Chron's Disease: Oriental Medicine View

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.

References

http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=27771

http://vitalitymagazine.com/article/chinese-herbs-for-crohns-colitis/

Agelessherbs.com

http://www.crohnsforum.com/wiki/Crohns-Disease

Fear of Swine Flu?

In light of all the fear being spread about Swine Flu and other diseases, I would like to provide the following quote. Dr. Edward Bach is the founder of the Bach Flower Remedies. His insight below, from 1931, is extremely valid right now. Enjoy!

Dr. Edward Bach on the fear of disease:

"In this age the fear of disease has developed until it has become a great power for harm, because it opens the door to those things we dread and makes it easier for their admission. Such fear is really self-interest, for when we are earnestly absorbed in the welfare of others there is no time to be apprehensive of personal maladies. Fear at the present time is playing a great part in intensifying disease, and modem science has increased the reign of terror by spreading abroad to the general public its discoveries, which as yet are but half-truths.

The knowledge of bacteria and the various germs associated with disease has played havoc in the minds of tens of thousands of people, and by the dread aroused in them has in itself rendered them more susceptible of attack. While lower forms of life, such as bacteria, may play a part in or be associated with physical disease, they constitute by no means the whole truth of the problem, as can be demonstrated scientifically or by everyday occurrences. There is a factor which science is unable to explain on physical grounds, and that is why some people become affected by disease while others escape, although both classes may be open to the same possibility of infection. Materialism forgets that there is a factor above the physical plane which in the ordinary course of life protects or renders susceptible any particular individual with regard to disease, of whatever nature it may be.

Fear, by its depressing effect on our mentality, thus causing disharmony in our physical and magnetic bodies, paves the way for invasion, and if bacteria and such physical means were the sure and only cause of disease, then indeed there might be but little encouragement not to be afraid. But when we realise that in the worst epidemics only a proportion of those exposed to infection are attacked and that, as we have already seen, the real cause of disease lies in our own personality and is within our control, then have we reason to go about without dread and fearless, knowing that the remedy lies with ourselves. We can put all fear of physical means alone as a cause of disease out of our minds, knowing that such anxiety merely renders us susceptible, and that if we are endeavouring to bring harmony into our personality we need anticipate illness no more than we dread being struck by lightning or hit by a fragment of a falling meteor."

Dr. Edward Bach in “Heal Thyself”, 1931