I always feel that my mouth is dry and bitter in the morning, and my stomach often has acid reflux. What’s wrong with me?

In fact, these three symptoms are common in chronic atrophic gastritis. Having these symptoms indicates that there may be a problem with your stomach.

Let’s first look at the bitter taste in the mouth. Under normal circumstances, our mouth has no peculiar taste, and the oral cavity is moist, which indicates that you are healthy.

If there is a bitter taste in the mouth, it means that there is fire in the liver and gallbladder. Because fire has the nature of rising, the ascending fire will carry the bitter taste of bile upward. And bile is very bitter. We often say “bitter gallbladder”. A bitter mouth indicates that the fire in the liver and gallbladder has carried the bile upward.

As for dry mouth, it is exactly a manifestation of excessive fire injuring body fluids and the deficiency of body fluids. When the fire is vigorous, it will of course cause dry mouth, and dry mouth means the insufficiency of body fluids.

So, what is the reason for the frequent feeling of acid reflux in the stomach?

We know that the stomach secretes a lot of gastric acid every day. This gastric acid is the sour water. If there is something wrong with the stomach, this sour water will overflow upward and reach the mouth, and of course, it will make people feel unbearably sour.

Therefore, by combining these three symptoms, we can know that the location of this disease is in the liver, gallbladder and stomach, and the nature of the disease is that the fire in the liver and gallbladder disturbs the stomach, causing damage to the stomach. After the stomach is damaged, it leads to acid reflux and vomiting of sour water.

These causes combined together result in a mouth that is both bitter, dry and sour. Western medicine calls this situation bile reflux gastritis, while traditional Chinese medicine believes that this is the liver fire invading the stomach. As long as the fire in the liver and gallbladder is removed, the stomach disease can be cured without treatment, which is exactly what traditional Chinese medicine calls treating the root cause of the disease.

Now that we know the cause of the disease, if we want to treat it, we need to remove the liver fire.

In traditional Chinese medicine, we often say that fire can be divided into excess fire and deficiency fire, and the fire in the liver and gallbladder naturally also has the distinction between excess and deficiency. So the question arises, how can we determine whether the fire in the liver and gallbladder is excess fire or deficiency fire? The so-called excess fire means that although the fire is strong, the body fluids have not been damaged yet, and it is enough to clear the fire during treatment. For deficiency fire, the fire is strong, and at the same time, the body fluids have been dried up. In this case, during treatment, we need to clear the fire and nourish the yin at the same time.

How can we determine whether the body fluids are still sufficient? The simplest way is to look at the tongue. If the tongue is red, dry, lacks body fluids and looks dry, it indicates that the yin has been injured.

For the situation of excess fire in the liver and gallbladder invading the stomach, Zuojin Pill is used, while for deficiency fire invading the stomach, Yiguan Jian is needed. Zuojin Pill is easy to understand. In fact, it uses the bitter and cold nature of Coptis chinensis to clear the liver fire. Coptis chinensis is very cold, and cold can clear heat. Once the liver fire is cleared, the stomach will not have acid reflux. The principle is simple and straightforward.

Now there are proprietary Chinese medicines of Zuojin Pill, and patients with gastric acid and bitter mouth caused by excess fire invading the stomach can take it.

Today, we will focus on introducing Yiguan Jian for deficiency fire invading the stomach.

Each of Glehniae Radix, Ophiopogonis Radix and Angelicae Sinensis Radix 9g, Rehmanniae Radix 18-30g, Lycii Fructus 9-18g, Toosendan Fructus 4.5g.

Because of the insufficiency of yin fluids in the liver and gallbladder, and the yin failing to restrain the yang, the fire in the liver and gallbladder is vigorous. For the acid reflux caused by this deficiency fire invading the stomach, simply clearing the fire is not enough. We also need to nourish the yin by adding “water”. Glehniae Radix, Ophiopogonis Radix, Lycii Fructus and Rehmanniae Radix are all herbs for nourishing yin. By nourishing yin, the dry liver can be moistened, and the fire will naturally not flare up.

Nourishing yin is like rainfall. When the mountain fire is raging, a burst of heavy rain can extinguish the fire.

Among these four herbs, Rehmanniae Radix has the strongest effect of nourishing yin, and it is also used in a large amount, so the effect of nourishing yin is even stronger. Traditional Chinese medicine says that Rehmanniae Radix greatly tonifies the kidney water. When the water is sufficient, the liver wood will not be dry, which is called nourishing and containing the wood.

Moreover, Rehmanniae Radix is cool in nature, which is a way to remove the liver fire. Therefore, among the four herbs for nourishing yin and reducing fire, Rehmanniae Radix is the principal herb.

Ophiopogonis Radix is very moist in texture and does not wither in winter. It receives the cold qi of winter and can moisten and clear the fire.

Especially for the fire in the stomach caused by the liver fire invading the stomach, Ophiopogonis Radix is very suitable.

The function of Glehniae Radix here is very similar to that of Ophiopogonis Radix. It also nourishes the stomach yin. Nourishing yin can restrain the fire, and there is no need to elaborate further. Lycii Fructus is well-known to everyone. It can nourish the kidney yin. The kidney belongs to water and the liver belongs to wood. The liver and kidney share the same origin. Tonifying the kidney water is to tonify the liver yin. The two are interlinked. When one is tonified, the other is also tonified, and when one flourishes, the other also flourishes.

After talking about nourishing yin, let’s talk about nourishing blood. Angelicae Sinensis Radix is used to tonify the liver blood. Because long-term vigorous liver fire will cause damage to the blood, which is called fire scorching and blood injury. Appropriately tonifying the liver blood is conducive to the recovery of the liver. Moreover, whether it is nourishing yin or tonifying blood, it can increase the cool and moist nature of the liver and restrict the fierce nature of the liver fire. The last herb is Toosendan Fructus, which can soothe the liver and regulate qi.

Why do we need to soothe the liver and regulate qi? The principle is like a river. If the water dries up, the fluidity of the water will be poor, which often leads to the impairment of the drainage function of the river channel and the accumulation of garbage inside. Similarly, insufficient liver blood and insufficient liver yin, with slow flow, will also lead to the stagnation of liver qi. And the stagnation of liver qi is the source of all diseases and the enemy of diseases. The flow of qi and body fluids throughout the body cannot do without the dredging function of the liver. Using Toosendan Fructus can restore the dredging nature of the liver.

This also reminds us that although Yiguan Jian is a medicine for nourishing yin, it can also soothe the liver. Since it can soothe the liver, it can treat hypochondriac pain caused by the stagnation of liver qi. The hypochondrium is the area under the jurisdiction of the liver. The liver meridian runs through the hypochondrium, so most hypochondriac pain requires the regulation of the liver.

Many doctors, when using Yiguan Jian, can not only treat stomach diseases with acid regurgitation caused by the liver fire invading the stomach, but also treat hypochondriac pain in the elderly and intercostal neuralgia, making use of the function of Yiguan Jian to nourish yin and soothe the liver.

Yiguan Jian was ingeniously created by the doctor Wei Liuzhou in the Qing Dynasty, specifically for nourishing the liver yin and relieving the stagnation of liver qi. As soon as this prescription came out, it filled a gap in traditional Chinese medicine. Because before that, there were prescriptions for simply nourishing the liver yin, such as Siwu Decoction, and there were also prescriptions for simply soothing the liver, such as Bupleuri Radix Powder for Soothing the Liver. However, there was no prescription for the stagnation of liver qi caused by the deficiency of liver yin. Once Wei Liuzhou’s prescription came out, it greatly enriched the methods of treating the liver in traditional Chinese medicine.

Therefore, just because of this one prescription, the name of this doctor has been passed down and is highly praised by many famous experts. There are indeed some aspects worthy of our deep consideration.

Finally, we use the original text of Wei Liuzhou to summarize the efficacy of this prescription: “Hypochondriac pain, acid regurgitation, acid vomiting, and all liver diseases.”

Note: The content of this article is only for the reference and study of physicians. Do not diagnose and treat by yourself. If you need traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment, please go to a regular medical institution.