Chinese medicine treatment of vasculitis

Vasculitis is located in the meridians, and is dominated by evil and deficiency, with a mixture of deficiency and reality. The actual evil is mostly external wind-heat, damp-heat, heat toxin, resulting in burning of blood and blood, damage to blood vessels, stagnation of blood and Qi. The pathogenesis is mainly heat and toxin congestion, evil ambush of blood, stagnation of blood vessels and veins, reflecting “stasis caused by evil”, so the main treatment is to expel evil and detoxify the toxin, supplemented by cooling blood and resolving stasis. The main reason for positive deficiency is qi deficiency. There are two reasons for this: first, qi deficiency does not strengthen the external guard, which makes it easy for the evil toxins to attack the body and cause the disease to develop; second, qi deficiency does not have the ability to move blood, which leads to stagnation of blood vessels and channels, reflecting “deficiency causes stasis”, so the main treatment is to tonify qi and invigorate blood, supplemented by removing stasis and dispersing nodules. As the disease is a mixture of evil and deficiency, the two affect each other and form a vicious circle, so the basic principle of exorcising evil and helping righteousness should be used throughout the treatment process of vasculitis. The treatment advocates the combination of disease and evidence, and the combination of phase type. In the acute phase of activity, heat toxicity is the problem, as described in Article 19 of the disease mechanism: “all diseases and swelling, pain, soreness, shock, all belong to the fire”, so the treatment is to clear heat and detoxify, cool the blood and remove blood stasis as the main method, in order to suppress vascular inflammation and control the development of the disease. Chronic extension, the heat and toxicity gradually recede, the evil ambush blood, mainly stasis and heat, so the treatment is to detoxify the blood, remove blood stasis and open the ligaments as the main method, supplemented by Yi Qi, in order to support the righteousness and eliminate evil, promote the inflammation to subside, improve the tissue stasis state, improve the body’s ability to resist disease. Long-term disease injures qi and heat injures yin, plus heat-clearing and detoxifying herbal medicines tend to deplete qi and yin, so qi and yin are the main deficiencies in the stable stage, so the treatment is to benefit qi and nourish yin, detoxify and disperse nodules as the main method, in order to support the root, eliminate petechiae and nodules, and prevent the recurrence of the disease.