I agree mainly with herb ox above that this is a jow formula and his indications are right on. To clarify on the coptis, there are several types of jows, some are cooling for acute problems and some should be warming for more chronic conditions. The coptis is there to provide a cooling energy to the formula. Honestly, this does not seem like a very targeted formula because of the mix of warming and cooling herbs especially the ginger. Even though it is common to see combinations of cooling and warming herbs in herbal formulas, this one does not seem to focus on the stage of the injury or even have the best ingredients for a jow formula. I think there are better formulas on the market than this one.
[QUOTE=Royal Dragon;753890]I have it soaking in my Rice wine as we speak.[/QUOTE]
Not much into jaws myself… I was thinking it sounds like a nice hot-soak recipe and could be made with a few hours of bioling in water then thickened with aloe. Very good for battered skin on the hands and feet, I think. My herbal intrests tend to run mor along the holistic. Everything listed would make a fantastic hot soak for bum joints or rough, broken skin.
[QUOTE=Royal Dragon;752900] this one does not seem to focus on the stage of the injury or even have the best ingredients for a jow formula.
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Could you expand on that thought a bit?[/QUOTE]
Sure I can expand on my thoughts, assuming this is a formula for external application after an injury there are different stages of the healing process. The first stage is the acute inflammation with the typical redness, swelling, loss of function, pain, and heat. In this stage of the injury cool and cold herbs should be emphasized (i.e. da huang, zhi zi, pu gong yin) in addition to the herbs that move blood and tonify the kidney (like in the formula now). Coptis is in the formula now and is cold but should be more in a higher dosage if used alone or should be used in combination with the herbs I mentioned above. The cool and cold herbs also have to be in this formula to offset the warming properties of the blood moving and kidney tonifying herbs. The second stage is the healing phase when tonification and mild blood moving should be emphasized. For this part the formula is okay, personally I would just remove the ginger root (I don’t really know why it is there in the first place. It is actually a skin irritant and can be used in cold moxabustion to blister the skin. The ginger root in this formula actually makes me think it may have been for internal use originally.) I would reduce or remove the coptis at this point.
This is just my opinion from my experience in TCM school working with a lot of orthopedic problems. Basically I am just saying one jow does not fit all. I am also lucky that I have the school’s herbal dispensary to use. By the way, you don’t have to soak the herbs in alcohol for a long time, I usually powder it for my patients and have them mix it with vodka type alcohol and apply like a plaster.
The formula can be used as a Iron Palm formula. I would use the cooling formula immediately after the training to control the inflammation. Since iron palm training causes minor injuries each time you train and then the body heals stronger, you want to tonify in between training. This formula has some good tonification herbs. To tonify strongly you should take internal herbs to make the bones, muscles, skin and tendons stronger. Unfortunately the herbs that tonify well are also very warming so you should see an herbalist to see if you can take the tonifying herbs or one better suited for your constitution.
[QUOTE=Po Chi Lam;754022]The formula can be used as a Iron Palm formula.[/QUOTE]
Each group/person will do their training a bit differently and if it works for you or your group, all the power to you–theres more than 1 way to skin a cat and I feel its important to be open to the fact that others will go about things differently and still obtain good results.
Nevertheless, while this formula probably works decently for basic tendon/bone trauma or limb knocking exercises, I wouldnt feel very comfortable using it for iron hand training. Other than the 4 kidney/liver tonics, theres not a whole lot in the way of representative iron hand herbs.
