedness (being in a ‘trance’)
An
abnormal appetite and behavior
A
bitter taste in the mouth
A slightly rapid pulse
The main Zang involved are:
Lung
Heart
Spleen
- It is generally caused by injury due to excess of the seven emotions, and often begins with depression which damages the Heart and Lung Yin. Sometimes Bai He Syndrome develops after a febrile disease that damages the Yin of the Heart and Lung leading to emotional problems.
The Heart stores the Shen; when the Heart is injured, the Shen is disturbed. The ‘intellectual function’ of the Lung is to store the Po. When the Po is disturbed, the patient is usually absent-minded and, because the Po belongs to the Lungs, easily suffers from sadness and grief; when the Po is uneasy the patient suffers from hallucinations. The general treatment principle for Bai He Syndrome is to treat the Heart and Lung, concentrating on whichever of these two Zang most predominates.
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