Traditional Medicine Doctor Licensing Exam flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Yin-yang interdependence

Yin and yang depend on each other for existence; neither can exist alone. Deficiency of one eventually damages the other, as in yang deficiency leading to yin excess or cold.

Five phases controlling cycle

The controlling cycle restrains overgrowth: wood controls earth, earth controls water, water controls fire, fire controls metal, and metal controls wood. Disruption produces pathological over-control or counter-control.

Qi functions

Qi promotes growth, warms the body, defends the surface, holds fluids and blood in place, and drives transformation. Deficiency produces fatigue, coldness, spontaneous sweating, and fluid loss.

Six excesses

Wind, cold, summerheat, damp, dryness, and fire are external pathogens. Wind is yang and moves rapidly; damp is heavy and lingering; cold contracts and causes pain.

Floating pulse

A floating pulse is felt with light pressure and diminishes with heavy pressure. It indicates an exterior pattern, such as wind-cold or wind-heat invasion at the body surface.

Tongue coat meaning

A thick greasy coat indicates damp-turbidity or phlegm; a peeled coat indicates yin deficiency; a yellow coat indicates heat, and a white coat indicates cold or exterior patterns.

Shaoyang pattern

Shaoyang disease shows alternating chills and fever, bitter taste, dry throat, dizziness, hypochondriac fullness, and a wiry pulse. Treatment harmonizes with xiao chai hu tang.

Four-level differentiation

Wenbing stages progress wei, qi, ying, and xue. Wei is early exterior; qi is deeper heat; ying and xue show night fever, macules, and deep red tongue.

Eighteen incompatibilities

Classical pairs that should not be combined, such as wutou with banxia or gualou, and gancao with gan sui, daji, yuanhua, or haizao, because toxicity or severe reaction may result.

Decoction timing rules

Aromatic herbs are added near the end to preserve volatile oils; minerals and shells are decocted first; gelatinous herbs such as ejiao are melted separately in the strained decoction.

Fuzi processing and toxicity

Fuzi (aconite) is toxic and must be processed and decocted first for at least thirty minutes. Overdose causes numbness, palpitations, and arrhythmia requiring urgent care.

Four qi and five flavors

Herbs have cold, cool, warm, or hot nature and sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, or salty flavor. Sour astringes, bitter drains, sweet tonifies, pungent disperses, and salty softens.

Gui zhi tang indication

Gui zhi tang treats taiyang wind-strike with headache, fever, aversion to wind, spontaneous sweating, and a floating moderate pulse. It harmonizes ying and wei.

Jun-chen-zuo-shi

Formula composition assigns a sovereign herb for the main pattern, a minister to reinforce it, an assistant to treat secondary signs or moderate toxicity, and an envoy to guide and harmonize.

Si jun zi tang

Si jun zi tang contains renshen, baizhu, fuling, and gancao. It tonifies spleen qi for fatigue, poor appetite, and loose stools; adding si wu tang forms ba zhen tang.

Liu wei di huang wan

Liu wei di huang wan nourishes kidney yin with shudi, shanyao, shanzhuyu, fuling, zexie, and mudanpi. Adding zhi mu and huangbai addresses yin deficiency with fire.

Treat root and branch

The root is the underlying cause and the branch is the presenting symptom. In acute severe illness treat the branch first; in chronic deficiency treat the root.

Xiao ke differentiation

Xiao ke divides into upper, middle, and lower types. Upper thirst uses xiao ke fang, middle excessive hunger uses yu nu jian, and lower frequent urination uses liu wei di huang wan.

Liver-yang rising

Liver-yang rising causes headache, dizziness, red face, irritability, and a wiry pulse, often in hypertension. Tian ma gou teng yin clears heat and subdues yang.

Diarrhea pattern herbs

Damp-heat diarrhea uses ge gen qin lian tang; spleen-deficiency diarrhea uses shen ling bai zhu san; kidney-yang diarrhea before dawn uses si shen wan.

Meridian pairing

Yin and yang meridians pair as lung-large intestine, spleen-stomach, heart-small intestine, kidney-bladder, pericardium-triple burner, and liver-gallbladder, linked in a continuous flow.

De qi sensation

De qi is the arrival of qi, felt as soreness, numbness, heaviness, or distension around the needle. It indicates effective stimulation and differs from sharp pain.

Needling contraindications

Avoid needling points such as hegu and sanyinjiao and the abdomen or lumbosacral area in pregnancy, and avoid deep needling over the lung apex, large vessels, and tumors.

Moxibustion indications

Moxibustion warms meridians and disperses cold, making it suitable for cold, deficiency, and yang-deficiency patterns. It is avoided in heat patterns and over the face or large vessels.

Abscess stage treatment

External abscesses progress from early to pus to late stage. Early treatment disperses with heat-clearing herbs, the pus stage drains, and the late stage tonifies to promote healing.

Dysmenorrhea formulas

Cold-induced dysmenorrhea uses wen jing tang; qi stagnation uses xiao yao san; blood stasis uses ge xia zhu yu tang. Pattern differentiation guides formula selection.

Fracture healing stages

Fracture care invigorates blood early, nourishes blood and connects bone in the middle, and tonifies liver and kidney to strengthen bone late, often with taohong siwu tang initially.

Informed consent elements

Informed consent requires explaining diagnosis, proposed treatment, alternatives, and material risks in understandable language, then documenting the patient's voluntary decision.

Confidentiality exceptions

Patient confidentiality may be breached only with consent or where law mandates reporting, such as notifiable infectious diseases, suspected abuse, or certain adverse drug reactions.

Scope of practice

A licensed practitioner must practice only within the licensed scope and refer patients whose conditions exceed that scope, documenting the referral and rationale.

Herb-warfarin interaction

Danggui, dan shen, and ginkgo can increase bleeding risk with warfarin. Monitor INR, counsel the patient, and coordinate with the prescribing physician before continuing.

Aristolochic acid nephrotoxicity

Guang fang ji and mu tong may contain aristolochic acid, which is nephrotoxic and carcinogenic. Avoid these herbs and screen imported products for adulteration.