Blood and damp, over weeks
Dang Gui Shao Yao San 6 Pack
6 bottles · 360 tablets · about 60 days at 6 a day
Two jobs, both quiet ones: Dang Gui Shao Yao San feeds the Blood and drains off the soggy, puffy bit. Six bottles is sixty days, so you get a couple of months to see how that heavy, crampy, waterlogged feeling behaves. Why take it over weeks
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£132.30 - Regular price
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£132.30
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- 5:1 strength
- DaoDi herbs
- Vegan & gluten-free
- GMP certified
- Free UK delivery £40+
Two slow jobs that need two months
Neither half of this formula works on a quick clock. Building Blood was always thought of in weeks. And damp, in Chinese medicine, is famously sticky, the kind of thing herbalists compared to oil in flour, hard to get out once it's in. Put the two together and you've got a pattern that tends to linger: pale, a bit puffy around the ankles, tired in a heavy rather than wired way, with a dull crampy feel around the cycle. Sixty days gives you a couple of cycles to watch, and time for the poria and water plantain side of things to make its mark.
It's a mild formula, which is part of its charm. No liquorice, nothing fierce. That's why Kampo doctors in Japan were comfortable keeping people on it for a good while, and why it rarely asks much of the stomach. It's a quiet, background sort of formula, and you'll probably judge it on how your weeks feel rather than any one day.
10 days a bottle, about 60 days in all
Sixty days, keeping simple notes
Bottles 1–2
Days 1 to 20
Three first thing, three in the evening. How puffy or heavy are you, and when? Scribble it down. Ankles at the end of the day are a handy marker.
Bottles 3–4
Days 21 to 40
Likely to include a period. Note how crampy and heavy it feels compared with usual. Herbalists judged this formula across cycles as much as by the week.
Bottles 5–6
Days 41 to 60
Compare notes. Swelling that's new, on one side only, or getting worse? Period pain that's really bad? Don't carry on, go and see your GP.
Yes, the old text mentions pregnancy. Still, pregnant or breastfeeding? We'd leave Dang Gui Shao Yao San well alone unless your GP or midwife's said it's fine, because dong quai and Sichuan lovage are herbs we'd steer clear of then. On warfarin? Dong quai's a no there too. Any medication, have a word with your GP or pharmacist first.
Choosing between them
Waterlogged, stuck or wound up?
These three all turn up in women's herbal practice. Herbalists told them apart by what came alongside the cycle trouble.
This page
Dang Gui Shao Yao San
Low Blood with damp. Pale, chilly, a bit puffy, heavy rather than tense, with a dull cramping feel low down. Light and draining, white peony leading.
Fixed and stuck
Gui Zhi Fu Ling Wan
For Blood stasis low in the abdomen: a fixed, heavy, stuck feeling, darker blood with clots in the old descriptions. More about moving than nourishing.
See Gui Zhi Fu Ling WanTense and tired
Xiao Yao San
Also a Liver and Spleen formula, but chosen when tension and irritability lead, with tiredness behind. More coiled spring than soggy sponge.
See Xiao Yao SanWhat's in the box
Six bottles of Dang Gui Shao Yao San
Every bottle is the same: 60 tablets of the formula on our single bottle page, so 6 a day gives you 10 days a bottle.
| Bai Shao Paeonia lactiflora | 842mg |
| Dang Gui Angelica sinensis | 404mg |
| Chuan Xiong Conioselinum anthriscoides | 404mg |
| Bai Zhu Atractylodes macrocephala | 572mg |
| Fu Ling Wolfiporia hoelen | 572mg |
| Ze Xie Alisma plantago-aquatica | 572mg |
Also contains: Cassava starch, Hypromellose, Magnesium stearate, Polyethylene glycol, Talc.
Living with six bottles
The practical bits
Storing them
Somewhere cool and dry, out of direct sun. Leave the bottles you're not using sealed until you need them.
Best before
Every bottle carries its own best-before date on the label, so check the one you open next.
Delivery
Order before 3pm on a weekday and it goes out the same day from Essex. UK delivery is free on orders over £40.
Changed your mind?
Sealed, unopened bottles can be returned within 14 days of delivery. The details are in our refund policy.
Verified Loox reviews
What people say about Dang Gui Shao Yao San
A great tonic for the liver...I noticed the area between my eyebrows was less red and irritated after about 10 days.
Daisy C., verified buyerEarly days, but I think this works. I spoke to a TCM practitioner and he said it is great to take for women who needs more 'warm' quality to their bodily functions and it's also great for anemia.
Nelli V., verified buyerDang Gui Shao Yao San: your questions
Isn't Dang Gui Shao Yao San the period pain one?
Going back a long way, yes. Zhang Zhongjing wrote it for a dull, crampy ache low in the belly, and the name still crops up whenever people get talking about period pain. Is it a treatment for dysmenorrhoea, or endometriosis? No. Pain that stops you in your tracks, or keeps getting worse month on month, wants your GP.
And the puffy ankles, the water retention side of it?
Ah, that's the damp half. Swollen ankles, a heavy head, tired in a soggy sort of way, and that's when herbalists went for it. Not a treatment for fluid retention, though. Legs newly swollen, especially if you're breathless too, or just the one leg? Get a GP to look quickly (there can be causes that really do need a doctor).
Is it only for slim, pale women?
No. That's the Japanese Kampo image, which is very well known, but Chinese herbalists chose it by pattern rather than body shape. What they looked for was low Blood plus damp. Pale and chilly, bit puffy, bit heavy. Loads of people look nothing like the textbook and still fit. And loads who look the part? Don't.
What did herbalists tell people to eat alongside it?
Mostly stuff for the damp side. Hot cooked food rather than salads and iced drinks. Go easy on the very sweet, the greasy and the creamy, as they were thought to feed damp. For Blood it was just proper meals, regular ones, with eggs, greens, a bowl of broth. Your gran would've said the same, frankly.
Right, so how long will a 6-pack of Dang Gui Shao Yao San see me through?
Sixty days at the usual six tablets a day. It's six 60-tablet bottles of exactly the same formula as the single bottle, 360 tablets in total. Each bottle covers ten days, so you'll get through roughly two monthly cycles before you need more.
Dang Gui Shao Yao San, six bottles at once
Back to the 6 pack