Heavenly Herbs & Acupuncture Blog

Yunnan Bai Yao

My first experience many years ago with this traditional Chinese medicine was dramatic. I was studying in Taiwan. One afternoon I fell in my tiny shower and cut a deep crescent of forehead and scalp open on the shower head bracket. Bleeding profusely, not speaking Chinese well yet, I got dressed, clamped a towel over my forehead, and ran across the street to my teacher. He took one look and got out some brown powder, which he sprinkled into the wound, and made me also swallow some. I thought I would be getting an infection and probably die far from home with this strange treatment. I had been imagining stitches, scarring, and pain. However, the bleeding stopped immediately and there was no swelling or pain. After less than a week of taking more of the Yunnan Bai Yao daily and placing it on the cut, the wound was nearly healed. After only a week, the large curved flap looked like an old wound, and it healed with almost no scar. I generally scar and bruise easily so this was amazing. Now, years later, there’s no mark. I still use it on any cut, before going to the dentist or having a procedure like a colonoscopy, and on my cat as well, in small doses.

Once I was at a workshop, and a friend there had been having violent nosebleeds. As the evening went on his nose began to bleed profusely. I always carry some Yunnan Bai Yao in my purse for emergencies. Another friend who is a TCM practitioner was there, and we gave the “emergency pill” to our friend, and had him snort some of the powder into his nose. The bleeding stopped. He went to a local emergency room where he had recently been treated for the nosebleeds, and the doctors there were very surprised at the lack of bleeding and swelling they expected to see. He did not need a painful cauterization, and even was able to rejoin our gathering.

More recently I recommended it to a friend about to have surgery on her nose. She and her surgeon expected her nose would be quite disfigured as the cancer on her nose would have to be dug out, bit by bit, leaving a pit. However, she took the red “emergency pill” in the packet of Yunnan Bai Yao the day before the surgery, swallowed some of the capsules and following her surgery she used the powdered form in the wound and took the capsules daily. It healed with little swelling or bruising in a very short time, and after a few weeks her nose showed no sign of the procedure. The depression in the tip of the nose filled in completely. Her surgeon was astounded, and very interested in learning more about this Chinese “wonder drug.”

J Walker