I. The concept of joints
The term “joint” was first used in traditional Chinese medicine, such as “Suwen – Six Elements of Zhengji Da Lun”: “The joints are not conducive to flexion and extension” and “Ling Shu – Official Needle”: “Those who have edema and cannot pass through the joints”. The meaning is basically the same as the term “joint” in modern medicine and biology. However, traditional Chinese medicine mostly uses the term “bone joints” to refer to joints.
In modern times, when Western medicine was translated into Chinese, the term “joint” was borrowed. Nowadays, joint is an anatomical concept. It is generally understood, so here is a brief description.
The place where bones are connected to each other is called a joint, and those that can move are called “movable joints”, while those that cannot are called “immovable joints”. The joints mentioned here are movable joints, such as the shoulder, elbow, finger, hip, knee and other joints of the limbs.
Joints are composed of joint capsule, joint surface and joint cavity. The joint capsule surrounds the outside of the joint, the smooth bone surface inside the joint is called the joint surface, and the hollow part inside the joint is the joint cavity.
When normal, there is a small amount of fluid in the joint cavity to reduce friction during joint movement. When the joint is diseased, the fluid in the joint cavity may increase, resulting in joint effusion and enlargement.
There are many muscles attached to the joint, and when the muscles contract, they can be used for extension, flexion, abduction, adduction, and rotation.
Why do joints hurt?
1.Definition of pain
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) define pain as “pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience caused by tissue damage or potential tissue damage.”
Pain is both a mechanism by which the body responds to trauma or disease, and a symptom of disease. In 1995, the then President of the American Pain Society, Professor James Campbell, proposed that pain be classified as the fifth most important vital sign, and in 2001, the Asia Pacific Pain Forum proposed that “the elimination of pain is a fundamental right of the patient.” In 2002, experts at the 10th IASP Congress reached a consensus that –Chronic pain is a disease. It is important to emphasize that chronic pain is a disease not only because of the pain itself, but also because in chronic pain, long-term pain stimulation can lead to pathological remodeling of the central nervous system, making the progression of the pain disease more difficult to control. Early pain control, on the other hand, can at least slow down the development of this process. On the other hand, for patients, chronic pain is not just a painful sensory experience. Research studies have shown that chronic pain can seriously affect somatic and social functioning, preventing patients from participating in normal life and social activities. Pain is, on the one hand, a signal that the organism is facing an irritation or disease, and on the other hand, it is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of life. Acute pain is often accompanied by metabolic, endocrine and even immune changes, while chronic pain is often accompanied by physiological, psychological and social functional changes, and needs to be treated early.
2.The concept of “pain” in Chinese medicine.
(1) Let’s look at the meaning of the Chinese word “pain”.
Analysis from the word building. “The word “pain” is the character for “winter” inside the character for disease. According to Chinese medicine, it represents winter, cold, north, cold and water.
Su Wen. Yin and Yang should be the great theory of cloud “the north is cold, cold water, water salty, salty kidney, kidney bone marrow, marrow liver, the kidney is the main ear. It is cold in the sky, water in the earth, bone in the body, and kidney in the hide”, “Su Wen – Paralysis” said: “pain, cold is also a lot of cold, there is cold, so pain. In “Su Wen – The Treatise on Pain”, there are fourteen examples of pains, thirteen of which are caused by cold, and only one is caused by heat.
The word “pain” is a “yong” inside the character for disease, and “yong” refers to the ancient passage covered by walls on both sides, which is not normal and does not pass. According to Chinese medicine, “if it does not pass, it hurts”. Obviously, the cause of pain is related to cold, water and inaccessibility of meridians.
(2) Why does cold cause pain?
The Su Wen – lifting pain theory cloud: “the meridians are more than popular, the circumference is not resting, cold into the meridians and late, weeping and not working, guest in the veins outside the blood is less, guest in the veins is not pass, so the pain.”
The cold guest outside the pulse is less blood, so not glory is pain; cold guest in the pulse is not pass through the blood, so not pass is pain. This is why the cold Qi will cause the cause of pain pathogenesis.
3. The concept of “cold” in Chinese medicine
(1) Let’s look at the Chinese character for “cold”.
According to Kangxi dictionary, it is from the person under the recipient, from the recommendation to cover it, under the. The word “cold” is also from the word “water”. It is the meaning of the Chinese character “宀” (mián), that is, a house: in the middle is “人”; on the left and right side of the person are three “grasses”, which means a lot; the following two crosses indicate “ice”. Cold is a feeling, people can feel, but can not see. So the ancients used the above four forms to create this character, and people m curved indoors, using grass to avoid the cold, indicating that the weather is very cold. Original meaning: cold, cold. The province of the official as cold. The “Yu Chapter” winter time also. The sun and the moon run in a cold and a summer. The Chinese character for “cold” is “cold”. Therefore, cold refers to cold, cold air, winter.
(2) The meaning of cold in Chinese medicine.
In Chinese medicine, the factors that cause diseases are divided into four categories, external causes, internal causes, pathological products and other causes. External causes, that is, in Chinese medicine, the six external influences, namely wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness and fire; internal causes are our various emotions: joy, anger, worry, thought, grief, fear and fright; pathological products are phlegm, blood, stones, etc.; other causes include trauma, insect and animal bites and burns, etc.
Six kinds of disease, namely wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness and fire, are collectively referred to. Kinky, with the meaning of too much, immersion, derived from the improper, abnormal. The six obscene and six qi are both related and different. Under normal circumstances, wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness and fire are six different kinds of climate change in nature, called “six qi”. The constant movement of the six gases determines the different climate throughout the year, namely spring wind, summer heat (fire), autumn dryness, winter cold, long summer humidity. Through its own regulation, the body has a certain ability to adapt to the six gases, and generally does not make the human body sick. When the climate change is abnormal, more than a certain limit, such as too much or not enough of the six gases, not its time and its gas (such as spring should be warm but cold, autumn should be cool but hot, etc.), as well as climate change is too rapid (such as cold, hot, etc.), the body can not adapt to, can lead to the occurrence of disease; or when the body’s righteousness is insufficient, resistance to decline, wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness, fire to take advantage of the weakness, leading to disease in the human body In this case, the six qi are called “six obscene”. Since the six perversions are unhealthy qi, they are also called “six evils”. Therefore, whether it is the six qi or the six evil spirits is mainly related to whether the body develops disease.
(3) What is the nature and pathogenic characteristics of cold?
(1) Cold is a yin evil, easily injuring yang energy: when the cold evil offends the surface, the yang of the body is damaged and symptoms such as vicious cold, no sweat, headache, body pain and fever appear. If the cold evil goes straight to the middle and attacks the spleen and stomach, the middle yang will be damaged, or the kidney yang will be injured, and symptoms such as fear of cold, cold limbs, abdominal pain, downward flow of clear grain, and clear and long urine will appear.
② cold stagnation, main pain: cold invasion, or yin cold, can lead to the Yang is not invigorated, the Qi and blood does not run smoothly, so that the Qi and blood stagnation, the veins and collaterals do not pass, can appear pain. If the upper jiao yang is deficient, yin and cold block chest yang, chest paralysis and heart pain can occur; the middle jiao spleen and stomach yang deficiency can cause stomach pain, abdominal pain and diarrhea; the lower jiao kidney yang deficiency can cause cold pain in the waist and knees, semen cold and infertility, etc.
③ cold collection and attraction: collection and attraction, that is, the contraction of detention and attraction of the meaning. If the cold evil offends the skin, the hair orifice will be contracted and symptoms such as vicious cold, no sweat and tight pulse will appear; if the cold evil is in the meridians and joints, the meridians and veins will be contracted and induced, and symptoms such as spasm of the tendons and flesh, unfavorable flexion and extension of the joints will appear.
There is a difference between internal cold and external cold caused by cold. External cold refers to the external cold, injured in the muscle surface, named “typhoid”; directly in the internal organs, named “in the cold”. Internal cold is caused by the decline of human body functions and weakness of Yang Qi.