From what I can tell from my clinical experience it’s more of a texture or taste preference that makes one choose manna or oil. If our patients say, “Oh my word, I can’t eat a tablespoon of oil everyday,” we suggest the manna and they have a better time with following instructions.

You may get different advice from another source, but this has been my experience so far.

Thanks for reading my blog! ~Dr. Heather

In Chinese medicine we have three kinds of herbal formulas: those that tonify or nourish the body and those that help rid of acute or excess conditions and those that do both. Some herbalists will suggest that during an acute or excess condition you don’t take a tonifying formula. For example, if you have a cold, don’t continue to take Six Flavor Teapills, take Yin Chiao San until your cold is resolved and then continue to take Six Flavor Teapills. Other herbalists say is doesn’t matter and you can take both at the same time no matter whether you have a cold or not. It depends on the experience of your herbalist what advice they will give you.

Six Flavor Teapills (Liu Wei Di Huang Wan) is a tonifying formula. Your question about whether you can take it with Free And Easy Wanderer (Xiao Yan San) http://drheathersherbs.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_7&products_id=57 is a great one. Xiao Yao San can be seen as a tonifying and reducing excess formula. This is because it is formulated to help reduce the symptoms related with stress that upset our digestive tract, while strengthening digestion and nourishing our blood.

When taking two formulas at the same time, we also have to think about herbs that don’t interact well with each other. Most of the time in Chinese medicine those interactions just mean that the herbs won’t work as well. For example, ginseng and Chinese radish shouldn’t be taken at the same time because the radish is said to make the ginseng less effective. Green tea is said to reduce the potency of some herbal formulas while enhancing other herbal formulas. It’s best to always ask an herbalist about interactions before mixing formulas. The good news though, is that most of the time these interactions are simply that the formula isn’t as affective and we won’t likely see severe symptoms that can appear with taking medications that don’t mix.

The classical ingredients in Free and Easy Wanderer are:
Buplerum / Radix Bupleuri (Chai Hu)
Chinese Angelica / Radix Angelicar Sinensis (Dang Gui)
White Peony Root / Radix Paeoniae Alba (Bai Shao)
White Atractylodes/ Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (Bai Zhu)
Poria (Fu Ling)
Honey Fried or Baked Licorice / Radix et Rhizoma Glycyrrhizae Praeparata cum Melle (Zhi Gan Cao)

These ingredients should not interact with the ingredients in Six Flavor Teapills (Liu Wei Di Huang Wan) or Lycii Chrysanthemum Teapills (Qi Jui Di Huang Wan).

As for your question about taking Lycii Chrysanthemum Teapills (Qi Jui Di Huang Wan) http://drheathersherbs.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_11&products_id=55 at the same time as the Six Flavor Teapills, it’s not necessary to take both. This is because Lycii Chrysanthemum Teapills is a modified version of Six Flavor Teapills. The classical ingredients of Lycii Chrysanthemum Teapills are exactly the same as Six Flavor Teapills plus two ingredients: Chinese Wolfberry/ Fructus Lycii (Gou Qi Zi) and Chrysanthemum/ Flos Chrysanthemi (Ju Hua). These two ingredients are added to help issues dealing with vision. Thus, a patient taking this formula will have the benefits of Six Flavor Teapills, plus the benefits of the herbs for vision care.

Hope that was helpful, if you have any other questions, please ask! ~Dr. Heather

thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Sometimes with stress we see digestive issues that are worsened by stress. Free & Easy Wanderer is meant for these digestive issues. If a patient is stressed with a dry mouth, dry throat, lassitude, and a lack of appetite a traditional Chinese medicine herbalist would recommend this formula. In fact, this formula is used to treat anorexia and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). A study was done on IBS patients using a modified version of Free & Easy Wanderer in 52 patients for 1-2 months with a complete recovery in 34 patients and improvement in 18- those are pretty great numbers! However, in the patients that had diarrhea, they eliminated the Angelica aka Radiz Angelicae Sinensis (Dang Gui) because it could make the bowel movements looser. Angelica is used in other formulas to help with constipation due to “blood deficiency.” Usually only malnourished people, elderly people, postpartum women, those in the late stages of chronic illnesses, or those who have chronic constipation have constipation due to “blood deficiency” though, and this herb isn’t the first ingredient many herbalists would throw into a constipation formula, nonetheless it could make bowel movements looser.

If you feel like your bowel movements are too frequent and too loose, you could talk to your herbalist about
1) Choosing a different formula
2) Making you a powder version of this formula without the Angelica that you would mix with water and drink
3) Try Decompress by Herbalogic. Even though it has Angelica in it, it is a different form than the teapills and might behave differently in your body. You can find out more about Decompress here: http://drheathersherbs.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_7&products_id=100
I actually prefer Decompress. It is a tincture and uses a Brazilian sugar cane vodka to pull the active ingredients from the herbs into your blood system. I have taken Decompress and other formulas made by Herbalogic and had results within seconds by holding the herbal formula under my tongue for thirty seconds before swallowing. I also know the people that make the product, and trust them fully to make a great product for the masses that I feel comfortable recommending (We studied in the same graduate school).

On a side note, Free & Easy Wanderer is also the base formula for many gynecological disorders and chronic liver disorders. This formula is more often used today for people with busy lifestyles, high stress, or emotional instability. Many women take it around the time of their periods to help with PMS symptoms.

Free & Easy Wanderer (Xiao Yao San) is indicated in traditional Chinese medicine to:
1) sooth the liver and relieve qi stagnation- Which relates to the liver acupuncture channel and translates into “helping stress” in English
2) strengthen the speen- Which relates to the spleen acupuncture channel, which means “helping digestive issues generally caused or made worse by stress.”
3) Nourishes the blood- The liver and spleen acupuncture channels both have jobs with blood, so if their qi is “damaged” or not moving properly, the blood needs some nourishment and attention.

Hope this helps, if you need more information, please let me know.
Thanks, Dr. Heather Johnson, D.O.M.