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Friday October 09, 2009 07:59
Questions & Answers
What is Chinese Medicine?
Chinese Medicine encompasses the many modalities that billions and billions of Chinese have been utilizing for treating illnesses for the past 3000 years.
Physically, the repertoire of Chinese Medicine falls in four categories:
|---1. Herbal Medicine | | |---2. Acupuncture--|--Acupuncture--|-- needling | |-- ear ball | |--Moxibustion Chinese | |--Cupping Medicine- | |--Bleeding | | |---3. Tui Na (medical massage) | | |---4. Folk Medicine--Gua Sha, Magnet Therapy... etc.Philosophically, the principle of Chinese Medicine rests on four words: "differentiate syndrome, determine treatment". The key is to identify which syndrome that the ailment the patient suffers from falls under. Then, different acu-points, herbal formulae or modality is utilized depending on the syndrome diagnosed.
Syndrome, here, is the presentation of the pathology in a global term. It is the diagnosis of the signs and symptoms of the whole body and also the cause and nature of the illness. It is by no means the presentation of only the disease/ailment itself.
Take benign headache (HA) as an example. there are several systems and no less than 20 syndromes that can be identified, and each syndrome has a different collection of treatment strategy. To illustrate this, here are two systems and some of the major syndromes (in bold) with some of their possible presentations in addition to HA:
System I. Diagnosis according to patterns
A. Exterior HAs- Acute onset due to invasion of exterior pathogens such as common cold or flu.
- Wind cold---aversion to cold, shivers, fever, stiff and achy body, upper respiratory symptoms, clear or white phlegm, slow pulse.
- Wind heat---slight aversion to cold, slight shivers, fever, slight thirst, sore throat upper respiratory symptoms, yellow phlegm, rapid pulse.
- wind dampness---aversion to cold, shivers, fever, oppression in the chest, heavy feeling of the head and whole body, sticky tongue coating.
B. Interior HAs
- Liver yang rising---irritability, dizziness, tinnitus, insomnia, red tongue body.
- Kidney deficiency---empty sensation, dizziness, tinnitus, insomnia, lower back pain, sexual dysfunction.
- Blood deficiency---dizziness, palpitation, poor memory, pale complexion.
- Turbid phlegm---blurred vision, severe dizziness, nausea, lack of appetite, full sensation in the chest.
- Blood stasis---very chronic HA, stabbing or boring in character and always occurs on the same spot, could be caused by trauma.
System II Diagnosis according to location
- Yang Ming HA---HA affects the forehead area.
- Tai Yang HA---occiput.
- Jue Yin HA---top of the head.
- Shao Yang HA---temple.
Sometimes a malady could be comprised of more than one syndrome, and it is also common for a person who has been suffering from a chronic condition to bear multiple syndromes.
While the strategy of western medicine is to treat the disease, often counteract the symptoms; the principle of Chinese Medicine is to treat the ailing person so that the strengthened health and elevated healing ability will help overcome the illness.
How does acupuncture work?
The therapeutic power of acupuncture exerts through at least two fronts: 1.muscle (local). 2.nervous system (global).
1. Acupuncture restores the molecular structure and functions of injured skeletal muscle.
A good percentage of neck, back and limb pain results from skeletal muscle injuries. These are either acute injury from the sudden stress or chronic injury from the repetitive overload of muscle work. Acupuncture has been an effective method to treat these pain and injuries.
In their meticulous work, Dr. Lu Ding-Hou and scientists from several major universities in China have revealed the healing mechanism of acupuncture on muscle. The work was done with both human biopsy samples and animals with or without the nervous system intact. Using antibodies to tag and track various proteins in myofilaments, they found the injured muscles showed disorientation of myofibrils, disappearance of filaments, and disintegration of contractile structures under the electron microscope. When needling was applied, it stimulated the synthesis and assembly of contractile proteins and set off a prolonged promoting effect on the recovery of contractile structures.
Dr. Lu's study further showed for those acute or short-history injuries, the restoration continued for 24-36 hours after needling. However, for repeat overload or chronic injuries that went on for years, not only did the changes to the contractile structures became obstinate, but the changes also reached to the sub-cellular level to include the plasma membrane, nuclei, mitochondria and lysosome, and the restoration was more difficult.
2. Acupuncture activates body's propensity to heal through the nervous system.
Studies done by many scientists have begun to elucidate the mechanisms of action of acupuncture on nervous system.
When needling, nerve impulses go up from the terminal to hypothalamus, the executive center of the brain. Using PET scans (Positron Emission Tomograph), they found that stimulation of the distal vision-related acu-points showed the same reaction in the brain as stimulation of the eye.
Once the signal reaches the brain, other studies have shown a cascade of healing reactions is activated in the central nervous system. These include the release of endorphin, anti-inflammatory factors, anti-bacterial proteins, neurotransmitters, hormones and alterations in immune functions, all in a beneficial way.
What conditions can acupuncture/Chinese Medicine treat?
Many conditions can benefit from acupuncture/CM treatment. Some examples are:
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Pain syndrome
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Musculoskeletal injuries
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High blood pressure
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Stroke (within six months of onset, the sooner the more effective)
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Infertility
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Many internal ailments, as long as that condition has the luxury of time.
Theoretically, acupuncture/Chinese Medicine can treat just about anything. This is because it's main treatment principle is to activate and stimulate one's healing ability which is an important genetic component. However, how effective is by no means definite. It has it's uncertainties just as life has it's frailty.
A good way to utilize acupuncture/CM is to use it as an alternative or addition to the western medicine when you want a different treatment option or outcome. It has pleasantly astonished countless of patients by accomplishing what western medicine can not. In the event that it does not work out, you might want to try different practitioners because their skills could vary greatly.
How effective is acupuncture/Chinese Medicine?
The effectiveness of acupuncture/Chinese Medicine depends on three factors: the practitioner, the patient and the ailment.
The Practitioner:
More crucial than any other profession, diligence and intelligence are two qualities needed to make a good Chinese Medicine practitioner. For whether it is the acupuncture colleges in the U.S. or the famous CM universities in China, what students learn in school is only the basic knowledge. The practitioner needs to grow on his own in order to become an effective healer. The growth requires the diligence to acquire new knowledge and the intelligence to comprehend and utilize it.
The Patient:
The following groups of patients generally have better response to acupuncture:
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those who have not been on long term medication, some medications are contradiction to acupuncture because they impair one's healing capacity;
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those who are constitutionally strong;
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those who have not had surgery on the respective condition.
One caveat on surgery. Sometimes the structure is so damaged, it can no longer be made well by acupuncture and the surgery is the way to go.
The ailment:
The conditions that involve, or are still at the stage of functional difficulty, are easier and quicker to treat. Those that involve, or have progressed to structural changes, are harder to treat. Sometimes it is impossible.
What number of treatments would be required? How often?
This depends on the nature of the conditions and the response of the patient. Acute conditions such as a back or ankle sprain, one or two treatments may be all is needed. For some long standing conditions, such as a chronic pain or ailment of many years, the healing takes time and effort. It will require two or three treatments a week for the first few weeks till the response develops and improvement holds. Then the treatment can be spaced out farther apart to complete the therapy. For some degenerative diseases, it may require an ongoing maintenance treatments to relieve the symptoms and slow down the progression.
Are there any side effects or complications with acupuncture?
In the age full of consequences, it is wonderful to know that there are no bad side effects on acupuncture. The worst it can do is not be effective.
In the hands of a skilled acupuncturist, the complications are very minor. With the use of sterilized disposable needles, the risk of cross infection is non-existent. Sometimes, a small blood vessel may be pricked and resulting in a negligible spot of bleeding when the needle is taken out. Rarely, hematoma or bruise might result. On some infrequent occasions, patients may feel dizzy or nauseous during the treatment. This is often due to the patient being hungry or tired, or having never experienced acupuncture before. Let your acupuncturist know immediately at the onset so proper procedures can be applied.
In the hands of poorly trained practitioner or by accident, puncturing of the lungs or the central nervous system could happen. In that circumstance, emergency medical attention is needed. However, this is extremely rare.