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depression or anxiety below.
72 year old Betty came to the clinic complaining shortness of breath . She was diagnosed with Bi-Polar a couple of decades ago. She had been using our student clinic for her acupuncture needs for more than a couple of years. This time she told us when she walked up and down the stairs, she could barely breathe. She had the problem for a long time and it's gradually getting worse. She had an inhaler but it did not work for her. She also had ringing in her ears and her left eye had macular degeneration problem. She had lower back pain which she said she controled it with resting and hot shower. This problem started when she had a L5 disk hernia more than five years ago. Her left knee has 3 holes in it due to a ruptured maniscus. Twenty years earlier, she had her hysrectomy done.
She is currently taking Lipitor for cholesterol, Metamusal for digestion/constipation issues, Cartia Altase for hypertension, and Nitroclou for eye-blur.
Betty's pulse is generally weak but her lung pulse is much weaker, Her tongue seems purple and dry without much coat, slight grease on back.
Her case was diagnosed as yin deficiency. The strategy wass to tonify her kidney and lung yin and to open up her chest to help her breath better. Since she exhibited tinnitus and back issues, we added acupuncture treatments for those, too.
After her first treatment, she felt a big relief the first two to three days. Before the second treatment, she felt the effect of treatment wearing off. Feeling better returned after the second treatmnet. It last a lot longer than the first time. She had come to the clinic weekly for six weeks and her breathing was much improved. Her mood was also calmed by the treatment. She said the episodes of her flare-ups were less frequent. When it did occur, it was milder. During the course of her treatments, treatment also incorporated to minimize her lower back pain and to take care of her ringing ears. Both were much better. Her back pain was gone.
A 55 year old HIV+ patient John had been to our clinic for years. He used to get depressed most of the time. After acupuncture treatment, he always felt much better. He brought all sorts of different issues to the clinic desk: (1) Constipation; (2) Frequent urination; (3) Vulnerable and irritable. His underlining issue remained to be chronic depression which Chinese herbs have been helpful to keep him emotionally stablized.
John's head was in general foggy and cloudy. Frequently John had sinus issues which resulted in post nasal drip and sinus congestions. Following his doctor's advice, his diet was split 6 times a day. He usually had good appetite (sometimes he did not want to eat), although his digestive system either gave him cramps, which could be mild, moderate, or severe, and gassy & bloating. (Occassionally he had acid reflux. Since he was on herbs, the situation improved.) He had trouble going to bathrooms. Some days he goes 3-5 times a day with hard, difficult stools. Other days he went six times in the early morning. He almost always had an urgency to go beforehand and an incomplete feelings afterwards. John experienced lots of muscle pains in his arms, upper back, lower back, feet. He said the pain level was 9 out of a scale of 10 on neck & shoulder. His body temperature was normally neutral toward warm. His energy was a 6, although he wanted to do a 10 out of 10. John falls asleep easily. Often he had nightmares, waking up 2-3 times a night by nightmares or pain. Most of the time he wakes up rested, 70-80% of time. Since John was on herbs, he was less depressed than irritated. He still owned sadness but much less than before taking on the herbs. He said he used to cry but 50 to 75% less now.
Patients generally are better off irritated than depressed. Irritation indicates a higher energy movement. This way we can move it, our teacher said. John was basically in depression. We tried to motivate him and lift his spirits. If John was sleeping too much, then we didn't put too much sleeping herbs like suan zao ren and ye jiao teng in John's formula.
Our powder formula typically consisted of moving herbs to lift patients' spirits. Since John had digestive issues, the formula included herbs to ease his digestive system. Once he had a good digestive and elimination systems, his life had turned to normal at a manageable level.
We treated John with acupuncture and Chinese herbs on a twice monthly basis.
46 year old Amy had been with our herbal clinic for more than a year for her anxiety and sleep issues. She lead a stressful job and easily got anxious with dealing with her business associates. Her main complaint was insomnia. Her sleep was generally all over the board. It took a long time (minimum one hour) to sleep. Sometimes this was going one every day for a two week period. Often Amy had 3, 4, or 5 hours of sleep per night. She had hot flashes during day and night. When she got anxious, it would flare up every other hour. Occasional moderate night sweats made her Change clothes but not at night. Her sweat was mainly at upper body. She could go back to sleep but it's generally light sleep. She's often rested in the morning. She also took Ambient when it took too long to fall asleep. Sometimes she had taken Ambient (5mg) almost every day when it was bad. Amy had normal to good appetite. Her gassy & bloaty issues come and go.
She had weekly acupuncture treatments which reduced her anxiety level. The herbs also helped her in anxiety pattern, general energy, and GI track; and her muscle achiness lessened. Since Amy had pretty severe anxiety, we had designed a strong morning anxiety formula and a strong evening calming formula for her.
Amy had faithfully followed the instructions of taking the herbs each morning and night. As she lead a very hectic work life, sometimes it's hard for her to stick to the intake routine. As she rushed out to go to work in the morning, sometimes she would forget to bring the bottle with her and missed her morning intake. Her main concern was the sleep issues and evening intake had never been a problem for her. When the herbs helped her sleep better, she would get comfortable and more likely to relax in her morning routine of taking her anxiety herbs. When she skipped too many times, her anxiety returned and complained that herbs did not do such superb job as before. We then had to re-visit her formula again and twigged it to suit her new situations.
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