Three Kernel Decoction is a dampness-expelling formula. As the humidity is heavy in spring, it is important to focus on expelling dampness for health maintenance. So how does traditional Chinese medicine use Three Kernel Decoction to treat damp-heat diseases in spring?
The main ingredients in this formula are apricot kernel, white cardamom seed, and coix seed. Hence the name "Three Kernel Decoction". The main effects of this formula are clearing and promoting the flow of damp-heat and regulating the Qi movement in the Triple Burner.
It is primarily used to treat early-stage damp-heat diseases and conditions caused by the combination of summer heat and dampness. Symptoms include headache, aversion to cold with little sweating, heavy and painful body, pale yellow complexion, chest tightness with poor appetite, afternoon fever, feeling of heaviness in the head, white and greasy tongue coating, and thin and slippery pulse.
The months of July, August, and September are the hottest and the peak season for damp-heat diseases.
During this time, the scorching heat and heavy rain increase the dampness. The spleen and stomach are located in the middle burner of the body, and the spleen dislikes dampness and prefers dryness. When dampness is excessive, the functions of the spleen and stomach become sluggish. If one indulges in cold drinks and lies in damp places for a long time, it will lead to external invasion of damp-heat and internal injury to the spleen and stomach, resulting in the pathological mechanism of external dampness blocking the defense system and internal dampness stagnating and injuring the spleen.
As the Qing Dynasty physician Xue Shengbai said, "Internal injury of the spleen results in accumulated dampness and stagnation of dampness and pathogens, leading to the combination of internal and external damp-heat diseases." Three Kernel Decoction is designed for this purpose.
Therefore, during the seasons with high humidity in summer and autumn, it is most likely to develop damp-heat diseases, and Three Kernel Decoction is the formula to use at that time.
