I am interested in a Chinese medicine approach to my illnesses problem. I have panic attacks and anxiety my “blood humor” is the western humor that is a problem. I have more recently Anemia and a possible stomach problem. Overweight. Balding, but that’s the least of my trouble. But it could help diagnose. Hey it means something’s wrong Any ideas?
Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.
Are you asking generally, for herbal approaches, for acupuncture approaches, both? are you are practitioner, if not, have you seen one or do you have one nearby?
Generally you will get the best results seeing a practitioner in your local area as the amount of personal information you need to come to the right diagnosis is simply unsuitable to a public forum. If you look at our anxiety treatment options page you will see some of the possible approaches. Certainly from a Chinese Medicine perspective the digestive issues (which technically includes anemia as an assimilation issue) would be the place where a practitioner would start aiding. Often times panic attacks in particular are far more related to essentially reflux more than they are heightened or sustained anxiety levels.
Comment by Archived User
Well the psych drugs work. And I take zantac and protonix so there’s digestive issues too. But that’s been years after mental issues. I guess generally a TCM view. There are no Chinese herbalists here that I know of. There is a professional acupuncturist. Locally I have western herbs available at one place. So any technique would actually interest me. I am a reiki grandmaster. No training though. So acupuncture, acupressure, reflexology. And of those things. I will vists the page. It’s interesteing that Chinese medicine considers digestion and mental issues the same. Or related perhaps. I would think Shen or blood In my layman view.
Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.
Well the psych drugs work. And I take zantac and protonix
I guess you have to be sure then what result you want. Do you want to be actually healed, have your body and mind functioning well and not take medicine for the rest of your life? Or do you want management and feel ok but not great…
It’s interesteing that Chinese medicine considers digestion and mental issues the same. Or related perhaps.
It’s not just Chinese Medicine, even western medicine - particularly in the last 10 years or so has recognized the strong relationship between mood and digestive/gut health.
Aspects of this from the Chinese Medicine/biochemical side are discussed in “how LI 11 and ST 37 alleviate constipation” (near the end the parts regarding serotonin) as well as within “acupuncture has similar effects to prozac” - among many others articles on our site.
I would think Shen or blood In my layman view.
The “blood” doesn’t mean just your blood - it’s a much larger concept (see “the concept of blood in Chinese Medicine” - so you could have blood deficiency in Chinese Medicine and definitely be nowhere near anemic. But ultimately, in Chinese Medicine terms, the “blood” comes from proper assimilation of food and nutrients and the “shen”, while related in part to the kidney system, is like the end result of having an abundance of qi and blood in the body. Exploring articles, such as “My spleen is what?” will get into some of those aspects more deeply.
Ultimately, as I said earlier, you will get the best results by consulting with someone in person and receiving treatments over many months. Even if your acupuncturist doesn’t practice herbal medicine, once you have a diagnosis from them, with their input you can likely utilize Chinese herbal formulas. Western herbalism just doesn’t have the diagnostic framework, nor the depth of experience in proper herbal formulations/combinations to work as efficiently or as reliably (when properly used of course) as Chinese herbal medicine and for your range of issues the herbal aspect, in my opinion, can be critical.
Comment by Archived User
When I mentioned Blood I meant as the concept in Hippocratic or Galenic medicine. Ancient Greek medicine and the Humors. And yes I am slightly anemic too btw. I would like them to check for occult bleeding but getting them to work sometimes can be a chore. I would like to correct the actual problem be it a concept or syndrome or whatever they call it. But therapy and getting off the meds would be good too. One of them has significant side effects.