 Throughout the history of Chinese medicine, there's been one very, very famous method of herb administration, which is called a decoction, or tang in Chinese. Now, basically it's a soup, right? You boil the herbs in a pot and you drink them. But in this video, I thought I would share how to actually make a famous formula called gugantang. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hine, author of the health book Master of the Day and doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. So before we jump into this video here, there's two very important links right below the video. The first is for a free guide, which is four daily rituals that could potentially help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. And the second is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, you can reach out to my clinic and my practice with the link right below this video. So first, let's hop on over to the kitchen. I'm going to go through the original text with you talking about this formula from a couple hundred years after Christ. And then we're going to make it on the stove top together and we're going to test it out. So let's go. All right, guys. So now that we're in the kitchen, I want to show you the original text that this formula comes from. So come on over and check it out. And so I'm going to read it for you here. We talked about we can't use that one Mahuang, right? But here you go. Line 14 in a text called a Shanghan Lun. It says Taiyang disease or the illness is in the Taiyang, which is the superficial level. Like when you get a cold, stiff back of your neck, there's sweating and there's cold a version. So it's like when you get a chill up your back and it says greater job. Guggen Tong is the formula to do it, right? Masters it, governs. So let's take a look at this formula as ingredients, Guggen for the young. We're using more of the modern beyond, which is basically three grams per the young. So it's 12 grams. Other practitioners disagree on that number, but we're not using the Mahuang. Guajir Tu Liang, so we'll say six grams, Baixiao, six grams, Fresh Ginger, nine grams, Honey Fried Licorice, six grams, and then Dazao Dates, 12 pieces. We're just going to use six grams for that. Okay. And this is the preparation ingredients and instructions for this formula, how exactly to prepare it. So let's take a look over here at the herbs. Some of these herbs that I was missing, I have them already in here. So we're going to dump these in there and I'll show you what some of these are here. All right. The big red one is the Dazao, the date. And you can see these big square chunks is Guggen Kudzu. This is really effective for colds and upper respiratory issues involving the sinuses or rhinitis, runny nose, that sort of thing. All right. So there's a large dosage of that. And then some of these little thinner white pieces is Baixiao, which is peony. All right. You can see that. And then let's add the cinnamon twig. All right. We said six grams for that. All right. So I'm just going to take this. I'm just going to go to six. We're going to add the Honey Fried Licorice, six grams of that. And the last thing is the Fresh Ginger and nine. It's just from the market. It's pretty weak in terms of ginger, but I'm just going to slice this up here. All right, guys. So now that we have the water, basically this is about six cups. And I'm just going to dump this right in there. You know, the Dazao, which is the dates, the Guggen, the Kudzu, you see the cinnamon twig, you see the Honey Fried Licorice, the ginger sinks and the Baixiao, the peony. You can see that. And then we're going to go bring it over to the stove. And then when it basically comes to a boil, we're going to simmer it for about 40 minutes. We're going to strain that out and re-boil it again for 40 minutes. So we'll catch you in about an hour and a half after we boil this twice. We'll do a little tasting. I'm going to make Chris taste it, too. So in case you project all vomits on camera, you guys are going to know why because of this formula. So we'll try it in about an hour and a half, and then we'll wrap this video up. All right, guys. So the timer has gone off. So we're going to walk on over here and come check out this formula really quick so you can see this, what this looks like, the final product. So it's a very thick and soupy mix, very dark red. Smells very cinnamon-y and ginger-y in here. So now, you know, typically we would strain it. So what we can do is we can use a French press like this. Nice color there. You look at these, the herb matter, pretty nice, those big dots out of the dates, the ginger. We're going to pour it in here so you guys can see the color because it is a beautiful color to it. All right. And so it's a pretty thick kind of soupy mix. And then typically what we would do is I reduce the six cups to about three and then take one cup three times a day when you're acutely ill. So let's try this, this little chemistry set. Very tasty. It's like a very thick kind of chicken soup taste with sweet ginger cinnamon. Tastes good. So that's how you make a traditional herbal decoction on the stovetop, right? We've taken the raw herbs, we brought them to boil and then simmered them and then we've broken it down into our, this would be probably a dose and a half for three doses in a day. So that's actually how to make a Chinese herbal decoction. We actually ended up making what's called Guizhou Jia Guigintang, not actually Guigintang because mahuang, the herb of federa, is illegal in the U.S. and so I can't import it, which is a tragedy. But that's a little bit of an intro on how to make this formula, what the formula does and what the individual constituents in this formula actually do. Because Chinese medicine is very distinct in that we only really primarily use combinations of herbs as opposed to just single herbs, you know, drinking chamomile tea to help you sleep for example or Valyrian root. They're almost always compounded into formulas. Very very special and very unique in that way. So that's all I have for you today guys. Don't forget to check out these related videos right there and I'll see you soon.