The best ways to build blood include iron supplementation, especially liquid iron, along with B12 and folic acid. Blood building foods include animal liver, brewer’s yeast, which is rich in B vitamins, bone marrow soup, colostrum, black strap molasses. Other iron rich foods include kidney, apricots, greens, lamb, oysters, soy foods, duck, goose, lamb, raisins, spinach, and mushrooms. Herbs such as nettles and alfalfa can be incorporated into the diet in order 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 several thousand years to treat anemia, fatigue, pale complexion, cold limbs, post menstrual depletion, amenorrhea, and uterine bleeding. It consists of tang kuei, rehmannia, and peony, the chief blood building herbs in Chinese medicine; Ligusticum is traditionally used to improve blood circulation aid in new blood formation; Atractylodes and poria strengthen digestion. Codonopsis and licorice tonify the Qi; Ginger and red dates improve the absorption of the other herbs in the formula.
Another common blood building formula used in Chinese medicine is Gui Pi Tang, often called Shen-Gem or Gather Vitality. I helped create the formula Marrow Plus (spatholobus, he shou wu, salvia, codonopsis, astragalus, ligusticum, raw rehmannia, cooked rehmannia, lycium, tang kuei, lotus seed, citrus, red date extract, oryza, gelatinum), which was the subject of a clinical study at UCSF in order to improve chronic anemia. It is especially useful for HIV and cancer patients with low red and white blood cells.
Clinical strategies I often employ while seeing clients is to use Eight Treasure in mild cases, or Marrow Plus with severe anemia, an addition to food therapy. For example, Judy, a client with Hepatitis C and chronic anemia came to me. In addition to recommending herbs such as Milk Thistle, we also had her supplement with Marrow Plus as well as eat as many iron rich foods as possible. As all iron supplements gave her indigestion or constipation, we recommended liquid iron along with supplemental B12 and folic acid. Within three weeks she reported remarkably better energy.