Oriental Medicine - Types of Jow

Dit Da Jow (Cantonese) or Tieh Ta Chiao (Mandarin) means “Hit and Fall Wine” (or liniment). Jow, as it is commonly referred to, can be further subdivided into two types: Han Dit Da Jow (cold hit medicine) and Rei Dit Da Jow (hot hit medicine).

Hot jow is actually heated for situations that require a lot of circulation, blood flow and lymphatic drainage into an area. Typically this type of jow is used in the type of training where you are constantly challenging the skin, bone, muscles and connective tissues of the hand and arm to become tougher and stronger while at the same time attempting to keep the acupuncture points in the hand open so that you can project energy through the hand into the target.

Cold jow is used as an all-purpose, “when in doubt” and “after the fact”, injury liniment. Its properties are similar to hot Jow except:

• it’s not heated, the herbs used are different
• its purpose is to promote lymph and chi circulation as well as the breakup of stagnant blood
• Both types are rubbed into the skin before and after a workout for best results. It should be noted that one of the secrets of the magical jow formula is in the rubbing. Soft tissue manipulation alone will promote many of the qualities without the jow, but the medicine speeds up the healing time and prevents improper drainage and stagnation problems.