Dialectical ideas and methods of Chinese medicine in the treatment of polydactyly in children

  Pediatric polydactyly is a disorder characterized by involuntary muscle twitching of the face, limbs, and trunk with laryngeal dissonance and accompanied by changes in social functioning and psychological behavior. In the last 10 years, the incidence of pediatric hyperacusis has increased dramatically in China, and unless these children were not seen in hospitals at all, this is a fact that we cannot dismiss. The high incidence today is not unrelated to the problems associated with the rapid economic development of modern society. For a long time, Western medicine has used drugs such as haloperidol and Tebri for the treatment of polydactyly, which are effective, but have a high relapse rate and long-term medication with obvious side effects. In recent years, our clinical use of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, auricular acupuncture and other external treatment and psycho-emotional therapy to treat the disease has shown the unique advantages of integrative therapy in Chinese medicine. Now, we will try to discuss the dialectical ideas and methods of treating children with hyperactivity from the perspective of Chinese medicine, and propose some thoughts on the treatment of Wuyin-related emotion therapy.  Pediatric hyperactivity disorder is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple, motor or vocal tics. It is common in children aged 5 to 12 years, more often in males than females, and the latest epidemiological studies show that the prevalence of pediatric polydactyly ranges from approximately 1% to 4%, with a significant trend toward an increase [1]. The pathogenesis of the disease is not clear [2], and the clinical presentation is complex and recurrent with chronic neuropsychiatric manifestations, specifically brief, rapid, sudden, and varying degrees of involuntary movements, starting with frequent blinking, eyebrow squeezing, nasal aspiration, pouting, mouth opening, tongue extension, and head nodding. As the disease progresses, the twitching gradually diversifies, alternating with shrugging, neck twisting, head shaking, leg kicking, hand flinging or limb twitching, etc. The symptoms are often more pronounced during emotional stress or anxiety, and disappear after sleep. Vocal twitching often has a variety of, with explosive repeated vocalizations, clear noise or grunts, individual syllables, unclear words, improper stress or constant obscenities, impatient, capricious and irritable personality, often accompanied by inattentiveness in class or a decline in grades. The symptoms of tic disorder are fluctuating, progressive and chronic in nature.  The symptoms of children’s hyperactivity are diverse, with twitching being the main cause, and easily recurring. The cause of the disease is attributed to wind and phlegm, and the lesions are mainly in the liver and spleen. This means that “all diseases are caused by phlegm” [3] and “all winds and dizziness belong to the liver”. Because children have “spleen deficiency” and “liver deficiency”, their bodies are infantile yin and yang, their internal organs are delicate, their forms are timid and weak, and their bodies are not yet well developed, so they are easily disturbed by many factors such as diet and emotions. The liver is the main organ that regulates the discharge of emotions. If the liver is hyperactive, the liver loses its discharge, so most of the clinical children have the emotional symptoms of impatience and irritability or timidity. The liver is a rigid organ, the body yin with yang, such as earth deficiency, Qi and blood transformation is not enough, the liver can not control, the more wood fire, liver wind disturbance is more. The prolonged illness depletes liver and kidney yin and blood, resulting in hyperactivity of liver and yang, leading to more severe mental symptoms such as impatience, obscurity and inattention, and prolonging the course of the disease. Therefore, the disease is actually an evidence of deficiency of the root and the symptoms of the symptoms.  The treatment of hyperactivity should be based on the examination of the cause, the identification of the evidence and the treatment, and the formulation and selection of drugs to closely follow the disease mechanism. As this disease is mainly caused by spleen deficiency and liver hyperactivity, wind and phlegm disturbance, therefore, clinically, spleen deficiency and phlegm gathering, spleen deficiency and liver hyperactivity are the most common, followed by qi depression and fire, and yin deficiency and wind movement, but all of them are manifested as liver wind internal movement. Therefore, the key to the treatment of this disease is to strengthen the spleen and pacify the liver. Therefore, the first priority in the treatment is to strengthen the spleen and resolve phlegm, pacify the liver and quench the wind, and on this basis, the application of phlegm-transferring drugs is emphasized, so that the spleen will be healthy, phlegm and dampness will dissolve, the liver and wood will be in order, and the twitching will be calmed. In the treatment process, according to “earth deficiency and wood hyperactivity”, the treatment has its own focus, and in the process of identifying and treating the symptoms, we should carefully examine the severity of liver deficiency and spleen deficiency.  Based on the above evidence, we believe that phlegm and wind disturbance and spleen deficiency and liver exuberance are the two most common types of symptoms in clinical practice, and the treatment is based on clearing the heart and quenching the wind, resolving phlegm and clearing the channels, and strengthening the spleen and draining the liver. According to the deficiency and actuality of wind and phlegm, and then according to the child’s constitution, we can add and subtract medicines to treat the disease. Commonly used drugs are: Gou Jing Cao, Bai Shao, Hooked Vine, Yun Ling, Chrysanthemum, Bamboo Roo, Sour Date Palm, Yu Jin, Zhe Bei Mu, Dendrobium, and Lantern Cao, etc. The treatment is effective with dialectical addition and subtraction, in which Gou Jing Cao, pungent, sweet and flat, belongs to liver and lung meridian, disperses wind-heat, clears liver and brightens eyes; Bai Shao, bitter and sour, cool, enters liver and spleen meridian, nourishes blood and softens liver; Hooked Vine, sweet and cool, enters liver and heart meridian, clears heat and calms liver, quenches wind and settles fright; Yun Ling, flat, sweet and light, enters liver and heart meridian. It enters the heart, liver and kidney meridians and has the functions of diuresis and dampness, strengthening the spleen and tranquilizing the mind; Chrysanthemum, pungent, sweet and bitter, slightly cold, belongs to the lung and liver meridians and has the functions of dispersing wind and clearing heat, calming the liver and brightening the eyes; Bamboo Roo, slightly cold and sweet, can clear heat and resolve phlegm and remove annoyance; Jujube, sweet and flat, enters the heart, spleen, liver and gallbladder meridians and nourishes the liver, calms the mind, tranquilizes the mind and astringes sweat; Yu Jin, pungent, bitter and cold, belongs to the liver, heart and lung meridians. It enters the meridians of the heart, spleen, liver and gallbladder, nourishes the liver, calms the heart, calms the mind and averts sweating. The above herbs, which are calm in nature, work together to dispel wind and resolve phlegm, and strengthen the spleen and dredge the liver. It calms the liver, quenches the wind and softens the tendons to achieve the effect of braking and stopping spasm. It is also used to remove phlegm and promote the circulation of phlegm, so that the blood and Qi in the meridians can flow smoothly, and the strange disease will be removed.  In addition to Chinese medicine, we use acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, low-frequency pulsed electric therapy for the back, and five-in-one therapy to regulate the emotion and will of Guqin, and the condition of more and more children has been well controlled.  1, acupuncture treatment: acupuncture take Taichong, Taixi, Sanyinjiao, Hegu, Yin Tang, Liver Yu, Quchi, Neiguan, Shenmen and other points. Heartburn and palpitations with Xin Yu; blinking eyes and shrugging nose with Sun and Ying Xiang; mouth twitching with Di Cang and Chee Che. The acupuncture points are fast, with flat tonics and flat diarrhea, and no needles are left after obtaining qi. Tai Chong and He Gu are the main points, which are the original points of the liver and large intestine meridians. The combination of these two points has the effect of de-stressing the liver, opening the organs, and calming the liver and calming the fire. In children with severe symptoms, the above acupuncture treatment is effective when used in conjunction with traditional Chinese medicine. [4] 2. Ear acupuncture point pressure bean therapy: According to the theory of meridians, the Ling Shu says: “The ear is the gathering of the zong veins” [5]. All twelve meridians are directly connected to the ear. Therefore, when diseases occur in the body, certain reaction points appear in the corresponding areas of the ear shell. Through the close connection between the ear meridians and the internal organs, the corresponding points on the auricle are stimulated with pressure seeds to adjust the functions of the internal organs through the meridians to treat the disease. Ear pressure therapy is to apply pressure on these response points to achieve the purpose of treating diseases. Shen Men, liver, sympathetic, endocrine, brain points, subcortical, etc. are often used. The main points endocrine and sympathetic have the function of mediating endocrine and plant nerve dysfunction; Shen Men has the function of calming, tranquilizing, lowering Qi and suppressing cough; subcortical has the function of mediating excitation and inhibition of the cerebral cortex. The above ear points are selected to mediate the function of the internal organs, calm the mind and tranquilize the spirit, so that these corresponding parts of the blood circulation, and achieve the purpose of healing. [7] 3, low-frequency pulse electrotherapy: take the liver acupuncture point on the back, apply the Chinese medicine patch, use low-frequency pulse electro-introduction therapy, the liver acupuncture point has the effect of draining the liver and gallbladder, lowering fire , stopping spasm, reducing fever, benefiting the liver and brightening the eyes, opening the ligaments and pharynx, draining the liver and Qi, moving Qi and relieving pain, etc., which can reduce the heat of the liver [6].  4, explore the five tones of emotional therapy: five tones from the “Ling Shu? The five tones are the Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu. The ancient people matched the five tones with the five organs: the spleen should be the palace, its sound is diffuse and slow; the lung should be the Shang, its sound is rapid and clear; the liver should be the Horn, its sound is long; the heart should be the Zheng, its sound is bright and male; the kidney should be the Fe, its sound is deep and fine, this is the right sound for the five organs. According to the Book of Rites? According to the “Book of Rituals?”, “All sounds are born in the heart. Emotions move in, so the shape of the sound. The sound becomes a text, called the sound. The meaning is that music originates from people’s heart and is the sound that expresses their inner emotion, and it is even said in Zuo Zhuan that music has a taste like medicine, which can make people stay healthy and live a long life. The ancient noble court was equipped with an orchestra of singers, not purely for entertainment, but also an important role is to use music to soothe the spirit and calm the sex, nourish the body and mind. These five scales were given the attributes of the five elements by traditional Chinese philosophy: wood (horn), fire (zheng), earth (gong), gold (shang), and water (fe). This is precisely what is exploited by Chinese medicine. Music can penetrate deep into the heart, and in TCM psychology, music can infect and regulate the emotions, which in turn affect the body. The tunes, emotions, and dirty qi are allowed to resonate and interact in listening to achieve the effect of stirring the blood and unblocking the spirit and heart. Physiologically, when the music vibrations match the physiological vibrations in the body (heart rate, heart rhythm, breathing, blood pressure, pulse, etc.), physiological resonance and resonance will occur. This is the physical and mental basis of the “five sounds for healing”. “The “qi” is not only the emotions, but also the dirty qi of the five organs. According to each person’s own body structure and the differences in the five viscera in the dirty qi, with different music, you can make the five tones to prevent disease and nourish the body. Of course, it is not the use of a single tone to regulate a certain organ, but the use of the principle of the five elements, so that they are mutually generative, and mutually restrained, five tones with a combination, appropriate highlight a certain tone to harmonize the body.  Guqin music is the best choice for TCM practitioners to use music for health and healing, because the design of the guqin is a concentration of traditional Chinese cosmology, social view and values. Its structure contains the discursive ideas of yin and yang, the five elements, and the correlation between man and nature. The instrument mainly uses the five tone scales, or the five proper tones. Each of the five organs has its own corresponding tone, and when the five tones enter the body, they cause a harmonious and synchronized resonance in the body’s cells and tissues, which in turn adjusts the body’s physiological functions. This is the basic principle of Guqin music for health and healing.  According to the theory related to the five tones and the five organs, the representative tunes for the heart are: “Fishing Song”, “Wen Wang Cao”, “Mountain Dwelling”, etc.; the representative tunes for the liver are: “Lie Zi Yu Feng”, “Zhuang Zhou Meng Die”, etc.; the representative tunes for the spleen are: “High Mountain”, “Flowing Water”, “Yang Chun”, “Three Blossoms of Plum”, etc.; the representative tunes for the lung are: “White Snow”, “Chang Qing”, etc.; the representative tunes for the kidney are: “Feather”, etc. The representative songs for the lungs are “White Snow” and “Long Qing”, etc.; for the kidneys, the representative songs are “Flying in the Morning” and “Crying at Night”, etc.  In summary, in the treatment of polydactyly, the principle of mastering the differentiation of treatment is highlighted, but the flexibility of using the right medicine for the right evidence is also taken into consideration. The use of Chinese medicine, acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, low-frequency pulse electrotherapy, and five-tone emotion regulation, the five-in-one therapy, avoids the slow onset of effect of the use of Chinese medicine alone, and the use of acupuncture, medicine, and acupuncture points with stable efficacy, small side effects, safe and reliable, and has obvious advantages. Needle, medicine, acupuncture point “five-in-one therapy” for the cause of the disease mechanism of comprehensive conditioning, not only to improve the effectiveness of treatment, but also greatly reduce the recurrence rate of the disease.