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Dispel wind and stop itch

"In terms of itch, Traditional Chinese Medicine considers that it connects with wind pathogen. So treating pruritus is always based on dispelling wind. But for chronic eczema caused by wind from Yin deficiency and blood dryness, it is worthy to be cautious to use pungent and warm natural drugs to resolve superficies. Or the condition would worsen because pungent and warm natural drugs reinforce the wind of blood dryness. Drugs of pungent and cool nature to resolving superficies, such as Bo He (Wild Mint) and Chan Tui (Cicida Moulting) are highly recommended.

Even while the lesion is akin to neurodermatitis, pungent and warm natural drugs to resolve superficies can not be abused, or would cause acute outbreak of eczema. Traditional Chinese Medicine consider that it need to promote blood circulation in the first place for the sake of dispelling wind, and then wind vanish naturally after blood stasis removes. So it is suggestive that some herbs of promoting blood circulation should be added."

Read more at Chinese Medicine Gem blog. He gives TCM diagnoses and possible treatments for common symptoms.

Basic TCM Knowledge regarding Osteoarthritis of the Knee In Traditional Chinese Medicine

Osteoarthritis (Degenerative Joint Disease) is mostly related to Fixed Bi and Painful Bi.

Fixed Bi Syndrome: The chief manifestations include pain and heavy sensation in the relatively fixed areas of body limbs or joints, numbness of the muscles, aggravation of the condition in rainy days, white greasy tongue coating, and soft slow pulse.

Painful Bi Syndrome: The chief manifestations include severe pain in the limbs and joints as if being stabbed or pricked. In the worst cases, there is fixed pain that is alleviated by warmth but aggravated by cold, better in the daytime but worse at night, limited movements of the joints, no local redness nor feverish sensation, cold sensation in the affected parts, thin white tongue coating, wiry tense pulse.

Pathogenesis

Wind, cold and dampness invasion causes the blockage of the Qi and blood in the meridian. In modern medicine, it is related to aging, endocrine disorder as well as trauma and improper posture.

Clinical manifestations
 
The onset of osteoarthritis of the knee is insidious. Initially, there is articular stiffness, seldom lasting more than 15 minutes; this develops later into pain on motion of the affected joint(s) and is made worse by activity or weight bearing and relieved by rest. Deformity may be absent or minimal; however, varus deformity of the knee is not unusual.

Imaging

Radiographs may reveal narrowing of the joint space, sharpened articular margin, osteophyte formation and lipping of the marginal bone, and thickened, dense subchondral bone. Bone cysts may also be present.

Major pattern differentiation

Fixed Bi:
Pain fixed in the knee joint accompanied by heaviness, stiffness and numbness, sometimes slight swelling.

Painful Bi:
Severe pain in the knee joint, aggravated by cold and alleviated by heat.

Treatment Principle:
Expel wind, Cold and dampness, improve the meridian circulation and regulate Qi and blood.

Major Acupuncture points and needle techniques

Acupuncture points for knee:
Xiyan (Ex.), Dubi (ST35), Zusanli (ST 36), Yanglingquan (GB 34)

Alternative Therapies:

Auricular therapy
Corresponding area (Knee), Sympathetic, Shenmen


Subcutaneous needling therapy
Select local point or tender points
Seven-star needle tapping and cupping

Read paper on Osteoarthritis of the Knee for Rachel Peterman's Clinical Acupuncture Practice II class at New York College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Mineola, NY.

She gives an overview of Osteoarthritis of the knee, and Western and TCM treatment approaches.

Rachel H. Peterman, M.S., DHEd(c), J.D.

Osteoarthritis of the Knee.pdf

I entered NYCTCM in 2000 as a non-matriculated student, intending only to get a foundation in Chinese medicine as a first step to studying Tibetan medicine and naturopathy. Suffering an accident to my head and neck shortly after beginning study, I had to take a leave of absence while recuperating and receiving acupuncture treatments at NYCTCM's clinic. Once recovered, I decided to matriculate at NYCTCM: "The treatments allowed me to appreciate the real power of Chinese medicine and convinced me that TCM was the path of study that I needed to take."

 

I graduated from NYCTCM's acupuncture program in 2005 and began a successful practice specializing in internal and chronic disorders such as stroke, Parkinson's, and cancer treatment support. I gradually felt a need to supplement my knowledge of acupuncture with that of herbs, so returned to NYCTCM in 2007 to work towards my Oriental Medicine Degree.

 

Why did I choose NYCTCM? "Several main reasons - first, the teachers have a high level of training and experience gained in both China and the U.S. and this carries over in the interactions of the classroom and the clinic; second, the concentration is on authentic Chinese medicine as opposed to the mixture of techniques taught at most schools; and third, the whole complement of skills is taught - acupuncture, herbs, and tui na massage - which is extremely useful when it comes to building one's own practice."

Anthony

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Kelsey Dixon, a NYCTCM graduating acupuncture student, wrote on how she will contribute to the future of Chinese medicine in an American culture which is so different from the Taoist principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

" The TCM that exists in the United States of America is, in some ways, childlike, having progressed past the novelty of its infantile stages and the tremendous growth of early childhood, and now entering its adolescence, and the struggle to blossom to its fullest potential while maintaining its roots. It is an old and sacred medicine reborn within a young and eager culture- a culture still, sometimes awkwardly, undecided as to how to approach and integrate this strange new paradigm. At times, the impending pressure upon becoming a practitioner of this healing art can seem intense..."
"Reviewing the words of wisdom from the 'sages' of both ancient Chinese culture and contemporary American culture, the irony of TCM in America is obvious. In TCM, we have a paradigm of health based on a worldview that holds passivity and acceptance, and harmony within a greater whole, in highest esteem. The American Dream, on the other hand, is fundamentally about individuals distinguishing themselves, about challenging the status quo and seeing the way things ought to be rather than the way things are. "

read the complete article at NYCTCM blog page..

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Jonah Ewell, an acupuncture student, talks to his father about the swine flu H1N1 virus and the Chinese Medicine perspective. Please read the whole article on Everyday Health blog:

Swine Flu, Concerned Parents, Western Medicine and Chinese Medicine

Its very informative on both the Western and TCM viewpoint on disease.

"In the framework of Chinese medicine, it's unimportant what exact microbe or virus is causing you problems. Western science and medicine is reductionist, always looking for that ONE THING that they can point to and say is the cause of illness. When you find the exact bacteria or virus, all you have to do is kill it, or remove it, or block it, or any of the other things Western medicine does. This is a relatively recent development, hinging on the invention of advanced microscopes. Thanks to these instruments, we have made incredible advances in being able to look at and detect these small microbes and viruses, which has helped the world deal with serious health problems. However, as we are seeing, looking for the one microbe and trying to eliminate it is a textbook case of missing the forest for the trees.

What causes disease? Why do some people get sick and others don't? If the swine flu was really so contagious, why haven't more people become sick and died? According to what I've heard on the radio and read in the newspapers, less than 10% of people with swine flu have died. Over 90% recover. Think of fruit in a basket. If you leave it for awhile, you might find that one piece of fruit has mold on it. Another piece of fruit, sitting right next to it and even touching it, cheek-by-jowl, is unaffected. Why is that?"

"Psoriasis is a systemic disease and should be treated as such, a fact that Chinese medicine has identified for hundreds of years. A recent article published in the British Journal of Dermatology stated that people with psoriasis have an increased risk of heart disease. The authors stated that traditionally western dermatologists mainly focused on psoriasis in the skin and joint level, but failed to view any correlation to other organ systems.

Because psoriasis is an immunoinflammatory disease, affecting the body as whole, it makes sense that the same inflammation causing the skin manifestations could also aggravate other diseases known to be induced by inflammation, particularly cardiovascular disease. See research here.

Chinese medicine's view of psoriasis as a systemic inflammatory disease is seen in the main traditional patterns attributed to it, mainly fire toxins and heat in the blood with stasis. It has always held that psoriasis is a disease of the blood, hence any part of the body influenced by the blood can be affected, particularly the heart.

It is interesting to see that many of the herbs used to treat psoriasis in Chinese medicine also have cardiac protective properties. Dan Shen, Salvia miltiorrhiza, is one of them. I use the herb a lot in my prescriptions to treat psoriasis, as it's main functions are to cool and invigorate the bloods flow. Dan Shen has been used both traditionally and in modern times to protect and repair heart tissue. Many studies have been done on this herb and I recommend you look at my research section to view one of them.

The more western research that comes out showing that the body is an integrated whole, that problems in one area (like the skin) influence other body areas, the more impressed I am with the observations of the ancient Chinese. By treating the roots of a disease pathoglogy, then not only is the disease itself healed, but so is a multitude of other associated problems. This is wholistic medicine."

Trevor Erikson, March 25, 2009 ;The Chinese Medical Dermatology Website

Mr. Erikson's Skin Disease Photo Gallery shows Before and After pictures of skin diseases treated with TCM.

Trevor Erikson's article is apt because of this April 8, 2009 article in the New York Times "Genentech announced on Wednesday a phased voluntary withdrawal of the psoriasis drug Raptiva from the United States because of a link to a brain infection.

Raptiva has been associated with an increased risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a rare and usually fatal disease of the central nervous system."

NYCTCM President Yemeng Chen was invited to make a speech in the 5th Pang Dingyuan's International Integrative Medicine Symposium sponsored by the University of Hong Kong, School of Chinese Medicine in December 2008.

The speech in Hong Kong was about the Clinical Research on Acupuncture Applied to Treat Vascular Dementia.

Here is a link to the Powerpoint presentation, in Chinese, of Dr. Chen's speech on Clinical Research on Acupuncture Applied to Treat Vascular Dementia.

vd-chenyemeng-forwebsite.ppt

Dr Stefano Marcelli, MD, Acupuncturist, Mesotherapist and Clinical Psychologist in Italy, wrote to NYCTCM about her project to show the path of the female Kidney Acupuncture Channel in the foot and ankle should not be shaped like a coil, but rather like an open bend or a gulf, because the ovum path has exactly this shape and is totally internal.

"In my opinion, the path of the Kidney Acupuncture Channel in the foot as it is described in Traditional Chinese Medicine classics is wrongly considered identical both in males and females. Basing my statement on anatomical correlations, which I presume nobody has found before now, the Kidney Acupuncture Channel path in the foot (and ankle) should have the shape of a coil only in males."

"Despite my western medical knowledge, since my first studies of TCM I have strongly felt that Acupuncture Channels must be real and not abstract entities. For many years I have supposed that the ancient doctors and also the common people, not only in old China but everywhere, could see the acupuncture channels. They perceived the Qi, the times and the shapes of its distribution and organization in all natural kingdoms. I mean that they actually saw the internal organs and the internal paths of the channels.

If not, could they have described how the Governor Vessel Dumai penetrated the heart, and the Kidney Channel terminated at the root of the tongue? We know these are only two among many possible examples. I cannot date the time when ancient humans saw these things, which today are invisible, maybe it was in the time that some religions call "Eden", "Heaven" or "Paradise", when people could see the causes (among them the Qi) together with the effects (among them the bodies).

At a certain point, when our more distant ancestors could see the pericardium and its connected finger, the liver and its connected toe, the yin-yang and the five elements in animals, herbs and metals, something happened: something which made everyone blind enough not to see the causes, but still able to see matter as an effect of the Qi.

My project's aim is to succeed in seeing again the acupuncture channels in a scientific, technological and repeatable way.

If anyone finds this idea interesting and wants to give his/her opinion, he/she is invited to contact me."

Dr. Stefano Marcelli's website with anatomical diagrams and contact information.

The Acupuncture Relief Project is a free community acupuncture clinic that travels to countries that have been impacted by poverty, conflict or disaster. In 2008 our 6 week project is located in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world and has been plagued with political unrest and military conflict for the past decade. Our project will give our practitioners an opportunity to gain valuable field experience while making a positive impact on the local community.

Namo Buddha Volunteer Acupuncture Clinic

Pictures from the Namo Buddha Volunteer Acupuncture Clinic  The beauty of Nepal is belied by the serious diseases of the patients at the hospital.