Treatment Principle for George

When considering treatment from the perspective of Chinese medicine there is an apparent simple logic based on the notion of reversing the identified patterns of disharmony. Thus, in George’s case there is a predominance of deficiency problems, but also what would be termed excess problems – mainly where things get ‘stuck’.

In this instance the Kidney & Spleen energy is deficient while the retained damp and the Bi syndrome can be classified as excess patterns.

There is also a preponderance of Cold in George’s condition; therefore we are likely to want to introduce Heat to counteract that.

Thus, the treatment principles could be summarised as follows:

1. Clear the Damp & warm the Cold (excess conditions)
2. Tonify the Kidney Yang and the Spleen Yang.

Treatment

It was decided to tackle George’s problems with acupuncture, moxabustion and the use of Chinese Herbs.

Firstly George was given a well known herbal formula which is commonly used to help clear Cold & Damp from channels & joints – Du Huo Ji Sheng Tang. This herbal prescription was given as a powder which required to be made up as a drink and taken 2/3 daily.

In addition, George commenced on a programme of acupuncture and moxabustion, which sought to address the identified problems. A range of empirical acupuncture points were chosen and moxa burned on needles and over the lower back.

The needling technique was generally reinforcing when tonifying and reducing in the cases of the excess patterns. It would not be especially helpful to the general reader to have detailed point prescriptions, suffice to say, George attended weekly for 10 weeks and during this time his urinary problems improved markedly.

His joint problems were still there but were not as severe as before.

George was very happy with the help he received from Chinese medicine and while it was likely that he may find some future recurrence of his difficulties, the combination of lifestyle advice and his knowing that Chinese medicine help was readily at hand, was very reassuring for him.

To date, George has not been to see the consultant urologist and feels much more able to manage the problems himself.