Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological condition which affects around 100,000 people in the UK. It has many symptoms which might include fatigue, vision problems and difficulties with walking, but MS is different for everyone. In the central nervous system a substance called myelin protects the nerve fibres. In MS, the immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin and strips it off the nerve fibres, either partially or completely, leaving scars which are called lesions or plaque.
Tuina is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which says that mind, body and spirit should be in a “small balanced universe”. Once this is broken – whether because of a distressing experience, negative emotions and behaviour or poor diet or climate - people start to suffer from disease. TCM aims to make changes to lifestyle, thoughts and behaviour and also involves energy bodywork like Tuina Massage..
According to Traditional Chinese medicine, human beings are qi (pronounced "chee")* being energy which flows around the body affecting our emotions and intelligence, blood and body fluids, muscles and bones. The primary characteristic of qi is that it should always be moving and circulating without stopping or slowing.
Each organ has its own meridian in the body along which the energy moves like a network. If there is a blockage along a particular meridian then the organ will weaken and sickness will result. Therefore, broken or stagnated qi is a pathogenic factor which affects the balance of' body, spirit and mind. MS can be described as one of the severest diseases caused by disturbed qi.
How Does Tuina Work?
The aim of Tuina is to prevent and treat disease by applying therapeutic manipulation to certain parts of the body in order to regulate physiology and resolve pathological conditions. However, Tuina practitioners will work at the spiritual level of a patient before they begin to address the physical level.
Tuina practitioners focus on those acupressure points collectively known as the 'Window of the Sky' points, drawn from the oldest ancient Chinese medicine book' Ling Shu'. Only a very few top Chinese medicine masters use these particular technical points when they treat certain diseases such as MS, Parkinson's and brain tumours.
The aim of stimulating these points is to improve the flow of energy between the head and the rest of the body and ensure that the brain is properly nourished since, when it isn’t, body functions suffer. Characteristically, Tuina works on the upper cervical area down through the spine so messages to and from the brain reach their desired destinations.
The damage that MS patients suffer to their nervous system and brain cells affects their minds, emotions, and their movement. MS patients typically experience depression and anxiety together with low energy and fatigue. Tuina helps MS patients to feel more energetic and positive during and after the treatment which is how many have described their condition later during feedback response.
Unlike Western medicine, which explains MS by viral, genetic, auto-immune, environmental and other complex factors, TCM practitioners believe that human experience is the cause.
The trigger for MS may be an episode of feverish - usually infectious - illness. The weakening of and loss of control over the muscles may come about because the critical energizing, regulating function of the internal organs have become disturbed, perhaps because of a disturbing or distressing experience of the type which has "scattered one's soul from its resting place".
The illness consumes vital fluids that are essential to nourishing the body whilst providing a relaxing medium for the spirit. Without spiritual relaxation, there is ongoing agitation, and destruction of bodily harmony.
TCM practitioners always consider emotion to be a very important pathogenic factor affecting health. There is a very strong relationship between specific emotions and disturbances to particular organs. For example, there is a link between fear and the kidney, grief and the lung. When a negative emotional state is prolonged or intense, other organs also suffer.
Demyelination - a loss of fatty substance surrounding the nerve fibres and the eventual schlerosis roughly corresponds to the description by Chinese doctors of the loss of a vital fluid essence. The autoimmune process whose antibodies that attack the body instead of attacking a pathological organism, corresponds roughly to the Oriental description of dysfunction and disharmony of the internal organs.
The majority of MS patients often have three main pathogenic factors in common: liver blood deficiency, kidney chi deficiency and spleen qi deficiency. According to TCM, MS symptoms such as visual disturbances, dizziness, muscle twitches and pain are often due to liver blood deficiency. Memory loss, insomnia, lower back pain, incontinence and erectile dysfunction are believed to be caused by kidney qi and essence deficiency. Muscle weakness and atrophy, fatigue, indigestion, lack of mental clarity and bruising easily are thought to indicate spleen qi deficiency.
* Yin and Yang and the Nature of Qi.
The nature of qi is categorised as Yin and Yang. Yin qualities include cold, stillness and physiologic processes involved in nutritional support, while Yang qualities include heat, moving and physiologic processes involved in function. In the normal state of health, Yin and Yang are in balance with each other
Monday 30 January 2012
Thursday 26 January 2012
Five Elements Philosophy for People and Places
This unique classification system helps to explain patterns of behavior and how our own energy levels mirror the transformational cycles in the natural world and all phenomena whether those are plant, animal (including people!), mineral, chemical or movement.
Anyone who has any awareness of the Feng Shui approach to rebalancing the energy of our physical environments (such as homes or offices) may have already discovered references to these five elements and been interested to gain a better understanding of their meanings and origins. These elements are used as a mnemonic (memory-guiding) device rather like a five-faceted circle to explain the natural world, its life cycle and all that exists around us They may be supportive and generative (i.e. life enhancing) or controlling and overactive.
Many other ancient philosophies or religions such as Wicca/Paganism, Greek and Hindu philosophy have adopted belief in a classical set of four elements which are:- earth, water, air and fire.
.
The historical and medical fundaments of the belief system as it applies to Classical Five Element Acupuncture share much with modern practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, Five Element Acupuncture is very different in theory and aim encompassing more than the commonly taught five phase theory. In modern clinical practice it is used to varying degrees in diagnostic and treatment protocols and is helpful where there are conflicting symptoms depending on the practitioner and style of acupuncture that they practice. Within Classic five Element Acupuncture there is a relative standard protocol which practitioners follow - some of which will be unfamilliar to TCM or Japanese style acupuncturists.
The Five Elements:-
Fire: A fire element will want to relate and be equal with you. They may lack joy or have it in excess. Their colour can range between ashen grey to quite red and will manifest under skin at the level of their blood flow and their odour may be scorched to be. The voice will have a sense of laugher even when discussing grave topics.
Earth: An Earth element carries a deep sense of emptiness. The chief emotion is sympathy whilst they may convey a sense of neediness. They will either be the type of person who really wants you to understand all they have been through or expresses that they do not need anyone. The voice will have a singing quality to it, their odour is fragrant the colour of the face will range from gray yellow to a bright colour.
Metal: The metal person wants respect. The emotion of metal is grief caused by a sense of loss and feeling for what might have been. The colour of metal is white and will be manifest on the skin. The odour is rotten, like the smell of the large intestine. THEY WANT TO KNOW YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FEEL BETTER THAN THEY DO.
Wood: Wood is the element of determination and the assertion of anger. Their main emotion will range between frustration to hopelessness. They need feel that you are in control before they can relax. They may feel ‘pushy’ and provoke you to ‘push’ back. The voice will have a shout or sense of assertion to it. The colour green will be exuded almost above the skin like a glow. Their odour is rancid, similar to that of stale oil as though the body is not digesting fat.
Water: Water is the element of Fear. These people will either be frozen like ice or raging like an over flowing stream. They are either driven - even manic - or quite still like a pond. Their skin colour will show as a ruddy red/blue. The odour is putrid as with that of the kidneys and bladder. A water person lives on the edge of fear having a love/hate relationship with that emotion. Their voice will groan and have a continuous, maybe monotonous, feel to
Classical 5 Element Acupuncture
It is thought that there is one main or root cause for patient symptoms (called a ‘Causative Factor’). This has become established in the patient’s early life and develops throughout adulthood to a point where the body’s energy-flow or Qi (pronounced “chee”) is impeded leading to the condition with which they now present. When a professional practitioner of TCM takes a full diagnostic case history (which may last longer than an hour) many factors are noted and considered in additional to lifetime health history, psychological/emotional state, such as skin, sleep patterns, appetite, alcohol, nutrition and lifestyle, voice, odour and body language. These may all point during diagnosis to the establishment of an elemental type.
Interaction between the elements is also of fundmental significance in deciding how to treat by looking at many aspects like the mother/child elemental relationship. Parental style may also point towards the CF. For Example:- Parents who over parent, enmesh or abandon can contribute to the Earth element. Parents who control the child's behavior with fear can contribute to Water element. Interaction is also key in the determination of where other imbalances may rise in the cycle e.g. poor diet and overwork have weakened an Earth type so more nourishment is requested from the fire element and the metal element may also be affected.
Once a person’s classic five element are decided upon, the acupuncturist may begin treatment removing – where necessary - any blockages in the Qi which exhibit themselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)