Of our three kids, one has rhinitis, another pharyngitis, and I myself have suffered chronic rhinitis for years—every winter it flares up on schedule, yellow snot and thick phlegm, an entire season of misery, often so bad I can’t sleep through the night.
We’ve seen countless TCM and Western doctors—most useless, a few barely helpful, none able to cure it; it waxes and wanes, always comes back.
Leave it alone and it triggers colds, fevers, even pneumonia. Treat it with drugs or shots and, for some reason, we get stomach aches, diarrhea, no appetite for days—side effects are brutal. Come autumn and winter the kids tag-team me, one after another, leaving this single mom run ragged, racing on empty.
No wonder people say famous doctors won’t touch rhinitis or pharyngitis—especially allergic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis, chronic pharyngitis! Why? Because they can’t cure it, and it ruins their reputation; once word spreads, patients with other ailments won’t come either.
So I burned through almost ten years of this torment, my old fiery self ground down into a “lazy mom.” My heart wanted, my strength didn’t—so I flat-lined. Then last year, by fate, I met Dao Yi as my teacher; under his clear guidance—transmitting the Way, giving instruction, dispelling doubts—I finally understood: to truly cure rhinitis and pharyngitis is indeed no picnic, yet once you find the root, every person can become the doctor who heals with a single dose, the great physician who treats before disease strikes, the miracle healer who cures without drugs, because the Great Way is simple, and the medical Way is simple. When a Daoist physician speaks of rhinitis, he digs to the bottom: one single word. One needle, one drop of blood, one word worth a thousand gold. So—where is the root of rhinitis?
In the lungs—it’s 【lung deficiency】. And where is the root of lung deficiency? In the gut. First the small intestine, then the large. Because the two intestines move together: when they mutually generate, the small bowel’s healthy qi pulls the large; when they mutually restrain, the large bowel’s pathogenic qi blocks the small. Small-intestine qi enters the heart; turbid qi from the small intestine blazing into the heart creates heart-fire, since heart and small intestine are interior-exterior partners. The heart stores spirit; through the blood-oxygen barrier, heart and lung intersect. Heart belongs to fire, lung to metal—fire conquers metal 🔥, so heart-fire restrains lung-metal, producing 【heat in the lung that begets phlegm】; the lung opens at the nose, so rhinitis begins.
At first, cold toxins show via the small intestine—belly bloat, cramps, a dull ache in the lower abdomen; in the end they exit through the large intestine—diarrhea, constipation, or both alternating. Use a painkiller or fever-reducer and the intestinal illness and course at least double. Add antibiotics and it triples or more, because normal flora are destroyed, intestinal epithelium and micro-vascular endothelium wounded. Throw in repeatedly those “clear-heat detox” Chinese patent formulas and rhinitis or pharyngitis never heals, or it sinks deeper—bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli—turning into pneumonia, lung nodules, asthma. This is exactly what the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon calls “lung and large intestine are interior-exterior.” The lung opens at the nose, so Master says: to cure asthma you must cure rhinitis; to cure rhinitis you must 【regulate the intestines】.
The dazzling array of patent pills in pharmacies only treat the lung, not the gut—hence rhinitis never heals, even worsens. Worse, most Chinese formulas for rhinitis, pharyngitis, cough, wheeze, fever, pain either 【injure kidney】 or 【injure liver】 or are cold-natured and 【injure the intestines】, so the label warns: “Use with caution in liver or kidney insufficiency, allergic constitution; contraindicated in spleen-stomach weakness.”
Take drug toxicity: just look at aristolochic acid in asarum and guan-mu-tong. Via the gut-kidney and gut-liver axes it cycles back to the intestines—mild cases: toxins enter kidney, poor digestion; severe: acute or chronic renal failure, even urinary-tract or liver cancer.
The US banned all herbs and products containing aristolochic acid in 2000. Taiwan, 2003: banned five such herbs—guan-mu-tong, guang-fang-ji, qing-mu-xiang, tian-xian-teng, ma-dou-ling—and revoked fifty related licenses. Hong Kong, 2004: banned twenty-one aristolochic-acid patents, mostly for rhinitis, sore throat, colds, cough, wheeze, pain—big-name formulas like Bi-Min-Ning, Bi-Min-Tong, Ma-Huang-Fu-Zi-Xi-Xin Tang, Shun-Qi-Hua-Tan-Zhi-Ke Pills, Xiao-Ke-Ping-Chuan Oral Liquid, Chuan-Xi-Ling Capsules, Fei-An Tablets, Compound She-Dan-Chuan-Bei Powder, Xiao-Qing-Long Tang, Bai-Feng Pills, Long-Dan-Xie-Gan Pills, San-Bi Tang, Feng-Shi Pills, Zhui-Feng-Tou-Gu Pills, Du-Zhong-Jin-Gu-Bi-Tong Pills… Regrettably, to this day such respiratory and immune patents are still sold across mainland pharmacies and tucked in family drawers. Few get clearly better; many leave in a fog. Twenty years—life and death stretch vast, yet hard to forget.
For laypeople, drug toxins are impossible to guard against. Thus, the first step to cure is: take no drugs—so-called healing without medicine. Step two: at the right time, eat the right food—nutritious food. Step three: use natural, simple methods to expel or break down toxins quickly, cheaply, effectively. Ancient doctors lumped these toxins under one word: 【cold】.
Studying the lost Daoist ancient ways with Master, I finally realized: 【the miracle doctor dwells inside you】—your inborn 【self-healing power】! Aim true, methods right, and that power ignites in an instant. Wind-cold cough, cold-fever—settled at home in one hour. Chronic pharyngitis—cured in three days. Twenty-year chronic rhinitis—gone within two weeks, no hospital run. Treatment time is shorter than the traffic jam and queue you’d waste getting there.
Days without illness: daily sunshine, fragrant grass, petals swirling; at forty, I turn my head—why worry, why doubt? Know the what, know the why!
Woman, born soft; mother, forged strong. I’d love to copy Meng Mu’s three moves or Yue Mother’s “Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty” tattoo—establish conscience for Heaven and Earth—too grand! Besides, when you die no name remains. But to spare my children illness—here I go all-out! And while I’m at it, carry the lost learning for past sages, open peace for ten-thousand generations, and spread the name of 【Lazy Mom Lily】—why should a woman yield to any man!
Thus I heard: the Dao is never far from people; beyond the mind there is no Dharma. How to achieve 【Heaven-human oneness, seeking nothing outside】? Start by 【sinking qi to the dantian, keeping awareness on guan-yuan】—【cultivate body and mind, clarify the Dao】—which already contains the meaning of 【dispelling heart-fire】 and 【cleansing the intestines】. Cure rhinitis at the root, wipe out asthma, benefit all beings. Master says: one mind turned to good shall surely bear good fruit.