How does Chinese medicine treat diabetic peripheral neuropathy?

  Four months ago, when Ms. Peng was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and peripheral neuropathy, she not only had the typical symptoms of diabetes: dry mouth and thirst, excessive drinking, excessive urination, fatigue, poor sleep, and delayed menstruation, but also, more seriously, peripheral neuropathy complicated by diabetes, which caused her to have pinprick-like pain, numbness, coldness, and burning sensation in both lower extremities every night, and the pain like cutting and burning made her feel miserable. She was unable to sleep at night because of the pain. Earlier this year, she was hospitalized in a tertiary care hospital in Guangzhou, and although she took hypoglycemic drugs and related allopathic treatment, her symptoms did not improve significantly, and relying on painkillers could only relieve the pain for a while. Under the torture of the disease, he then turned to Chinese medicine for treatment. After a course of treatment for more than 10 days, the pain, numbness, coldness and burning sensation in both lower limbs improved significantly.  Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus, with an incidence of 60% to 90%. Early symptoms are mainly sensory impairment, symmetrical pain and sensory abnormalities, lower extremity symptoms are more common than upper extremity, sensory abnormalities include numbness, ankylosis, insect crawling, fever, electric shock-like sensation. Patients with severe sensory disorders may develop arthralgia and ulcers in the lower extremities. The pain is tingling and burning, and the pain is lighter day and heavier night. There is dystrophic myasthenia in the late stage. The most serious consequence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy is the diabetic foot, which in severe cases leads to amputation. To treat neuropathy and relieve pain and other symptoms, Western medicine mainly includes blood sugar control, nerve nutrition and drug pain relief, but the treatment effect is not very satisfactory, and drug pain relief can only temporarily relieve.  Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is known as “paralysis of the tendons” in Chinese medicine, which is caused by the deficiency of liver and kidney, deficiency of qi and blood, stagnation of the veins, and loss of nourishment of the tendons. In Ms. Peng’s case, the TCM pathogenesis of such patients is mainly due to congenital deficiency of endowment, deficiency of essence in the viscera, and long illness, depletion of qi and yin; yin deficiency, fluid does not take advantage of, loss of nourishment of the head and face, so see dry mouth, excessive drinking, irritable heat; qi deficiency, the handsome blood is weak, blood flow is sluggish, stagnation into stasis, blood stasis, blood flow is not smooth, blood can not moisten the extremities, so see the pain and numbness like a needle cut; spleen deficiency, transportation and transformation is not normal, the body does not nourish, then The tongue is pale, the fur is thin and white, and the pulse is sunken and thin, all of which are signs of Qi and Yin deficiency and blood stasis; the disease is a mixture of deficiency and reality, and the pathogenesis is Qi and Yin deficiency and blood stasis.  The Chinese herbal medicine is based on the formula of benefiting Qi and nourishing Yin, activating blood circulation and resolving blood stasis: 15g of Dampi, one bag of Tian Qi powder, 10g of Boswellia, 10g of Myrrh, 15g of Chuanxiong, 3g of Hessian, 10g of Cyperus, and 15g of Astragalus. After more than 10 days of treatment, the pain and numbness in both lower extremities of Ms. Peng was significantly reduced, and her menstruation, which had been absent for 1 year, came on, so she was discharged with relief.