stroke and TCM

[Guest guest]

Hi all

 

I have had two post stroke cases in my short 3 year private practice

experience and they proved to be much easier to diagnose and treat

than even headache and pain cases I have seen!

One was a woman, 54, 10 months post stroke. Not supposed to be a

good prognosis since it was over 6 months but still it was a fairly

mild stroke. She presented with right side weakness and contracture

in her right hand, difficult, slurred speech, flat affect, fatigue,

post stroke diabetes, hair loss. She had been on birth control pills

for 15 years and 3 months before the stroke had stopped them. Tongue

was stiff, with yellow greasy coating, red tip and edges and purple

macules on the right side especially. Her pulses were thin, choppy,

weak and wiry. I diagnosed wind phlegm in the channels, Blood

stasis, and Qi and blood deficiency. She came twice a week for three

weeks, and weekly since. Macciocia explains that after some months,

the wind phlegm will actually migrate to the unaffected side and Qi

and Blood deficiency will set in on the blocked, affected side

causing contracture and pain. So tonification of the affected side

to nourish the channels and dispersing on the other to balance. I

added CV 23, Ht 5 and K6 for speech and Sp 10 for Blood Stasis, Ren

17 to facilitate movement of qi in the upper body. She was vastly

improved even after the first treatment. The upper limbs are the

last to improve and speech is slow too. I gave her Bu Wang Huan Wu

Tang to help with recovery of speech and strength. Her hair, lost in

patches, is growning back and her speech, after 4 months of

treatment is almost normal.

The other patient was male 57 and came to me while he was

experiencing the stroke. I referred him to emergency room but told

him to come back after they proclaimed him stable which he did 3

days later. He is a long time smoker, dark face, very thin, nervous,

left side weakness and flacidity, had been operated 5 days pre-

stroke for cyst around Bl 10, also difficult speech. Tongue was red

with dry yellow coat and cracks, deviated. Similar treatment though

I concentrated more on liver wind due to liver/kidney yin xu, blood

stasis, yang rising. The stimulation was more dispersing since he

was presenting in the acute phase. I gave 10 treatments over about

18 day period and he was almost completely recovered. I don't have

any scalp literature handy so was unable to use any of those points.

However, the results were still pretty dramatic. He felt wonderful:

as a matter of fact he decided to travel, against my advice, to

England which he had previously planned and two days after arriving

had a " set back " . He has now returned and looks ok but says he

doesn't have a lot of energy. He needs more treatment but can't

afford/is stubborn. I treated him for free before--he's a friend and

very poor.

Any way, stroke responds really well--especialy mild stroke.

Treating early and often is better but even after the 6 month mark,

much can be done with weekly treatments.

Good luck, Shanna

[Guest guest]

shannahickle wrote:

<snip>

 

> he decided to travel, against my advice, to

> England which he had previously planned and two days after arriving

> had a " set back " . He has now returned and looks ok but says he

> doesn't have a lot of energy. He needs more treatment but can't

> afford/is stubborn. I treated him for free before--he's a friend and

> very poor.

 

Hi Shanna!

 

God will reward you in heaven for your charity. Interesting that he is

" very poor " but can afford to travel against your advice. See this sort

of thing all too often.

 

Regards,

 

Pete