Sudden Red Itchy Hives, Rashes or Bumps That Come On Fast? Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan (Skin Disease Blood Toxin Pills): Clear Damp-Heat, Cool and Invigorate the Blood, Disperse Wind and Scatter Lumps

Have you ever stood at the patent-medicine counter in a pharmacy and felt the same way? Shelves full of medicines, most of them a mystery — you don’t know what they do, let alone when to take them. Doctor Luo Dalun says he thought about this for a long time: these good medicines lying on the shelves are wasted by the manufacturers, and ordinary people get sick without knowing what to take. What a pity.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I walked past a Tong Ren Tang pharmacy and looked closely — there are so many patent medicines in the counters that most ordinary people don’t know about. In fact many illnesses can be solved with these patent medicines — a little support during daily care, a little help during minor illness, and the problem is solved. So I thought, if I get the chance I should talk about how to use these patent medicines more — this has nothing to do with advertising, not one cent of connection. Whichever medicine I lecture on, I buy it with my own money, study it, taste it, and only then talk about it. I really do have to buy it back bag by bag and ponder it.

Patent medicines are very affordable, because the state controls the price

Some people worry: are patent medicines expensive? Doctor Luo says quite the opposite — today’s patent medicines are actually on the cheap side.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The price of Chinese herbs as a whole is going up, but for big pharmaceutical companies like Tong Ren Tang, the price of patent medicines is set by the state — when raw materials rise, your price cannot rise, so some medicines are even produced at a loss. Their prices are extremely affordable. So once people know about them and use them, they can solve a great many problems.

Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan: a fierce name, but it treats “heat”

Today’s protagonist has a name that sounds fierce the moment you hear it — Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan (Skin Disease Blood Toxin Pills). What does “blood toxin” mean? It treats skin problems caused by heat-type patterns.

Why are there so many skin diseases? It has to do with the special position of the skin.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We live in the natural world, and the skin has the most contact with nature — that’s the first point. Second, the state of our internal qi and blood circulation is often reflected through the skin. So there are a great many skin problems — all kinds of rashes, bumps, sores, and so on.

Sort out your skin problem first: cold, deficiency, or heat — three different types

Doctor Luo repeats again and again: you cannot just grab a patent medicine and use it — skin disease is not one bottle for everything. Before using it, distinguish the pattern first; that is the prerequisite.

Type one, cold-type: bumps appear when cold wind blows.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The cold type is when bumps appear the moment cold wind blows. In this case we look at the tongue and it’s white, and it happens because you fear cold. The bumps are pale in color, close to your skin color — not red. This is caused by cold invasion.

Type two, spleen-deficiency: the root is in the spleen and stomach, and it often drags on into a chronic condition.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Spleen deficiency causes the defensive qi (ying-wei, nutritive and defensive qi) to fail in guarding the body, external pathogens invade, and all kinds of skin problems appear. This type is often chronic — it lingers for a very long time and never really heals. You should learn to recognize this kind too.

Type three, heat-type: there is heat inside, blood-heat, or the skin has been stimulated by external heat pathogen, blood-heat congesting in the skin — and various problems appear. This is exactly the territory of Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan.

What does a heat-type skin problem look like? — Red, acute, patchy

How do you judge whether your own problem is heat-type? Remember three words: red, acute, patchy (red, fast, in patches).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Heat-type skin problems are usually red in color and come on fast. For example, a lump appears recently — a lump on the back of your neck — and suddenly it’s bright red, getting bigger and more painful. That’s caused by heat. Some people scratch their skin and a whole patch turns red, dense with little bumps, and the color is red. This kind is usually acute — it appeared suddenly recently. It’s not a lump that has been there for years and years — no, it isn’t.

Doctor Luo also tells an example he saw with his own eyes: when Shenyang had heavy rain, right at the peak of summer heat — hot and damp at the same time.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: That day I saw a guy who had shaved the back of his head. I said, why did you shave it? Looking closely, the whole back was red — all red bumps. That’s damp-heat — the height of summer during the hottest period, hot and damp together, damp-heat brewing. That’s the heat type. So when you use patent medicines, you must always distinguish the pattern first. It’s not right to grab any medicine just because you have a skin problem.

How do you confirm it from tongue and pulse? The edges of the tongue are a bit red, the coating is yellow and greasy, the tongue body is definitely red, and the pulse beats a little fast — add to that skin that is locally red and came on fast, some patches even weeping fluid, and it all matches.

Why is the formula so big? — A machine-gun style formula

The formula of Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan is extremely complex and uses a great many herbs. Some people may ask: doesn’t Chinese medicine prize precise, economical prescribing? Why is this formula so large?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Because for this kind of skin problem, to guarantee efficacy, the formula uses many herbs. It’s the “machine gun firing a burst of bullets” tactic — bang, a whole volley of herbs goes out and controls everything for you. Li Dongyuan’s Pu Ji Xiao Du Yin (Universal Salvation Toxin-Dispelling Decoction) already uses a lot of herbs, but compared with this it still falls far short. These traditional formulas were accumulated by time-honored pharmacies like Tong Ren Tang — hammered out over and over by so many famous physicians working together.

So how is this formula deployed? Let’s take it apart.

Group one: clear toxins — jin yin hua, lian qiao, ren dong teng, ku di ding, tian kui zi

Right at the start, a volley of toxin-clearing herbs goes out.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Jin yin hua (honeysuckle flower), lian qiao (forsythia fruit), ren dong teng (honeysuckle vine), ku di ding (corydalis), tian kui zi (Semiaquilegia seed) — this volley has strong toxin-clearing power. Why does the skin break out? Heat alone is not enough to cause such severe consequences — there is dampness inside as well. It is when dampness and heat mix together that they cause harm, and only then do they get fierce. So we clear toxins on one side and clear dampness on the other.

Group two: clear dampness and toxins — tu bei mu, tu fu ling, bai xian pi, di fu zi, huang bai, chi fu ling

Clear the dampness out from the root.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Tu bei mu (Bolbostemma), tu fu ling (smilax glabra), bai xian pi (dictamnus root bark), di fu zi (kochia fruit), huang bai (phellodendron bark), chi fu ling (red poria) — these all clear dampness and toxins. Dampness is one of the pathogenic factors. Dampness and heat only become fierce when they combine, so we remove the dampness for you — clear toxins on one side and clear dampness on the other.

Group three: nourish the blood — dang gui, bai shao, shu di huang, ji xue teng

Why nourish the blood? Here is hidden a great principle of Chinese medicine’s treatment of skin disease.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If your skin locally has dampness and heat-toxin present, it means your upright qi is certainly insufficient — the channels inside are empty, no blood comes through, and the external pathogen occupies the space. So while we clear dampness and drain heat, we also replenish your blood. Chinese medicine has a saying: “when blood moves, wind dies of itself” (xue xing feng zi mie). Why do you have wind pathogen here? Because your blood hasn’t come through — blood deficiency generates wind. Once you irrigate the area with blood, the pathogen is pushed aside, and it can’t easily get back in.

Group four: cool and invigorate the blood — sheng di, mu dan pi, bai mao gen, zi cao, zi jing pi, chi shao, yi mu cao, qian cao, chuan xiong, tao ren, hong hua

This group is the most critical, because the problem right now is blood-heat.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Nourishing blood alone won’t do — when the blood is hot, if you supplement a little, the blood-heat gets even fiercer and the skin disease gets worse. What to do? Cool the blood. Use sheng di (raw rehmannia), mu dan pi (moutan bark), bai mao gen (imperata root) — bai mao gen drains heat out through the urine and cools the blood; then zi cao (gromwell root), zi jing pi (redbud bark), chi shao (red peony), yi mu cao (motherwort), qian cao (madder root), chuan xiong (ligusticum), tao ren (peach kernel), hong hua (safflower). Within this group, some cool the blood and some invigorate it — it’s called “cool and invigorate the blood.” In treating kidney disease in the past, the approach we often used was mu dan pi, bai mao gen, zi cao, chi shao, and we often used qian cao — because when there’s heat, blood-heat, you must cool the blood, open up the blood flow, moving and cooling at the same time. At the same time, these cooling-and-invigorating herbs can scatter the stagnation — the lumps and swelling that form on the skin are opened up by them.

Group five: disperse wind and expel pathogen — she tui, fang feng, chan tui, niu bang zi, jing jie sui

Skin disease cannot escape the word “wind” either.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: She tui (snake slough), fang feng (saposhnikovia root), chan tui (cicada slough), niu bang zi (burdock seed), jing jie sui (schizonepeta spike) — these disperse wind. There’s wind pathogen here; clearing heat alone won’t do — you must disperse wind. When treating skin disease, you usually add wind-dispersing herbs, because the pathogen must leave through the body surface. It can’t be allowed to gather here; you have to scatter it open.

Group six: open the lung qi — xing ren, jie geng

Why open the lung qi to treat skin disease? Because the lungs govern the skin and body hair (fei zhu pi mao).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Add xing ren (apricot kernel) and jie geng (platycodon root) to open the lung qi. When treating skin disease you need to open the lung qi and let it flow freely — then problems of the skin and body surface can be resolved.

Finally: zao jiao ci scatters lumps, da huang drains heat, gan cao harmonizes

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Add a little zao jiao ci (honey locust spine) — you have lumps locally, where qi and blood are congested; zao jiao ci breaks hard masses and scatters lumps, opening them up. Then use a little da huang (rhubarb) to drive the heat-toxin downward — it’s like pushing the toxic blood out from inside. Finish with some gan cao (licorice) to harmonize. This basically gathers together the entire strategy for treating damp-heat-brewing skin disease — nourishing blood, clearing toxins, cooling and invigorating blood, dispersing wind and scattering lumps, regulating lung qi, draining turbidity outward. Every direction is not served by one herb alone but by two or three, fired out in volley after volley.

Many herbs is not a bad thing: concentrate superior forces and fight an annihilation battle

The formula is this big — how effective is it really? Doctor Luo says precisely because it’s big, it’s fast.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When ordinary people suddenly break out in a patch of bumps, a patch of redness, what everyone hopes for is a quick recovery — if you drag it out for ten or fifteen days, nobody can stand that. At that point, taking a few herbs and going slowly may not produce this effect. Why is this formula effective? It’s because it concentrates superior forces to fight an annihilation battle. Basically, for an ordinary heat-type skin problem, it works quickly once you use it — I think the situation should be under control within a day or two.

When can you use it? — Urticaria, acne, papules, pustules, sores, boils and furuncles

Which problems exactly are under its jurisdiction? Doctor Luo lists a long string: wind-wheal lumps caused by heat (urticaria), follicular acne, papules, pustules, cysts, nodules, and all kinds of sore conditions — sores, deep boils (ding), and furuncles (jie).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: As long as it’s heat-type, just appeared in the last couple of days, generally an acute skin problem — when you’re caught off guard and don’t know what to do, Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan can definitely help you. I solve the internal problem from the inside — of the people I’ve seen use this formula, the effect was especially good, and it resolved quickly, never developing into a severe case with a big lump that eventually ulcerates completely. Because you’ve unloaded the toxin inside, it never gets to that point.

Some people think: skin has a lump, just rub some topical medicine on, right? Doctor Luo says the difference is huge.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In the hottest days of summer with heavy rain, the outside is damp and hot, and the skin breaks out in all kinds of problems — is your body normal inside? Inside isn’t normal either. If you only use topical medicine and rub it lighter, or use some hormones to suppress it — the damp-heat inside your body is still there. Has the problem really been solved? It may still produce some other disease. The beauty of this medicine is: I clear the damp-heat and toxin from the inside for you — the skin outside becomes clear, and the hidden danger inside is removed too. We don’t know what that hidden danger is, but someday it might bulge out somewhere, give you a disease from the inside, and you couldn’t bear that either. So when you see the surface lump is gone, it means the damp-heat and toxin inside the body have also been unloaded — this is a good method.

What should you combine it with when using it?

While taking the medicine, your lifestyle has to keep up.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When using this medicine, combine it with a light diet — don’t keep eating spicy food, malatang hotpot, and so on. Stop that. It’s best to boil some water with coix seed (yi mi) and red adzuki beans (chi xiao dou) yourself to clear the dampness, and put a little hawthorn (shan zha) in it to disperse stagnant food — clear things from the inside yourself too. If you have topical Chinese herbal detoxifying powders or ointments, you can also sprinkle or apply a bit. But truly, I believe removing the crisis from the inside is the most important thing — resolving it from the inside matters most.

Who should not take it? — Not for pregnant women; use with caution during menstruation and breastfeeding

However good a medicine is, it has contraindications — this point must be remembered firmly.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Pregnant women shouldn’t take it. The package insert also says don’t take it during menstruation — this is also “use with caution” — use with caution during menstruation and breastfeeding. Apart from that, generally for people I’ve seen with a patch of red rash, a patch of red bumps, or sores and abscesses, the effect after using it was especially good — it never gets to the ulcerating stage.

Skin problems after the pandemic: many people need it

Finally, Doctor Luo specifically mentions a phenomenon: after the pandemic, quite a lot of people developed skin problems.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: After the pandemic, quite a lot of people developed all kinds of skin itching and red bumps — many people, like that. When there is stagnation inside the body and residual pathogen not yet cleared, it tends to erupt on the skin. If you notice it, you can use Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan to remove the after-effects left by the pandemic — skin itching, all kinds of red bumps on the skin, all these symptoms — clear them away, and the effect is very good.

In the coming lectures, Doctor Luo Dalun will continue introducing more patent medicines. Those good medicines “lying on the pharmacy shelves that nobody knows how to use” will meet everyone one by one.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s series on Chinese patent medicines. Pi Fu Bing Xue Du Wan is a patent medicine of Tong Ren Tang and other time-honored pharmacies.