Hey, it's Nicholas! 👋

Do you ever have patients coming in with kidney stones or gallstones?

Well for this condition, it turns out that there are some Chinese herbs that are worth their weight in gold.

And you don’t have to wait until the disease is fully developed. Like a superior practitioner who digs a well before they're thirsty, you can treat stones before they form…

If you have patients coming in with stones, either kidney stones or gallstones, there are some traditional Chinese herbs that might help.

And they're easy to remember because many of them have “gold” in the name…

Golden Herbs for Stones

In Chinese medicine, stones are typically attributed to damp-heat—either damp-heat in the lower jiao (urinary stones) or damp-heat in the Gallbladder (gallstones).

There are three herbs that are famous for treating both types of stones:

Jin Qian Cao (lysimachiae herba) is "Gold Coin Leaf" from the category Herbs that Drain Dampness. Its sweet and bland nature promotes urination, while its salty flavor softens hardness and its cold temperature clears heat.

This combination makes Jin Qian Cao perfect for promoting urination, unblocking lin syndrome, and expelling urinary tract stones. For this purpose, it can be used alone in large doses as a tea.

It also clears damp-heat from the Liver and Gallbladder, so it can expel gallstones as well (especially when there's jaundice).

Hai Jin Sha (lygodii spora) is "sea gold sand" or "golden sand of the sea," also from the Drain Dampness category. It promotes urination, unblocks lin syndrome, and expels stones.

This one enters the Bladder and Small Intestine channels, so by itself it's probably better for urinary tract stones. However, because it's so good at expelling stones, it's often combined with other herbs to expel gallstones as well.

🐓 Ji Nei Jin (gigeriae galli endothelium corneum) — "chicken inner gold" — is chicken gizzard lining from the Food Stagnation category. It also dissolves stones, either urinary stones or gallstones.

The gizzard is part of a chicken's digestive tract. Chickens swallow small stones which are stored in the gizzard and help with digestion. So the logic is: chickens eat stones, therefore the gizzard is good for dissolving them.

The Golden Herb for Gallstones

It turns out there's another stone-dissolving herb with gold in the name, but this one is only for gallstones:

Yu Jin (curcumae radix) means "constrained gold." This one comes from the category Herbs that Regulate the Blood. It invigorates blood, breaks up stasis, and relieves Liver constraint.

It also "benefits the Gallbladder," treating gallbladder disorders, jaundice, and gallstones.

Liver qi stagnation can cause gallstones — when qi is constrained, bile doesn't flow properly, damp-heat accumulates, and stones form. So it makes sense that Yu Jin, which resolves that constraint, would help.

A Modern Formula for Gallstones

A formula that puts these golden herbs to work is Lidan Paishi Tablets (benefit the gallbladder and expel stones).

This is a modern patent medicine that was specifically designed to treat gallstones. It uses “golden” herbs like Jin Qian Cao and Yu Jin to dissolve stones, but it also adds in other herbs to clear damp-heat and benefit the gallbladder, like Yin Chen Hao and Da Huang.

Note: because this formula contains Da Huang and Mang Xiao, it is typically contraindicated during pregnancy. 🚫🤰

The Sludge-to-Stone Continuum

But gallbladder stones don’t just form overnight. It starts with crystals — cholesterol crystals, calcium salts — that precipitate out of the bile and accumulate.

These precipitates form a sludge, and if the gallbladder isn’t emptying regularly, this sludge can form into gallstones.

So you may get patients coming in that don't outright have gallstones, but they may have decreased gallbladder function and a thickening of the bile. This is a potential precursor to outright gallstones.

(Remember, the superior practitioner treats disease before symptoms arise. So don't wait until you're thirsty to begin digging a well, and don't wait until the stones have already formed before treating gallstones.)

This is what was happening to my friend Patrick in his clinic: patients were coming in with imaging showing decreased gallbladder function—and their doctors were warning them that if it got worse, the gallbladder might have to come out.

Taking inspiration from these stone-dissolving herbs and modern patent formulas like Li Dan Pian and Lidan Paishi Pian, he created his own custom formula to help his patients get rid of their gallbladder sludge.

(His formula includes more herbs for coursing the Shaoyang, addressing heat, and treating additional symptoms the patients were presenting with.)

So we put this into an online course — Gall Bladder Sludge and Liver Fibrosis: An Herbal Approach — approved by the California Acupuncture Board for 4 CEUs, and it's pending approval by the NCBAHM for 4 PDA points.

Want to learn more?

👉 Download the handouts about Gallbladder Sludge and Li Dan Pian​

👉 Sign up for the waiting list to know when the course goes live​

The Superior Practitioner

So if you have a patient coming in with gallbladder issues, you don’t have to just wait and watch.

Like the Huang Di Nei Jing says:

So be a superior practitioner who treats disease before it is fully developed!

Gallbladder Sludge and Liver Fibrosis: An Herbal Approach What You'll Learn: What is Gallbladder Sludge and how it progresses to gallstones Modern patent medicines for benefitting the gallbladder and treating liver fibrosis Custom formulas for sludge and fibrosis and how to modify them for specific symptoms How to convert to granules 4 CEUs/PDAs for $30 ​ Join the waiting list to be the first to know when it's approved: Join the Waiting List

If you like reading little tidbits about herbs like this one, then you might be interested in the 40 Daily Herbs Facts CEU/PDA Course. It's 10 CEUs for $50!

But that's what I've been working on lately: CEU courses. I'm putting the finishing touches on this Gallbladder course and waiting for it to get approved.

I've also been slowly going through all my single herb quizzes, editing them and adding more questions. I eventually want to make it into a little web app: https://herbs.tcmstudy.net/​

And I still need to do my taxes!

Hope you're having a nice spring,

Nicholas

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