How acupuncture can help you manage arthritis

Arthritis affects about one out of every six people, including 80 per cent of persons over the age of 70. In severe cases, it can affect one’s normal life and working capacity.

Acupuncture can relieve chronic pain from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis by diverting or changing the painful sensations that are sent to your brain from damaged tissues and by stimulating your body’s own pain-relieving hormones (endorphins and encephalins).

Treating osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis

TCM categorises arthritis as a blockage in the smooth flow of Qi and blood throughout the energetic pathways in the body. The disorder is classified as Bone Bi (an impediment affecting bones and joints).

Pain and reduced range of motion in TCM indicates the presence of a blockage; conditions such as arthritis, therefore, are called Painful Obstruction Syndromes.

It makes a diagnostic distinction based on the predominance of Wind, Cold, Damp, or Heat symptoms. While many of these pathogenic factors usually are found together—Wind is said to carry the others into the body—each has a separate set of symptoms, with one factor playing a primary role. Arthritis may be differentiated into the following categories:

Wind Bi: Symptoms: Pain begins and ends rapidly, and moves among different parts of the diagnosis of the body. Windy weather can make the symptoms worse.

Cold Bi: Symptoms: Pain is severe, and has fixed locations. Cold temperatures worsen the condition, and warmth improves it.

Damp Bi: Symptoms: Pain is characterized by soreness, is accompanied by feelings of heaviness and sometimes numbness.

Dampness worsens the condition and there may be swelling in the affected areas.

Heat Bi: Heat predominates when a Wind-Cold-Damp syndrome results in a significantly reduced flow of Qi and Blood through a joint, causing constraint. Constraints in TCM theory can cause Heat. Inflamed, red, swollen joints characterise Heat Bi.

Acupuncture Treatments: Bi and other pain syndromes account for more than half of all acupuncture treatments in Britain each year. Arthritis patients frequently use acupuncture to control pain once or twice a week, which is an effective complementary treatment.

How Traditional Chinese Medicine treats arthritis

An efficient approach to individualizing herbal prescriptions is to use herbs that stop the pain and expel the pathogenic factors responsible for Bi.

For example, while all of the following herbs help relieve pain, each focuses on a different type of Bi:

• Sang Zhi (Ramulus Mori) for Wind Bi
• Wei Ling Xian (Radix Clematidis Sinensis) for Cold Bi
• Mu Gua (Frucus Chaenomelis) for Damp Bi
• Han Fang Ji (Radix Stephaniae Tetrandrae) for Heat Bi

Because Wind, Cold, and Damp are intertwined in these Bi conditions, all three can be treated through herbal combinations. The Main herbal products for internal use are XIN GUANG PIAN, WANG BI KE LI, ZHANG GU GUAN JIE WAN, DU HUO JI SHEN WAN, TAO HONG SHI WU. For external use: HUANG DAO YI WOOD LOCK OIL, HONG HUANG OIL.

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