Clear Heat / Drain Fire: Shi Gao

Background-- Shi Gao / Gypsum
Shi Gao is translated as "Stone Paste." In English it is called Gypsum. Gypsum is a crystal that forms in hot climates during the evaporation of sea water. It's made of calcium sulphate, a bunch of other trace minerals, and water. It's used in the manufacture of Plaster of Paris (the gypsum is heated to expel the water), and is in your walls as "sheet rock"--you know those big, heavy white boards they build walls out of. It is a relatively soft mineral and has been in use for many purposes for centuries. The Egyptians used Gypsum to plaster some of their pyramids. Gypsum has also been used for hundreds of years as a soil amendment/fertilizer. Alabaster (Italian Gypsum) is a finely crystalline version of Gypsum. The United States is a world leader in gypsum "production." (Can you actually "produce" or "grow" Gypsum? Maybe. I don't know.)
Above: Some of the largest Gypsum crystals ever found. These are in Mexico.

For healing purposes, Gypsum is used in making plaster casts for fractures. It is also used in tofu as a coagulant, making it a major source of dietary calcium (hence, no need for dairy!). And, of course, last but not least, it is used as a medicine in TCM.

Shi Gao ("Stone Paste")
Gypsum is very cold in nature, so it can tackle the very hot diseases -- typically yangming stage febrile disease. It does in fact look like ice crystals. According to Bensky, it is used for "excess in the qi level of the four levels of disease, or the yang brightness channel stage of the six stages." It's good for "the four bigs":

Big fever, big sweat, big thirst, big pulse.

Accompanying the four bigs you will have restlessness, and so it helps rid of this, too.

Shi Gao travels the Lung and Stomach meridians.

Lung symptoms resolved by Shi Gao: Lung Heat- cough, thick sputum, fever, thirst, asthma.



Stomach symptoms: Stomach fire with headache, swollen and painful gums, and TOOTHACHE.

Topical uses: (in the "Duan" or charred form) it can treat eczema, burns, ulcerated sores.

This is sounding like a flashcard, so I'm going to draw a picture of a very sick patient with all of these symptoms. The perfect candidate for Shi Gao:

It is summertime and it's hot. Gypsie Um, an otherwise healthy young woman, gets sick. Her fever worsens. She has no chills. She keeps asking for ice cold drinks and can't seem to cool down. She's sweating up a storm and is practically naked because any clothes or bedclothes are too hot for her. This might start sounding like a steamy sex scene, except that her bright red tongue has a very un-sexy thick yellow coating on it and she's coughing up a bunch of thick sputum and is wheezing. On top of that, she has a headache, swollen painful gums, and now she's getting a toothache. She's also breaking out with eczema and in her attempt to try to look better she burns herself with a curling iron. Gypsie Um is in bad shape. She's beginning to feel confused and is muttering something about wanting to eat sheetrock. And she's crabby. Who wouldn't be?

Her friend Sure Gow shows up with something that looks like ice, but it's not. It's a mineral. He tells her to take 15 to 60 grams of the stuff, and to pre-decoct it for 20 to 30 minutes before adding the other herbs she's going to take. For her eczema and her curling iron burn, he has a charred version of Shi Gao that he makes into a paste and applies topically.

Gypsie Um is now feeling better.

Phew.