Psoriatic arthritis, Humara and Acupuncture

forum post

Psoriatic arthritis, Humara and Acupuncture

Published on 02-11-2008


"Dotie" has authored 3 other posts.

Have a gentleman with an acute flare of his psoriatic arthritis. He is also on Humara. Am trying to decrease inflammation and support kidney. Any other ideas?


This post has the following associations:

Acupoints: gv 22, th 16


Comments / Discussions:

comment by "ChadD" (acupuncturist)
on Feb 2008

There is a strong auto-immune component to psoriatic arthritis, so part of the treatment must be to balance that system. I would use the huatuo of T1, T2, and T3 (bone marrow, thymus gland, and lung/lymph, respectively) to balance the immune system, T4 for the skin, T7 on the right side for the blood, GV 22, TH 16 and then associated local points for the effected areas and points based on their overall TCM diagnosis.

The T4 and T7 points are added in the case of psoriasis which precedes or appears together in some cases of psoriatic arthritis, they may be left out if this is not the case.

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comment by "Cathygrow"
on Feb 2008

I have a longtime patient who has psoriatic arthritis. Her symptoms were so severe she had a hard time standing at her job. The feet were inflammed, the skin red and swollen. She responded very well to acupuncture. In the beginning she came three times a week for about three weeks, then once a week, eventually once every three weeks, and now once a month. Her feet look perfect. She still has some skin issues on her legs and arms that come and go but she is able to lead a full life, hiking and skiing, and standing at her hospital lab job. This is the treatment: First I give a constitutional treatment (Kiiko Matsumoto), 10 minutes. Next, remove all the needles and palpate the fire points on the affected meridians. If they register a 3 to 5 pressure pain on a scale of 1 to 5, needle the metal and water points with a #1 Serin Needle, shallow insertion, and stimulate with moxa. After 10 minutes the fire points will not be painful or will begin to change. Needling the finger tips and toe tips is less painful if you apply some tube pressure and tap the needle in when the patient exhales--no manipulation is necessary. This treatment works effectively with many types of inflammation. The idea is that metal oxygenates and water puts the fire out. Read more about metal/water treatments in Kiiko Matsumoto's Clinical Strategy book, Volume I.

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comment by "archived-user"
on Feb 2008

Cathy, two questions. I am only a student and wondering about your treatment that you used moxa for inflamation. Moxa generates heat, inflamation is heat so how does moxa help in the above case?

Second question is that you also used metal points which as you said oxygenates. Oxygen increases fire so in your case did you use reducing on the metal points?

Thank you!

Blade~

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comment by "allab"
on Dec 2010


Do you know anyone in los angeles who can do accupuncture for psoriatic arthritis? I tried some accpuncture treatments, but they did not help. Thanks you.

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