HEALING ARTHRITIS WITH CHINESE MEDICINE IN ANNIE TIANG TCM
Each year millions of workers are sidelined by joint pain. If the pain is mild, many just "tough it out," but find that the problem gets worse year by year. Severe joint pain can incapacitate people, making it impossible for them to exercise or live the life they want to live. Most people with joint pain are diagnosed with arthritis, which is a general term for a number of different conditions that involve swollen, painful, and/or stiff joints.
In the West, anti-inflammatory drugs are commonly prescribed for arthritis. In the East, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, with their thousand-year-old history, are the major health care modalities used to fight joint and musculo-skeletal disorders including arthritis. These ancient therapies are still used because they are empirically effective, and have stood the test of time. Now they are standing to meet the tests of Western medicine.
Arthritis in Conventional Medicine
Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, infectious arthritis, chemically-induced arthritis, temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ), juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and gout are all types of arthritis that are differentiated in conventional Western medicine. The most commonly seen forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Arthritis in ANNIE TIANG TCMChinese Medicine
In traditional Chinese medicine, the condition that is congruent with arthritis is called "Bi syndrome." Bi syndrome manifests as pain, soreness, or numbness of muscles, tendons and joints, and is the result of the body being "invaded" by the external climatological factors of Wind, Cold, Heat, and/or Dampness. The symptoms manifested by the individual depend on which external pathogenic factor is strongest. The four main patterns of Bi syndrome are differentiated below, and the leading herbs that are used to treat each pattern are listed.
Wind Pattern. Exposure to wind, especially when one is unprotected and exposed to the wind for a long time, is an important cause of the Wind pattern of arthritis. Movement of symptoms from place to place characterizes any Wind pattern. In the case of Wind Bi, there is joint soreness and pain which moves from joint to joint. Movement of joints is limited, and there is often fever, as well as an aversion to wind, or windy weather. A thin white tongue coating and a floating pulse are signs that help Chinese medicine practitioners diagnose Wind Bi.
Support for Acupuncture
Joint pain, back pain, and headaches constitute a large percentage of all the visits paid to doctors offices and acupuncture clinics in any country at all times. In traditional Chinese medical theory, it is believed that the pathogenic factors that cause Bi syndrome (Wind, Cold, Damp, Heat) lodge in the body’s meridians (energy pathways) and obstruct the free flow of Chi and Blood in those meridians. When blood and energy are not able to flow naturally, they stagnate, causing pain, heat, and other symptoms of illness. Acupuncture and herbal therapy help to open the blockage, balance the energy, and harmonize Chi and Blood.
Scientifically proving the validity of these ancient concepts is challenging, but promising. More and more scientifically designed clinical studies support the use of acupuncture for arthritis. One study examined the effects of acupuncture on 32 osteoarthritis patients waiting for knee replacement surgery. After nine weeks, patients receiving acupuncture treatments reported a decrease in pain, while pain increased in untreated patients. The patients with acupuncture treatments were able to walk farther and faster, compared with the untreated group. Another study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine found that 12 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee improved significantly after acupuncture treatments. These results encouraged the researchers to do a larger study which is currently under way.
Modern scientific research has also revealed the mechanisms, which provide relief for arthritis patients. Studies show that acupuncture can stimulate the production of endorphins (natural pain-killing hormones in the brain), and the anti-inflammatory hormone adrenalcorticotropin. Somehow, the acupuncture needles trigger the body to heal it by producing hormones that reduce pain and inflammation. Acupuncture can then be used on an ongoing basis to prevent re-occurrence of arthritis once it has been successfully cured.
ANNIE TIANG TCMACUPUNCTURE: NATURAL, SAFE AND EFFECTIVE