Guard the Origin Elixir

Pattern-based

• Congenital weakness and essence depletion
• Deep fatigue unrelieved by rest
• Weakness of Liver and Kidney with dizziness

Biomedical correlates

• Burnout-type exhaustion
• Convalescence from major illness
• Age-related decline in vitality

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

凡男子方當壯年而眞氣猶怯, 此乃稟賦素弱, 非虛而然. 僣燥之藥, 尤宜速戒. 滋益之方, 群品稍衆, 藥力細微, 難見功效. 但固天元一氣, 使水升火降, 則五藏自和, 百病不生, 此方主之. 鹿茸(酥灸)ㆍ當歸ㆍ山茱萸 各四兩, 麝香 五錢(另硏). 右爲末, 酒麪糊和丸梧子大. 溫酒或鹽湯下七十丸至百丸. 《得效》

Translation

When a man in the very prime of life finds his true Qi still timid, this is an endowment weak from the start — not something vacuity has done to him. Presumptuous drying medicines are above all to be sworn off quickly; and though enriching, boosting formulas are many, their strength is too fine and slight to show effect. Only make firm the one Qi of the Heavenly Origin, so that Water ascends and Fire descends — then the five viscera harmonize of themselves and the hundred diseases do not arise. This formula governs that. Butter-roasted deer antler, Korean angelica, and cornus, 4 nyang each; musk 5 don, ground separately. Powder the above and bind with a wine-and-wheat-flour paste into pills the size of parasol-tree seeds; take 70 to 100 pills with warm wine or salted water. — Deukhyo 得效 (Donguibogam · Heoro)