Kelp Pill

Four drugs in equal parts and only one of them is doing the work. Kelp is the chief; green tangerine peel and tangerine peel move the bound Qi of the chest and flanks where these nodes sit, and fritillary softens. The dosage form is the point — a honey pill the size of a bullet, held in the mouth after food and allowed to dissolve slowly rather than swallowed, so that what is in it washes over the throat on the way down. That is a deliberate choice for the two things named. 癭氣 is goitre, and 痰核 in this section is a soft, mobile subcutaneous node — 痰癧推動滑軟, the 結核 passage says, a phlegm node that pushes about, slippery and soft, which is how it distinguishes these from the hard fixed chains of 瘰癧. Kelp carries a large amount of iodine, and for simple iodine-deficiency goitre this formula would actually have worked, which makes it one of the few genuinely effective prescriptions in the chapter. **The same iodine load can precipitate or worsen hyperthyroidism and can suppress thyroid function in a susceptible patient, and a thyroid or neck mass needs assessment before anything is given for it.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.