Chinese Medicine's Treatments for Women
by Al Stone |
Traditional Oriental medicine is based on the law of Yin and Yang. This law teaches that health only comes from a balance between these two fundamental principles. In the same way as American culture is struggling to find equality between the sexes, Chinese culture has, for thousands of years, understood that health only comes about after the masculine (Yang) and feminine (Yin) principles within ourselves are balanced and working in harmony.
Applying the law of Yin and Yang socially is the basis for men's and women's groups in our culture. Oriental medicine seeks to insure health through this same concept as applied to one's bodily functions.
Menopause
Traditional Chinese Medicine approaches Menopause as a variety of syndromes. All of them have been successfully treated by acupuncture and herbal medicine. The most typical cause for the symptoms associated with menopause is the slowing of the flow of "Yin." When applied to the health of the physical body, this is the Chinese concept of the hydration or the cooling system within the body. Typical symptoms of this deficiency of Yin includes hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, insomnia, and heart palpitations.
Sometimes, instead of the Yin level dropping down, it is the Yang that becomes deficient. The Yang in the body represents the warming function of the cells, their metabolism and other active processes. When the Yang is deficient, symptoms include: water retention, edema, weight gain, indigestion, hypertension, and a raised cholesterol level.
Left untreated, Yin or Yang deficiency can lead to Qi deficiency. Qi is pronounced "chee." It's the Chinese word for internal energy. Symptoms of a Qi deficiency can include: feeling "run-down," fatigue, decreased sex drive, dry vagina, cold extremities, lower back pain, weakened knees and incontinence.
In China, maturity is highly revered, perhaps that is why they call the time after menopause to be a women's "second spring." It is this reverence for the elder years that Oriental herbal therapies have evolved to their current beneficial status. Menopause can be made much smoother through Chinese herbal therapy.
Prognosis: Very good. Although the symptoms associated with "the change" are obviously transitory, Oriental medicine has helped women for thousands of years to enjoy their second spring without any the growing pains of the first.
It is interesting to note that many women, after menopause, because of the slowing of the flow of "Yin," discover their Yang principle and go on to achieve, for the first time in their lives, success in business and other areas which have been traditionally dominated by men and their prominent "Yang" principle. In the same way, men, after the age of fifty or so, often find the time to discover their "Yin" or feminine principle and develop a more refined sense of compassion and nurturing in life.
Pre-menstrual syndrome
Emotional and/or physical discomfort occurring before or after the period.
According to Oriental medical theory, there are mainly two organs that regulate menstruation. These are the Liver and the Spleen. The Liver and Spleen in Oriental medical theory are very different than the two organs described in Western medical science.
The Liver initiates the menstrual cycle and the Spleen follows through. When there is disharmony in the Liver, symptoms include the emotional swings that we often associate with PMS such as: depression, sadness, irritability, crying, and propensity to outbursts of anger. When the problem comes from the Spleen, a woman will likely experience clumsiness, distention of the abdomen and breasts, and insomnia.
Doctors of Oriental medicine see emotional strain, overwork, too much sexual activity, and dietary problems to be the causes for PMS. Diet from the Chinese perspective doesn't talk about a lack of nutrients, but rather, excessive amounts of foods that aggravate the body's systems. Foods that are the most likely to lead to PMS include an excessive intake of dairy products and greasy or fried foods.
Prognosis: Both acupuncture and herbs give excellent results for PMS. As with all menstrual problems, it will take a minimum of 3 menstrual periods to regulate the cycle completely, although some improvement can often be seen even after the first month.
Dysmenorrhea
Pain occurring before, during or after menstruation.
This pain often occurs in the lower abdomen or lower back. Associated Western conditions include; mittelschmerz, endometriosis, uterine fibroids and myoma.
From the Chinese point of view, this comes from either of lack of "Blood" in the body (this approximates anemia in Western terms, though it has other meanings as well), or stagnant Qi or Blood. Stagnated Qi or Blood can both effect and be effected by emotion. Stagnation makes you emotional, and emotions make you stagnant. Chinese Medicine seeks to free up the stagnant Qi and blood, nourish and increase the amount of Blood in circulation Blood, remove the pain and ease the emotions.
Left untreated, stagnated Qi leads to a stagnation of Blood. This causes intermittent sharp pains in the abdomen, or what the West calls mittelschmerz. If the Blood stagnation is allowed to slow the circulation of Qi or Blood for a long time, a soft nodule can appear in the area. This is one way of describing endometriosis. Again, should the soft nodule go untreated and the stagnation in the body remain, in time it can become a harder nodule like a uterine fibroid. Should that nodule begin to grow more rapidly, it can become what the West calls myoma, or cancer.
Pain tends to come from stagnated Qi or Blood in Oriental medicine. At that stage its a simple matter of getting that Qi or Blood moving again to remove the monthly pain, however, left untreated, other complications can appear. It isn't the intent of this article to frighten anyone with the discomfort associated with menstruation, but it is a reminder that pain is nature's way of reminding us to be aware of our body's needs. Often times pain is simply a first alert to a problem that can be solved as by something as simple as expressing your emotions or feeling better understood.
Menorrhagia or Metrorrhagia
Excessive menstrual flow or spotting.
The reasons for these condition according to Chinese medical theory are numerous. They include Qi Stagnation due to emotional strain, and Qi deficiency due to a variety of situations including overwork, too much sexual activity, chronic illness, or childbirth. Another cause could be "heat" in the Blood which would likely be associated with a feelings of restlessness, fever and constipation. One could even spot after the period because of a weakness in the Spleen. Symptoms associated with a Spleen deficiency might include an abnormally low appetite, shortness of breath and a pale complexion.
In the case of excessive flow or spotting after the period, the treatment principle could range from wearing "shields" in the case of spotting that falls within normal limits to an aggressive treatment plan to rebalance all of the various organ systems involved with this condition.
You've got options. All I really want to do is remind you is that suffering need not be one of them.
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