What is Chron's Disease?
Crohn's disease is an Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Auto-immune disorder which causes inflammation in the GI tract. It usually affects the small intestine, and the beginning of the large intestine. Because of the pain, it results in severe diarrhea, and blood in the stools. Other symptoms include Anxiety and Depression, adhesions, bloating and gas, cramping, anal fissures and hemorrhoids Anemia, Fibromyalgia, Constipation, uveitis, fatigue, and many more symptoms.
Western medicine treats Crohn's with anti-inflammatory steroids, corticosteroids, immune suppressors, antibiotics, anti-diarrhea drugs, and surgery in which it removes the affected parts of the intestinal tract, which can include the whole Small Intestine, and a portion of the Large Intestine. Other than drugs and surgery there is not much else in the way of treating the symptoms of Crohn's in Western Medicine.
What about Crohn's in TCM?
There are four general categories for Crohn's in Chinese Medicine: Damp Heat, Spleen Deficiency, Spleen and Kidney Deficiency, and Qi and Blood Stagnation.
DAMP HEAT in LI (Large Intestine) is characterized by Diarrhea, mucus and blood in stool, abdominal swelling and pain, irritability, thirstiness, greasy tongue, and pulse is wiry, slippery, and rapid.
SPLEEN DEFICIENCY May Be Due To Constitutional Deficiency, Or An Excess Of Cold, Raw Foods. It Is Characterized By A Compromised Ability For The Spleen To Transform And Transport Food Symptoms Such As Frequent And Severe Diarrhea;. Watery Stool With Undigested Food; Dull Abdominal pain; poor appetite; poor digestion; . and gastric discomfort after food intake Sallow facial appearance, fatigue and lethargy are due to chronic malabsorption and malnutrition are some of the signs of spleen deficiency The tongue is pale with a white coat;. the pulse is soft and weak.
SPLEEN AND KIDNEY DEFICIENCY May be constitutional, or due to the chronic-ness of the disease. Some symptoms of spleen and kidney deficiency is early morning diarrhea around 5:00 am. Also, abdominal pain that increases with cold but decreases with defecation and may . I have an intolerance to cold and cold extremities The tongue is pale with a white coat; the pulse is thready and weak.
QI AND BLOOD STAGNATION Is An Acute Phase Of Crohn's Disease In Which There Is Severe Abdominal Pain And Fullness With A Palpable Mass In The Right Lower Quadrant. This Condition Is Similar To Acute Appendicitis. In Addition, Patients May Experience Diarrhea, Lack Of Appetite, . muscle wasting and lethargy The tongue is dark purple; and the pulse is thready and knotted.
With all that in mind, it's important to realize that Crohn's does not just appear one day. Crohn's starts building up from childhood due to any number of things, especially if the child has been malnourished in anyway (bad food, bad relationships with family, bad, from around the time he / she hits adolescence, until the mid-20s, and suddenly, it hits out of nowhere. Western Medicine says there is no cure, but as long as you are alive and breathing, there is always a way.
What I am going to explain is how to modify massage for a Crohn's patient:
Massage Relief for Crohn's
Massage is contraindicated during flare-ups of Crohn's for 2 reasons: First, you do not give massage over an inflamed area. And second, a person with a flare-up is likely so uncomfortable, that they do not want to be touched.
Another thing to think about is, often a client with Crohn's has been on pain relief medicine for years, and their intestinal tracts are a mess, and very fragile, so do not perform a deep and vigorous massage, focus on light, gentle massage that will soothe the stomach, and calm the fire.
Doing a light abdominal massage with diluted fennel essential oil followed by some light cupping along the Large Intestine tract will help to reduce / induce bowl movement, and help gently guide the stomach back to its regular cycle.
1. Warm The Belly With Diluted Fennel Essential Oil, Standing On Right Hand Side. And Pull From Left Side, Along Ribcage, On The Diaphragm.
2. Cupping, Just Like You Did With The Massage. Take 6 Cups, Starting On Left Side, And Go Along The Ascending Colon Tract, Following It Down To The Descending Tract, And Back Again. Repeat 3 Times, Quickly Putting One Cup Down , and taking another cup off. Then you can use a gliding cup, and go around the small intestine tract.
Those two methods greatly relieve a lot of the symptoms and stress from Crohn's, and make the client feel greatly relaxed.
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