by Carol Krieger, L.Ac., RN

Multiple sclerosis (MS) was rare in ancient China, since it is mainly a disease found in countries of northern latitudes such as northern Europe and North America. Symptoms of MS include weakness, numbness or tingling of the arms/legs, difficulty with walking or balance. Other MS symptoms are double vision, slurred speech, heat intolerance, muscle spasms, and bowel and bladder difficulties.

Multiple sclerosis from different perspectives
From the Western medicine perspective, multiple sclerosis is a disease where the nerves of the brain and spinal cord lose their protective coating. This loss leads to scarring (or sclerosis) which disrupts messages sent from the nerves to various areas of the body and thus causes the symptoms described above. In the most common type of MS – the relapsing/remitting type – flare-ups may be followed by partial or complete recovery and the severity of the symptoms fluctuates. The usual treatment for multiple sclerosis in the United States is oral or intravenous medication.

Oriental medicine has a different theory on the causes of diseases like MS than our conventional Western medicine. Illness or diseases indicate problems with the body’s energy or qi. These problems can be caused by factors in the environment such as Dampness, Heat, Cold or Wind. Many of the symptoms of MS are caused by Dampness. Dampness is like over-cooked pasta – heavy, soggy, and sticky. This Dampness in the body causes heaviness of the legs that makes walking difficult. It slows speech and causes foggy thinking and poor memory. Because it is heavy and sticky, Dampness makes it hard for the qi to circulate or move around the body. Qi that can’t make it to the extremities causes numbness or tingling of the arms or legs.

Dampness also slows or blocks qi and blood from reaching the different organs of the body preventing them from functioning properly. The (Chinese) organs that become especially weakened or deficient from the effects of Dampness are the Spleen, Liver and Kidney. When these organs become deficient, more symptoms associated with those particular organs begin to appear such as double vision, spasms, and bowel or bladder problems. Fatigue, weakness and disability also become more severe.

Dampness and organ deficiency may be slow to change with acupuncture needling alone, so herbal therapy or other Oriental medicine techniques may also be used. These include: cupping, electroacupuncture, moxibustion (a smoldering Chinese herb used on needles or on the skin), acupressure, and Tui na (Chinese bodywork). It may take several sessions with an acupuncturist to determine if treatment will be effective.

In an acupuncture treatment session, your acupuncturist will ask you questions about your specific problems and other aspects of your health such as your breathing, energy, sleep, digestion, or pain. He or she will check your pulses, look at your tongue, and feel your abdomen or other areas of pain. All of this information shows patterns of disharmoney that are used to make an Oriental medicine diagnosis. The beauty of this method of diagnosis by patterns is that it allows for an individualized treatment. This is true for treatment of MS and even for conditions that were rare (or even unknown) to the authors of the classic Chinese medical texts.

What can you do?
Chinese medicine recognizes lifestyle factors in contributing to or maintaining disease. Dampness may occur from living in a damp environment. Foods that are greasy/fatty, dairy products, or white/starchy foods also cause Dampness. (Remember that over-cooked pasta?)

Spleen 9, a point located below the medial (inner) side of the knee, is a major point for treating Dampness anywhere in the body. You can find this point by feeling for the front of the large bone of the lower leg (the tibia). Roll off the bone towards the inside of the leg. At the lowest edge of the bone (closest to the calf) move your finger up the lower edge until it falls into a large depression below the knee. Gently massage this point usually is tender to the touch if you are dealing with issues of Dampness.

Exercise promotes the movement of qi and blood, which helps to move the Dampness. Oriental medicine includes exercise therapies such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong. Both of these exercise therapies can help increase muscle tone, balance, coordination, and are excellent at reducing stress. Qi Gong in particular provides more meditative experience. Both of these practices can give persons with MS a sense of control and participation in treating with their disease.

You can find more information on MS and Oriental medicine at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society website. The website reports that some 75% of people with MS use some form of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) in addition to their standard medical therapy.

Be sure your doctor is aware of your use of Oriental medicine therapies so that he/she can note if changes in your symptoms might reflect the use of these therapies. And when looking for a practitioner to treat you with acupuncture be sure to find one who has actually studied Chinese medicine and is a qualified, Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac).

We all know that scratchy metallic taste in the back of the throat that snaps you out of the daily routine and makes you wonder, “am I getting sick?” Sometimes it is a few sneezes in quick succession, the ones that have a feeling of fever behind them, that make you think about cancelling the evening’s activities and getting some extra rest. We all have some of signal that breaks through our day-to-day habituated routine, and makes us realize we might have just caught this season’s “bug.”

They say there is no cure for the common cold. That particular strain of rhinovirus moves too fast. It mutates faster than a St. Louis barometer change. Vaccines and flu shots are an educated guess at an ever-moving target, so there is always a certain vulnerability to this season’s cold (oddly enough most cold’s have a fever—so why do we call it cold anyway?) And while Chinese medicine does not have any magical cures for a full-blown cold or flu, it does have the ability to help you sidestep or vastly shorten the amount of time you are entertaining that particular pathogen. But if, and only if, you catch it at the initial outset.

Just like plucking a weed– a tiny bit of effort is needed when it first shows its un-rooted sprout. Once it has roots and runners it becomes a tangled complication.

If you can get yourself an acupuncture treatment within a few hours of noticing the feeling of “I might be getting sick,” then we likely can pluck that sprout before it blooms into days of fever and chills.

If you cannot get in, there are still a few things you can do that are vastly helpful.

The first is brew up a syrupy strong decoction of cinnamon and ginger tea. Drink it down, crawl under a light blanket, close your eyes for 20-40 minutes and allow your body a bit of time to rest and issue forth a light sweat. After sweating, DO NOT allow yourself to be exposed to wind or cold. Your normal energy and feeling of well-being should return within a few hours. Please note: if you take a couple hours to rest, get the therapeutic sweat, and then rest a bit more, you can save yourself days of downtime. Drinking this tea and carrying on with your regular day, even if you get the sweat, will not help in resolving the cold.

The second method is to apply enough pressure the point #4 of the Large Intestine channel– aka the “Tiger’s Mouth,” to cause a slight whole body sweat. This point is famously effective for everything from headache, to nausea, to frustration that makes you want to pound on the walls, to constipation—and yes, the common the cold. The caveat being you have to massage this point, massage it in the place where it is most tender, until it makes you break a sweat. While it is not particularly pleasant, if at very beginning stage of a cold you can stimulate this point to the point of causing a sweat, then the cold that was chasing you will in most instances will pass you by.

Should you by pass this initial “coming down with a cold” phase and end up with the full-blown illness. Then the usual advice of “fluids and rest” holds true. Most colds resolve on their own in 5-7 days. Should you have lingering symptoms afterwards, then Chinese herbs are quite helpful. But, during the middle phase a cold or flu, the thing to do is rest, and allow your system to work it out.
Of course, the best thing is to stop it in the early stages!

As of July 19, Yong Kang Chinese Medicine Clinic will offer a free weekly acupuncture clinic each Tuesday afternoon that is specifically focused on treating those who are undergoing cancer treatments.

This clinic will run from 2 to 6 p.m. every Tuesday afternoon until further notice.

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Why are we doing this?

Because there are not enough options in the St. Louis area for people enduring the debilitating side effects of cancer treatments.

Because acupuncture helps with the nausea, fatigue, headache and malaise that comes with chemotherapy and radiation.

Because insurance companies here (unlike in some coastal cities) do not cover acupuncture.

Because I’ve heard from too many patients, or their loved ones, that acupuncture is what helped to make life more bearable in unbearable times.

Because I’m deeply frustrated that highly esteemed cancer centers here do not make better use of complementary healing methods such as acupuncture, which has a track record of safety and effectiveness.

Most importantly, we are doing this because it can make a positive difference in difficult times.

Who is eligible for treatment in this clinic?

We are delighted to offer free acupuncture treatment to:

• Those currently undergoing chemotherapy or radiation.
• Those who have chosen to stop their course of cancer treatments, or have elected to not receive treatments.
• Those whose cancers are considered untreatable.

If you know someone suffering through the debilitating effects of chemotherapy or radiation, we would be delighted to help them. Please have them call us at 314-821-9642 or refer them to the clinic’s website.

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