Acupuncture and moxibustion for untreated diseases in clinical practice

As the old saying goes, we do not treat the disease before it happens. The so-called cure for the untreated disease includes two aspects: prevention of the untreated disease and prevention of the treated disease, and treating the untreated disease as the higher realm of Chinese medicine treatment. In the past two years, I have consciously carried out the treatment of “prevention before illness” in my clinical work, and received very good results, and also have some new experiences, which are reported below. The cases were selected mainly from friends and colleagues whom I knew, a total of 13 cases, including 5 male cases and 8 female cases. These people are working and living normally, and in actual life, they are all “no” sick people, which is also called subhealthy people. The treatment method was acupuncture or ear acupuncture pressure beans, with the main acupuncture points being Liver Yu, Gall Bladder Yu, Tai Chong, Qiu Hui, supplemented by Daling and Foot San Li, and the ear acupuncture points being Shen Men, Liver, Gall Bladder, Endocrine, Subcortical and Spleen. Generally, once or twice a week, with 10 times as a course of treatment. The evaluation of the treatment effect is based on the patient’s self-perception and mental state, supplemented by the changes in tongue and pulse. The so-called subhealth state refers to some functional changes without organic lesions, also known as the third state or “gray state”, which is also called “indeterminate statement syndrome” because of its various symptoms and irregularity. It is a transitional stage between health and disease, in which the body is not physically or psychologically ill, but subjectively has many uncomfortable symptoms and psychological experiences. From the causes of sub-health, we can see that social environmental pressure and human self-regulation ability are external and internal factors closely related to sub-health. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine says: “Happiness and anger hurt qi, cold and heat hurt form”; “All diseases are born in qi”. In other words, if the change of emotion and will is too much, the disease will come from within, directly damaging the five organs and qi; and the six lewdnesses hurt people by first invading the muscle surface of the human body. Because the discomfort of such people is mainly caused by high mental tension and stress, so in the treatment, the main focus is to regulate the liver and gallbladder, with the heart pericardium meridian and spleen and stomach meridian acupoints, can often receive very good results. Of course, in the process of “treating the untreated”, there are also difficulties. I have a foreign friend who is very fit and active on the sports field all day long, but this person is known to be very explosive. Once he asked me to take his pulse, and his pulse was strong and stringent, but not soft. So I told him that he should get acupuncture to regulate his liver fire and control his emotions, otherwise it would be bad for his health. But he thought he was in good health and did not need treatment. Sadly, however, he got a cerebral thrombosis a year later, when he was only 35 years old. In clinical practice, I think this is a very typical example, which reflects both the purpose of treating the untreated and the importance of treating the untreated. It’s just that fewer people are aware of this nowadays, and that’s precisely why we should vigorously promote the treatment of untreated diseases in order to truly save lives and benefit the people.