how to manage rheumatoid arthritis using Chinese
medicine acupuncture and so much more is what I'm going to share with you today I'm going
to talk about the Western definition and treatment the TCM views patterns acupuncture
points treatment using herbal medicine ear acupuncture full recommendation stay till the
end because I'm going to share the three items I recommend to all my patients with RA to do
at home in order to manage the arthritis better welcome back to my channel if it's your first
time here I'm Clara from AcuPro Academy and I create Chinese medicine and acupuncture content
for students and practitioner making it easy to grasp and fun to learn let's do this as I said in
the introduction we are going to talk about how to manage rheumatoid arthritis or RA so we're
going to start with the Western definition and option treatment options that patients have when
it comes to RA rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune condition that creates inflammation
of the joints it is most common in women and start to develop between the age of 40 and 60.
Western medicine treatment for RA requires ongoing management often they will recommend medication
physical therapy and sometimes in bad cases even surgery now let's look at the risk factors when it
comes to rheumatoid arthritis age is a big one so as we age as we get older we have more chance
to develop it gender unfortunately women are more prone to developing RA obesity is a big one
because carrying extra weight in the joints create more inflammation and therefore can contribute
to RA developing occupation or jobs can also contribute to rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
developing earlier specifically when there's repetitive ongoing weight bearing exercise I have
a patient who came to see me years ago because he was on his knees all the time in his job and
was developing more and more pain and started developing rheumatoid arthritis symptoms so we
were managing it because obviously eight hours a day he was still on his knees in his job so we
can't take the root cause away because unless he stops his job that is still there so we are
going to manage it and allow him to be able to continue to work smoking also has been linked
to contributing to rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and diet which is a big one for those eating a
lot of processed food drinking alcohol having a lot of acidic food like coffee and eating a lot of
sugar can contribute to create more inflammation in the body and therefore increase the chance
of having symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis RA is categorized in Chinese medicine as B syndrome
which is basically any disorders that cause pain tingling numbness heaviness of any of the four
Limbs and it's due to external pathogen Invasion and Qi stagnation so RA is categorized as a B
syndrome and we're going to look at it when we look at the TCM pattern of diagnosis according to
Chinese medicine when it comes to causes according to Chinese medicine it is very similar to the
risk factors smoking diet lifestyle jobs but also genetics so weak Essence there's a lot of research
that shows that Chinese medicine and acupuncture is very beneficial to manage rheumatoid arthritis
and I put the links below this video so you can check them out now let's look at the TCM pattern
of diagnosis when it comes to RA so let's look at the first stages and you can see it's all about
external pathogen Invasion so the first one is wind damp cold and the swelling is the dampness
that makes sense the heavy is the dampness but the coldest the cool painful joint right because cool
has tendency of cold tendency to stop circulation create pain and create blood stasis in the end
right so we're going to be stiff upon rising in the morning the joints are really stiff we need
to loosen up we need to move blood we need to have circulation and then we feel a bit better
so this restriction of movement because cold again creates blood stagnation or Qi stagnation
to start with the pain is better with heat of course because there's a lot of cold and it is
affected by weather which means when it's cold and damp weather like in Vancouver in the winter
it is much worse and this is why a lot of people that have arthritis feel so much better when they
move to a dry hot place like Arizona or Nevada and that's why there are a lot of retiree people
moving to those places because they feel so much better when it comes to the arthritic pain right
the loose stools is the dampness as well pale tongue with a white coat the white coat is the
cold it could also have a greasy coat if there is a lot of dampness and a lot of swelling and the
pulse is wiry which means Liver Qi Stagnation and slippery so just like I said it's a really typical
B syndrome when it comes to the early stage of arthritis the formula for this is Wen Jing Juan Bi
Tang which is really warming as well and we can do also moxa on the joints and add all the points
that I've listed in here so we have Bladder 17 to move blood Bladder 23 because usually this
happens in older people so it's good to really nourish the kidneys REN four and of course local
point A-Shi points which can be wherever it is on the hand the elbow the knee wherever the pain
is going to be as well you can add up more points like Gallbladder 34 you can add up other points to
try to really mitigate the pain you can add up LI 4 if it's not too strong if the person is not too
old does that makes sense so I'm just giving you the basic and then we look at the second pattern
which is a bit middle stage but it's more wind damp heat so there's still the dampness which is
swelling of the joints and heavy pain however in this instance the pain is going to feel hot and
it's going to look red when you look at it and the person is going to sweat easily there may be
fever sometimes so feeling hot all the time thirst for cold drink and dark urine the tongue is red
which is the heat with a thin yellow coat which is still the Heat and it could have a greasy coat
if the dampness was very prominent and you can see on the pulse it's slippery rapid slippery is Damp
and rapid is Heat right so we might not see all those symptoms it's always a reminder that this is
a basic and not everybody's going to have all the symptoms right the formula that is best for this
is by Bai Hu Jia sorry I can't pronounce Chinese the formula that is best for this is Bai Hu Jia
Gui Zhi Tang which is not very cold it's just a bit Cooling and moving and relieving pain for the
joints DU 14 is going to clear the heat with Large Intestine 11 LI 4 is going to expel the pathogen
Spleen 9 which you could also put in the previous pattern as well because it clears the dampness San
Jiao 5 is also good to clear the dampness and to relieve the pain in the joints and of course we
want to do the A-shi or the local point right and when it comes to that and again depending where
the pain is mostly prominent if you're enjoying my graphics so far and this whole information on
Rheumatoid Arthritis it is all part of my book Chinese Medicine Treatments Made Easy you can
have the PDF format or you can have the book a hard copy that ships all over the world if that's
more your jam no matter what the link is below if you haven't got your copy yet I cover over 160
syndromes Chinese medicine treatment for all of those to help guide you to help your patients
better now let's get back to Rheumatoid Arthritis now let's look at the next patterns which are
more the later stage meaning that the person has had this issue for quite a while now and it's
developing further and further so the first one is Qi and blood deficiency plus phlegm so when it
comes to phlegm it is more thicker than dampness so those joints are going to be very rigid and
even deformed there's going to be deformity of the joint because phlegm is harder than dampness
so it becomes worse there's obviously a lot of pain distended swollen joints there's going to
be maybe palpitation that's a Qi Deficiency in Blood Deficiency of the Heart there's going to be
fatigue that is quite often the person is going to be pale face pale lips poor memory fatigue of
course but also poor focus poor concentration a pale tongue with a greasy coat the greasy coat
is a phlegm and a slippery weak pulse the weak pulse comes from the Qi and Blood deficiency
and the phlegm of course is slippery so one of the formula that's used for this is Huang Qi
Wu Gui Zhi Tang Huang Qi is Astragalus which is really good to tonify Blood and Qi and then
Gui Zhi is Cinnamon Cinnamon is really good to relieve pain and it's really good for improving
blood circulation and it's warming because when there's Qi and Blood deficiency the person may
start to feel a bit more on the cool side when it comes to point again you can do moxa n the
A-shi points or the local point where the pain is you want to use Stomach 40 to clear the phlegm
and tonify Qi and Blood the best point is Stomach 36 and the second best point is Spleen 6 those 3
points together are probably one of my favorite points you can also add up Gallbladder 34 which
is the influential point of all sinews which means joints ligament and tendons which is really useful
in this case the last pattern that is very basic and often seen in clinical practice is Kidney Yin
and Yang Deficiency with Phlegm because most of late stage people that have already are going to
be more older so as we age our Kidney Yin and Yang will slowly deplete so there may be muscular
atrophy because the person is so stiff and in pain they don't move as much and they lose muscle
mass with nodules which means deformity of the joints plus stiffness and that's the phlegm again
just like in the case before the pain gets worse with cold so there's a bit more Yang deficiency
and it's worse with cold again this is why a lot of people move to places where it's warmer and
they can enjoy a better life without having to deal with a cold weather there's also dizziness
that's more of a Yin Deficiency but it could also be due to phlegm tinnitus which is low pitch and
constant that's a Kidney Yin Deficiency low back pain or knee pain that is crying and that's
a Kidney Deficiency in general the tongue's gonna be pale if there's more Yang Deficiency it
would be swollen but it could be cracked and dry if there was also Yin Deficiency showing on the
tongue sometimes it's hard it doesn't always show both Yin and Yang Deficiency on the tongue so it's
not always easy and the pulse is going to be deep for sure and if there's more Yin Deficiency it
might be thin and if there's more Yang deficiency it might be slow and very very weak the formula
is a basic formula which is Shen Qi Wan which means Kidney Qi formula and that is a very basic
formula it does not address the phlegm at all it's just tonify Kidney so we could use other the
formula for this is Shen Qi Wan which means Kidney Qi formula and it is going to address the
Kidney Deficiency but not necessarily the phlegm when it comes to points Stomach 40 again great for
phlegm and then the A-shi or the local points plus doing DU 4 REN 4 Bladder 23 we could do Kidney
3 Kidney 6 trying to really tonify and nourish Kidney Yin and Kidney Yang as much as we can
however if the person is really old like past 80-85 they're frail they're atrophy they're very
weak we don't want to overwhelm them with a lot of points I'm from the school of thought that the
least amount of point but the right point is the best treatment than having a lot more needles on
the patient which takes a lot and can make them very tired right and we don't want to increase
the fatigue because they're already depleted I hope you're enjoying this content so far and
if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet please do so so you don't miss out on any future
video okay so now let's talk about the treatment option that we can add to help our patient manage
Rheumatoid Arthritis number one is ear acupuncture or regular acupuncture these are going to be so
helpful you can put ear seeds and patients can press them or of course you can need all that
we're going to do Liver Spleen and Kidney and then we're going to add up sympathetic and then we
can add up the areas that are affected if it's the wrist if it's the knee if it's the shoulder if
it's the hip that's what we're going to add up on the ear number two would be moxa because we
want to bring blood circulation to the area to relieve the stiffness and the pain specifically
for those that have the pattern of wind and cold or Yang Deficiency moxa is going to help the
symptoms of pain and stiffness because it brings blood circulation number three is exercise if we
don't use it we lose it it's really important to tell patients that they need to go for walks they
can try Yoga Tai Chi Qigong but they need to move for some patients going swimming is really good
however if there's a lot of dampness swimming may make it worse so what we want to do is really
adapt to what the pattern is and recommend exercise that is gentle but effective in relieving
all that stiffness fourth relaxation techniques stress can really increase the symptoms of RA
unfortunately so it's really important to tell the patient that they need to found ways to manage
stress it could be meditation deep breathing exercise going for walks outside Fresh Air forest
bathing anything that's going to help them relieve the stress 5 Chinese herbal therapy apart from
the formulas we can recommend patients to drink teas that are really well known to decrease the
pain like turmeric ginger Rosemary very good for all rheumatoid arthritis patient specifically
Rosemary and ginger for patients that feel cold or have wind damp cold or Yang deficiency because
those are very warming makes sense right turmeric is very good at bringing blood circulation so
it's really good for those patients as well and the last one is Diet because that's really the key
to managing inflammation of the joints it's really important to tell patients to avoid processed food
acidic food like coffee alcohol for some people Dairy because it creates more dampness and phlegm
gluten can also affect arthritic patients all this inflammatory food needs to go and we need to
replace it with really healthy Whole Foods specifically things like leafy green cooked food
nuts seeds omega-3 fatty acids like salmon and sardines and we also need to be mindful of night
shades vegetables like tomatoes potatoes bell peppers zucchinis because they are often a little
bit of an exacerbation for rheumatoid arthritis patients so the key here is to look for what makes
it worse and avoid it and everybody's different because as you know in TCM we treat the person as
a whole not the disorders we have to adapt to each patient now here's the bonus tips we talked about
at the beginning of this video the three tips to tell your patients to do at home to manage their
Rheumatoid Arthritis number one as I said earlier is exercise Qigong is fantastic to relieve the
stiffness to keep moving but it's gentle it doesn't put a lot of stress on the body two taking
supplements like vitamin D Chondroitin Glucosamine Omega-3 those are great to as an addition
to help to manage arthritis and the third tip is managing stress it's really important
that the patient has a life that is low in stress or is managing it the best of their
ability by journaling doing meditation deep breathing exercise going out with friends
enjoying a life this is really important to help patients identify what can make them
release the stress and bring it down did you know I created a lot of videos on acupuncture
for pain here's one if you haven't seen it yet it is fantastic it comes from a live that was
very popular and check out all the other one which I listed below I hope you have a fantastic
day and no matter what keep rocking it using TCM! [Music]