A 41-year-old man has recurrent distending headaches with red eyes, bitter taste, irritability, constipation, and dark urine. Tongue is red with yellow coat. Pulse is wiry and rapid. What is the most likely pattern?
Four training angles
Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Pattern
Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Treatment Principle
Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Formula
Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Points
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Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Pattern
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Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Treatment Principle
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Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Formula
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Headache, Red Eyes, and Bitter Taste: Points
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Case-to-knowledge links
Yellow Coating
A yellow tongue coating is an important sign of heat. Thick yellow suggests stronger excess heat; thin yellow suggests milder heat.
Rapid Pulse
A rapid pulse most often suggests heat, but it can also occur in deficiency heat from Yin deficiency.
Irritability
Irritability often points toward Liver-related dysfunction, but the background may be stagnation, rising Yang, or blazing fire.
Red Tongue
A red tongue usually indicates heat, but whether that heat is excess or deficiency must be determined from the coating and pulse.
Liver Fire Blazing
Liver Fire Blazing is a more clearly excess-heat pattern. In exam stems it often appears with red eyes, bitter taste, irritability, constipation, red tongue, yellow coating, and a forceful wiry rapid pulse.