Dit Da Jow Exposed: Facts You Should Know Before You Buy
Know What Your Buying
If your buying Dit Da Jow make sure the formulation is just that, Dit Da Jow. It seems a lot of kits and pre-made liniments call themselves Dit Da Jow but in reality they are not. Some are Iron Palm formulas which is fine as long as that is what your looking for and some are just a worthless bag or bottle of herbs.
As you probably know Dit Da Jow is for bruises, contusions, sprains, or any injury that involves blood stagnation and blood stasis.It also is a mild pain reliever for the above mentioned injuries.
Iron Palm on the other hand is for healing or strengthening bones, tendons, ligaments and connective tissue. Any activity where there is repetitive contact to a joint or bone then Iron Palm Liniment is the one to choose. Iron Palm is also a pain reliever like Dit Da Jow and reduces inflammation in the joints.
Let me mention and this is important, one does not need to practice Iron Palm training in order to use this liniment.
There is some overlap on the healing properties between the two but they are distinctly different formulas. So make sure you purchase the proper liniment for your particular needs.
There are some liniment kits that are a combination of both liniments like Tie Ba Zhang or Dit Da Zhang Jow. These liniments offer both of the healing properties and are intended for people who are active in some type of contact sport where bumps and bruises as well wear and tear on the joints and bones can occur, like martial arts, football, surfing, basketball, wrestling, boxing etc.
Recap
If you are just concerned with healing bruises or strengthening the underlying blood vessels then Dit Da Jow is the number one choice. Using a Iron Palm formula would help a little but will not be as effective as Dit Da Jow. If you bang your leg on your coffee table then Dit Da Jow would be more effective since you probably will have a sizable bruise. Now if you are banging your leg on a heavy bag repeatedly then Iron Palm is recommended to strengthen the bone and provide pain relief.
Dit Da Jow is also great for shin splints, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), muscle strains and pulled muscles. It has a wide array of healing properties that come in handy for a lot of injuries.
Ready-made Liniments
Sometimes purchasing premade Dit Da Jow is necessary. But not knowing what to look for can lead to undesired health problems or a poor quality liniment. Dit Da Jow exposed will give you important tips on what to look for when purchasing ready-made Dit Da Jow.
Obviously making your own Dit Da Jow is both economical and fun to do but most importantly is that you have full control over the process from start to finish, you pretty much determine the quality of your liniment and not leaving it in someone else’s hands.
When circumstances arise and you must purchase a pre-made Dit Da Jow then look for these important points.
Glass
Always purchase Dit Da Jow that is packaged in a glass bottle and avoid plastic bottles at all costs. Plastic bottles as you probably know contain chemicals most notably BPA which is Bisphenol A, a carbon-based synthetic compound. BPA is s a concern because of possible health effects on the brain, behavior issues, heart problems and increased hormone levels just to name a few.
When you add the alcohol based Dit Da Jow into plastic then you will also leech out the plastic chemicals into your Jow which then can be absorbed into the body when applied, so this should be avoided at all costs.
The above picture shows three bottles of pre-made Dit Da Jow, from left to right they are; Five Photo Brand Dit Da Jow, East Meets West Dit Da Jow and FengShi Dieda Yao Jiu Dit Da Jow by Foshon FengLiaoXing Pharmacuetical Co.
Five Photos Brand has been around a long time and is made in Hong Kong, and is a legitimate Dit Da Jow formulation, but unfortunately it is in a plastic bottle and should be used only if necessary.
The second bottle is the East Meets West Dit Da Jow and it is bottled in glass and made in the United States so it is very safe to use. This is a authentic Dit Da Jow formulation used by the Shaolin Monks.
FengShi Dieda YaoJiu is made in China in the same city that Yip Man was born. This is formula is more of a Iron Palm type formula and used by Wing Chun practitioners after wooden dummy training to strengthen and heal the hands. This is bottled in glass and safe to use.
Aged
When you make your own Dit Da Jow at home and you shake your jar two times daily for the first four weeks you increase the strength of the extraction 10 fold and each day it sits it gets stronger and stronger, the longer it sits the stronger it becomes.
Another important point to remember is as you use your Jow you are taking a little out from your big jar and placing some in a small glass jar, the remaining Dit Da Jow in the big jar is still getting stronger each day and as the liquid level goes down the strength goes up since there is higher herb to alcohol ratio.
Over the counter Dit Da Jow is made in large batches and bottled the same day thus creating a weaker liniment that might have little or no value depending on the formulation. Since it is not aging with the herbs we are not getting the powerful Dit Da Jow that we expect and need.
It has also come to our attention that some pre-made Dit Da Jow is being made with Rubbing Alcohol which can be toxic to the liver with extended use due to the poisonous additives used to prevent consumption. The main additive used is Acetone. Poisoning can occur from ingestion, inhalation, absorption, or consumption of rubbing alcohol, so check with your supplier before purchasing.
If your Jow is made by your instructor, friend or you are purchasing from a legitimate company you can contact them, and ask how long the Jow has aged or if it was made with agitation, type of alcohol used as well as making sure it is bottled properly using glass.
Sediment
Always try to purchase bottled Dit Da Jow with some of the herbs in the bottle; this is referred to as sediment. The sediment will continue to be extracted into your liniment creating a stronger Jow. Not all companies add the sediment so take a close look before you buy.
If you look closely at the photo above you can see the Five Photos Brand and the East Meets West Dit Da Jow has sediment at the bottom but the FengShi DieDa YaoJiu does not. The photos below show a close up of a freshly bottled East Meets West Dit Da Jow.
You can see in the above photos the herbs resting at the bottom and you can see the fresh Zhang Nao (Camphor)floating at the top that we add to each bottle.
Like all of our kits we sell, nothing is prepackaged and sitting on a shelf. Our pre-made liniment is bottled up when a order is received.The Dit Da Jow has been aged a minimum of three years.
There is nothing unsafe by bottling it up prior to selling, but we like to insure our customers receive the strongest Dit Da Jow possible. That is why we add the sediment and the Zhang Nao before sealing up the bottle.
As was mentioned above ready made Dit Da Jow is available from companies in Hong Kong and China as well as here in the United States. As with anything there is good and bad so following the above tips when choosing which one to purchase will insure you get a quality product.
If you are not familiar with Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm liniments or would like to learn more, I have a few links below for more information.
Laymans Guide to Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm in Martial arts Training
Great article, I did not realize there was so much to know and great to learn how to avoid getting ripped off by all these fake sellers on the internet.
This is definitely the best information I have come across to know what to look for when considering buying dit da jow. I now am more educated and can purchase wisely, thanks for providing this post as well as your other posts, the one on alcohol was really important because a lot of companies use or suggest rubbing alcohol which I learned is not recommended.
I am using 5 photo for elbow pain
It is a very weak Dit Da Jow compared to what you can produce with an authentic Dit Da Jow Kit.