I Can Talk to the Internal Organs

Chapter 387 - 353: Treatments Existed Thousands of Years Ago!

Lu Jiu TCM Hospital.

Department of Difficult and Complicated Diseases.

The patient in front of Lu Jiu was sitting in a wheelchair. His limbs were completely powerless, and even his neck couldn’t support his head, which could only lean to one side.

Modern medicine defines ALS as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a chronic, progressive degenerative disease involving the upper and lower motor neurons and the muscles they control in the trunk, limbs, and head and face.

It commonly manifests as progressive muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, and muscle fasciculations due to combined damage to the upper and lower motor neurons.

As for the cause, modern medicine believes that a minority of cases are hereditary, but the cause of most cases is still unclear.

"Liver Wood, Hydronephrosis, were you both injured by heat evil before his muscle atrophy?"

After communicating with the patient’s Five Viscera, Lu Jiu began questioning Liver Wood and Hydronephrosis.

Because from the pulse and the symptoms he showed, the patient’s ALS, which is called Flaccidity Syndrome, seemed to have severely injured the liver and kidneys.

In the initial stage of Flaccidity Syndrome, symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat, or limb weakness after an acute febrile illness often indicate that the disease is located in the lungs.

If there is limb weakness, poor appetite, loose stools, facial swelling, slight swelling of the lower limbs, and abdominal distension, the disease is generally in the Spleen and Stomach.

If the lower limbs are evidently weak and unable to stand, with lumbar and spinal soreness, dizziness, tinnitus, seminal emission, impotence, irregular menstruation, dry throat and blurred vision, the disease is often in the liver and kidneys.

Just now, Lu Jiu already conducted a simple inquiry and the symptoms matched well with liver and kidney damage.

Lu Jiu also detected through the pulse that there is still unresolved heat stagnation in the patient’s body.

There are various factors leading to these issues.

For instance, infection by heat toxins, or a prolonged illness, excessive sexual activities, or traumatic injuries causing Five Viscera damage, insufficient essence and fluids, depletion of qi and blood, and malnourishment of muscles and tendons.

Especially heat toxins, which are generally caused by emotional stress.

Because human emotions affect qi movement, excessively active or depressed mental activities could cause qi movement disorders.

This process in Chinese medicine is called the transformation of Five Emotions into Fire, where the abnormal expression, excess, or suppression of joy, anger, worry, thought, and fear can affect the organs, stagnate qi movement, transform into fire evil and damage the body.

If the fire is not extinguished, over time it will form heat toxins that scorch the true yin of the Five Viscera.

When there is more yin, there is cold extremity; when there is more yang, there is flaccidity. Too much fire weakens the yin, and bodily fluids gradually decrease, leading to muscle and tendon atrophy.

In the transformation of the Five Emotions into Fire, anger is particularly fatal.

Because anger injures the liver, which governs the tendons, people who are very prone to anger and cannot control their emotions are most likely to develop Flaccidity Syndrome.

Clinically, it’s not hard to find that such people are also prone to diabetes.

"Yes, he likes to get angry, which makes me uncomfortable. I always have to deal with some blocked qi," Liver Wood responded.

"Besides getting angry, does he also have a diet without any restraint on rich and greasy food?" Lu Jiu asked.

"Yes, Spleen Earth mentioned it," Liver Wood replied.

"It’s not just a lack of restraint, it’s like treating it as a daily meal, eating three or four times a day, drinking beer with every meal, eating salty and oily foods. My transformation work has been extremely difficult. Now that he can’t eat, he deserves it," Spleen Earth complained in time.

As an honest person.

Spleen Earth rarely gets angry.

This was the first time Lu Jiu heard Spleen Earth venting anger.

There was no denying that this patient indeed drove Spleen Earth to anger.

But it’s not surprising that Spleen Earth got angry. This patient had been suffering from Flaccidity Syndrome for three or four years now, being in his fifties. It meant that his atrociously bad dietary habits had lasted for at least twenty years.

Having troubled Spleen Earth for such a long time, even a saint would get angry.

Emotions and diet are essentially the two main issues.

Lu Jiu knew this patient was so sick because there must be something in his life causing him extreme emotional distress, leading to severe liver and kidney damage.

Otherwise, simply liking to get angry and indulging in excessive eating and drinking wouldn’t lead to Flaccidity Syndrome.

This kind of extreme illness is almost always caused by extreme emotions.

But each person has their own struggles, and Lu Jiu didn’t want to pry too much.

As long as it’s confirmed as Flaccidity Syndrome, with the illness located in the liver and kidneys.

Then Lu Jiu had a treatment approach in mind.

In fact, there were already treatment methods for Flaccidity Syndrome thousands of years ago.

In the "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor," there is a passage, "The Emperor asked: As the Master has said, the words are, ’To treat flaccidity, take Yangming alone.’ Why?"

"Qi Bo replied: ’Yangming is the sea of the Five Viscera and Six Bowels, responsible for moistening the ancestral tendons, which regulate the binding of bones and facilitate joint movements. The Chong Meridian is the sea of meridians, responsible for irrigating valleys, and joins Yangming with the ancestral tendons. Yin and yang merge at the ancestral tendons, converge at the Qi Street, and Yangming leads them, all belonging to the girdling meridian and linking to the Du Meridian. Thus, when Yangming is deficient, the ancestral tendons become flaccid, the girdling meridian fails to draw, leading to foot flaccidity.’"

"The Emperor asked: ’How to treat it?’"

"Qi Bo replied: ’Nourish each of their Ying and open their Shu, adjust their deficiency and excess, coordinate their reverse and following, letting the sinews, meridians, bones, and muscles receive the month during which the corresponding organ flourishes, then the illness will be cured.’"

What does it mean?

This is the Yellow Emperor asking Qi Bo why the medical book says to treat Flaccidity Syndrome specifically by focusing on Yangming.

Qi Bo answered that Yangming Meridian is the source of nourishment for the Five Viscera and Six Bowels, capable of nurturing the ancestral tendons, which govern the binding of bones and ensuring flexible joint movement. The Chong Meridian is where the blood and qi of all twelve meridians converge, transporting qi and blood to irrigate and nourish the flesh and muscles, meeting with the Foot Yangming Meridian at the ancestral tendons. The Yin and Yang merge at the ancestral tendons and meet at the Qi Jian acupoint of the Foot Yangming Meridian, thus making the Yangming Meridian the leader of these meridians. All major meridians are also connected to the Girdling Meridian and associated with the Du Meridian. Therefore, if the qi and blood of the Yangming Meridian are insufficient, the ancestral tendons lose nourishment, becoming lax, and the Girdling Meridian cannot anchor the other meridians, causing the legs to become flaccid and unable to function.

Treatment simply involves nourishing the Ying acupoints of each meridian, unblocking their Shu acupoints, adjusting the body’s deficiency and excess, and the reverse and following of qi and blood. Regardless of disorders of the sinews, meridians, bones, or muscles, if treated during the month when the corresponding organ is thriving, the disease will be cured.

This conversation essentially elucidates that if Acupuncture is to be used to treat Flaccidity Syndrome, focus should be on the Yangming Meridian. The regulation of the Ying and Shu acupoints on the meridian should utilize Meridian Flow and other Acupoint Opening Techniques, employing the seasonal approach for treatment.

The patient’s illness is in the liver and kidneys, so the optimal time for treatment would be in winter and spring.

Currently, it’s summer, and the treatment effect will definitely not be optimal.

But as long as Yangming Meridian is identified, and the condition is gradually managed until the appropriate season for treatment, it should be fine.

Of course, while the treatment approach seems simple, the process is quite complex.

The ancestors only provided the answers, but the process of solving the problem must be figured out on your own.

"Dean Lu, how is it? Can my father be managed?" Lu Heng asked nervously as he looked at Lu Jiu.

He knew well enough that ALS is a terminal illness and that no one could cure it, not only in the country but the world at large. Even though Lu Jiu was highly reputable in Jianghan, he didn’t dare to hold much hope.

But if it’s not curable, just managing it would also be fine.

Lu Jiu released his hand, "I’ll give it a try."

...