FHN Complementary Medicine Monthly Newsletter January 2006
www.mrdrpilot.blogspot.com
Endometriosis from a TCM ( Traditional Chinese Medicine) perspective
Endometriosis is a painful, chronic disease that affects 5 1/2 million women and girls in the USA and Canada, and millions more worldwide. From a western medicine standpoint it occurs when endometrium tissue is found outside the uterus. (Abdomen, uterus, rectum, etc.) This misplaced tissue develops into growths or lesions which respond to the menstrual cycle in the same way that the tissue of the uterine lining does. This results in internal bleeding, breakdown of the blood and tissue from the lesions, and inflammation -- and can cause pain, infertility, scar tissue formation, adhesions, and bowel problems.
TCM looks at and describes disease processes from a perspective of what is not moving correctly through the body. Qi, blood, and body fluids ( ie lymph) are all fundamental substances that are vital for the functioning of the human body and organ systems. A lack of proper movement (stagnation in TCM lingo) leads to the pathology in the body.
With that understanding endometriosis would fall into what TCM calls blood and fluid stagnation. TCM views blood formation starting with the food we eat and being acted on by the digestive system. So treatment for endometriosis has to start there. If we don’t have sufficient blood formation a stagnation occurs. Also in TCM if there is an improper formation function, body fluid formation is altered. Lymph becomes more viscous (thick) and masses/fibroids start to form.
So TCM would start to repair this function. First with replacing gut/ vaginal flora with acidophilus bacteria. Other foods that would be beneficial are spinach, lettuce, asparagus, eggplant, watercress, cucumber, turnip, food rich with chlorophyll, such as green leafy vegetables, grain grass and seaweeds, grapes, black grapes, black raspberries, red raspberries, pear, apple, mango, plum, cherries, fig, blueberries, white beans, black beans, adzuki beans, yellow beans, yellow bean sprouts, chestnuts, rice cooked for a long time, pearl barley, millet, tofu, milk, gelatin.
Meat: Small amounts of beef, organic liver.
Fish: Sardines.
Treatment is aimed at relieving the blood/fluid stagnation with acupuncture, herbs and mechanical stimulation. We have a high frequency lymph modality that can assist in moving the body fluid.
Many times as we restore these functions the symptoms disappear and normal function returns without the pain.
Sincerely
Drs. Glenn and Julie Smith
Complementary Medicine
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