Eye Health
Central Serous Retinopathy: The Liver-Spleen Lens on the Looking Through Water Eye
You wake up and it looks as though someone placed a sheet of frosted glass over the center of your […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 9 min read
The Rootworth Journal
Clinical essays in classical Chinese herbal medicine — pattern, terrain, and the constitutional roots of health.
Written by Michael Woodworth, M.S., L.Ac., from fifteen years of specialized classical Chinese herbal practice. Each piece extends the framework of the Chambers into the specific conditions we support most frequently.
Eye Health
Macular Pucker and Epiretinal Membrane: The Phlegm-Stasis Lens in Chinese Herbal Medicine
When phlegm-stasis condenses on the retinal surface — as Chinese medicine reads it — the result is exactly what a […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 9 min read
Eye Health
Uveitis and Liver Fire: Classical Chinese Herbal Medicine for Recurrent Intraocular Inflammation
The eye bears the brunt of Liver Fire because Fire ascends, and the Liver opens to the eye. Understanding why […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 9 min read
Eye Health
Cataracts and the Clear-Turbid Separation: A Classical Herbal Framework
The lens of the eye is, in classical Chinese medicine, the most refined fluid structure in the body. When it […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 8 min read
Eye Health
Retinitis Pigmentosa and Kidney Jing: The Classical Herbal Framework for Progressive Retinal Degeneration
RP is the paradigm Jing-depletion picture in classical Chinese medicine. Rod photoreceptors — the most metabolically demanding and constitutionally dependent […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 9 min read
Eye Health
Optic Neuritis and the Blood-Deficiency Root: A Classical Herbal Framework
The optic nerve is the most Blood-dependent structure in the eye. When Liver Blood fails to nourish it — or […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 8 min read
Eye Health
Retinal Vein Occlusion: Blood Stasis, the Collateral Network, and the Classical Herbal Recovery
Retinal vein occlusion is an acute vascular event — but it is rarely an event without a history. Classical Chinese […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 5 min read
Eye Health
Diabetic Retinopathy and the Xiao Ke Pattern: Classical Herbal Medicine Two-Layer Approach
Classical Chinese medicine mapped the metabolic terrain of diabetes — the wasting-thirsting disorder — long before ophthalmoscopes existed. The retinal […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 6 min read
Eye Health
Dry Eye Disease and Liver Yin Deficiency: The Herbal Terrain Approach
Classical medicine has a precise answer to why the eyes dry: the Liver governs tears, and when Liver Yin is […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 7 min read
Eye Health
Glaucoma and the Liver Yang Pattern: A Classical Herbal Framework
Classical Chinese medicine has described a pressure-and-rise pattern in the eye for centuries — long before intraocular pressure had a […]
Jun 29, 2026 · 6 min read