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Understanding pain

by Brigitte | 1919,Jun, 2024 | medical, medicaltcm

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Tòng and bì syndromes

Pain is the number one reason for consultation, accounting for almost two-thirds of all medical consultations, particularly in Europe. It is therefore an essential and delicate element in patient care.

Generally speaking, pain is something unpleasant that happens in the body. But it is also, at the same time, a personal and therefore subjective mental experience.

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) describes pain as “an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with present or potential tissue damage.”

This means that pain, in addition to indicating physical damage (potential or present), is, like its opposite, pleasure, a subjective emotional attitude, which triggers and shapes behavior. Pain is therefore neither a simple perception nor a purely physical sensation. It is fundamentally a mental state.

An energy block

According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), pain is generally a sign of energy blockage. However, this varies according to the location of the pain and its causes. TCM classifies pain according to whether it is

permanent or intermittent ;
whether it corresponds to painful numbness and swelling in the joints;
whether it is due to overpressure, spasm, irradiation, etc.

The problem is complex. Pain will be treated by unblocking blocked meridians, expelling excess or mucus and releasing blood stagnation.

For long-term pain, acupuncture and/or Chinese herbal medicine are used to reduce pain levels and provide relief. Moxibustion, massage and cupping are also widely used to relieve pain. Pain rarely occurs on its own; it is usually symptomatic of an energy imbalance, which the diagnosis will detect.

According to TCM, the concept of pain can be divided into two main syndromes: tòng (emptiness) or bì (blockages).

Bì syndrome

Bì are painful obstructions of the meridians caused by a combination of three perverts, also known as the “three demons”: Wind, Cold and Humidity.

Bì syndrome affects the skin, muscles, vessels, tendons, bones and meridians.

Poor lifestyle and social or dietary habits can impede the circulation of blood and qi in the meridians, thus favoring the onset of Bì-type illnesses.

These include:

irregular wake-up and bedtimes,
overwork,
cold or damp housing, exposed to cold, wind and humidity,
alcohol abuse,
eating too much or too little,

excessive eating that harms Jing and Blood,
intense emotions experienced in excess (anger, joy, emotional shock, worry, sadness, excessive reflection, fear),
haematomas or blood stagnation following external trauma.

Tòng syndrome

Tong syndrome, on the other hand, most often stems from internal causes.

It occurs in the Five Organs and Six Entrails. It is also found in the “particular Entrails”: Brain, Marrow, Bones, Vessels, Gallbladder and Uterus. Here, we often diagnose a Yin vacuum, a Yang vacuum, a Qi vacuum or a Blood vacuum (or a combination of all four).

The functions of the human body, whether organic or psychic, are linked together in perpetual motion. Any slowing down or blockage (痹 – bì) of movement in any of the body’s functions can lead to pain.

Pain is therefore a vast subject insofar as it covers multiple realities. We must therefore distinguish :

where it occurs (outside or inside the body),
its origin: external (meridians) or internal (organs [qìguān] and viscera [zāngfǔ]),
its type: emptiness or fullness,
its nature: acute or chronic, etc.

Here too, the list is long, and taking an anti-inflammatory won’t solve the root of the problem. It’s essential to see pain as an alarm bell that should draw our attention to a change in our lifestyle.

Painful periods

Many women experience pain before and/or during menstruation. According to a 2005 study, 50-70% of teenage girls experience permanent or occasional dysmenorrhea. For 15-20% of them, this pain even forces them to limit their activity or even go to bed. Worse still, many women experience these pains as normal, almost inevitable.

But there’s nothing normal about pain. These pains are signs of energy imbalances, and most often of blood and energy stagnation in TCM terms. By restoring the flow of energy through acupuncture and/or pharmacopoeia, Chinese medicine can put an end to these pains.

This involves mobilizing qi and blood, nourishing blood and toning qi. A personalized diagnosis will enable each patient to be treated appropriately according to the nature of the imbalances observed.

Thanks to these treatments, women can finally experience their cycles in comfort and serenity.

The large intestine

by Brigitte | 2626,Apr, 2024 | medical, medicaltcm

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Elimination and letting go

In Chinese medicine, the large intestine (大肠 Dà cháng) is associated with the Metal element, the autumn season and the emotion of sadness. It is coupled with the Lung, yin organ of Metal.

The main function of the large intestine is to receive food ingested and transmitted by the small intestine. After absorbing part of the liquid, it excretes stool.

The Large Intestine, governed by Dryness, controls liquids. In other words, it absorbs the necessary quantity of liquids to ensure that it is neither too dry nor too moist. If it’s too dry, constipation ensues, and if it’s too wet, diarrhea.

Movement and routing

After receiving digested food from the small intestine, the large intestine transforms it into stool and ensures :

the stool circulates correctly,
that it is transported downwards.

In TCM, the Large Intestine is the minister in charge of circulation and transport. The movement of Qi from the large intestine is therefore clearly downward.

If this movement stops (stagnation), the Qi then affects the Large Intestine and causes a disturbance of the downward movement. This causes abdominal distension and sometimes constipation.

Spleen Qi can also collapse, leading to the collapse of Large Intestine Qi, resulting in anal prolapse or blood in the stool.

It is the Qi descending from the Lung, the coupled organ, that supplies the Large Intestine with the Qi needed for the effort required by defecation.

If the Lung’s Qi is insufficient, it cannot supply enough Qi to the Large Intestine for the defecation function, resulting in constipation.

Conversely, if a person suffers from constipation, the result can be disruption of the lung’s descent function, and hence breathlessness.

A waste disposal process

According to Chinese medicine, the organ pair Lung (yin) and Large Intestine (yang) is therefore associated with the autumn season and the emotion of sadness.

Autumn is the time when the energy cycle declines, and tree leaves fall and die. They are then decomposed by the rains. This process of death is essential, as it enables other forms of life to develop next spring.

This same process is at work in the human body. The large intestine helps us get rid of the old, of what we no longer need. This process involves eliminating not only waste from the digestive process, but also our mental and spiritual waste. After enjoying the harvest in body, mind and spirit, we must let go to make room for other life forms, for evolution.

Metal imbalances

Metal element disorders often affect the skin. Like the lungs, the skin is the only part of the body in direct contact with the outside air (the skin “breathes”). Like the large intestine, it eliminates toxins through perspiration. People with a Metal imbalance often have a history of dermatological problems: eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, acne, etc. Or, more subtly, a history of skin problems.

Lung and large intestine have an impact on the quality of our skin and our state of mind. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Metal, by extension, nourishes the skin, the throat, the sense of smell and the power of our voice.

The large intestine eliminates and evacuates the body’s waste products. Problems related to the large intestine are a sign of our fear of missing out, of making mistakes, of letting go.

Difficulties in letting go

If our Metal energy is weak, then our letting go will be unbalanced. Either we let go of things too soon, or we hold on to them for too long.

When a loved one dies, for example, it’s normal to feel grief, a feeling that is metal in nature. If the loss doesn’t affect us at all, or if on the contrary the sadness we feel lasts for years, this indicates that the Metal element is out of balance.

When we really can’t let go, every event, no matter how small, affects us greatly. We go through life looking at the past.

A balanced metal element creates an awareness of the divine spark within the individual. If this divine spark is cut off, it can lead to absolute resignation. Nothing and no-one has any meaning or value. The individual sees no point in taking care of himself, let alone others. He’s always negative about everything he does, and falls into depression.

Others will try to compensate for this emptiness by displaying a perfect appearance. We’ll see people who take care of every detail of their appearance as well as their living space. In their home, everything is in its place, no thread sticking out, no wisp of dust making an appearance. They will seek to accumulate wealth and flaunt it in broad daylight in an attempt to create that impression of value through the eyes of others.

Rebalancing metal energy

As we’ve seen, it’s important not to repress sadness, nor to cultivate it. Meditation and deep breathing can help us learn to accept our emotions without letting them overwhelm us. Keeping a diary can also help you let go of certain emotions.

This is particularly important in the case of sadness, which is linked to the lung and large intestine. Breathing deeply, consciously and for a long time can help cleanse any grief or sadness you may be holding inside.

Autumn, the season associated with metal, is the time to focus on root vegetables. It is advisable to slightly increase consumption of foods with an acidic taste, such as sourdough bread, lemons and limes, grapefruit, pickled and fermented foods, leeks, azuki beans, vinegar, rosehip tea, yoghurt, etc. White foods, such as onions, garlic, turnips, radishes, daikon, cabbage, pears, etc., are traditionally considered lung-protective.

People suffering from dryness (dry cough, dry throat, dry skin, etc.) may wish to consume moister foods, such as tofu, tempeh, spinach, barley, millet, pear, apple, persimmon, seaweed, almonds, pine nuts, sesame seeds.

Dāng Guī : uses and benefits

by Dominique | 2828,Mar, 2024 | medical, medicaltcm

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The “Ginseng of women”

Dāng Guī, or Radix angelicae sinensis, is a plant commonly used in Chinese pharmacopoeia. A highly versatile herb, it finds its strength in the treatment of women’s health problems, particularly deficiencies and blood stasis. Often referred to as “Woman’s Ginseng” for its indispensable contribution to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) gynecology, Dāng Guī literally translates as “state of return”. This reflects its ability to restore a state of health.

However, it benefits people of both sexes thanks to its various properties: warming, nourishing, moistening and invigorating. Chinese angelica is used for a wide range of conditions, including musculoskeletal, dermatological and digestive disorders.

Herbaceous plant of cool climates

Dāng Guī is a large, fragrant, herbaceous perennial grown in cool, humid climates at high altitude. It is found in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Hubei in China, as well as in the mountainous regions of Korea and Japan.

The plant grows to around one metre in height. It has grooved purple stems, large bright green leaves and large flat clusters of small white flowers that bloom in summer. It is the roots that are used in Chinese pharmacopoeia. These are harvested in autumn, when the plant is three years old.

The roots are then carefully cleaned, dried, slowly smoked and cut into thin slices. The best quality roots seem to come from Gansu province, and are long, moist and fragrant.

Although the whole root is generally used, different parts of it are attributed to different functions: the head (Dāng Guī tou), the body: Dāng Guī shen, the tail: Dāng Guī wei.

Dāng Guī is prepared in a variety of ways, depending on the desired effect.

Chao Dāng Guī (dry-roasted) is warmer, drier and less invigorating to the blood, making it more suitable during pregnancy.

Jiu zhi Dāng Guī (wine-roasted) and cu zhi Dāng Guī (vinegar-roasted) have a stronger blood-toning action. Finally, charred Dāng Guī (tan Dāng Guī) is hotter and stops bleeding.

Nourishes and tones the blood

Dāng Guī is one of the most popular Chinese herbs. For nourishing the blood, it is the main TCM medicine. Its sweet (tonifying) nature, tones the blood; its pungent, bitter nature drains and harmonizes the blood; its hot nature, nourishes the blood, dispels cold and penetrates the organs that store, generate and control blood (liver, spleen and heart).

Dāng Guī has a strong, sweet, earthy flavor with a bitter aftertaste. Its slightly pungent, warm aroma and taste, which attacks the tongue a little, is a reminder of its invigorating energy.

Dāng Guī is therefore included in prescriptions for blood deficiencies manifested by signs and symptoms such as pale complexion, dizziness, fatigue, dry skin, blurred vision, palpitations and tinnitus.

It is recommended in all cases of anemia.

Treats menstrual disorders

As mentioned above, “women’s ginseng” plays a special role in women’s health, particularly in the regulation of menstrual disorders: premenstrual syndrome, amenorrhea, painful or irregular periods.

It is generally indicated for most gynaecological disorders rooted in blood deficiency, particularly those associated with blood stasis and/or cold.

Dāng Guī is also often used to moisten the intestines and relieve constipation due to dryness, which is a common consequence of blood deficiency. Finally, it is a valuable remedy for many skin conditions (swollen wounds and abscesses and slow-healing wounds).

The legend of Dāng Guī

la légende de dang gui, la plante du retour

According to Chinese legend, once upon a time, a young married couple lived happily ever after. One day, the husband was forced to leave their home to prove his strength and courage by going into the mountains to survive the dangers of the environment and collect medicinal herbs. When he left, he asked his wife to wait three years for his return. He said that if he didn’t return after that time, it meant he was no longer alive and she would have to find a new love.

Three years passed, and he didn’t return, so she found a new love and remarried. Shortly afterwards, the husband returned. His wife was heartbroken to have remarried. Her heartache weakened her condition, and she fell ill with sadness, no longer wanting to live.

When he learned of her condition, the man brought her some of the herbs he had found in the mountains during his absence. She ate them, hoping they would be poisonous, but the herbs did the opposite, and she regained her health. The herb was then named Dang (meaning “state of”) Gui (“return”).

This story illustrates the power of this plant’s medicinal properties, which are found in many Chinese pharmacopoeia preparations.

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