Iron-deficiency anemia is the most common anemia caused by disorder of iron synthesis. It is caused by iron deficiency. TCM puts it under the category “deficiency of blood”, “shallowness” and “general edema with yellowish tinge of skin”. This disease is usually caused by any prolonged illness, or poor nutrition, from parasites or from repeated bleeding or weak function of digestion and absorption.

Return To Top

TCM treatment is effective in treating this disease.

Return To Top

Syndrome (a)
Deficiency of Spleen Qi

Sallow or pale complexion, low energy, listlessness, tiredness, no appetite, loose stools, pale and swollen tongue with thin white coating, deep weak pulse etc.

To treat by Herbal medicine
Therapeutic principle: Boosting the spleen qi.

Prescription/Formula: Decoction of Six Noble Herbs with Astraglus (Modified Huangqi Liujunzi Tang) Astraglus (huang qi) 30g, Codonopsis (dang shen) 15g, Poria (fu ling), White atractylodes (bai zhu), Prepared licorice (zhi gan cao), Tangerine peel (chen pi) 9g, etc.

If loose stool, larger dose of Poria and White atractylodes may be used. If patient has cold extremities prepare aconite 9g. Fresh ginger 9g may also be added.

To treat by Acupuncture and Moxibustion

Return to Top

Syndrome (b)
Deficiency of both Qi and Blood

Pale complexion, fatigue, palpitation, shortness of breath, insomnia, dizzy, blurred vision, pale and fragile nails, pale tongue with a thin white coating, weak rapid pulse.

To treat by Herbal medicine
Therapeutic principle: By using herbal medicines you can restore your Yin and keep your Spleen strong, while also leading the Qi to improve your eye condition.

Prescription/Formula: Decoction of Eight-Gem (Modified Ba Zhen Tang) Ginseng (ren shen) 9g, astraglus (huang qi) 30g, poria (fu ling) 12g, white atractylodes (bai zhu) 12g, prepared licorice (zhi gan cao) 6g, tangkuei (dang gui) 12g, prepared rehmannia (shu di) 15g, white peony (bai shao) 12g, longan flesh (long yan rou) 9g, jujube (da zhao) 6g, etc.

In case of heavy bleeding or continuous uterus bleeding, use ass hide glue (e jiao) 12g (dissolved in hot water) and carbonized artemisia (ai ye tan) may be added;

To treat by Acupuncture and Moxibustion
View end of the page.

  

Return to Top

Syndrome (c)
Parasites Accumulated in the Body

Sallow face and skin, pain in the abdomen or discomfort, polyphagia (increased hunger), or appetite for non-food things (like mud, clay etc.), loose stools or constipation, spots in the sclera and face, pale tongue with thin greasy coating, weak pulse, etc.

To treat by Herbal medicine
Therapeutic principle: Kill parasites to invigorate Qi and nourish blood.

Prescription/Formula: Modified Anthelmintic Pill Areca nut (bin lang) 12g, Carpesium seed (he shi) 15g, poria (fu ling) 12g, astraglus (huang qi) 30g, tanggui (dang gui) 15g, white atractylodes (bai zhu) 12g, tangerine peel (chen pi) 9g, etc.

To treat by Acupuncture and Moxibustion
Therapeutic principle: Invigorate Qi and nourish blood by using points from three yin meridians, back-Shu points. Reinforcing method and moxibustion should be used for deficiency type, reducing and reinforcing methods used together for complicated case.

Prescription: Sp.6 (sam yin jiao), Sp. 10 (xue hai), BL 20, (pi shu), Liv. 8 (qu quan) BL 18, (gan shu) BL 17, (ge shu), CV.6 (qi hai), CV 4 (guan yuan), ST. 36 (zu san li) etc.

  

Return to Top

5. Healing by Other Therapies

(a) Qigong and other therapies

For effect of Qigong on respiratory system, click here.

Generally speaking, Qigong is good for healing effect of this specific ailment, however individual results may vary. It improves the flow of the qi and the circulation of the blood, so you'll experience more energy, but, you won't see/ feel any immediate effects, as with many exercises and therapies, it takes a few weeks or even months of practice before you'll see any significant improvements.

The following types of Qigong may help:

• Static Qigong:
  Relaxation Qigong
  Inner-Nourishing Qigong
  Relaxing Quiescent Qigong
  Standing Qigong
  
• Dynamic Qigong:
  Baduanjing of Internal Exercise
  

For the information of different types of Qigong ,just click a link above.
This information is for education purpose only. We strongly advise you seek a licensed Qigong master to learn the correct ways to conduct these exercises before attempting them.

(b) Medicated diet
1) Put Fresh Cherry 30g into the pot with water, add white sugar to it, and cook it until it boils. Drink the soup and eat the cherries.
Cherry is rich in iron content (100g of cherry contains 5.9mg of iron).
2) 10 dates, Tangshen (Dangshen) 20g, Chinese Angelica (Danggui) 9g.
Put them into water to cook and let it boil for 30 minutes, then add appropriate quantity of rice and millet, continue to cook it into gruel. Take the gruel once a day. No limitation on the quantity. Take it continuously for a week, then continue to take it if necessary.
3) In daily life eat more eggs, liver, spinach, bean, and other food which is rich in iron content.

(c) Life style
1) Diversify the food. Don't be very choosy about the the food.
2) Avoid parasitic disease.
3) Breast-feeding women should take enough iron, average 2mg everyday.
4) If you have losing-blood or stomach disease, must treat it in early period and avoid losing iron.

Return to Top

Acknowledgments:
Healthphone.com greatly acknowledges the support and dedication of our
Healing Centre Panel, without whom this section would not be possible.

We also greatly acknowedge Ms. Najaf Munir, MBBS, for her editorial support. Ms. Munir simplified the highly technical medical documents into easy-to-read documents, for the enjoyment and education of our numerous visitors.