In today's video I'm going to talk about the
amazing power of acupuncture for Bell's Palsy in my practice since 2003 I've seen it over and
over how amazing acupuncture is for Bell's Palsy acupuncture is often the only safe natural
effective way to treat Bell's Palsy especially if we can see the patients right after they've
been diagnosed the earlier the better Hi I'm Claire welcome back to my channel and if this is
your first time here I create Chinese medicine and acupuncture content for students and practitioners
making it easy to grasp and fun to learn Let's do this Today I'm going to share the Western View on
Bell's Palsy including believed cause symptoms and treatment then we'll dive into the Chinese
medicine view pattern causes and treatment including acupuncture points food herbal formula
and so many more treatment options and stay till the end because I'll have three simple strategies
you can give your patients to do at home to add to your treatment as well I don't know if you have
seen a lot of patients with Bell's palsy but I have over the years and the amazing outcome from
acupuncture is something that we can't take for granted and we need to continue to educate the
public on this option because a lot of people don't know they have this option and often the
doctors may not know neither so the more we can put the word out there the better for the patient
the better outcome for them and so the better the world right so when it comes to Bell's Palsy
the Western perspective causes is not quite known often they will say it could be coming from
a dormant viral infection like the Epstein-Barr virus or the Herpes virus or any kind of virus
that's been dormant and kind of got activated maybe because the immune system got depleted there
was a lot of stress they're not quite sure so the main symptoms of Bell's Palsy it looks kind of
like a stroke or post-stroke it happens on one side of the face and what happened is the patient
loses feeling and sensation on that side and the muscles start drooping so there's drooping of
the eye sometimes drooping of the lip just on one side the eye sometimes can't close and has
to stay open the eyelid is not able to close there's also sometimes pain from the facial nerve
that gets activated fatigue headache tinnitus can also come up from those symptoms for some patients
there will be ear pain jaw pain as well this whole one side of the face will be affected and it can
create headache that goes all the way to the back and the solution to it is to wait and often it
will resolve on itself between two to six months which is a long time to live with this condition
however for some people it does not resolve at all so this is really important to try to help the
patient as fast as possible right that makes sense when it comes to Western treatment there's not a
lot of options Physical Therapy corticosteroids or antiviral medication is what patients have access
to this is why we know acupuncture is such a good tool it's safe it's effective it's fast and it has
no side effect so it's the best way right so today we're really gonna dive into the Chinese medicine
view on this and how we can treat patients as effectively as we can so now let's talk about
the Chinese medicine perspective on Bell's palsy causes wise we look at the fact that there is
a long-standing amount of stress that depletes the immune system so it's basically Wood in
the Five Element really insulting the Metal or Liver insulting Lung depleting the immune
system right and then if there is an internal pathogen that's been sitting there for a while
it kind of reactivates so it's really an immune system depleted by stress which is often what the
Western medicine is saying and then the pattern or what happened is there's external pathogen
Wind that invades the body really quickly and within 48 hours there's a quick change and now
the person has half of the face or Hemiplegia Paralysis looking like Paralysis on the side of
the face so external pathogen Wind is what creates this condition and it eventually it becomes
internal so we need to treat it as soon as possible because it is still external pathogens
makes sense so that's the cause and the symptoms and the main pattern now I'm going to look at
each pattern what point we use what formula what are the symptoms so we can differentiate and do a
really good deep dive into acupuncture treatment so let's talk about the two main common patterns
when it comes to Bell's Palsy as you can see the first one is more of a deficiency type and the
second one is more of a Nexus type they both have Wind because that's the external pathogen
in Wind that starts the whole process so the first one which has been Spleen Qi sinking is
rapid onset of mild weakness to total paralysis on one side of the face occurring within a couple
of days right when it comes to Spleen Qi sinking remember it's going against gravity it's dropping
down so facial drooping is very much one of the main symptoms specifically also eye drooping as
well there is difficulty in closing the eyes or smiling not the eyes the eye because it's
usually on one side of the face or smiling because one side is drooping as well so it's very
hard to have or to make facial expression the person is also drooling there is excess saliva
because when there is Spleen Qi sinking there is Spleen Qi deficiency prior to that so there
usually is excess fluid because remember Spleen is in charge of Water metabolism so there's also
sometimes a loss of sense of taste the person's not hungry they're really poor appetite they're
exhausted very very very fatigued they have loose stools pale face pale tongue with teeth marks
which is really a sign of stress you know when people are stressed they have tendency to clench
their teeth and then eventually we get teeth marks and that depletes the Spleen because the Spleen
gets fatigued the pulse is weak specifically in the middle right position which is the Spleen
position when we compare this to blood stasis with Wind the same thing happened at the beginning
which is the external Wind invasion there's a rapid onset of total paralysis on one side of
the face which is occurring within a few hours so this one's a little faster than the first one
and then there's going to be facial drooping and same thing difficulty in making facial expressions
such as closing the eyes or smiling now the one more symptom that's different from the one before
is because there is blood stasis remember blood stasis and TCM means purple and pain the two
P's right purple and pain so there's got to be pain and usually it's a stabbing pain
around the jaw behind the ear and around the head area which basically creates a bad
constant headache and it affects the side of the face that's obviously been affected by the
external Wind invading the body so it's really sensitivity to sound as well everything light and
sound gets really amplified right the tongue is purple the pulse is choppy wiry often because it
is due to again stress that created or activated the condition Yet another masterpiece thank
you Clara this is one of the feedback I got on my Chinese Medicine Treatments Made Easy Book
which covers over 160 common syndromes it ships all over the world or if you'd rather have the
PDF it has a lot of video links to complement it it is absolutely one of my best books and it's
so useful in clinical practice for students and practitioners click the link below and get your
copy today So when you look at the points that are for Spleen Qi sinking we have to raise Spleen
Qi raise the energy back up so we're going to use Spleen 6 for that Ren 6 Stomach 26 and Du 20 it
really raises the energy and if you feel like the person is a little cold then you could add moxa
on those points right then we are going to do points that are specifically for the facial area
so Ren 24 and DU 26 are going to be on the chin and above the lip so to start really activate the
muscle around the mouth to get smiling possibility and then we also going to do points that are all
around the area affected like the Stomach Meridian specifically like Stomach 2 3 4 5 6 right around
the jaw the eye and the mouth Stomach 7 which is right below the zygomatic arch which often there's
a lot of pain there Stomach 8 also really useful specifically because it lifts energy and it's good
to address the facial nerve and Gallbladder 3 so you can use any point on that area that you think
would be the best suited for your patients San Jiao points can be used as well SJ 23 which is at
the end of the eyebrow can be used Gallbladder 14 if you think there's a lot more that can be done
you can put more this is just a basic right it makes sense okay so now let's talk about blood
stasis blood stasis obviously we want to move blood we want to move Qi so the first point is
LI 4 because it's the Commander point of the face it has to be there it commands the face
right this is the most important point it is going to command the treatment also SJ 5 because
it goes behind the ear and it goes around the eye area and this is a really good point when
there's lots of stagnation specifically on the face with lots of pain now Stomach 45 is great to
bring the energy down because usually your blood stasis is all the energy is up at the top with all
this pain so we want to bring it down to the foot you can add up other points if you want like Liver
3 Gallbladder 34 that I often add for purpose of moving blood and then we want to do the same
thing for the face right you pick the points on the face as you can see those are exactly the
same point as the pattern above and you can choose to add more to it less to it depending on where
the area that's affected is most prominent right this is really local point that you can use so
that's pretty simple we want to raise the Qi or we want to move blood stasis and then we want
to go where facial area is make sense awesome so we did all the points and now we want to
do Electro acupuncture to add to our point prescription often with Electro acupuncture I
will do Stomach 7 and Stomach 8 or maybe Stomach 6 and Stomach 4 you can put also both right two
different prongs so with E-stim I will usually do very low setting we don't want to be sharp
and strong we want to be very gentle for about 10 minutes of the treatment and then I'll take
it off and leave the patients with another 20-25 minutes with the needles I think that works
really really well E-stim is really helpful in getting circulation and activating the nerves
the second treatment option is your acupuncture I love ear acupuncture it's one of my favorite micro
system because it works so well and in general I'm going to use points like the cheek the jaw the
ear you could use the eye you can use the lips as well and then Shen Men and you can put ear
seeds on your patient so they can activate and acupressure those seeds while they're away in
between treatment how often do I see patients when it comes to Bell's Palsy usually I try to
tell the patient that it'd be great to come at least twice to three times a week depending on
the schedule and what can be done for them but at least twice not less than that three times
a week would be much more effective or faster two times a week still works quite well in my
20 years of practice since 2003 usually for most patients it takes about four to six weeks to
get everything back to normal for some patient it took less than two weeks because they came right
away and that's the power of the internet because everybody is more educated now or they look it up
and they see acupuncture and they start getting immediate assistance and support which that's the
best outcome for us another treatment option is moxa it's really good to use moxa you can show
your patients how to do it on the facial area just around here to get some heat and moxa 10
minutes every day would be really really good to bring circulation and to help the process of
healing much faster the next treatment option is Gua Sha I love Gua Sha I think it's underutilized
and what I do when it comes to Bell's Palsy is I will do Gua Sha on the facial area that's affected
prior to needling for about 10 minutes to really activate the muscle and get some movement and
circulation then I will needle do some E-stim so for 10 minutes so we'll get a lot of activation
there and then for the last 20-25 minutes I'll let the patient rest and the patient's body ability
to self-regulate on its own with low stimulation now one of the things we don't talk often for
Bell's Palsy is food or nutrition which is kind of odd to me because the digestive system
is at the center of our health this is really important so we want to have food that boosts the
immune system so our body can fight and improve circulation and healing right that's what we want
to look for so what do we recommend patients to add to their diet and to avoid in general add up
seeds like sesame seeds pumpkin seeds which are great in zinc reishi mushrooms are going to add
a black strap molasses is a good one in general we want to avoid as well to eat processed food
and food that create internal Wind or excess Wind like eggs or shellfish or pork so that's for
the food perspective so we haven't talked about Chinese herbal formulas when it comes to Bell's
Palsy however there are some formulas we can use in conjunction with everything else however
I think the physical therapy like acupuncture regular acupuncture and everything that we've
talked about is really very effective when it comes to Spleen Qi sinking one of the pattern
of Bell's Palsy like we talked earlier the best formula is Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang which means
tonify the middle and raise the Qi it's a really good formula the main King Herb in that formula
is Huang Qi which is Astragalus and Astragalus is really good in boosting the immune system and
raising energy so that's a good formula for this the other one is for blood stasis so if there is
blood stasis there's tons of formulas for blood stasis that are going to be really useful like
Tao Hong Si Wu Tang is really good when there's a lot of pain and it'll move a lot of blood so that
works quite well as well however the formulas are not going to be enough or the most important
part of the treatment the physical one is the most important part like moxa like Gua Sha like
E-stim or regular acupuncture and specifically acupuncture itself facial massage can be used as
well at the beginning of this video I talked about three strategies you can tell your patients to do
at home to speed up the healing process in between sessions we talk about ear seeds moxa Gua Sha
they can do all this at home however wearing an eye patch is essential to give the eye a rest also
hydrating eye drops will help because the eye will dry so fast if the lid does not close and one more
thing is to find ways to meditate and destress relaxation methods because all this starts with
an amount of stress that created the depleted immune system so it's really important people or
patients find ways to meditate and de-stress those are three strategies I think you should recommend
to your patients because they work really well I've seen it in the last 20 years of my practice
have you seen this replay of the live video on acute pain and acupuncture watch it it's one of my
most popular one thank you for watching today the power of acupuncture for Bell's Palsy if you have
any questions leave them in the comments below and if you found this video of value please share it
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day and no matter what keep rocking it using TCM