Brief interpretation on the disease's name and pathogenesis of "drinking little but urinating much"
First recorded in Huangdi Neijing, "drinking little but urinating much" is the main symptom of "Feixiao", of which the pathogenesis is heart transferring cold to lung. Many later traditional Chinese medicine doctors have worked and brought different expositions on the disease's name, "Shangxiao", "Xiaxiao", "Feixiao" or "Shenxiao" are used respectively. In regard to the pathogenesis, dryness-fire, simultaneous occurrence of cold and heat or deficiency-cold are supposed to be the main properties of the disease, while heart, lung, liver, and kidney are the core disease locations. For example, YU Jiayan emphasized "dryness-heat in heart and lung", ZHENG Qin'an advocated "wind-fire of Jueyin", ZHANG Congzheng expounded "cold with heat in the heart and lung", LOU Ying revealed "cold with heat in the lung and kidney", and HUANG Yuanyu proposed " cold in kidney with dampness in spleen". By analyzing the theories of different schools of traditional Chinese medicine and related prescriptions or herbs and medical records, "drinking little but urinating much" could be attributed to "Shenxiao", and "deficiency-cold in lung and kidney" could be its basic pathogenesis, and meanwhile the cross-transmission of zang-fu viscera, intermingled deficiency and excess as well as inter-transformation between cold and heat should be considered adequately. This paper summarizes and sorts out the theories of "Xiao" disease in ancient literature, so as to provide new ideas for the modern prevention and treatment of diabetes.
drinking little but urinating muchdisease's namepathogenesisHuangdi Neijing