Always Tired, Poor Sleep, Heavy Periods, Drooling at Night? Doctor Luo Dalun on Gui Pi Wan (Spleen-Restoring Pill): The Formula for Overthinking That Exhausts the Heart and Spleen

What people search for: fatigue / poor sleep at night / palpitations / dizziness / heavy periods / drooling / scalloped tongue edges Medical terms: heart-spleen dual deficiency · qi and blood deficiency · anemia · insomnia

Opening: one businesswoman’s face startled Doctor Luo

Let me start with something Doctor Luo Dalun experienced himself recently. He met a businesswoman, and the moment he saw her, he was struck by how pale and exhausted she looked. When they talked, he learned she had been taking medicine — iron supplements. Why iron? Anemia. Why anemia? Her periods were extremely heavy.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: As soon as I heard that, I understood — this is a common pattern among women today. I immediately advised her to take a particular medicine. Which one? Gui Pi Wan — the Spleen-Restoring Pill. In the old days this pill was called Gui Pi Tang, the Spleen-Restoring Decoction, and this formula was designed precisely for the ailments of modern people. Today, let’s talk about this formula.

The common ailment of modern people: thinking too much, the mind “leaking” away

Modern people share one characteristic: lao xin tai guo — overworking the heart-mind, meaning we think and worry far too much. Compared with the ancients, our “heart-spirit” is like a leaking vessel — it just pours away.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The ancients lived simply: they stayed in their villages, had little contact with the outside world, worked when the sun rose and slept when it set. Village affairs, news from the outside world — it took months for news to arrive, so their minds were relatively clear and empty. Not us. First there was the telephone, now the internet. We’re flooded with information: where that classmate went, which school that one attends, who posts travel photos at one or two in the morning on social media — and people really are scrolling and liking at two in the morning. We’re all in the same boat: not resting when we should, draining our heart-spirit. And the worries are endless — career development, family affairs, everything. So overthinking is one of the defining traits of modern life.

The heart is the mother, the spleen is the child: fire engenders earth, brooding injures the spleen

So what does overthinking consume? Remember this — it drains heart blood (xin xue). As heart blood is slowly used up, a person develops heart blood deficiency. What happens then? The spirit loses its anchor — because the heart houses the spirit (xin cang shen). When heart blood runs low, the spirit can no longer be housed, which is why so many people can’t sleep at night. Too many worries, sleepless nights, more heart blood consumed — and no energy during the day.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The logic is crystal clear in the Five Elements: the heart belongs to fire, the spleen belongs to earth, and fire engenders earth — so the heart is the mother and the spleen is the child. When heart blood is depleted, the spleen is hurt as well; in Chinese medicine this is called si lü shang pi — brooding and overthinking injure the spleen. So excessive worry damages two organs: the heart and the spleen. It also damages the liver: Chinese medicine holds that the liver stores blood (gan cang xue), the heart governs blood, and the spleen controls blood. When blood is depleted, the liver channel runs short of blood and the liver gets into trouble. The ancients were very clear: whenever you treat blood disorders, you must regulate the heart, liver, and spleen together. When blood is consumed and heart blood is damaged, overthinking exhausts the heart and spleen — and the liver along with them. The lungs and kidneys are affected too, but the main players are heart, spleen, and liver.

Qi is the commander of blood, blood is the mother of qi: the tangled knot starts in the heart

There’s another layer: what’s the relationship between qi and blood? Qi is the commander of blood (qi wei xue zhi shuai), and blood is the mother of qi (xue wei qi zhi mu) — qi and blood generate each other. If you exhaust your heart-spirit day after day, injure the spleen, and deplete the blood, can the spleen qi stay strong? No — spleen qi will be deficient too.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So the chain goes like this: exhausting the heart-spirit → depleting heart blood → injuring the spleen-earth → spleen qi deficiency — and in the end, both heart and spleen are deficient and both qi and blood are depleted. It looks like a tangled knot — heart, liver, spleen, qi, blood, all deficient — but the source is the heart. The ancients designed a wonderfully clever formula for exactly this: Gui Pi Tang, today’s Gui Pi Wan.

Where the formula comes from: from the Jisheng Fang to Doctor Xue Lizhai

The formula originally appeared in the Jisheng Fang (Formulary to Aid the Living), and later Doctor Xue Lizhai added a few herbs to make the formula we use today.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This formula is brilliant — it’s extremely well thought out. First, it’s built on the Si Jun Zi Tang (Four Gentlemen Decoction) — ren shen (ginseng), bai zhu (atractylodes), fu ling (poria), and gan cao (licorice). What do these four do? They tonify qi and tonify the spleen. On top of that comes huang qi (astragalus), which also specifically tonifies the spleen. The ancients considered the spleen to belong to earth and to be the central axis of the body. When the spleen-earth is settled and spleen qi is sufficient, the other organs are easy to adjust — so this formula focuses on tonifying the spleen. Building up spleen qi is the first layer.

Taking the formula apart, herb by herb: this formula is “chewy”

On top of that foundation, the formula adds several herbs, each with its own special role:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Mu xiang (costus root) moves spleen qi — it gives you a little revival. Long yan rou (longan flesh) — what’s that for? It tonifies spleen blood, and at the same time nourishes heart blood and calms the spirit. This is what’s called a dual tonification of heart and spleen. Longan alone, the ancients felt, wasn’t quite enough, so they paired it with suan zao ren (sour jujube seed) — sour jujube seed gathers heart qi and nourishes heart blood, and it also nourishes liver blood. Then fu shen (poria with root) — fu shen settles the spirit; it has a calming action, because you’ve been overthinking and your mind has been racing, so it settles the spirit for you. That completes the heart-spleen dual tonification. Then dang gui (Chinese angelica) — dang gui nourishes blood, specifically liver blood. And finally a little yuan zhi (polygala root): yuan zhi can drain heart heat with its bitter taste — it purges heart fire; and it has another special quality — it can generate kidney water (sheng shen shui) and draw it upward, through the heart, to reach the heart and spleen — drawing kidney water up to nourish heart and spleen. That’s the special talent of yuan zhi. So this formula is very “chewy” — layer upon layer of careful design.

Another ancient reading: settling the spirit, ethereal soul, and will of the five organs back into the spleen

There are many ancient commentaries on Gui Pi Tang; one of them is particularly interesting.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The ancients said: what does Gui Pi Tang do? It regulates the spirit, ethereal soul, and will of the five organs and settles them back into the spleen. What does that mean? The Si Jun Zi Tang fortifies the spleen — it fills in the “center”; longan flesh tonifies spleen blood — that’s tonifying the spleen; huang qi travels the lung channel and secures lung qi; sour jujube seed travels the heart channel, is astringent, and calms the spirit — because the heart houses the spirit (shen); dang gui enters the liver and, with its fragrance, delights the ethereal soul (hun) — because the liver houses the ethereal soul; yuan zhi enters the kidney and opens the will (zhi) — because the kidney houses the will. In this way, the spirit, ethereal soul, and will of all five organs are all regulated. When we exhaust our heart-spirit in daily life, it’s not just the heart and spleen we drain — the spirit, soul, and will of the other organs are affected too, everything that governs the emotions. So the formula settles them all down.

The essence of this formula: nourish blood and settle the spirit — tonify and calm at the same time

From this reading you can see that the ancients considered this formula to be spirit-settling — nourishing blood and settling the spirit.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Patients with this kind of dual qi-blood deficiency all need to be treated by way of settling the spirit — that’s how the disease is finally resolved. While settling the spirit, we also tonify the substance: tonify qi and blood, open things up a little, and the illness can be cured. I think this formula has enormous application today, because so many modern people are deficient in both qi and blood.

Are you qi-blood deficient? Stick out your tongue and see

People with dual qi-blood deficiency have very typical signs: stick out the tongue and you’ll see scalloped teeth marks along the edges — that’s spleen deficiency with heavy dampness; and the tongue body is pale rather than red — that’s qi and blood deficiency.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What do you feel day to day? Dizziness and blurred vision; on slight exertion, palpitations and breathlessness; a slight queasiness and the head spins; you can’t stand hard work; you tire easily. Especially common is the spleen failing to control blood and fluids (pi bu tong xue) — too much fluid in the body, a tendency to puffiness, fluids that can’t be held in. Someone asked me: why do adults drool in their sleep? That’s spleen deficiency — adults get spleen deficiency too. In women, it often shows up as very heavy periods, or a blood-deficient state. How did this illness come about? From exhausting the heart-spirit too much — thinking too much, brooding too much. What to do then? Use Gui Pi Wan.

Unlike other tonics: Gui Pi Wan tonifies and settles the spirit at the same time

Gui Pi Wan is different from ordinary formulas.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Take Bu Zhong Yi Qi (Tonifying the Middle and Augmenting Qi) — that lifts the qi upward, mainly tonifying the spleen and qi. Ba Zhen Tang (Eight-Treasure Decoction) and Shi Quan Da Bu Tang (Ten-Complete Great Tonification Decoction) — they simply tonify. But what’s special about Gui Pi Wan? It tonifies you and settles your spirit at the same time — because this illness came from exhausting the heart-spirit, which depleted heart blood and produced dual heart-spleen and qi-blood deficiency, so the formula settles the spirit for you. Ancient formulas really are classics — the reason a formula like this survives is that its principle is so clearly constructed. That’s why I often recommend it — I walk into the office and look at my colleagues: all of them exhaust their heart and mind too much, worry too much, and the scalloped teeth marks on their tongues are obvious. As long as there’s no pronounced heat state, what I recommend is Gui Pi Wan.

The two Gui Pi Wans at the pharmacy: ginseng version in winter, codonopsis version in summer

There are now two versions of Gui Pi Wan at the pharmacy.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Tong Ren Tang makes a product called Ren Shen Gui Pi Wan (Ginseng Spleen-Restoring Pill), because it contains ren shen (ginseng) — in winter you can take the Tong Ren Tang ginseng version. In summer, when the weather is hot, ginseng can stir up heat, so use Gui Pi Wan instead — this version uses dang shen (codonopsis) and is made by other manufacturers. Codonopsis is milder, not so hot. I often recommend Gui Pi Wan to friends in the office, and people watching used to laugh: “Doctor Luo, is that the only formula you know?” But the reason is that so many people have dual qi-blood deficiency from exhausting their heart-spirit — and there are an awful lot of people in that state today. We should recommend medicines according to the state of modern people.

How to take it? Follow the instructions for a week or two

Gui Pi Wan and Ren Shen Gui Pi Wan are available in every pharmacy — but many people don’t know when to use them.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If you feel your tongue really does have clear scalloped teeth marks, you’re always tired and weak, you sleep poorly at night, your heart pounds and races on slight exertion, and you get dizzy on slight exertion — I suggest you buy some Gui Pi Wan and take it according to the instructions for a while — say, one to two weeks — and see how it goes. As long as you don’t feel any obvious heat or flare-ups, keep at it for a while, and I’m confident you’ll feel a clear improvement in your body.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s formula lecture. Gui Pi Tang comes from the Jisheng Fang (Formulary to Aid the Living) of Yan Yonghe of the Song dynasty; Doctor Xue Lizhai of the Ming dynasty added dang gui and yuan zhi to complete the formula used today.