Herbal Chinese medicine: an efficient treatment for various diseases
Chinese medicine has become extremely popular in the past years, even if its techniques have been used for thousands of years. Patients and even doctors all around the world have started to understand its positive effects, which is why it has become the ideal alternative to traditional medicine. To provide help and cure for as many diseases as possible, Chinese experts have developed a series of practices aiming to recover wellbeing and restore their patients’ health. Although years ago, people were still reluctant, nowadays treatments such as tai chi, acupuncture, massage, or herbal medicines are very common.
Most Similar to Traditional Medicine
The last one is maybe the most similar to traditional medicine, even if the “drugs” are made of plants and other natural substances. It is part of the integrated Chinese system of primary health care, having its roots in the Eastern regions of Asia. This method has a great history, dating from at least 5000 years ago when ancient quacks living in Asia used plats to relieve various symptoms and cure different diseases. Taking this into consideration, it can be said that herbal Chinese medicine is one of the oldest and persistent health care in the world.
Herbal Medicine
Needless to say that technological development has brought some changes to TCM and herbal medicine: while ages ago these only consisted of teas or broths, nowadays these make use of pills, powders, or capsules, such as Jinkui Shenqi Wan. All these “drugs” use natural solutions and you must know that there are more than 450 substances that can be often found in Chinese medicines.
Given the fact that it is called “herbal”, you may think that it only uses plant extracts, but this is not completely true: besides plants and their derivatives, other common agents are taken from minerals or even animal products.
Used to Make Medicines
You may not be aware, but some of the items used to make medicines can be even found around your household: cinnamon, ginger, and garlic – to mention but a few. In addition to these, you may also have some raw materials in your garden, because peony and chrysanthemum also have therapeutic effects, if used properly.
As you can see, if you were thinking that things are complicated, this is not true! Do not let yourself fooled by Chinese names, such as chai hu (bupleurum), di Huang (Rehmannia), and Huang Qi (Astragalus), because the solutions are often used in day to day life. Medicines such as Wuzi Yanzong Wan consist of many agents aiming to eliminate dysfunctions of the kidney, all of them being naturally obtained.
In the past years, some of the most traditional elements have been replaced with others that have similar actions. The rudimentary methods developed into becoming almost a science – a genuine holistic treatment for a wide selection of illnesses and dysfunctions. Despite the constant skepticism, people all over the world, regardless of their culture, social background, religion, or beliefs, are willing to try Chinese herbal medicine to cure their health problems.
Yin Deficiency Symptoms – Chinese Medicine Diagnostic
understood in Chinese medicine, responsible for organic liquids and anchor the yang. If Yin becomes weak then we assist to an increase of Yang in the way that a clinical pattern of yin deficiency will be characterized by the following symptoms:
1. Agitation:
a person can not be quiet, feel more agitated than normal because there is the rise of yang. Agitation can be internal or external and divided into 2 aspects: physical and/or mental. If yin deficiency affects the liver symptoms of irritability can occur.
2. Insomnia:
This symptom can be characterized by an initial difficulty in falling asleep (blood deficiency), waking up repeatedly during the night (yin deficiency), or waking too early without feeling you have rested enough and unable to go back to sleep. Yin represents night and reassembles during the night. With yin deficiency, there is an increase of yang that makes it difficult to sleep the patient causing insomnia. The characteristics of insomnia duo to Yin deficiency are characterized by waking up several times during the night, and difficulty sleeping a feature of blood deficiency (in the Portuguese blog I have developed a discussion because several professionals call my attention to the fact that different school´s are saying different things. In the future I will translate that article for this blog).
3. Heat:
is a complex of symptoms exactly symmetrical cold complex symptoms such as warm hands and feet, warm feeling in the body, worsening with exposure to heat, heat intolerance. The decrease of yin leads to an increase in body heat, particularly the hands and feet. It is often argued that the patient could not sleep well and had to put out their feet outside the blanket.
4. Afternoon fever:
an increase in body temperature, with the development of fever, the evening is an indication of yin deficiency and is a very common symptom that can be detected on the thermometer. The person with yin deficiency will suffer an increase in temperature as the day goes, contrary to yang deficiency where the temperature of the person tends to fall throughout the day.
5. Night sweats:
loss of body fluids during the night indicates a yin deficiency pattern. It is considered a symptom of the heart. The yin deficiency stimulates yang hyperactivity that yin can not control. As such the fluids are taken by Yang to the outside world being driven off as sweat. There is also the importance of this association with other symptoms such as feeling hot, physical and mental agitation, insomnia, etc …
6. Dry mouth and Throat:
a lack of yin to moisten the body ends up causing a sensation of thirst and the impression of dry mouth and throat. In more severe cases may be the desire to drink cold liquids but in small quantities. When dryness symptoms are accompanied by mucosal lesion with a desire to drink cold drinks in quantity and an aversion to hot drinks it is assumed that there was a pattern of fullness heat.
7. Urine
dark urine and in small quantities is common when there is yin deficiency affecting the kidneys. Constipation is also a symptom of Yin deficiency.
8. Red face:
a sign of heat that both exist in a yin deficiency pattern as in other heat patterns like wind-heat and damp-heat.
9. Red tongue:
it arises in situations of yin deficiency and fullness heat, however, the yin deficiency does not have tongue coating and in patterns of fullness heat, there is coated tongue with yellow fur.
10. Fine pulse, shallow and fast:
The fine pulse is indicative of a deficiency pattern, while the features, fast and shallow, indicate a condition of heat. The characteristic shallow, does not indicate, in this case, the location of the nature of the disease. Because yin is weakened, yang tends to come up to the surface. Care is needed in the assessment of cases. for example, flu, which is the penetration of wind-cold, tends to have a superficial pulse. This happens because the Wei Qi (defensive Qi) swells to the surface to fight the cold and the pulse feels superficial.
