Making Dit Da Jow

[ntc]

OK... thought I'd put in my two cents and share as well.

First, a bit about my background:
- Chinese doctor from Southern China, Cantonese speaking, working with Dit Da for over 30 years, and a southern style kung fu practitioner
- My dit da training over the years come from several locally well-known Dit Da doctors - some purists and one from the Southern Dragon kung fu family, in addition to knowledge passed on from my own family

Regarding using water:
- I use rice wine for my jow, but I also know other Dit Da doctors (though very few) use water, and I have seen their jow work as well. There are also others who use either vodka or even vinegar. I prefer to use good quality rice wine because of its strong property of invigorating and moving blood, hence its ability to work on blood stasis.
- From my own perspective, I feel that because of its blood-related properties, dit da jow made with rice wine would be much more effective than that made from water which from a Chinese Medicine perspective, does not have the same blood-related properties.

Regarding grinding into powder:
- I usually just soak mine whole, but mainly because some of the herbs are not easily ground into powder especially if you don't have the right equipment, which I don't
- I have, at the same time, also made jow using herbs that have been ground, and it seems to work just as well
- I am not aware of any strong basis on why these herbs should not be ground into powder, and would love to find out more about why this is a detriment

And thanks to you all for sharing your information.

[Lama Pai Sifu]

NTC, thanks for your informative and very diplomatice post.

I too have heard of people, escpecially on this forum, use water in the formulas. I see, as a chinese doctor, you do not.

Look, as far as grinding up the herbs, I was just told not to. But my Sifu could have easily meant that it was not necessary to. I don't know if it would actually be bad to do so, It would make sense that you would cover more surface area. That being said;

Back to water. It's called Dit Da Jao, remember? Not Dit Da Soy.

Keep it real guys, lol

[Dale Dugas]

poisonous herbs.

I have a few formulae that use a large amount of aconite, others have snakes, roaches, and other herbs that are termed toxic in materia medica.

Anyone notice the big difference with jows that have these poisons and those that do not. I notice the poison jows tend to be very warming, where as the non toxic jows seem to be a little on the cooling side compared.

Comments brothers and sisters?

Dale

[herb ox]

Brother Dale,

What kind of jows would use these toxic herbs? Wu Ling Zhi and aconite are the ones I've heard of most in iron palm formulae. As for the ****roach - I assume you're referring to Tu Bie Chong? That is salty and cold and is a strong blood mover. So, when you say 'warming', are you referring specifically to a warming sensation? It may be due to the strong blood moving qualities of the herbs, and not so much the 'qi' of the herb (i.e. warm, cool, etc)...

peace out

herb ox

[Qiman]

Could someone explain the difference between Iron Palm Liniment and Dit Da Jow? Is it a Jow specifically made for Iron Palm training to restore and build bone/connective tissue?

[yu shan]

Gentlemen

I will be receiving my herbs soon. I am told to expect 2 gallons from this batch. My question, can anyone give me a headsup on where/what kind of container to look for? All I can find are these 1 gallon sizes. I apologize if this has been spoke about here already, I do not have time to research. Any tips will be greatly appreciated, many respects to all here.

[herb ox]

yu shan -

I've heard of a method using a gallon container that ultimately yields 2 gallons (no, this is not like asking for a large cola in a small cup at the local drive thru )

Place herbs in container
Fill with vodka or whatever solvent you prefer
Let it sit for 30-60 days
Pour off half of the contents into a fresh container (minus the herbs)
Top off the container with the herbs still in it
Wait another 30 days
Pour off half again - now you have your first gallon of jow
Top off the jar with the herbs - let sit for 60 days
Strain and enjoy neat or on the rocks

I've used this method with reasonable results, although I can't be certain the potency of the first batch is equal to the second, but both batches worked just fine for me.

good luck

herb ox

[manofkent]

hey would someone mind posting how to make DDJ here please. The one I buy is really expensive and its got a thousand weird and wonderfull things in it that I can never get hold of.

[Asmo]

Could someone explain the difference between Iron Palm Liniment and Dit Da Jow? Is it a Jow specifically made for Iron Palm training to restore and build bone/connective tissue?

You already answred your own question It is indeed. But as there are so many different recipies for 'regular' Dit Da Jow, there as as many different 'iron palm' Jow's as well.. Some of them for example counteract the effects of iron in the later stages of IP. Also, IP Jow's are often a bit more warming then Jow's made to treat bruises etc.

Do a search on iron palm on Google and you will find many shops offering herb packages for iron palm training. There you'll also see they have been made for slightly different purposes. You could email the shops for explanation on their specific Jow so you could pick any that best matches your needs. I'm sure there is more information to be found on this forum if you use the search function well.