The Treatment of Modern Western - Biblio.nhat-nam.ru

INTRODUCTION 25towards yin vacuity and, therefore, easily develop vacuityheat. In addition, these people often manifest liver depressionqi stagnation due to the liver’s not obtaining sufficientblood and yin to nourish and moisten it. Shao yin body typesneed to get adequate rest and to control their impulse to constantlystir. They also need to stay away from stimulatingfoods and drinks as well as acrid, hot, drying foods and flavors.Instead, they should take care to eat enough “bloody,meaty foods” so as to get enough wei to supplement theiressence. People with serious cachectic disease, the anorectic,and many of the elderly develop this body type even thoughthey were not born ectomorphic.Just as in Sheldon somatotyping, no one is a pure type, similarly,the above four body types are only rough guidelines fordisease tendencies. While most healthy young adults exhibitthe shao yang body type, even within that type there may bemixtures. Therefore, one can talk about mixed shao yang-taiyang types, mixed shao yang-tai yin, and mixed shao yangshaoyin body types. Typically as we age, we move from amore shao yang type to more of one of these other three.SEX & AGESex and age both play major parts in the disease mechanismsof complex, chronic diseases and, therefore, typically must befactored into any pattern discrimination. It is said in Chinesemedicine that men and women are essentially the sameexcept that women have a uterus and thus they menstruate,gestate, and lactate. Further, ever since the Song dynasty, ithas been said that, “[In] men the main [thing is] qi, [whilein] women, the main [thing is] blood.” Since menstruation,at least according to Chinese medicine, is a function primarilyassociated with blood, the fetus is nourished and constructedby the mother’s blood, and breast milk is transformedout of the blood, blood is the central concept forunderstanding differences in disease mechanisms betweenmen and women.Because the spleen is the latter heaven root of engendermentand transformation of the qi and blood and because,A) women lose blood each month with menstruation, andB) huge amounts of blood are consumed by gestation,birthing, and lactation, women’s spleens are more prone toovertaxation and, therefore, vacuity than men’s. In particular,most Western women begin showing the clinical signsand symptoms of spleen vacuity at around 35 years of age,if not before. Because the spleen is the latter heaven rootand the kidneys are the former heaven root, the spleen andkidneys share a close reciprocal relationship wherein theybolster and support each other. Thus, it is not hard tounderstand that spleen vacuity in the mid 30s may andusually does lead to kidney vacuity in the 40s. This can bea spleen qi-kidney yang vacuity, a spleen qi-liver-bloodkidneyyin vacuity (a.k.a. a qi and yin vacuity), or a spleenqi-kidney yin and yang vacuity. Because menopause puts astop to this monthly loss of blood, after menopause,assuming that the change of life has taken place completely,a woman’s spleen and kidneys have the opportunity torecuperate. The above theories explain why women developpremenstrual and perimenopausal complaints and alsowhy many chronic diseases either relapse or worsen eachmonth during the premenstruum. Blood vacuity, spleen qivacuity and, therefore, lung qi vacuity, and kidney yinand/or yang vacuity all cause or aggravate liver depressionqi stagnation.According to the Nei Jing (Inner Classic), yin is half used upin both men and women by around 40 years of life. Sincemen are not as constitutionally predisposed to spleen vacuityas women, their spleen qi vacuity leading to kidney yangvacuity tends to happen a little later in life and is typicallynot attended by such overt and obvious symptoms as inwomen. Nevertheless, as we age, we all become qi andblood, yin and yang vacuous and insufficient. Since all fourof these vacuities may cause or aggravate liver depression,this is why many older persons become depressed and irritable.THE MOST COMMON SYMPTOMS OF THE MOSTCOMMON PATTERNSAs we have said, in complex, chronic diseases in Westernpatients, one should expect to see the signs and symptomsof not less than three and frequently as many as eight ormore patterns simultaneously. When the disease mechanismswhich produce individual patterns react with otherdisease mechanisms, they change the signs and symptomsof those patterns. Therefore, one will typically not see all ofthe textbook signs and symptoms of a pattern when thatpattern is combined with another pattern. For instance, inreal-life practice with Western patients, one rarely sees botha spleen and stomach vacuity weakness. More often, whenthe spleen becomes vacuous and damp, the stomachbecomes hot and possibly either disharmonious or dry.Although torpid intake or lack of appetite is a textbooksymptom of spleen vacuity, when spleen vacuity combineswith stomach heat, either the appetite will be normal ormay even be excessive. Therefore, one must know the keysymptoms which you can always count on in Westernpatients to confirm the core set of patterns most patientsmanifest. These are shown on the next page.The following patterns are the most commonly seen buildingblocks of complex patterns in chronic diseases. The signsand symptoms given under each pattern are, in our experience,the most reliable signs and symptoms in Westernpatients. In particular, the tongue and pulse are not good