Case study - Chronic bronchitis and emphysema

[Guest guest]

There is a very good case history in The Foundations of by

Giovanni Maciocia on pp. 326-327. It illustrates treatment principles very

well.

 

According to the book, the chronic bronchitis and emphysema were long

standing, and the woman caught cold easily, was breathless and coughed up a

lot of yellow-sticky sputum. " The pulse was slippery, and both Front

positions were weak. Her tongue was red with a sticky-yellow coating.

 

The first clue for a TCM accessment is she " caught cold easily. " When

people catch colds and other infections easily, this frequently is a sign

that they are Qi Deficient, particularly Protective (Wei) Qi Deficient.

 

The fact that the sputum is sticky and the tongue coating is sticky point to

Phlegm. The fact that the sputum is yellow, the tongue tissue is red, and

the tongue coating is yellow, point to Heat. This is Hot Phlegm Obstructing

the Lungs.

 

A slippery pulse can indicate Phlegm, Food Stagnation, Dampness, Excess

Heat, or pregnancy. In this case other indicators for Phlegm (sputum from

lungs) and Heat (yellow color of sputum, red tongue tissue, and yellow

tongue coating) are present, so the healer feels more confident in

diagnosing Hot Phlegm Blocking Lungs.

 

But wait a minute. That pulse also is weak in some positions. A weak pulse

is a sign of Deficiency; a stronger than normal pulse is a sign of Excess.

This woman obviously has Excess Heat, so why isn't her pulse stronger can

normal to reflect the Excess? Because this woman also has Deficiency. You

frequently run across mixed symptom patterns in the real world. There can be

both Excess and Deficiency. In fact, the Excess may be due to Deficiency,

and this is what is happening in this case.

 

The original Root, the linchpin so to speak of all that mucus in the lungs

is the woman is Spleen Qi Deficient. There's not enough Spleen Qi to move

fluids, they accumulate, Stagnate, and congeal into Phlegm.

 

Treatment in this case has to be directly mainly toward tonifying

(increasing) Spleen Qi. Yes, you can give her herbs or acupuncture

treatment to get rid of the Hot Phlegm, but until you address the underlying

problem that the woman is Spleen Qi Deficient, the Phlegm is just going to

keep forming as fast as Phlegm-relieving herbs and acupuncture can get rid

of it. You want to stop it from forming.

 

Victoria

 

 

 

______________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com