Headaches and severity of pain

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " victoria_dragon "

<victoria_dragon wrote:

>

> Remember the part in the previous post about edema and

inflammation

> can trigger Qi Stagnation and Blood Stasis? That's what happens in

> these cases as the neck muscles stay stiff and swollen. As Qi

> Stagnation gets worse and worse, the headache gets worse and

worse.

> When Blood Stasis starts to set in, the pain not only gets a lot

> more severe, it gets debilitating. The person is incapable of

doing

> much besides sitting up or lying down. Movement can make the pain

> worse. Vomiting also can occur because one effect of severe pain

is

> it can cause Stomach Qi to Rebel, to rise rapidly.

>

> When a Blood Stasis headache sets in, aspirin is useless in

> relieving these headaches. Even some narcotics at best only blunt

> the pain. The headache is not going to go away until the Wind Cold

> is expelled from the body. Some sufferers of Wind Cold headaches

> against a background of Qi Deficiency and/or Blood Deficiency

> discover on their own that a heating pad applied to the back of

the

> neck helps some. Note I said some, as in some of these

> cases " helping some " means the headache only lasts for a day

instead

> of several days. There are other places to place the heating pads

> that act a lot quicker than putting a heating pad on the neck.

 

I appreciate all of your posts and all of the time you take to

create little snippets for the rest of us to benefit from. I really

like how you just make a little mini-lesson and add in some good

personal experience and insight.

 

I had a question for you regarding some of the info you have posted

lately. You explain that blood stasis is often not only very

painful, but debilitating. Blood stasis makes sense to me as far as

cool or cold, as things when they cool off start to slow down, and

the more cool they are the slower they go, and therefore more

debilitating (like if ice were in the channel I could see how

nothing could get through and then that would create a big back

log). I'm not quite sure how the converse works however. How does

heat affect blood stasis, and how can heat cause blood stasis? Also

what are some good things for people to avoid with both hot and cold

blood stasis, and what are some good things that would benefit the

situation with hot or cold blood stasis?

 

Thanks in advance for your reply.

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " mrasmm " <mrasmm wrote:

>

> You explain that blood stasis is often not only very

> painful, but debilitating.

 

It's the pain from a Blood Stasis headache that can be debilitating.

A lot of times, people with chronic headaches that don't respond

satisfactorily to pain relievers learn to ignore the pain and carry

on regardless. But that's only possible up to a point. The pain from

a Blood Stasis headache can become debilitating. There's no ignoring

it. In some cases (not all), movement makes the headache worse. This

includes changing postions of the head.

 

What I described in my original post is a Blood Stasis headache

against a background of Wind-Cold invasion and a very stiff neck. As

the stiffness in the back of the neck worsens, the pain worsens. The

Cold in the Bladder channel is just a part of what is bringing on

the localized Blood Stasis. The muscles are contracting so rigidly

because of the Cold that this by itself is contributing to Blood

Stasis and pain. But there also can be edema and swelling because of

the blockage, and they too start to contribute to the Stasis of

Blood and the pain. The conraction, swelling, and edema block not

only Qi and Blood but also nerve impulses and blood. Anything that

puts additional pressure on the neck worsens the pain, and this

includes turning the head even slightly. All the person wants to do

is to lie quietly in a dark room and try not to move too much

(because that makes the pain worse).

 

When my headaches used to reach this extreme stage, I went to the

emergency room. I usually was given a shot of demerol. But even

demerol didn't make the pain go away. It merely blunted the

headache so I could sleep through the worst of it with a heating pad

on the back of my neck. A heating pad on the back of my neck reduced

recovery from one of these headaches down to about a day. And that

was a big improvement over the time it took with the heating pad

over my head which was a big improvement over no heat. The only way

to get rid of those headaches and stop the pain is to get rid of the

Wind-Cold.

 

I want to pause for a moment here, and mention some Western

discoveries that tie in with what the Chinese discovered so long

ago. First let me point out that the Chinese concept of Wind

includes not only the wind but changes in barometric pressure and

changes in ion concentration. One discovery in the West a few years

ago is that when barometric pressure drops, this can cause a slight

swelling of tissues in some people, and this can trigger a headache

in these people. (I read about this in an Agricultural Extension

Agency newsletter in an article on headaches.

 

The other discovery that I want to mention is that at least two

decades ago, researchers in the West discovered that in some (not

all) migraine sufferers, the migraine headache was preceded by the

hand on that side of the body becoming cooler than the other hand.

They also discovered that if this subset of migraine sufferers could

warn the hand up, this would prevent the migraine. They were

teaching some of these migraine sufferers to try to raise the

temperature of the hand via bio-feedback. Actually, sticking the

hand in warm water or wearing a glove on the hand was a lot easier

than bio-feedback, but keeping your hand in warm water or wearing a

glove long enough had some drawbacks. I'm mentioning this because it

ties in with some other things.

 

These very severe headaches that I used to have started when I was

in junior high school. I can remember swallowing aspirins and Goody

powders dry in class to get rid of the pain. But once the headache

reached a certain point, aspirin and even narcotics were useless,

and I was out of it for a few days. As I got older, the headaches

got more and more frequent and more and more severe.

 

The first thing I discovered was that heat helps. But I was placing

the heating pad over my head. That's where the pain was, and the

heat felt so good. The next step was learning to put the heating

pad over my neck. That improved things some. But the next step was

discovered by accident.

 

I woke up one morning with a headache building in intensity. But

because it was a nice day and because I like to garden, I went out

and gardened. Besides, since I was rarely without a headache, I

wouldn't get to do anything if I didn't ignore them before they got

so severe I worked a lot of muscles while gardening, and I knew

that those muscles were going to knot up and get sore if I didn't

put some heat on them. I had a large heating pad, and I was moving

it around my body to help the muscles. To my great surprise, when I

moved the heating pad to my lower back, the headache that had been

inccreasing in severity since I got up that morning, vanished within

seconds. It was like water going down a drain or air coming out of

a balloon. I discovered that I had to lie there for a while under

the heating pad because if I removed it too soon, the headache came

back. Over the next several weeks and months, I had plenty of

opportunities to test this out. I discovered that headaches on the

left could be stopped by a heating pad on the lower back, but

headaches on the right required a heating pad on the upper back as

well as the one on the lower back. The ones on the right also

tended to take longer to knock out totally than the ones on the

right.

 

Keep in mind that when I discovered this, I didn't know anything

about TCM. I literally blundered into learning how to get rid of

these headaches. When I discovered TCM, and began to learn all I

could about it, why the heating pad on the lower back for a headache

helped began to make sense. Eventaully I learned about 5 Elements

Theory, and using 5 Elements Theory and a general familiarity with

the meridians, I figured out that I also needed to put a heating pad

on Small Intestine 3. That helped a lot. It also began to decrease

the tendency toward the headaches. The use of the point SI-3 in

treating certain headaches is not info that one finds in general

books on TCM. Months later as I began to read more advanced books on

TCM, I discovered that SI-3 is a point that gets used in certain

headaches. But I had figured it out using 5 Element Theory. (This

is part of why I highly recommend that students become familiar with

5 Elements Theory. It will help you figure some things out that you

otherwise wouldn't read about until months or years later. It also

gives increased diagnostic and treatment abilities.)

 

Again, I want to stress what Maciocia wrote about headaches that

start in the back of the head: " Chronic headaches in this area are

usually due to a Kidney deficiency manifesting on the Bladder

channel " . (The Practice of , p. 9.) When I saw a TCM

herbalist, the worst problem I had was Kidney Deficiency. This

Remember what I said about the heating pad to the lower back helping

so much? there are some special points in acupuncture called " Back

Transporting Points " . They're not only diagnostic (they will be sore

when the corresponding Organ has imbalance), they play an important

role in treatment.

 

" The importance of the Back Transporting points in treatment cannot

be over-emphasised. They are particularly important for the

treatment of chronic diseases and, indeed, one may go so far as to

say that a chronic disease annot be treated without using these

points a some time during the course of treatment. " (Giovanni

Maciocia, The Foundations of , p. 349.) The Back

Transport point for the Kidneys is Bladder 23, and without realizing

what I was doing at the time, I applied heat to Bladder 23 and

helped my Kidenys without realizing it. (My primary problem was

Kidney Yang Deficiency, and heat would help in those cases.)

 

But how did I later figure out that it was Bladder 23 that was so

important in my case? Consider something else that Maciocia wrote:

 

" The Back Transporting points can also be used for diagnostic

purposes as they become tender on pressure or even spontaneously

tender when the corresponding organ is diseased. " (p. 350.) This

point had been spontaneously tender for me for years. It had been so

spontaneously tender for so long that it made an impression on me.

There was no forgetting it. So when I read about Bladder 23, I

quickly realized that's the spots on my back that have been so

tender for so long. Another piece of the puzzle fell into place.

 

As I typed the previous paragraph it occurred to me just how

different my life would have been had I seen a TCM healer years

before I did. All this stuff that I didn't know what it meant, a TCM

healer would have known. So many problems would have been cured long

before they were. So many problems never would have developed.

 

If a client presents to you with symptoms and signs of chronic Wind-

Cold headaches, automatically look at the possibility of Kidney

Deficiency. The headaches aren't going to be cured without also

addressing the Kidney Deficiency problems. Remember what Maciocia

said about chronic headaches that start on the back of the head have

a component of " a Kideny deficiency manifesting on the Bladder

channel. "

 

Knowing things like this is what separates cookbook approach to

acupuncture and herbalism from a TCM-like approach. It's what

separates cures from merely controlling symptoms as they keep coming

back.

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " mrasmm " <mrasmm wrote:

 

> Blood stasis makes sense to me as far as

> cool or cold, as things when they cool off start to slow down, and

> the more cool they are the slower they go, and therefore more

> debilitating (like if ice were in the channel I could see how

> nothing could get through and then that would create a big back

> log). I'm not quite sure how the converse works however. How does

> heat affect blood stasis, and how can heat cause blood stasis?

 

There are two ways Heat can trigger Blood Stasis. Heat in the Blood

can cause Blood to leave the channels (vessels). When treating cases

like this it is important to choose an herb that not only will

invigorate Blood (get it moving) but also stuanch bleeding. There are

herbs and formulas that have both properties. An you'll want to pay

attention to the Heating or Cooling effect of the herb or formula so

as not to add Heat to already Hot Blood.

 

Heat also can " cook off " fluids in the body. Think of how fast water

moves vs. how slowly syrup moves. Heat condenses. It can be like

sludge in a channel.

 

BTW, I once knew a man with Heat problems whose dehydration was so

severe because of the Heat (plus the Dryness of living in a desert

area) that healthcare professionals described his blood as being like

syrup. They had a hard time getting him rehydrated.

 

Hot Blood gets most of the publicity in beginning TCM books,but Blood

also can be too Cold. In these cases it's important to choose an herb

or formula that doesn't cool the Blood more.

 

According to Maciocia, " Stasis of Blood can derive from: "

 

" 1 Stagnation of Qi: this is the most common cause of stasis of

Blood. Qi moves Blood, if Qi stagnates Blood congeals.

 

" 2 Deficiency of Qi: deficiency of Qi over a long period of time may

cause stasis of Blood as Qi becomes too weak to move Blood.

 

" 3 Heat in the Blood: heat in the Blood may cause the Blood to

coagulate and stagnate.

 

" 4 Blood deficiency: if Blood is deficient over a long perios of

time, it will induce Qi deficiency and subsequently stasis of Blood,

from impairment of the Qi moving function.

 

" 5 Interior Cold: this slows down the cirulation of Blood. " (The

Foundations of , p. 194.)

 

I want to elaborate some on one of the mechanisms by which Hot Blood

can trigger Blood Stasis. The part about pushing it out of the

channels. It's the same mechanism as occurs when trauma causes a

bruise. It's the same mechanism as can occur in Qi Deficiency.

Maciocia mentions the main mechanism by whicch Qi Deficiency can

trigger Blood Stasis: " Qi becomes too weak to move Blood. " But

something else can occur when Spleen Qi is weak. It can be so weak

that it no longer can hold Blood within the vessels. If Blood is not

in the vessels either because of trauma or being pushed out by Heat or

not held in by Qi, this too is Blood Stasis. The Blood is not flowing

as it should.

 

Maciocia goes into the 5 main TCM imbalances that can trigger Blood

Stasis. Later on when you start to study more in-depth material on

Fluid physiology in TCM and TCM Nephrology, you'll learn about how

Dampness can trigger Blood Stasis. Inflammation also can trigger Blood

Stasis. So can the slight tissue swelling that occurs in some people

because falling barometric pressure.

 

Too much vitmain K and plalets that clot too readily causes Blood

Stasis.

 

I want to call people's attention to something that occurs in chronic

medical conditions like diabetes and CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune

Dysfunction Syndrome). There is an unusually high percentage of

nondiscocytes - rigid, infexible, misshaped red blood cells (RBCs).

This misshapen, rigid RBCs have trouble making it through the smallest

capillaries. This is Blood Stasis. Vitamin B12 promotes the formation

of healthy, properly-shaped, flexible RBCs. (But you want to be

careful that too much B12 doesn't trigger a folic acid deficiency or

result in too many RBCs.) The highest percentages of nondiscocytes

have been found in PWCs (People With CFIDS). For more info on

nondiscocytes, see the work of New Zealand researcher L.O. Simpson, MD.

 

There is a book called Aging & Blood Stasis: A New TCM Approach to

Geriatrics by Yan De-Xin. If your school library doesn't have a copy,

please recommend that it get a copy. For centuries the Chinese have

looked at the problems encountered in the elderly as primarily being

due to Kindey funtion which declines with age. Yan D-Xin has

documented that Blood Stasis plays a big role in many of the problems

that older people tend to suffer from. However, these problems are

not limited to older people. For example, I suspect that many of the

problems that PWCs have are due to Blood Stasis. CFIDS reaseach

increasingly is looking at the Hypothalamus - Pituitary - Adrenal axis

in CFIDS. The hypothalamus is particularly rich in very small

capillaries that nondiscoytes have trouble making it through.

 

This doesn't mean that you automatically load any PWCs you treat with

Blood Invigorating Herbs. You always go by the TCM critirea. If the

TCM criteria aren't met, you don't use the herbs. Also, in cases of

high percentages of nondiscocytes, the best treatment may be B12, not

one of the Blood Invigorating Herbs. I also want to point out that

PWCs can be all over the range of possible lab work results. Some

bleed too easily, but some have blood that is too thick and/or clots

too quikly. Etc. Part of the profile of someone with CFIDS is not

that the person has a particular lab test value, but that there will

be extremes, and often the person will go back and forth between

extremes. CFIDS very much is a disorder of homeostasis in the body,

and this points strongly to hypothalamus involvement which raises some

interesting questions about the high percentages of nondiscocytes

found in PWCs and the hypothalamus having a lot of very small

capillaries.

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " victoria_dragon "

<victoria_dragon wrote:

> " 1 Stagnation of Qi: this is the most common cause of stasis of

> Blood. Qi moves Blood, if Qi stagnates Blood congeals.

>

> " 2 Deficiency of Qi: deficiency of Qi over a long period of time

may

> cause stasis of Blood as Qi becomes too weak to move Blood.

>

> " 3 Heat in the Blood: heat in the Blood may cause the Blood to

> coagulate and stagnate.

>

> " 4 Blood deficiency: if Blood is deficient over a long perios of

> time, it will induce Qi deficiency and subsequently stasis of

Blood,

> from impairment of the Qi moving function.

>

> " 5 Interior Cold: this slows down the cirulation of Blood. " (The

> Foundations of , p. 194.)

 

 

First of all thank you for your post; what you mentioned and talked

about answered my question and was quite helpful. I'm not sure if I

have a different edition, or if maybe you just got this out of a

different book or something, but I can't find what you referenced to

so I could read more about it. I have the second edition of the

Foundations book and on page 194 I see the end of chapter 14

(chapter 15 starts on 195), and it says box 14.4 other aspects of

the small intestine. Is there any way you could check out what you

referenced to and see if it is on a different page or something, or

maybe in a different book? Thanks =)

[Guest guest]

I double-checked, and it's page 194 in my edition, reprinted 1998,

ISBN 0-443-03980-1. Page 194 in my copy is chapter 19. Since my copy

doesn't say " second edition " , it must be the original edition.

 

It's in the chapter " Identification of Patterns According Qi-blood-

body fluids " .

 

Check the index in the back of your copy. Look under " Blood " and

then " stasis " under that. Hopefully that will find the info in your

edition. Fortunately Maciocia's books are well-indexed. (Some

authors' books aren't.)

 

Please let me know when this happens again. I'll start including

index and chapter info.

 

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " mrasmm " <mrasmm wrote:

 

> Chinese Traditional Medicine , " victoria_dragon "

> <victoria_dragon@> wrote:

> > " 1 Stagnation of Qi: this is the most common cause of stasis of

> > Blood. Qi moves Blood, if Qi stagnates Blood congeals.

> >

> > " 2 Deficiency of Qi: deficiency of Qi over a long period of time

> may

> > cause stasis of Blood as Qi becomes too weak to move Blood.

> >

> > " 3 Heat in the Blood: heat in the Blood may cause the Blood to

> > coagulate and stagnate.

> >

> > " 4 Blood deficiency: if Blood is deficient over a long perios

of

> > time, it will induce Qi deficiency and subsequently stasis of

> Blood,

> > from impairment of the Qi moving function.

> >

> > " 5 Interior Cold: this slows down the cirulation of Blood. " (The

> > Foundations of , p. 194.)

>

>

> First of all thank you for your post; what you mentioned and

talked

> about answered my question and was quite helpful. I'm not sure if

I

> have a different edition, or if maybe you just got this out of a

> different book or something, but I can't find what you referenced

to

> so I could read more about it. I have the second edition of the

> Foundations book and on page 194 I see the end of chapter 14

> (chapter 15 starts on 195), and it says box 14.4 other aspects of

> the small intestine. Is there any way you could check out what

you

> referenced to and see if it is on a different page or something,

or

> maybe in a different book? Thanks =)

>

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " victoria_dragon "

<victoria_dragon wrote:

>

> I double-checked, and it's page 194 in my edition, reprinted 1998,

> ISBN 0-443-03980-1. Page 194 in my copy is chapter 19. Since my

copy

> doesn't say " second edition " , it must be the original edition.

>

> It's in the chapter " Identification of Patterns According Qi-blood-

> body fluids " .

>

> Check the index in the back of your copy. Look under " Blood " and

> then " stasis " under that. Hopefully that will find the info in

your

> edition. Fortunately Maciocia's books are well-indexed. (Some

> authors' books aren't.)

>

> Please let me know when this happens again. I'll start including

> index and chapter info.

 

That is very interesting. I looked up chapter 19 in my book (2nd

edition came out 2005), and it is " The Functions of the Six

Extraordinary Yang Organs (The Four Seas).

 

Before I had replied to your post I had already looked up blood and

then under that stasis, and also hot blood in the book that I have.

I am still trying to get my head wrapped around the idea of hot

blood causing blood stasis as doesn't come as natural. Your analogy

to simmering and how stuff condenses was very helpful to me. Also I

thought of a couple others, one is if you have a tractor that uses

hydraulic fluid that is under great pressure (I think they run

around 2500-3000 psi), and you get a nick in the line then the high

pressure would leak quite a bit of fluid through even the smallest

nick and can no longer do the work required; if this was in the

body, then the body would have fluid/energy outside the channels,

and also no work being done, so the energy would have to go to

gathering fluids or recreating the non-recoverable fluids which

would take a lot of energy. Another example I thought of that

helped me understand it better (so I thought I would share just

incase it helps others too) is when things get hot they shrivel up.

Take raisins for example, when a grape is left out in the sun (or in

other words heat) they shrivel up and turn into a raisin. So it

makes sense then if you have any sort of orifice in the body that

something has to go through (including but not limited to energy

and/or fluids), and somehow this orifice has been shriveled or

shrunken because of heat, then it would make sense how since you

don't have enough flow things would start to pool up behind it and

eventually cause some sort of stasis or stagnation.

 

Anyways, I couldn't find reference in the book I have to the list of

5 things that can cause blood stasis like you have listed in yours,

especially since the chapter titles seem to be completely different,

and there isn't a chapter that I can see that is close to

Identification of Patterns According Qi-blood-body fluids.

 

I appreciate your post and it has helped me understand better how

heat and blood stasis works, so thank you =)

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " mrasmm " <mrasmm wrote:

 

> thought of a couple others, one is if you have a tractor that uses

> hydraulic fluid that is under great pressure (I think they run

> around 2500-3000 psi), and you get a nick in the line then the

high

> pressure would leak quite a bit of fluid through even the smallest

> nick and can no longer do the work required; if this was in the

> body, then the body would have fluid/energy outside the channels,

> and also no work being done, so the energy would have to go to

> gathering fluids or recreating the non-recoverable fluids which

> would take a lot of energy.

 

This is a good analogy. Regardless if the Blood is driven from the

vessels by Heat or lost because the Qi isn't strong enough to hold

it in the vessels, the Blood is out of the vessels and not flowing

as it should.

 

> Another example I thought of that

> helped me understand it better (so I thought I would share just

> incase it helps others too) is when things get hot they shrivel

up.

> Take raisins for example, when a grape is left out in the sun (or

in

> other words heat) they shrivel up and turn into a raisin. So it

> makes sense then if you have any sort of orifice in the body that

> something has to go through (including but not limited to energy

> and/or fluids), and somehow this orifice has been shriveled or

> shrunken because of heat, then it would make sense how since you

> don't have enough flow things would start to pool up behind it and

> eventually cause some sort of stasis or stagnation.

 

That's another good analogy. To extend the analogy further to

what's flowing through the orifice, think of the situation with

nondiscocytes - inflexible and misshapened red blood cells. A

normal, flexible red blood cell has no trouble making it through the

smallest capillaries. Both its rounded shape and its flexibility

enables it to slide right through. Not so with something that has

been misshapened and made rigid by Heat or Cold.

 

Also think of the gall stones that form because of Damp Heat in the

Gall Bladder.