Good Morning Readers!

This week I decided to write a little about chronic pain and physical activity: when the patient is suffering with chronic pain, should he do or  not practice physical activity?

I often receive in my office many people that say their doctor recommended physical activity suspension, because of disease “X” or disease “Y”, stating physical activity will worsen the symptoms, mainly in issues related to the musculoskeletal system.

That’s why, I decided to write and give you the Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view on this matter.

In Chinese Medicine eyes, physical activity (made in moderately way), improves blood circulation, consequently muscle nourishment and oxygenation, also strengths or maintain the Spleen strong in it’s functions, such as maintain the strength of the four members, the memory and learning capacity, improve production and circulation of blood, keeps organs on their designated position (avoiding ptosis, the falling of breast, bladder, eyelid, etc).

The benefits for physical activity are so many that, generally, there are no contraindications to it’s practice. Thus, in my office, I recommend physical activity for almost every patient, in particular, muscle stretching and strengthening.

However, in Chinese Medicine, there are many pain definitions, among them:

• That ones that improve with physical activity
• That ones that worse with physical activity (minority).

To put make it simpler:

1. Pain which improve with physical activity:

Caused by energy/blood stagnation.

Energy and Blood Stagnation can be caused by emotional stress or pathological factors accumulation, such as dampness, cold, heat, wind or dryness. Dampness and cold are the worst pathological factors for skeletal muscle issues.

In this situation, physical activity shall be done everyday, for at least 20 minutes and the patient’s pain will progressively improve, as blood and vital energy return to their usual circulation pattern.

When we do acupuncture, we also move energy, blood, and remove pathological factors. Vital fluids start nourishing muscles and articulations again, pain improves.

Points that move Qi and Blood: LI4, LV3, SP3, etc.

2. Pain which worse with physical activity:

Caused by energy or/and blood Deficiency.

Basically, a deficiency base disease makes the patient feel worse after physical activity. Once physical activity itself spends vital fluids, which are already missing, the pain shows up and the patient condition is worsened.

In this situation, it’s recommended that the patient counters the Qi and Blood deficiency, mainly with acupuncture, therapy diet, breathing exercises, and in more severe cases, with supplements (vitamins and minerals).

Points that tone Qi and Blood: CV6, CV4, SP10, SP8, SP6, LV8, CS6, ST36.

As soon as the lacking substances are recovered, the patient should once again start doing physical activity so that his/hers circulation is normalized.

In most of the cases, what we have is an Stagnation and not a proper Deficiency, for vital substances. Thus, hardly the patient should be advised to avoid physical activity. The diagnosis confirmation can be made through tongue and wrist evaluation.

If, for any reason, the patient reports a symptom or condition worsening after physical activity practice, the therapist must pay attention to the points which may help the vital substances recover progress. If not, moving the body should always be advised, always!

Hope I helped!

A big big hug!

Profa. Fernanda

Meet our Youtube Channel: youtube.com/facilitatingacupuncture

Good morning readers!

In response to several requests, today I am going to write a little about a disease that scares many people: Depression.

For Western Medicine, Depression is a chronic and recurrent psychiatric illness that produces a change in mood characterized by profound and endless sadness associated with feelings of pain, bitterness, disenchantment, hopelessness, low self-esteem and guilt, as well as disorders sleep and appetite.

For Chinese Medicine, the main organ involved in Depression is the Heart.

According to orientals, the Heart is the residence of the mind, known as “Shen”, and Depression is an imbalance of Shen. Furthermore, all feelings, whether good or bad, become the Heart.

According to the theory of the 5 Elements, each organ is affected by a feeling, namely:

Heart – Joy, Happiness

Spleen- Concern

Lung – Sadness

Kidney – Fear (survival instinct)

Liver – Anger

However, it is not the organs that produce these feelings. The Eastern theory assumes that there are “emotional matrices” that are decoded in the Heart. That is, the Heart identifies sadness and sadness affects the Lung or the Heart identifies concern and concern affects the Spleen and so on.

For this reason, Depression is a mixture of emotional matrices, erroneously decoded by the Heart, generating a mix of feelings of all kinds and most of the times, very bad for the patient.

Based on this information, the first step in treating Depression according to Traditional Chinese Medicine is to harmonize the functioning of the Heart.

For this, the points HT-7, HT-5, PC-7 and PC-6 are essential, as they calm the mind and unblock its orifices. Adding these two functions together, the points will not only keep the individual calm, but will also open up the possibility of new thoughts that will help to see the problem of depression as if they were seeing outside of it.

Depressive patients find it difficult to see the problem as it actually presents, so giving the possibility of self-assessment without being in a state of mental confusion is extremely beneficial.

In addition to Systemic Acupuncture points, maintaining auriculotherapy treatment is also of paramount importance. For this, ear points: “Heart”, “Tension” and “Anxiety” have an excellent indication.

Maintaining a good diet, with foods that make the Heart maintain good energy is also part of the treatment. For that, according to the Chinese Therapeutic Food, neutral and warm foods from the Fire element table, such as chamomile, beets and egg yolk, are indicated.

The complete table of therapeutic foods you can find here on the Blog:

https://www.facilitatingacupuncture.com/therapeutic-food-tables/

There are many types of depression, which affect other organs besides the Heart, for this reason, we will approach this same subject in other opportunities, with different approaches.

A big hug to everyone.

Profa. Fernanda Mara

Good morning Readers,

Today, in response to requests, I am going to write about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

The carpal tunnel is a channel that is on average 3 cm wide, formed by the bones of the wrist as a base and a transverse ligament as a roof. The median nerve and tendons responsible for flexing the fingers pass through this channel.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an inflammation of the median nerve resulting from its compression by narrowing the carpal tunnel. It can happen due to excessive repetitive movements with the wrist, as in activities of daily living (twisting cloths, typing, lifting weights) or by physical activities such as tennis, volleyball, among others.

In Chinese Medicine, when we have a patient with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, we assume that the injury is only in the musculoskeletal system and does not affect the internal organs at first.

Thus, it is important that the therapist knows, initially, how to work the pain and the injury with the Tendinomuscular Vessels, which are specific to this type of pathology. In the theory of Tendinomuscular Vessels, the Tsing point of the affected meridian + an ashi point (pain point that does not belong to a particular meridian) is used and ends with the “Union Point” of the affected meridian.

If you do not know the Tendinomuscular Vessels, have exclusive material in the Blog store, just click on the link (for now only in Portuguese): https://loja.facilitanteacupuntura.com.br/store/product/9

In addition to this treatment, the therapist may use local points to treat pain, such as TE-3, TE-4, TE-5, LI-4, LI-5, LU-9, PC7, HT-7, SI-3, SI-4, in addition to other points that circulate Qi and blood throughout the body, as LI-4 + LV-3 used contralaterally.

Other points for gerneral pain can be used, such as ST-36, BL-60, LI-11, among others.

An important tip is the test of the trigger points of the brachioradial musculature, which normally becomes tense in all pathologies of the wrist, including common tendonitis. If the patient reports pain in the region of this point, the therapist should disable the trigger point using a deep needle in it.

It is also necessary to know if the patient has some energetic imbalance of the organs that act on muscles and joints, that is: Liver, Kidney and Spleen. If, in addition to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, the patient has imbalances in these organs, they must be treated according to the corresponding syndrome.

In auriculotherapy the points of Analgesia, Muscle Relaxation and Wrist will give a great pain relief.

I hope I’ve helped 🙂

Let’s keep studying.

A big hug to everyone.

Profa. Fernanda Mara

Good morning readers!

The news today is that we’ve also have English subtitles in some videos on our Youtube channel! Today, I present to you a quick live on Facebook showing a point to improve pain in the lower back and hip and relieve tired legs 🙂

It’s a old vídeo but with precious informations.

Hope you like it!

Big hug!

Profa. Fernanda Mara

Good afternoon Readers!

Today we’re going to talk a little bit about the patient who suffers from shoulder pain.

Patients suffering from bursitis, tendonitis or who are undergoing recovery from surgery on the shoulder joint usually take a long time to recover 100%, so it is interesting to evaluate how we can return range of motion and reduce pain in a shorter time. possible.

For these cases, a good tip is to associate the knowledge of Acupuncture and Dry Needling. Although the Dry Needling technique is not as complex as Chinese Acupuncture, it derives from oriental knowledge and should be studied by all professionals who handle needles.

When we treat energy meridians, we are not always able to release all patient’s pain, as they may suffer from the presence of myofascial trigger points.

Myofascial trigger points are areas of the muscle that suffer from hypoxia, that is, they lack blood and oxygen, due to their pre-existing inflammation or because of an accident with direct trauma. Usually, in cases of shoulder problems, the muscles most affected by trigger points are:

• Subscapularis
• Small Round
• Latissimus Dorsi
• Supraspinatus

It is important that the therapist finds the trigger point through palpation, to know if they’re causing reflex pain signal in the patient. If so, the affected muscle must be needled deeply. After approximately 3 minutes of this type of needling, the patient will be able perform the restricted movement with greater amplitude.

An important observation is that, like traditional acupuncture points, trigger points also have a correct location, and there is no need to needle a large muscle extension.

In addition to the dry needling the therapist should place needles at points that help to restore the circulation of blood and energy in the affected joint. Good local action points are:

• LI-14
• LI-15
• SI-11
• GB-21
• LU-3

And of distal action, we can use the points GB-34 and GB-39 that will nourish the muscles and tendons in general.

It is evident that the therapist should use other tools such as moxotherapy, electrotherapy, auriculotherapy and other resources if the patient does not improve between the first 3 sessions, however, if the points indicated in this article are correctly placed, it is certain that the patient will improve already in the first session.

I hope you enjoyed it and it will be useful.

A big hug to everyone!

Profa. Fernanda Mara