Tui Na and Anxiety treatments

 

Why does disease and illness affect people in different ways even they seem to be living their lives in exactly the same way. We know that diet, environment, exercise and our genes have an important influence on our health and longevity. Now we are also realising that the way we think, and thusly how we react have a huge impact on our physical health. This is something that has been spoken and written about for millennia in Taoist and other ancient forms of medicine throughout the world. Negative stress and anxiety are two common commonalities in our all-round health.

Stress is normal in the natural world and is a characteristic of the “fight or flight” predisposition within all of us and was and is necessary for our survival. It only becomes an unhealthy problem when that stress continues far too long. We weren’t designed for the long stresses we have created, especially in the last hundred years with debt, work, wars, over-population, expectations either from the society, family or belief systems that you belong to etc. Humans need down time, socialising, feeling safe and enjoying the things that we work so hard to achieve.

Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford University neuroscientist author of several books including “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” stated: “Just a century or so back, the primary threats to human life were pneumonia, tuberculosis, childbirth, the flu and the like. Nowadays, relatively few people die from the flu; instead most humans die of ailments that are relatively new to our species, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. These are all diseases that are either caused by or being worsened by stress. Homeostasis, is a state in which an organism or group is in balance, meaning for example, that there is an ideal level of glucose in the blood stream and the body’s temperature is favourable. A stressor is anything in the outside world that knocks an animal out of homeostatic balance”.

He continued to say, “You’re a zebra, a lion has leapt out, ripped your stomach open and you still need to get out of there, this counts as being out of homeostatic balance. The stress response is what your body does to re-establish homeostasis. That’s all you need to know about the subject if you’re a zebra. In the case of humans, however, the definition is expanded. Humans can anticipate that something unfavourable is about to happen to them and can have a stress response prior to the event, which could help them cope. On the other hand, if a person believes they are about to be knocked out of homeostatic balance, but they are really not and this belief continues, then they are dealing with chronic stress”.

Because everyone will experience some form of anxiety at different stages of their life, it is hard to gauge when we have had too much. For that reason, the circumstances that create our anxiety aren’t all that apparent and develop slowly over time, the symptoms also are not that noticeable. We are designed for normal anxiety which has a limited time such as an interview for work. We aren’t designed for frequent and persistent situations such as mortgages, bills, family and social issues, work and long-term illness etc, but these impact on day to day functioning and our quality of life.

Symptoms of Anxiety

There are many symptoms which depend on the specific situation, these are some common ones:
• Physical: panic attacks, gut tension, hot and cold flushes, racing heart, tightening of the chest, quick breathing, restlessness, headaches or feeling tense, wound up and edgy
• Psychological: excessive fear, worry, catastrophising, or obsessive thinking
• Behavioural: avoidance of situations that make you feel anxious which can impact on study, work or social life

Chinese Medicine’s power comes from its intrinsic holistic approach to illness of all types and the use of the 5-elemental model.
Is the individual’s anxiety good or bad, what is the cause of your anxiety, and does it come from their emotions, constitution or disposition? An individual’s constitution is their natural disposition, those things that we are prone to. This is the way we were born and our nature, with some people being affected by certain emotions quicker than others but being aware of these traits can help us stop it before it becomes a health issue. Our moods can be affected by the environment such as Cold, Damp and Heat etc, but also by reasons that are apparent to us such as work we find we hate and stressful relationships. Repressing one’s nature can lead us to having problems, where as understanding our nature can help us deal with things that press our buttons in a much healthier way.

Tui Na works like acupuncture by working on the channels and pressure points using soothing movements, stagnation and Qi deficiencies can be moved. Abdominal Tui Na can help with stuck emotions held in the viscera by aiding digestion and bowel movements and eventually the mind.

Treating Headaches using Tui Na

This a quite a large subject with headache symptoms which may include throbbing, pressure and tightness to scalp or face, constant pain from dull to sharp, making the head one of the most common sites for pain in people.
In Western Medicine there are two categories of headaches:

 

1. Primary which include migraine, tension and cluster which can resolve quickly while others are debilitating and can linger. Trigeminal neuralgia and other cranial nerve inflammation and daily persistent headaches fit here. These are not life threatening but some can show symptoms that imitate that of strokes.
2. Secondary include infectious issues or underlying structural problems, which takes in a wide range of medical conditions. These conditions can range from sinus infection, dental issues to bleeding in the brain and infections such as meningitis or encephalitis.  Headaches from traumatic injury, including post-concussion, substance abuse or medication excess along with the “hangover” from dehydration effects also fit in the category.

Treatments

Treatments depend on the diagnosis and symptoms and range from, pain killers or analgesics such as aspirin and paracetamol, codeine, mersyndol, fiorinal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen for acute headaches.
Other therapies to consider are Acupuncture, Alexander technique, Aromatherapy, Ayurvedic medicine, Biofeedback, Chiropractic Therapy, Hydrotherapy, Massage, Meditation, Naturopathy, Osteopathy, Physiotherapy, Relaxation Techniques, Tuina, Shiatsu and Yoga.

In Chinese Medicine the essence of visceral Blood and Qi flow together in the head. It is also the Yang energies meet and where Clear Yang is supposed to climb to and then descend and disperse throughout the body. Exogenous Pathogenic Factors and Internal Damage affect this flow, along with the following conditions effect the body where headaches are one or most of the symptoms as an outcome of those conditions. These are Wind Heat, Wind Cold, Summer Damp, Liver Yang Rising, Phlegm Turbidity, Blood Deficiency, Kidney Deficiency and Blood Stagnation.

Areas of the head that are affected are:

• Large Intestine (Taiyang) headache: neck, nape and occiput.
• Stomach (Yangming) headache: across the forehead and supraorbital ridge
• Gall Bladder (ShaoYang) headache: sides of the head
• Liver (JueYin) headache: vertex or top of the head, and may can include the eyes and nausea or vomiting.

Tuina is an excellent and effective treatment for addressing these problems.

Gastrointestinal Disorders

Throughout the centuries physicians have noted that the gastrointestinal disorders have been distressed by a wide range of diseases and conditions. The symptoms that are produced are quite varied such as pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, poor digestion and/or any combination. Medical care needs to be sort when these symptoms become severe and/or when daily life is impacted upon when they are caused by an illness. Originally physicians search for infection, inflammation and other physical issues to explain the symptoms to diagnose and to offer treatment. If these physical causes are not found, then the diagnosis with suffering from “functional” symptomology (FGID) and treated from the symptoms alone. This thinking led physicians to believe that the symptoms weren’t legitimate if the “organic” disease was discounted. Gastrointestinal disorders in this group are conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diverticular diseases, haemorrhoids, perianal infections, colitis, anal fissures, perianal abscesses, anal fistulas, colon polyps and cancer. With a healthy lifestyle, along with practicing good bowel habits and having bowel screening for many of these can be prevented or minimised by.

Changes in recent years in modern medicine has shifted away from reductionistic and disease-based models. With the growth in the gut-brain interaction, mainly in modern times from the work of researchers like Dr Michael D. Gershon M.D., in his book The Second Brain, the shift has been greater. This has allowed an integrated biological, social and psychological model and also away from the one biological cause to a more multilayered physiological issues such as changes in motility, gut-brain imbalance due to stress or perceived stress and heightened visceral sensitivity and gut bacterial changes.

Early physicians and shamans had this modal in the connection between the physical, mental and spiritual connection to the individual, which seems to be more apparent since we moved towards the Cartesian model that the mind and body are distinct and separate and the reductionist model.

Tuina and Qi Nei Tsang techniques are used a great deal in treating gastrointestinal disorders, as the abdominal area is source of our Qi and Blood. This a sample of how Chinese Medicine looks at the effect of emotions on the organs and their health, but other traditional medicines also looked at this connection, such as Ayurveda.

All these emotional states over time will affect the gastrointestinal health and this is an inkling about how the emotions can affect these organs.

Liver Health: Anger, frustration resentment and rage

In Chinese medicine, the organ most affected by excess stress and/or emotions is the Liver. People have to feel the stress or emotion, and find an expression for it, but the worst thing you can do is hold on to it.  When you are irritable often and if things easily stress you out, then your Liver function is becoming out of balance. Symptoms vary from dizziness, blurred vision, headaches mainly on the top of the head to rib pain and high blood-pressure.

Heart Health: Unhappiness, absence of love,

Cardiovascular health is not just about physical fitness, but also how we discover an intrinsic serenity about our lives and where we are going and where we fit.  The Heart is regularly associated with love and happiness and represents a state of tranquillity. When we become stressed or when there is an absence of self-expression, this can directly have an impact on this organ’s function. This is what happens with Broken Heart Syndrome (takotsubo cardiomyopathy), a temporary heart condition that’s often brought on by stressful situations.

Stomach Health: Chronic stress, worry, and anxiety

With long term stress the Stomach function becomes damaged very quickly. When the appropriate Stomach function and that of its partner organ the Spleen (includes the pancreas), it is easy to start suffering from poor digestive health and low metabolic function. Symptoms can include fatigue, poor appetite, bloating, weight loss or gain, memory problems, pastiness, poor condition of the hair, nails and skin. It’s important to eat properly and frequently nourish the body properly to reduce worry.

Lung Health: Grief and sadness

These emotions can damage the Lung along with its partner the Large Intestine, as they deplete the body of energy and weaken the nervous system over time. Failing to “Let things go” is an unhealthy way to go through life so by letting go we can invigorate the Lung’s function and clear ourselves of physical and emotional baggage. Symptoms connected with lung issues are unnecessary crying, circulation problems, chest tightness, shortness of breath, asthma, recurrent colds and chest infections, psoriasis and eczema (In Chinese medicine the skin pores are under the lungs control).

Kidney and Adrenal Health: Fear

Kidneys control the adrenal system and are the “back-up” generator for energy in the body according to Chinese Medicine, providing additional Qi to all the organs when required. The emotion that effects this organ the most is fear, and if they are low in energy then you feel exhausted and heavy and healthy digestion starts to deteriorate. Symptoms can be hearing loss, general malaise to exhaustion, headaches, loss of appetite, brain and nervous system issues, numbness in hands and feet, sleep issues, low libido and menstruation problems.