Recently in skin disease Category

Basically, I believe it is good medicine to educate the patient about the length of time a treatment may take before seeing any noticeable results, which is based on the Doctor's previous experiences in treating the disorder in question. Thus both practitioner and patient have some realistic goal posts to aim for, making the "slow and steady" treatment approach much easier to follow. Then if change does not happen within the desirable amount of time dedicated to it, switching gears into a different modality makes sense.

..in the style of Chinese Medicine that I have been taught and practice, results are expected after a certain, somewhat set, amount of time. This is of course totally dependent on the disorder being treated. If results are not seen in the alloted time, I as a practitioner have to seriously question whether or not I will be able to help.

Trevor currently works out of the Acubalance Wellness Centre, having a special focus on the treatment of Psoriasis, Eczema, Acne, Rosacea, and various reproductive health disorders like Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and Endometriosis.

Read the complete article at Treatment Expectations - know when enough is enough at Skin Health Information - Chinese Medicine Skin Dermatology website

Chan Hur, L. Ac. of Answers with Acupuncture in Flushing, NY wrote about a successful treatment of eczema with Korean acupuncture techniques, includes before and after picture of a different patient.  

"One girl who was 14 years old came for atopic skin. When she was 2 years old, her parents noticed she often rubbed her back against the corner of a wall. Her parents brought her to an acupuncture clinic in a hurry. The clinic told her parents she had atopic skin and advised that she take herbs. After taking herbs, she was OK until 5 years old. She then suffered this skin problem very much between 5 and 10 years old. She went to many MDs who specialized in skin. The MDs gave skin cream. Her skin became harder and hair grew where these creams were applied. There were continuous new eruptions. Someone advised that she take aloe and she took aloe for a long time. Her skin problem disappeared around 10 years old. This family doesn't know what made her better, as they did so many different things for her.

When she came to my clinic at age 14, she had atopic skin on her fingers, arms and neck. I gave her an acupuncture treatment. I asked her if she was afraid of needles. She was nervous about that. After one needle was inserted, I asked her how it was. " I don't feel anything at all. Are you sure you put a needle on me?" I inserted 4 needles in total. Now I am happy to tell you that her skin problem disappeared with just one treatment. Her sore with waters started to disappear the next day and disappeared totally on the following day."

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.

"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."