On the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease by Traditional Chinese Medicine
Parkinson's disease (PD), also known as Parkinson's disease or Parkinson's paralysis, is a chronic central nervous system degenerative disease that mostly occurs in middle-aged and elderly people. The main part of the lesion is the neural nuclei in the deep part of the brain, where the substantia nigra and striatum nerve cells degenerate, the production of dopamine (DA) decreases, and the effect of acetylcholine is relatively hyperactive, resulting in many clinical symptoms. The main clinical features are progressive bradykinesia, muscle rigidity and tremor.
Commonly used clinical drugs in western medicine mainly include: levodopa (Levodopa); dopamine receptor agonist (Dopamine agonist); monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAO-B Inhibitor); (COMT Inhibitor); anticholinergics (anticholinergics); antiglutamate agents, etc. Unfortunately, none of these drugs can prevent the progression of the disease. On the contrary, the side effects are obvious and unavoidable.
It should also be noted that the side effects and positive effects of western medicine may change the original syndrome. Sometimes it is easy for practitioners to confuse whether the symptoms complained by patients are the side effects of western medicine or the symptoms caused by the disease itself. Western medicine treatment is mainly to control its symptoms. According to reports, the commonly used surgery (very expensive surgery) and dopamine replacement therapy have serious damage and side effects, and the curative effect is difficult to meet the satisfaction of patients.
The author once had a case where a patient with Parkinson's disease was treated with traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, but after several twists and turns. The following is a simple sharing.
Mr. C is a British citizen. Although his son and his wife have been working hard to "create a human being" after they got married, they also tried IVF, but the results were all disappointing. Afterwards, I consulted the author, and after a few weeks of acupuncture and Chinese medicine treatment, the condition has improved greatly, so his son brought Mr. C, who had two Tongbozai (bypass surgery) records, to the author's clinic.
Mr. C met the author for the first time under the condition of being "forced" by his son. According to his pulse, his hands are stringed, his tongue is too large, his tongue is purple in color and has a coating, so he is advised to pay extra attention to brain diseases. It is a pity that Mr. C refused to believe in Chinese medicine, which was completely unfamiliar to him.
A month later, Mr. C's right hand began to tremble uncontrollably, and he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease by a neurologist of Western medicine. Although his son kept lobbying him for acupuncture treatment, unfortunately, he always refused. Based on the author's experience, it is not easy to persuade Chinese people to practice TCM clinically, and it is even more difficult to persuade Westerners who believe that TCM has no scientific evidence.
Later, when his daughter-in-law was in her 21st week of pregnancy, the disease had worn down the formerly very arrogant president of a large group to depression. The son saw western medicine and continued to increase the dosage of the medicine, but the father's symptoms did not alleviate but worsened. Seriously, right hand shaking, difficulty in writing, blurred speech and drooling, constipation, insomnia, inability to concentrate and depression, and self-reported that he fell due to insomnia for a few nights, resulting in a broken head and bleeding. Finally, one week before the Spring Festival in Yiwei Year, under the deliberate arrangement of my son, I finally led Mr. C to the author's clinic in London again.
After the first acupuncture and moxibustion, Mr. C went uncharacteristically and immediately asked how to treat him. It turned out that after acupuncture, the patient felt that the vibration of hands and lips was significantly reduced, and his speech was clearer than before acupuncture. Although the patient lives in Brighton, a seaside city 100 kilometers away from London, he can go to the clinic for acupuncture three to four times a week according to the author's request. Before the sixth acupuncture session, the patient happily told the author that he felt All the symptoms disappeared. For the first time in the past two days, he was able to concentrate on his work as before the onset of the disease. He also said that acupuncture is magic.
The location of Parkinson's disease is in the brain. If you use Wushu acupoints flexibly and select more acupoints circling the neck during acupuncture, the deep layers of the acupoints in the neck are important tissues such as the pons, sympathetic ganglion, and reticular tissue. Through the extensive stimulation of this specific part, it has been clinically proven that it can play a benign regulatory role in many functions of patients with Parkinson's disease, and is beneficial to the recovery of brain tissue damage such as bilateral cortex and medulla, and can adjust the superior cervical sympathetic ganglion , Improve swallowing, speech, memory, sleep and other functions.
In addition, the report also shows that sleep disorders and depression in Parkinson's disease are all related to the low function of 5-HT in the brain. The activity is significantly increased, and the 5-HT in the substantia nigra and hypothalamus is increased, which is beneficial to the treatment of sleep disorders and depression in patients with Parkinson's disease. Clinically, if patients can persist in acupuncture and moxibustion treatment, it can effectively improve exercise, daily activities, emotion, sense of shame, cognition, social interaction, and physical discomfort.
The etiology and pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease are mainly summarized as "deficiency", "wind", "stasis" and "phlegm". Juan phlegm Sanjie and so on. Among them, the commonly used representative prescriptions for nourishing the liver and kidney, calming the liver and calming the wind are Tianma Gouteng Decoction, as well as Dadingfengzhu, Dabuyin Pills, Liuwei Dihuang Decoction, Yiguanjian, etc.; Bazhen Decoction, Shiquan Dabu Decoction, etc.; the representative prescription for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis is Taohong Siwu Decoction; the representative prescription for resolving phlegm and resolving stagnation is Ditan Decoction; Huanglian Wendan Decoction, Yigan Pills, Lingjiao Gouteng Decoction, etc.; Chaihu Shugan Powder is often used for liver qi stagnation; Guipi Decoction is often used for heart and spleen deficiency;
The literature pointed out that the combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine in the treatment of Parkinson's disease is significantly better than taking western medicine alone in improving clinical symptoms, reducing the dosage of western medicine, and reducing side effects, and the total effective rate is more than 80%. The results of many studies on animals have shown that various traditional Chinese medicines have a good therapeutic effect on the repair of DA neurons and the increase of DA release. The researchers believe that traditional Chinese medicine may play the following roles: (1) increase the synthesis of DA, increase the DA content released from the presynaptic membrane into the synaptic cleft, increase the concentration level of DA, and increase the amount of D2 through feedback regulation; (2) directly Acting on D2, D2 has enhanced affinity; (3) While increasing the amount of D2, it can reasonably regulate the content of DA in the synaptic cleft; (4) Increase rat tyrosine hydroxylase and its Expression of messenger ribonucleic acid inhibits apoptosis of dopamine neurons.
Text: Lu Zekang, doctor of traditional Chinese medicine
This article was published in "Macau Daily"