Center for Health and Healing

<html><head> <title>The Center for Health & Healing</title> <link rel=stylesheet href="../chhstyle.css" type="text/css"> <script language="JavaScript">  </script> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <base target="_top"> <a name="head"></a> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="98%"> <tr> <td width="149" bgcolor="#ffffff"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="149" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td width="95%" bgcolor="#95a920"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="500" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td width="5%" bgcolor="#95a920"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="60" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="149" bgcolor="#ffffff" align="left" valign="top"><a name="top"></a><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="149" height="24" border="0" alt=""></td> <td> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="padding:0px 0px 0px 5px"> <tr> <td bgcolor="#95a920" align="left" valign="top"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="274" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td align="right"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="123" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr>  <tr> <td bgcolor="#95a920" width="274" align="left" valign="top" class="title">Traditional & Indigenous Healing Systems</td> <td align="right">  <form name="form1" method="post" action=""> <select name="menu1" onChange="MM_jumpMenu('top',this,0)"> <option value="#" selected="selected">Select One</option> <option value='auyrveda_history.asp'>Ayurveda</option> <option value='asian_history.asp'>East Asian Medicine</option> <option value='kampo_history.asp'>Kampo</option> <option value='native_history.asp'>Native American Medicine</option> <option value='tibetan_history.asp'>Tibetan Medicine</option> </select> </form> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td> </td> </tr>  <tr> <td valign="top" width="149" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <table width="120" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="padding: 0px 0px 0px 5px;"> <tr> <td> <p><a class="leftNavOff" href="asian_history.asp">History & Philosophy</a></p> <p><a class="leftNavOn" href="asian_treat.asp">Treatment Approaches</a></p> <p><a class="leftNavOff" href="asian_how.asp">How it works & when to use it</a></p> <p><a class="leftNavOff" href="asian_train.asp">Training</a></p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff">  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tr> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 0px 0px 5px 0px;"> <p class="headline"><br> East Asian Medicine  Treatment Approaches</p> </td> <td width="100%"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="95a920"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td width="100%" bgcolor="ffffff" height="1"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="ffffff" colspan="2"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="10" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr> </table>  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tr> <td class='content'> <p>Treatment is a therapeutic response to sets of possible imbalances. The first set of imbalances involves hot and cold. Pathogenic heat is called overheating. Overheating can manifest as fever, heat stroke, loud cough with green phlegm, huge appetite, hypertension, or hot diarrhea, for example. Cooling and hydrating the body might resolve heat stroke, but not these other examples of overheating. Therapies have been developed to resolve each kind of overheating, whatever the place in the body, organ or channel. <br /> Overcooling can manifest as chill, cold with runny clear mucous, vomiting, infertility, hypotension, or constipation, for example. While ginger tea may help a chill, early cold, or vomiting, overcooling infertility, or constipation requires other specific treatment. </p> <p>Full or excess conditions are those with some sort of excess sign. Excess heat, cold, mucous, food, blood, fluid, stool, or discharge are wanting to be cleared or resolved. Deficient or empty conditions exhibit signs of insufficiency in function, or in heat, mucous, food, blood, fluid, stool or discharge. <br /> Any of these sets of imbalances can simultaneously locate in different areas of the body. Body locations are described as upper, middle or lower body, and outside (meaning surface) as opposed to inside (meaning internal). A problem may be described as locating in a specific internal organ, or in a channel or meridian related to an internal organ. A problem may be described or located in relation to one of the substances, Qi, Blood, Phlegm, Food or Fluid. In addition, ostensibly opposing conditions can simultaneously locate at different sites. A person can have a full heat form of hypertension with red face and eyes, dizziness, and fast full pulse, while at the same time have a cold empty condition of the kidneys with lower body fatigue and chill. The condition of the upper part here is more yang compared to the yin nature of the lower part. </p> <p>Literally yang describes the sunny side of the stream, and yin the shady side. There is not sun without shade, however, or shade without sun. Yin and yang are not isolated qualities. They are terms that describe only by comparison to something else. Qualities such as overheating, excess, and outside are of a yang nature compared to overcooling, deficient, and inside which are of a yin nature compared to the former.</p> <p>In East Asian medicine the bodys internal organs are not the physical masses described in Western anatomy, but are observed and inferred functions and associations. The series of functions associated with an internal organ is linked to its coupled organ, and to the meridian or channel that runs through it to the bodys surface and extremity. There are 12 internal organs. The left column lists the yin organs paired with their yang organ on the right.</p> <p>Lung -Large Intestine <br /> Pericardium-Triple Burner<br /> Heart-Small Intestine<br /> Spleen-Stomach<br /> Liver-Gall Bladder <br /> Kidney-Bladder </p> <p>The channels of the first six organs flow through the arms and hands, the channels of the last six organs flow through the legs and feet. The functions of the internal organs is reflected in and influenced by these channels or meridians. that course vertically to and from the extremities, and by the horizontal emanation of the path of Qi. (see below)</p> <p>While acupuncture is the most recognized form of East Asian medicine, it is seldom practiced alone. Acupuncture is often used in combination with other techniques such as gua sha, cupping, direct or indirect moxibustion, electrical stimulation, plum blossom, or tui na (see below). Some acupuncturists are also trained in prescribing herbal medicine. In addition, acupuncture practice in the context of East Asian medicine includes recommendations on diet, work and lifestyle habits that enhance outcome. </p> <p>Acupuncture involves stimulation of specific body points by insertion and manipulation of fine needles. Chinese acupuncture manipulates needles to what is called de qi status. De qi means the qi, or vital force, has arrived at the point where the patient may feel an electric-like sensation, or a sensation of soreness, dullness, aching, or heaviness, numbness, tingling, and jumping. These sensations are produced at the site of needling and sometimes also in other parts of the body, called local and distal sensation. The area may appear red with warming and the practitioner may feel the needle grasp, sink or anchor. This latter phenomenon is associated with connective tissue fibril winding around the needle with other biochemical and biomechanical changes within the connective tissue. </p> <p><b>Gua Sha</b><br /> Gua Sha is a technique used throughout Asia. It is called as cao yio in Vietnam, kerik in Indonesia, and khoud lam in Laos. In Chinese, gua means to scrape or press-stroke the skin with a smooth edge. Sha literally means red, raised, millet-sized skin rash or red petechiae. When blood circulation in the surface tissue is constricted, called surface blood stasis gua sha is applied. Other counteractive techniques that raise sha are pak (to slap) sha, tsien (to pinch) sha, and cupping. </p> <p>Any patient who has pain is checked for sha by pressing the surface of the skin. Sha is present when normal finger pressure on the patients skin causes blanching that is slow to fade . Sha can be linked to the wind achiness of acute illness, or the blood stasis pain of traumatic injury or chronic illness. Gua sha, and in some cases cupping, raise sha petechiae but only if blood stasis is present. The petechiae represent a discharge of fluid mimicking the crisis of sweating that resolves fever. The petechiae also represent a discharge of blood in the form of rash that resolves toxic heat and blood stasis as is seen in end stages of cholera. Long before the discovery of antibiotics gua sha was used in China to cure cholera and cholera-like disorders . </p> <p>Gua Sha is used in the treatment and prevention of fever, respiratory and digestive complaints, as well as stiffness, tightness and pain. Gua Sha is applied primarily on the neck, back, shoulders, buttocks and limbs and occasionally on the chest and abdomen. </p> <p><b>Cupping </b><br /> Popular in both the East and West, many patients remark theyve had cupping done when they were young by an elder family member. A vacuum is created in a glass, bamboo, or gourd cup by lighting a ball of alcohol soaked cotton and passing it inside the cup, then immediately placing it on the skin. This is called fire cupping. The vacuum cup creates suction causing the surface tissue to tumefy or bulge into the cup. Strong cupping can produce sha petechiae as in gua sha. Modern suction cups create a vacuum effect by using a pump that is equally moving but less warming than fire cupping .<br /> Like gua sha, cupping is used to move Qi and Blood stasis. One technique is only preferred over the other depending on the area to be treated, and personal preference of the provider. While gua sha easily accesses a wider area, it cannot be applied over an existing rash, where cupping would be preferred if indicated. </p> <p><b>Moxibustion</b><br /> Cautery, therapeutic burn blistering of points on the skin, was the early Western medical counterpart to the East Asian moxibustion. Moxa might be used after acupuncture needling of a point, or independent of needling treatment. Moxibustion involves the burning of the dried fiber from the mugwort plant (Artemisia vulgaris) either directly on a point, called direct moxibustion, or just above and over an area, called indirect moxibustion. Indirect moxa is used to warm a person who is deficient and cold. Direct moxa is a stronger treatment and burns the skin to resolve deep and longstanding pain and stasis, as in an arthritic joint for example.</p> <p>Moxa is most often contraindicated in hot conditions such as fever, hypertension, or distended inflammation. However, when indicated, moxibustion resolves local stasis that cannot be addressed in any other way, such as swelling of a joint. Unfortunately, due to the smoke generated by moxibustion, its use is limited in modern clinical settings.</p> <p><b>Tui Na</b><br /> Tui Na involves surface and musculo-skeletal manipulation resembling Western massage. However, tui na incorporates many unique hand movements specific to a desired effect and therefore has a wider range of therapeutic value in the context of East Asian practice than Western massage currently experiences in the West.</p> <p><b>Plum Blossom</b><br /> Plum Blossom refers to either a 7 star needle, or the technique that uses a 7 star needle, or a number of needles clustered together in the forefinger grip and tapped with equal pressure at the surface. The tiny pinpricks may bleed slightly. They create a cascade of responses locally and along an applied channel. Plum Blossom is used in the care of children who generally do not require acupuncture. Plum Blossom is used for example in cases of eczema, where the tapping is thought to break the obstruction in the biao, skin, healing the lesion site.</p> <p><b>Herbal Medicine</b><br /> The Ma-wang-tui texts buried in 165 BC contained charts marking the channels or meridians with prescriptions for moxibustion, bloodletting, herbal poultices, and herbal decoctions . Herbs have been and continue to be used in Eastern and Western clinical setting, with many pharmaceutical drugs a synthetic version of ingredients derived from medicinal plants. </p> <p>Herbs may or may not be prescribed in an acupuncture session. The National Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, (NCCAOM) that board certifies acupuncturists in the US, also board certifies herbalists in the East Asian tradition. However, not every acupuncturist chooses to study herbs, while some are board certified in herbs and prescribe herbs as often as acupuncture. Most states do not regulate the prescribing of herbal medicine, so US herbology retains some of its early Western freedom in the popular sector. That is, herbs like vitamins are a part of home health care, as yet not controlled by professionals. </p> <p>Where Western herbs are often prescribed alone as simples, East Asian herbs are given in combinations as archetypal responses to illness, and modified to treat the unique features of a persons presentation. Combining and individualizing herbs is said to enhance the indicated effects and greatly reduce side effects common to Western drug therapy. Formulas continue to be adjusted based on the patients changing presentation. The expectation is that the action of herbs will build over time, but that recovery is possible, at which point the herbs will be discontinued. Rarely if ever would herbs be prescribed with the expectation that they be needed in any permanent way. While outcome studies can be done, research to isolate active ingredients presents a challenge for complex herbal combinations.</p> </p> <a href='#head' target='_self' class='disclaimer'>Top</a> <p class="timestamp">Content last modified on Mar 8, 2004</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff"><img src="../images/bg_curve.gif" width="60" height="300" align="right" border="0" vspace="0" hspace="0"></td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""></td> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="200" border="0" alt=""></td> </tr>  <tr> <td width="149" bgcolor="ffffff"> </td> <td colspan="2" bgcolor="ffffff"> <p> </p> <p class="copyright">©2002 Center for Health and Healing</p> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>