***With the news of the infamous 'Swine Flu,' this may interest you***
Ok, I am getting pretty excited about acupuncture, and since I got back from Pittsburgh, I've had a many opportunities to treat people using Acupuncture and OMT. So, I was pretty excited about one recent treatment that I did to myself, I want to tell you about it.
So, in Acupuncture, a 'cold' or 'flu' is called a 'wind invasion.' In Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, our body is designed in various layers: from surface to deep. Therefore, when 'wind' invades our body, it invades also from surface to deep. Here is how the depth of body works in the acupuncture vernacular. These are Chinese names for various Acupuncture Meridians that are arranged from Surface --> Deep.
1. Tai Yang: Surface, support, structure, back, posterior areas
2. Shao Yang: Lateral body areas, movement, joints
3. Yang Ming: Front of the body, digestive tract
4. Tai Yin: Lung function, respiration, skin, sinusis, digestion
5. Shao Yin: Functions of excretion and elimination
6. Jue Yin: Emotional/spirit aspect of a person
So, as the 'wind invades' from surface to deep, it can progress from symptoms mentioned in #1 to #6... usually when it gets to #4, it causes enough respiratory symptoms such as cough, congestions, fever, sometimes pneumonia, patients usually end up in a doctor's office seeking help. So, that's when we usually see patients.
Let me describe a typical 'wind invasion' for you, and you can see how much coorelations there are to 'Western medicine understanding' on what a 'flu' or a 'wind invasion' to 'Eastern Medicine understanding.' So, a 'cold = wind invasion' usually starts on our neck/head/back as myalgias, or muscle aches. Then, it moves to our joints as aches. Then, it as it progresses, it invades a layer deeper to our intestines and stomach, causing gastroparesis, bloating, diarrhea/constipation, belly aches, and indigestion. Then, it moves to our sinusis, our throat, our lungs causing us to cough, produce phlegm, runny nose, ear aches, sinus headaches, and wanting to just crash to sleep. At times it may present more as a gastrointestinal issue than respiratory, or vice versa. That's what we usually called a 'flu' vs. 'stomach flu.'
In Western Medicine, there is nothing you can do about it. As a physician, we recommend 'supportive care', which means, other than rest, drink water, and take tylenol for fevers and aches, continue feeding, at most, we can give you 2 different types of anti-viral medicines, other than that, there's nothing else we can do. Just allow tincture of time and let your body heal. In Osteopathic Medicine, we can offer lymphatic drainage techniques and various other techniques in conjuction to the above therapies to help speed up and alleviate cold symptoms. In Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, it is possible to treat and gain immediate relief of symptoms. Many times, the 'cold' would just LEAVE! Can you believe that? Well, I was skeptical until I acupunctured myself. Since then, I have done the same treatment on many patients and physician, that yielded the same result... Here is what I did.
So, the course of my 'cold' usually starts with a scratchyness in the back of my throat, then it progresses to muscle aches, head aches, sinus aches, cough, chest congestion, sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms... and then after my 'cold' symptoms go away, I usually am left with a lingering dry cough for a at least 2 weeks...
We were taught several protocols we can use to 'break the wind invasion' to 'extract the wind invasion from deep to surface,' therefore, getting rid of it. I did it, and it involved 1 needle on the leg, 2 in the arm, bilaterally... with electrical stimulation. I added a few needles for sinuses on the face. 10 minutes later... after I pulled all the needles out, my sinuses were completely clear and my cough stopped and I haven't had the usual lingering dry cough since! Amazing.
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