Key Blood­Building Strategies

Abstract

The best ways to build blood include iron supplementation, especially liquid iron, along with vitamin B12 and folic acid. Blood­building foods include animal liver, brewer's yeast (which is rich in B vitamins), bone marrow soup, colostrum and black strap molasses. Other iron­rich foods include kidneys, apricots, greens, lamb, oysters, soy foods, duck, goose, lam, raisins, spinach and mushrooms. Herbs such as nettles and alfalfa can be incorporated into the diet to improve iron utilization. For example, nettles can be added to greens, soups and smoothies. The traditional formula eight treasures (ba zhen tang) has been used for thousands of years to treat anemia, fatigue, pale complexion, cold limbs, post­menstrual depletion, amenorrhea and uterine bleeding. It consists of tang kuei, rehmannia and peony (the chief blood­building herbs in Chinese medicine); ligusticum (which is traditionally used to improve blood circulation and aid in new blood formation); atractylodes and poria (to strengthen digestion); codonopsis and licorice (to tonify the qi); and ginger and red dates, which improve the absorption of the other herbs in the formula. Another common blood­building formula used in Chinese medicine is gui pi tang, often called shen gem or "gather vitality." I helped create a formula (consisting of milletia, he shou wu, salvia, codonopsis, astragalus, ligusticum, raw rehmannia, cooked rehmannia, lycium, tang kuei, lotus seed, citrus, red date extract, oryza and gelatinum) which was the subject of a clinical study at the University of California San Francisco to improve chronic anemia. It is especially useful for HIV and cancer patients with low red and white blood cells.