Featured Treatments- Stress/Pain/Psoriasis
In today’s high pressure society, stress is very common. Traditional Chinese Medicine offer various treatments help you through it---
1. What is stressStress is used to describe the effect of any event or experience which interferes with ones physical or mental well being. The symptoms may include emotional upset, short temper, restlessness, headaches, insomnia, irritable bowel, skin rashes or lack of energy.
2. What effects does stress have on the bodyIn terms of TCM stress is linked with the function of liver and kidney.
One of the chief physiological function of the liver is to regulate mind and mood, when stress effects the liver it is unable to perform this function well and the human body will fail to coordinate its mental and moral activities.
One of the chief functions of the kidney is storing the essence of life. If people are over worked or are sexually over active this will drain the essence of the kidney’s and result in backache, dizziness, tiredness or tinnitus (the kidneys having their specific opening in the ears).
Prolonged stress keeps our body in overdrive and can effect health, e.g. lead to gastric ulcer, raise blood pressure or angina, a heart attack, even hair loss, IBS, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.
3. Management of stress by TCM
TCM treat stress conditions mainly by acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.
Acupuncture is one of treatment which will unblock the energy of the body, regulate the liver and its function and help the body relax.
Herbal treatment can soothe liver and regulate Qi, one of the classic formula is Chai Hu Shu Gan San. Another formula is Qi Du Di Huang Wan which is used to nourish the kndney and calm the liver Yang. Usually the TCM practitioner will make a personal tailed herbal formula according the every patient’s condition.
In addition, the massage and a good diet, relaxation exercises such as Taiji are also very helpful.
Four out of five people will be crippled by backache at sometime in their lives. In severe case it can effect one’s normal life and working capacity. Painkiller usually only relieve the pain temporarily but can not cure the cause of the pain.
In term of TCM we say that the back is the mansion of the kidney, therefore backache is always related to the kidney. In clinical terms, backache can be caused by wind-cold, damp-heat, blood stasis, injury, pregnancy, labour, over-work, or overactive sexual activity, result in kidney deficiency.
1.Treatment of Backache with TCMFirst of all we have to tonify the kidney, then reach a determination of symptoms and signs. Use acupuncture, herbal remedy, massage/Tui Na etc.
2. Cold-damp Type BackacheMain symptoms: Backache with cold-heavy feeling, can not move, worse when lying down and during cold rainy days, thick white coating on the tongue.
Treatment Method: Expel wind-evil and clear away cold, warm and dredge the channel.
3. Damp-Heat Type BackacheMain symptoms: Backache with warm or during sensation, worse in hot environments, sometimes easier after movement, yellow, greasy coated tongue, soft and rapid pulse.
Treatment Method: Clean away the heat and expel the damp, soothe the channels and relieve the pain.
4. Kidney deficiency Type Backache
Main symptoms: The Backache is helped by pressing or massaging for the relief of pain, weakness in the knees and legs, worse when feeling tired, if one lies doen it feels better and is easily recurring.
Treatment Method: Tonify the kidney Ying or Yang, moxibustion, herbal plaster.
5. Blood Stasis Type Backache
Main Symptoms: Backache, sharp pain, the source of the pain is fixed, if mild backache feel as though you can not bend. In severe cases, one can not move because of the source of the pain, the area does not like to be pressed, purple tongue or purple spots on the tongue, hesitant pulse. Some patients may have a history of injury.
Treatment Method: Promote blood circulation to remove blood stasis. Regulate vital energy and alleviate pain.
There are wind, damp, cold, heat, injury and bold stasis, vital energy stagnation, phlegm, of all branches, kidney deficiency is the root. Usually we use some herbs to tonify the kidney and strength the back.
Psoriasis is a form of erthroderma desquamativum. Its clinical characteristics include scaly lesion and serious itching. The disease is chronic and can recur.
The causes of psoriasis In TCM ( Traditional Chinese Medicine) the disease is considered to be caused by certain internal states characterized as, wind-heat, damp-heat, blood-heat and excessive damp caused by spleen deficiency.
These days the most common forms of psoriasis tend to be those identified as being caused by heat, where the symptoms are inflamed dry and itchy skins and feeling of thirst.
In Dr. Michael Munro’s article ‘Hot Blood’, he writes:
“Recent USA figures put our normal temperature at 98.9F (37.1 C) in the early morning, going up to 99.9F(37.5 C) and stabilising for the rest of the day. This is a slight increase compared to what a few years ago was found to be normal human body temperature at 98.4F.”
This change can be seen over a long period of time in the field of TCM, where, for example, a thousand years ago, records indicated prescription of warm herbs whereas now we are using far more cooling herbs. This indicates that human body temperature may well tend to be warmer. There are a range of explanations why this might be so.
Causes affecting the internal states
Firstly, there are environmental problems where high levels of industrialisation have increased atmospheric temperature. Secondly, the advent of central heating and better insulated homes and work places aslo increases the temperature of our living environment. Thirdly, dietary changes towards high energy “hot” alcohol and coffee, and smoking also increase our body temperature. Fourthly, the stress of modern life can generate more heat. All these reasons can combine to create excessive blood heat which ‘steam’ the skin and can cause psoriasis.
Causes affecting external statesRecent climatic changes towards damper conditions and less sunshine may invite fungal infection which can also be a cause of psoriasis.
The cure in TCMIf the psoriasis is of the heat type, we usually use Chinese herbs which are cool in nature and thus clear the blood heat causing toxins. Sometimes, if necessary, we can also combine these with herbs that eradicate fungal infection. The herbs often have a bitter taste but have a better result, typically an improvement in the patient’s condition after one or two weeks, irrespective of the severity of the presenting com plaint.
Another important element of the treatment is diet. The patient should avoid eating chilli, curry, lamb, cheese, chocolate and also refrain from drinking alcohol and smoking. The patient should also ensure a high intake of fresh fruit and vegetables which are cooling in nature, for example, cucumber, apples, bananas and water melon.
Reference from Shulan Tang
