TCM treat Cirrhosis (Liver Hardening) with Herbal Medicine

TCM treat Cirrhosis (Liver Hardening) with Herbal Medicine  

中医治疗肝硬化

Clinically, we do have patients telling us that when they go for their blood test, the blood test showed that they have fibrosis or cirrhosis. 

Fibrosis describes some degrees of scarring in the liver, while cirrhosis is referring to the most severe of scarring and the chance of complications of liver disease is higher. 

Liver fibrosis has an insidious onset, slowly progressing over many years and typically taking over 20 years to develop into liver cirrhosis. Some may not realize that they have liver fibrosis until they go for medical check-up. Rapid progression over a few years to liver cirrhosis can also occur in some cases. 

Some may wonder how they have liver fibrosis, however, genetic as well as environmental factors can be the cause of liver fibrosis.  But TCM views that unhealthy food can also contribute to liver fibrosis.

Our clinics have seen many cases of Cirrhosis cases, there are many cases where their cirrhosis was mild, and they were asked to do regular exercise by their western doctor, but usually no medicine was prescribed for them. There were quite a numbers of patients who told us that they did not want to wait till her cirrhosis became serious and wished to get some treatment from us to prevent her liver from deteriorating further.  With our medicine, they could see that their cirrhosis is better. 

There were also many advance cirrhosis cases who came to seek treatment from us, usually they were diagnosed to have liver cancer.  Their symptoms are weakness and tiredness, loss of appetite, easily feel nausea and vomiting, weight loss and muscle tenderness or pain around the liver area.  Some may have big stomach and could see some crochet veins or tiny red lines (blood capillaries) on the skin.  They may also have yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice) and itchy skin.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is not that we can treat everything.  Basically, we treat based on symptoms 辨证论治Syndrome differentiation and treatment。For example, if the patient has poor appetite, we can prescribe 麦芽 谷芽to increase his appetite; If he feels nausea and vomiting, we can give 旋复花, 代赭石, 炒竹茹 ；If he cannot pass motion, we can give 大黄素，if he feels very tired, we can give him 党参， 黄芪， 人参 etc. TCM makes sure that he can eat, he can digest his food and he can pass motion.  Also we can also help him to be more relax and not to be too worried and can sleep better.  

Of course, we can also add some medicine to reduce the hardening of his liver, and nourish his blood and enhance blood circulation. There are a lot of TCM herbs that have anti-cancer property. TCM herbs also help him to have enough energy to do his daily activities such as exercise, cooking, bathing, eating, and so on.

He may not be able to get well with his liver cirrhosis but in some ways  he may be able to prevent further deterioration.

 

The symptoms of liver cirrhosis:

1) Itchy skin;

2) Jaundice (yellowish eyes and skin);

3) Loss of weight and loss of appetite;

4) Fluid build up in the abdomen (ascites);

5) Nausea;

6) Sleeping difficulties;

7) Swelling of legs (oedema);

8) Lethargic;

9) Vomiting blood;

11) Red spider-looking spots on your chest and back (spider angiomas);

10) Confusion in severe cases.

Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) Skin Diseases

One Indian lady 46 years old came to our clinic in Eastern Healing (Telok Blangah) to consult us for her Hidradenitis Suppurativa.  She said she had Hidradenitis Suppurativa for almost 20 years. She said that she was suffering pain all the time when she walked or she touched the lesions, the the pain was very bad, but if she did not touch them, she was fine and had no pain.

She had a few surgery operations before.  A few years ago, she had operation on her arm-pits, After the operation to remove the Hidradenitis Suppurativa on her arm-pits, it never occured again. Unfortunately, her Hidradenitis Suppurativa spread to her upper thigh near her private parts, that made her difficult to walk and felt pain whenever it touched on her lesions. So, in order to avoid pain, she wore a short pant so that it would brush on her lesions when she walked. 

She went for two operations to remove her Hidradenitis Suppurativa lesions on her thigh. The surgent had to cut away the lesions and grafted a new skin taken from her buttock to patch up on the wounds. 

She said that after 2-3 years new Hidradenitis Suppurativa would start to grow again and she had now no more skin to be grafted.  So she came to see us in our clinic, looking for a way to cure her Hidradenitis Suppurativa.

When she came she was in pain, her Hidradenitis Suppurativa on her upper thigh was big and inflamed and a bit swollen.  We administered acupuncture on her and gave her herbal wash and medication to reduce her inflammation.  She came back and told us that it worked on her, the pus came out from her Hidradenitis Suppurativa and the lesions were smaller, and she had less pain.  We told her that she had to refrain from taking spicy food and toxic food like prawn heads, shrimps, squids and clams.

Other Important Clinical Cases

 DRY EYES

Dry eyes can occur when you are unable to produce enough tear fluid to lubricate your eyeballs. Many people when they are old, they have mild dry eyes.  But there are cases that they suffer from very serious dry eyes that causes them to be very uncomfortable.  Dry eyes can be very frustrating as you will lose all your interest in everything because you will experience very bad mood.  There was a woman who had very bad dry eyes came to our clinic and complained of dry eyes.

She told us her story that she was asked to go to Gleneagles Hospital to delivery her fourth child. The gynecologist suggested that she should opt for induced delivery because her vagina was slightly opened.  She was young did not know that that was her fourth child, the delivery should be easy.  Not suspecting that the gynae wanted to do delivery in the daytime, also he could earn more money. 

She checked into the hospital at 8 am, he gave her medicine to take and to chew in her month.  The baby did not come.  She was given Epidural to reduce her pain. The anesthesian was anxious to go home and the baby still was not ready to come at 5pm. So she was told to have a second to-up of Epidural and the anesthesian went home.  After the second dose of Epidural, she felt numb and she felt very cold, her womb was numb that there was no contraction. She was also semi-conscious.  And because there was no contraction, the womb cannot push the baby out.  The doctor was nervous, and she could hear the nurses were calling her to push the baby out. Eventually the baby managed to come out.  Everyone was relieved for the time being.  Then she was sent to her ward.  She was happy that she had another son. Her husband also never suspected anything would go wrong and went home happily at around 8pm.  At about 11pm, the nurse on duty watched over her, and realize that she was bleeding. The nurse alerted the gynae, but he was too tired to come over.  Until the nurse called him to tell him that the bleeding did not stop.  He came eventually at around 3am to do a cauterization, and to give her blood transfusion urgently. She said that it was the blood transfusion that caused blood clots in her eyes that she subsequently had very bad dry eyes. She suspected that the blood transfusion was not properly defrosted due to the urgency.

After the episode, she had very bad dry eye, she suspected that it was caused by the un-defrosted blood transfusion.  She said that her dry eyes were so bad that she wanted to close her eyes most of the time and could not read small words.  Her mode was so bad that she could not attend to her new-borne child. To her the experience was a nightmare to her. She said that she was so sad that she wanted to commit suicide.

On recommendation, she came to our clinic, she was given acupuncture for the first time.  She could feel that the tear was flowing down on her eyes and did feel less dry of her eyes.  She marveled at the miracle of acupuncture. She came for acupuncture every week and took medication as well.  She said she was happy that her dry eyes had recovered about 95%. 

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MYOPIA

Myopia, commonly known as short-sightedness, has remained one of the biggest public health challenges in Singapore, which has very high myopia rates. Myopia typically begins in early childhood and progresses during childhood.  Myopia typically begins in early childhood and progresses during childhood.

Based on unpublished data from routine vision screening done by the School Health Service, the prevalence of defective vision amounting to unaided visual acuity of 6/12 or worse among Primary 1 students was 33% in the year 2000, prior to the inception of the National Myopia Prevention Programme, 65% of Singapore students suffered from myopia by the age of 12 years. Among these 12-year-old students, the prevalence of severe defective vision (i.e. unaided visual acuity worse than 6/60) was 13% (unpublished data).

We have a few numbers of parents who care about their children’s eyesight, brought their young children to come for acupuncture and eye massage.  Most of them have short-sightedness, some of them have high myopia.  One of the mothers who has only one daughter was so caring that she refused to allow her daughter to read story books, instead she will read to her every night.  She brought her daughter fortnightly to do acupuncture.  Whenever they came, after the acupuncture, the mother will sit by her bed side to read story books to her, this went on for three long years.  The feedback the mother gave was her high myopia was slightly decrease (usually, the myopia would jump every 3 months by 100 degrees).

Acupuncture and regular massage of one’s eyes can really prevent further increase in a person’s eyesight.  Usually, children who are willing to do massage can be as early as 6 years old.  But for acupuncture, only when they are 8 years old and on the parents’ persuasion, then they will be willing to do acupuncture.  

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SQUINT EYES

Here are some of the pictures of squint eyes:

Some websites suggest surgery to correct the squint eyes.

Good news, we acupuncturists are able to correct their squint eyes, only less than ten sessions of acupuncture will be able to see some good effects.

We have done acupuncture for young kids and adults who suffer from squint eyes.  Depends on cases to cases some of them without serious eye diseases, usually takes about less than ten sessions of acupuncture to see some good results.

The reasons are that the eye balls are controlled by 6 ligaments, we adjust the tension of ligaments, the squint eyes can be rectified.

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The following are some of pictures taken during Dr. Ong post graduate days in Nanjing University of Traditional Medicine. Jiangsu Province Hospital is the subsidiary of Nanjing University of Traditional Medicine.

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GLAUCOMA  青光眼

Operation of Glaucoma

Glaucoma is an eye disorder in which the optic nerve suffers damage, permanently damaging vision in the affected eye(s) and sometimes leads to blindness if untreated.

In Singapore, TCM physicians treat glaucoma with acupuncture and Chinese herbal Medicine.  It is to enhance circulation, expel excess fluid, nourish the eyes etc. In many cases, it helps to maintain glaucoma from deteriorating further. I have seen a patient, a young man age 26, who told me that he went through more than ten rounds of laser and ended up losing his eye sight. He wondered whether his blindness was due to too many times of laser.

青光眼属严重眼疾，预后不佳。正常人眼压不应高过21 mmHg。中医认为青光眼的病因是肝经实热、肝郁气逆、阴虚火旺或其他兼症如高血压,糖尿病导致。

急性青光眼(闭角型青光眼), 患者会感觉眼睛剧痛, 眼压突然升高,非常不舒服, 必须马上到医院治疗。慢性青光眼(开角型青光眼) 也可根据病情, 眼压是否受到控制的情况, 尽早寻求治疗。除西医手术治疗外, 中医中药也是一种的辅助治疗。

        在新加坡,中医治疗青光眼主要以针灸与中药治疗。 中医以活血化瘀，健脾利水之法或辨证论治方法来治疗青光眼。重点是改善青光眼视盘血供, 减少房水生成或促进视神经细胞代谢等功效。中国有很多大学研究与论文发表提示通过针灸与中药治疗，在一定程度上可缓解病情,达到协同治疗作用，优于单用西药。

Glaucoma can be divided roughly into two main categories:

1. “Closed angle” glaucoma 闭角型青光眼—Closed angle glaucoma can appear suddenly and is often painful.  If it is untreated it can lead to visual loss. One must seek medical attention immediately before permanent damage occurs.
2. “Open angle” glaucoma 开角型青光眼--- Open angle glaucoma tends to progress at a slower rate and patients may not notice they have lost vision until the disease has progressed significantly. Very often raised intraocular pressure is a significant risk factor for developing glaucoma (intraocular pressure above 21 mmHg is considered as high 眼压高).

GLAUCOMA 青光眼的问答

问:

1) 有个私人问题想请教。我的叔叔患有青光眼，医生说已很严重，需要动手术。请问手术后，他应该做什么，尽快帮助眼睛康复呢？手术成功的话，是否表示他就不会变盲呢？

2) 请问手术后，他应该做什么，尽快帮助眼睛康复呢？

3) 手术成功的话，是否表示他就不会变盲呢？

答:

1) 你的叔叔有青光眼，医生认为已很严重, 必须手术。手术的选择通常是眼压继续不降(不能通过外滴眼药水而达到眼压下降) 。手术治疗通常是建立一条人工引流通路,使房水流通,眼压就不会增高。

2) 手术后, 多休息,少用眼神, 最好暂时别做剧烈或低头的运动,眼睛的伤口会慢慢康复。伤口康复以及病情稳定后,可以进行针灸治疗及吃一些中药,使视神经受损或视野缺损的程度改善。

3) 手术成功的话，临床观察,病人一般不会盲。根据本人的经验, 青光眼的病人若激光治疗次数超过10次以上, 通常会盲。

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Retinitis Pigmentosa (Night Blindness)

From our clinical experience, these people suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa (commonly known as Night Blindness or RP), Age-related Macula Degeneration, Maculopathy, Retinopathy, Optic Nerve Atrophy etc do see improvement after seeking TCM treatment in our clinic. Especially, after acupuncture, they find that they see things brighter and sharper.  Some of them also find that their eyes are less itchy.  Many of them found that their vision improved and also their eye deterioration was slower.  Traditional Chinese Medicine can help to nourish the eye balls, enhance eye circulation, prevent deterioration of photo-receptors, improve general organ functions, prevent stagnation of water flow, improve "qi" flow, hence improve better vision and maintenance of eye ball health condition.

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Address of our three clinics:

(1) Yong Kang Medical Hall Pte Ltd.,

Blk 78A, Telok Blangah St 32, #01-05, Singapore 101078.

Tel： 9663 5600 (for appointments)， 6272 6400

Email: ong.swee.ling@gmail.com

Email: yongkangmedicalhall@gmail.com

Website: drongsweeling.blogspot.com

(2) Eastern Healing TCM Clinic Pte Ltd.,

Blk 345, Clementi Ave 5, #01-88, Singapore 120345.

Tel: 9299 9168 (for appointments) , 6276 6872

Email: ong.swee.ling@gmail.com

Website: drongsweeling.blogspot.com

（3） Eastern HealingTCM Clinic (Telok Blangah) Pte Ltd

          Blk 46, #01-85, Telok Blangah Drive, 

         Singapore 100046.

         Tel: 6957 3033,

         HP: 8125 5212

         Email: ong.swee.ling@gmail.com

         Website: drongsweeling.blogspot.com

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Chinese Tonic Herbs Medicine during Confinement 中医坐月子产后调理

 

Chinese Tonic Herbs Medicine during Confinement  中医坐月子产后调理

 

“Confinement Prescriptions” are customized for your need during your confinement.

In olden days, it is important for women to condition their physique during their confinement period, and menopausal period.”

The maternal body will undergo drastic change in the physical structure in order to nurture the fetus during their pregnancy.

Women health is weak when they undergo natural birth.  They can feel weak in Qi and Blood气血.  Therefore it is time to give them tonic during the 30~40 days of confinement period so the maternal body can recovery and restore to a good healthy conditions. 

The lack of proper conditioning during their confinement period may lead to  potential problems in your body in the next pregnancy and future menopausal period.

Some people may take ginseng 泡参,人参 which is not recommended.

Hence, we recommend you come to our clinics where our Singapore qualified TCM physicians will customize and prescribe TCM herbal medicine for your confinement period. After the natural birth, for the first week, we need to expel the lochia 恶露(Lochia is the vaginal discharge you have after giving birth) from your body。  After that we will prescribe herbal medicine tonic to nourish your body, strengthening your Qi and Blood 气血 for the next 30 days. 

Menopausal period

Some women may experience discomfort such as hot flushes, palpitations, agitation, bad mood, depression during their menopausal periods.  Our team of physicians are trained to prescribe herbal medicine for woman during their menopausal period.

Restriction of food during confinement period

·         Avoid cold and cooling food such as

Ice-cream, gassy drinks, cold drinks, watermelon, coconut,        

cucumber, bitter gourd, winter gourd, Chinese cabbage and kelp.

·         Avoid roasted, deep-fried, spicy, coffee, curry and chili.

·         Eat less acidic food such as preserved plum and pickled food,

·         Avoid prawn, scrabs, squids, shrimps

·         In 7 days after postpartum and if the wound is swelling and aching, do not eat food prepared in sesame oil and wine.

·         Do not eat ginseng.

  

This lady gave birth to a lovely child after taking TCM medicine and also taking tonic herbs to nourish herself during her confinement period