Osteoarthritis is related to aging and is the most common cause of back and leg pain in middle-aged and elderly people. Timely treatment can achieve clinical cure and improve the quality of life, but if we don’t pay attention to it or think “it’s not curable when we are old”, it may make the disease more and more serious and miss the treatment time. Based on years of clinical experience, the Rheumatology Department of Oriental Hospital has come up with the “Package Therapy” which is very effective for osteoarthritis.
1. Oral Chinese medicine
2. mini-needle therapy
3. topical medicinal alcohol
4. Moxibustion + manipulation massage
5. acupressure of acupuncture points
6. Infusion
7. Microcomputer therapy
8. Foot bath and herbal fumigation
The Department of Rheumatology at Eastern Hospital says, “Osteoarthritis is a common rheumatic disease in middle-aged and elderly people. If early treatment is missed and allowed to develop and worsen, then eventually the only way to effectively treat it is to have surgery. Our experience in treating early osteoarthritis is a combination of local and holistic treatment; internal and external treatment.” Multiple treatments are combined to form a “package”.
The overall treatment is mainly through oral medication, infusion, and foot bath. Small acupuncture treatment loosens the osteophytes and their surrounding areas, and together with manipulation to relieve the imbalance of forces within the knee joint, it has an immediate effect on relieving joint pain, but this external treatment needs to be combined with other treatments to consolidate the effect.
”Whether external or internal treatment, Chinese medicine is all about ‘evidence-based treatment’, which means that different conditions are identified and targeted. Osteoarthritis belongs to the category of ‘paralysis’ in Chinese medicine, and we believe that the occurrence of this disease is closely related to ‘liver and kidney deficiency and internal stagnation of blood stasis’. Liver and kidney deficiency is often associated with aging; the generation of stagnant blood is often due to trauma, strain, and failure to dissipate in time due to attack by wind, cold, and dampness.”
”So the treatment for this disease is to tonify the liver and kidneys, invigorate the blood and open the channels. Tang medicine is prescribed according to this principle. And oral Chinese medicine plays a major role in the treatment. Among the external treatment methods, moxibustion is chosen because it has the effect of invigorating blood and removing blood stasis. In the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. Ling Shu. The blood in the veins, which is condensed and stays stopped, is not regulated by the fire, which can not be taken.’ It means that if the blood in the veins is not flowing smoothly, it will be difficult to get the effect if only acupuncture is used without moxibustion. This is the earliest record of the effect of moxibustion on blood circulation and dispersion. Moxibustion can in turn provide local treatment for the diseased part of osteoarthritis, and it also has the effect of warming the meridians and dispersing cold, preventing disease and health care, and is warm and comfortable for osteoarthritis patients.”
”Although moxibustion is good, it cannot replace the role of internal medicine to nourish the liver and kidneys, overall conditioning, and pass all the meridians. So a combination of external and internal therapies is needed. Under the guidance of the therapeutic principle of tonifying the liver and kidneys and activating blood circulation, the choice of each herbal medicine is a matter of concern. In our Chinese herbal formulas for osteoarthritis, the commonly used drugs are hyssop, bone marrow, bone marrow and chicken blood vine. The action of the niu knee is characterized by tonifying the liver and kidneys, strengthening the tendons and bones, invigorating the blood and opening the channels, and inducing the downward movement of the medicine. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for treating bone and joint lesions of the lower limbs. The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing records that Niubizi ‘is used for cold and damp paralysis and pain, for constricting the limbs, and for knee pain that prevents flexion and extension’. The names of these two herbs are indicative of their therapeutic effects on bone and joint injuries. The effect of Bone Crushing Tonic is to tonify the kidneys and strengthen the bones, invigorate the blood and renew injuries, treating tendon and bone injuries, and pain in the back and knees. The specialty of Boneset is to warm the kidney yang and treat painful joints of the waist and knees that are afraid of cold. Chicken Blood Vine has the effect of promoting blood circulation and tonifying blood, soothing the tendons and activating the collaterals, and is especially suitable for treating rheumatic paralysis combined with blood deficiency and blood stasis.”
The above four herbs are used as the basic medicine, and depending on the patient’s condition, other drugs should be used in the formula. At the same time, the infusion of drugs to regulate bone metabolism and blood activation drugs is added.
”Ancestral medicine believes that ‘the theory of external treatment is the theory of internal treatment, the difference is the law’, the pathway of action of external treatment methods cannot be recognized from the perspective of drug absorption alone, we have chosen several external treatment methods synergistic action to achieve effective stimulation of local meridians and acupuncture points, thus promoting the localization of the absorbed drugs in the body action to maximize the therapeutic effect.”
Medicinal wine: Ban Gu in “The Book of the Former Han Dynasty? In the former Han Dynasty, Ban Gu called wine “the longest of all medicines”. In ancient times, doctors often used wine to treat diseases. In ancient times, the word “t” came from You (wine), which means the close relationship between wine and medicine. Anti-rheumatic wine is usually an internal drug, but considering the weakness of the spleen and stomach of the elderly and the strong stimulation of alcohol, it is used externally to increase the local therapeutic effect and to avoid adverse gastrointestinal reactions.
Acupuncture point dressing: After external application of medicinal liquor, moxibustion and massage, local application of anti-rheumatic ointment to the joints can consolidate the therapeutic effect.
Foot bath and herbal fumigation: The foot brings together the important points of the Foot Convulsive Yin Liver Meridian and the Foot Shao Yin Kidney Meridian. Chinese herbal foot baths can assist in the regulation of the liver and kidneys, while warming the meridians and clearing the channels. Chinese medicine fumigation can also be called Chinese medicine sauna, using the water vapor emitted from the decoction of herbs to dispel wind and cold and invigorate blood to achieve therapeutic effects.
The “package therapy” treatment for osteoarthritis combines the advantages of various therapies, with fast onset and good results. Patients benefit a lot. It has become the special treatment of the Rheumatology Department of Oriental Hospital.