”My knees are always sore, and it is hard to put them there when I sleep, is it rheumatism?” We often ask such questions. How should we answer such a question? In Chinese medicine, rheumatism is described as follows: The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine refers to the three gases of wind, cold and dampness together as paralysis. Because most rheumatic diseases involve joints and cause pain, the term rheumatoid arthritis has been used to this day. “Wind-dampness, with a floating pulse and heavy body, sweating and evil wind.” “Wind and dampness fight each other, the bones and joints are painful and annoying pain, can not be flexed and stretched, close to the pain is sharp, sweating and short breath, urine is not conducive, evil wind does not want to go to the clothes, or the body is slightly swollen, licorice and herb soup is the main.” Various diseases caused by feeling wind-dampness. The “Treatise on the Origin of Diseases – Wind Diseases”: “Wind-dampness is the common injury of wind and dampness in people. Its symptoms make people slack, mental confusion, if for a long time, also makes the limbs slow longitudinal not follow, into the hide is hoarse, the mouth and tongue do not collect; or foot paralysis weak, become foot.” It seems that the scope of rheumatism in Chinese medicine is very broad. In Western medicine, what is rheumatic fever? Rheumatic fever has a rapid onset and is most often seen in adolescents, but after the age of 50, rheumatic fever rarely occurs. Rheumatic fever often starts with a history of infection such as pharyngitis and dengue, and the b-hemolytic streptococcus bacteria that cause pharyngitis and dengue infect the body causes the body to produce antibodies that kill the bacteria. However, since the structure of Streptococcus b haemolyticus is very similar to the heart valves and some structures of the joints, the antibodies produced by the body to kill Streptococcus b haemolyticus also destroy our heart valves and joint structures indiscriminately. Rheumatoid arthritis invades the heart and causes rheumatic heart disease with manifestations such as fever, subcutaneous nodules and rash. Rheumatoid arthritis has two characteristics: First, the joints are red, swollen, hot, painful and cannot move. The onset is often in the large joints of the lower limbs such as the knee, hip and ankle, followed by the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. Small joints of the hands and feet are rare; secondly, the pain is wandering, some time is this joint attack, some time is that joint discomfort, but the pain does not last long, a few days can subside. The blood sedimentation is accelerated, the anti-“O” titer is increased, and the rheumatoid factor is negative. After treatment, relapse is rare, and no joint deformity remains. The rheumatism in TCM actually includes rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, dry syndrome, scleroderma, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, and even lumbar disc herniation in Western medicine.