A Tui Na Case of Lower Back Pain

By Dr. David Song

Male, 40+
In the spring of year 2000
He had acute lower back pain for 2 weeks.
The pain came to the lower back in a sudden when he put his coat on in the morning 2 weeks ago. He tried physiotherapy, but no effect. The pain is always there on a fixed spot, and getting worse whenever he moves his back. He had no injury on the back, and no shooting pain down to the legs.
He is used to be quite healthy, and doing office work. He is afraid of needles.
Examinations:
Spine (-); Motions: left 0° right 0° forward 10° backward 10°
SLR (-); Pressing pain (+++) on right side of L4~5, pressing pain (+) on both sides of TianZhu (BL10), WieZhong (BL40); Stiff muscles on both side of lumbar spine.
Diagnosis:
Lower back pain (acute myofibrositis)

In TCM view, this pain was caused by cold. Although the patient didn't catch cold at all, but the early spring temperature drop could cause the tight muscles on the lower back and some small motion triggered muscle spasm, usually this type spasm should disappear in half to one day, but did not happen on him.
According to the above understanding, I gave him Tui Na massage (The patient refused to use needle). After 4 sessions, the pain was gone and he could move freely again. He had 6 sessions in total.

What is Tui Na Massage

What is Tui Na 推拿?

Tui Na, or say Chinese massage, is one of the therapeutic methods of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), also named as An Mo ( 按摩). This kind of therapy uses hands and other parts of our body to stimulate the meridians system (also known as energy channels), acupoints, and soft tissues (such as muscles, tendons...) to treat some diseases with special hand techniques.

Normally Chinese people are used to have Tui Na for relieving the chronic pain of the muscles and joints, some chronic internal medical diseases and for relaxing . This method has been used for thousands years in China and the effects are also approved by the modern research.

This Tui Na massage is not as same as the massage therapy or chiropractic which is widely accepted by the western people. First, the foundation theories are quite different. Comparing with them, a Tui Na practitioner is usually more concerning on the patient's whole body condition in a TCM view; Second, Although sometimes a Tui Na practitioner also adjust the patient's spine and other joints, but it is not the key part of the treatment and not always necessary. Third, quite often a western guest comes to my clinic for a deep tissue massage, because Tui Na is usually harder and deeper than a massage therapy. Of cause, it's not painful at all.

A lower back & leg pain case

By Dr. David Song

Mr. C, 63-year-old

1^st visit @ 2008-04-28

He had visited me in March for the lower back pain. At that time, he could not sit for a little longer. A CT-Scan showed the disc problem on L5~S1. After 2 times of acupuncture treatments, the pain was completely gone. One week ago, after played table tennis, he got the pain on lower back and right hamstring. A chiropractor said it was pinched nerve. He could not sit down, even disturbed his sleep.

I found there was pressing pain on the lower back and tightness and pain on the right hamstring.

After two session of acupuncture and Tui Na massage, ha could walk, run, and standing without any pain, but there was always burning feeling on the hamstring whenever sit or lied on the side

After another 4 sessions with moxibustion added , his was completely gone.

In this case, although there was disc problem reported in the CT-Scan, but the pain on the hamstring was not related to the disc. Actually the pain was in the muscles only. It is always important to know where exactly the pain is at first, then we need to find out the right way to work on it.

癌症病人怎样服用中药

得了癌症应当合理服用中药。在笔者的临症实践中，曾有病人提出这样的问题：“听朋友说，人参能增强体质抗肿瘤，得病以后我一直服用人参，但情况并没有变化，反而有时更不舒服，这是为什么呢？”又有病人问：“听说癌就是瘀血块，化了瘀血就能好，我能不能吃丹参呢？”

人参，味甘、微苦，性温；功效大补元气，补脾益肺。在中药学中，人参属于补虚扶正药中的补气药。如病人确有气虚证候，即语声低微，短气懒言，呼吸困难，纳呆食少，面色恍白，疲倦无力，畏寒肢冷等，可以考虑使用。但因人参比较温燥，所以如果病人舌质淡且水滑，舌苔薄白，脉沉缓弱，则更加相宜。同时应注意服用人参时，不能吃萝卜及饮茶，否则会降低疗效。但是，如果病人不是气虚证候，而是阴虚火旺，津液亏耗之证，则人参就不宜使用了。此证病人的临床表现是：心烦失眠，时有烘热之感，睡觉时出虚汗，口臭，牙龈出血，双目干涩，口干口苦，舌红少苔，脉细数。温燥的人参会使病人更加烦热，以上症状更加严重。同时，根据笔者的临症经验，热毒是癌症的主要病因之一，癌症病人热象多于寒象。癌症病人的虚弱常常是气阴两虚，所以宜益气与滋阴并用。尤其是肝癌病人，最怕热性药，一般不用人参之类的温燥之品，沙参、麦冬等滋阴药是比较好的选择，食疗可用甲鱼炖服。另外，放化疗、尤其是放疗会令病人产生更多热毒，治疗期间要慎用温燥性的补药。同时，在使用补虚药时，要注意扶正与祛邪的关系。当病人有厚腻舌苔时，不宜进补，应辩明有何种邪气，邪气清除以后再行进补。

由此可见，补虚扶正药在癌症治疗中不应盲目滥用，否则反致人体阴阳失衡，病情加重，只有辩证论治才能收到良好效果。

得了癌症要不要吃中药

不幸得了癌症的病人常常有这样一个问题：“得了这个病，要不要吃中药？”对于这个问题的回答，说法不一。有鉴于此，中国及欧美许多国家都在进行科学研究。

研究结果林林总总，但基本结论是一致的 ---- 中药治疗是癌症治疗的有效手段。合理服用中药，可以有效减轻各种不适症状，如疼痛、食欲降低、恶心、呕吐、口干、失眠、疲乏及精神忧郁等；可以显著延长生存期，服用中药和不服用中药的两组病人比较，服用中药组病人之5年，10年，15年生存率都显著高于不服用中药组的病人；可以明显提高生存质量，接受中医治疗的病人和不接受中医治疗，仅使用放化疗手术治疗的病人大相径庭。在笔者曾工作过的中国中医肿瘤治疗中心，病人们行走自如，生活自理，精神愉快，饮食睡眠样样不差，外人很难看出他们是肿瘤病人。另外，合理服用中药可以明显改善放化疗毒副作用。众所周知，放化疗均有严重毒副作用。最常见的是消化道反应，病人出现恶心、呕吐、厌食、腹泻等现象。中医讲，脾胃为气血生化之源。脾胃大伤，不能正常进食，势必造成气血虚弱，免疫功能下降。“邪之所凑，其气必虚”，癌毒之邪很容易再次侵犯人体。西医讲，免疫功能下降使人体对肿瘤细胞的产生失去监视能力，易致肿瘤复发与转移。合理服用中药可以调节脾胃功能，增强免疫能力，大大降低肿瘤的复发率及转移率。其次，放化疗会造成严重的骨髓抑制，致全血细胞，尤其是白细胞水平显著下降。病人出现贫血、乏力、脱发、失眠、免疫力下降、易感染、易感冒等现象。笔者参与研究的“癌症生血汤”，可以明显、持久、稳定地增加血细胞，尤其是白细胞水平，增强免疫力，有效降低骨髓抑制。

综上所述，中药是癌症治疗的有效手段。那么，究竟应当如何服用中药才能达到治疗的最佳效果呢？是不是得了癌症就要大量进补呢？吃中药应当注意哪些问题呢？下一次我们会对这些问题详细讨论。