Dr. Lott

Hello everyone! Now insomnia is seen as the inability to experience normal sleep. It’s a disorder that has several presentations including trouble falling asleep, waking up several times throughout the night with an inability to return to sleep, a restless state between sleep and wakefulness, inability to enter deep sleep or having nightmares, dream-disturbed sleep, and the inability to sleep the whole night through. Headaches, dizziness, palpitations, and forgetfulness usually accompany insomnia.

The amount and quality of sleep depend on the person’s state of mind, which is rooted in the heart and is normally nourished by heart blood and heart yin. Insomnia is induced by pathogenic factors agitating the heart, or by malnourishment of the mind.

General etiology and pathogenesis to this disorder are: emotional stress: such as anger which injures the liver in Chinese medicine causing liver qi to stagnate and liver fire to blaze and disturb the mind.

Another is a prolonged illness that can weaken a person’s constitution and exhaust kidney yin. Deficient kidney yin fails to nourish heart yin which also becomes deficient; heart yang then becomes hyperactive because heart yin is no longer able to contain it would lead to empty fire agitating the mind.

A patient can also suffer from Qi deficiency of the heart and gallbladder. A constitutional weakness of both the heart and gallbladder may shape a personality that is timid, cowardly, fearful, and indecisive. This would lead to light sleep with frequent awakenings during the night accompanied by panic, frightening dreams, and palpitations.

Overeating or excessive consumption of greasy, spicy food can turn into food stagnation and phlegm-heat in the stomach. Stomach qi rebels upwards and phlegm-heat harasses the mind.

I had a patient who experienced difficulty falling asleep, restless sleep, irritability, profuse sputum, chest stuffiness, and heaviness of the head. Her symptoms were aversion to food, nausea, vomiting, sour regurgitation, bitter taste in the mouth, and dizziness. Her tongue was yellow with a greasy coating, and her pulse was rapid and slippery. My objective was and is to resolve the phlegm, clear heat, harmonize the middle burner, and calm the spirit. Along with recommending an herbal formula, my point prescription consists of shenmen, sanyinjiao, anmian, neiguan, with an added focus on phlegm heat. I included fenglong, Danshu, and Chize. The next afternoon I’d received a call from that patient and she’d stated the previous night was the first night she’d slept 7 hours and 40 minutes in almost 9 months. I recommended she see a nutritionist, and to come back for 2 more visits to see if consistent sleep patterns can be established.

Until next time…Acupuncture Is My Life, what’s yours?

I’d like to discuss headache as one of the CDC’s 11 symptoms of the coronavirus. The classic definition of a headache is a painful sensation in any part of the head, ranging from sharp to dull that can accompany other symptoms. Headache has been determined to be one of the main symptoms of COVID-19. If you feel you’ve been infected by this virus, I recommend you contact your physician to get tested, and while under the care of your physician attempt to contact your local acupuncturist for additional care regarding your symptoms. A headache brought on by the coronavirus tends to present as really tight with somewhat of a squeezing sensation to it and it usually worsens with cough and fever. This sensation tends to occur as a result of your immune system reacting to this virus via its actions of releasing chemical cytokines in which the cerebral cortex of the brain perceives as pain. Those whose lungs have been severely impacted tend to show more complex neurological complications.

Findings from observational studies are showing that the onset of headaches can occur during the presymptomatic phase or the symptomatic phase of infection. There are known cases where headaches as a symptom of the coronavirus persisted long after all other symptoms had been resolved. As usual, I’ve been asked by some: How is a headache diagnosed and treated in Chinese medicine? In Chinese medicine, the head is the area where the yang channels of the body meet. Pain in the form of headaches tends to occur as a result of yang being obstructed or there’s a lack of qi, blood, or essence as nourishment is deficient.

Now a headache in Chinese medicine can be a result of exterior pathogenic factors or interior organ dysfunction. Headaches in Chinese medicine are usually tied to the internal wind as a result of exterior wind being the main pathogenic factor. The upper part of an individuals’ body is usually the first area to be attacked by the external wind. Wind pathogens in Chinese medicine tend to carry other pathogens with it when it invades the body. For example, wind-cold tends to coagulate qi and blood and obstruct the collaterals. And wind-heat tends to go upwards to the head to disturb the orifices. Wind-damp tends to disrupt the flow of qi, especially yang qi obstructing the ascension of yang. If the headache appears as stubborn and may linger for several months, I would include herbs that would invigorate the blood and unblock the channels within the body because headaches that tend to linger long after other symptoms have resolved tends to be a sign of deep obstruction within the collaterals whereby herbs are generally needed to assist acupuncture.

Until next time…Acupuncture Is My Life, what’s yours?

Fatigue is one of the CDC’s 11 symptoms of the coronavirus. Now many individuals have or will have experienced the coronavirus as a short-term illness. During the period of infection, the body tends to feel fatigued as your immune system is busy combatting this virus. But something interesting is being noted once this virus passes. Individuals are complaining that the symptom of fatigue persists even after having tested negative for the virus. There’s evidence that’s emerging that a significant minority is struggling with fatigue long after their encounter with this virus.

Fatigue is defined as feeling overtired, with low energy and a strong desire to sleep which would interfere with normal daily activities, whereas in this case extreme tiredness as a result of illness. Concerning the coronavirus, studies have shown that fatigue is one of the top 3 common symptoms reported among confirmed cases, this symptom is among those of cough and fever. It is important to understand that there are different types of fatigue such as physical fatigue which can be a result of strenuous activity, or mental fatigue as a result of job-related work, a good example being working without breaks, and beyond the hours in which you were hired for. And then there’s emotional fatigue which occurs as a result of too much worry, which in Chinese medicine can obstruct the functions of the spleen. So, when thinking of COVID-19, keep an eye out for accompanying symptoms such as cough, fever, tightness of the chest, body aches, etc… whereas I would then recommend you contact your physician to be tested for COVID-19.

Now when it comes to traditional Chinese medicine, clinical manifestations of fatigue can be diagnosed as either: consumptive deficiency, painful obstruction syndrome, insomnia, and headache. Fatigue can be diagnosed under 5 basic patterns in Chinese medicine which are: Exterior pathogenic invasion with existing deficiency where there would be the fatigue of course, with fever and slight aversion to cold, sore throat, headache with body ache, and swollen lymph nodes…now notice how some of these symptoms mirror that of COVID-19? The individual’s tongue would also present with a thin coating and the pulse would be soft. In a case such as this, I would look to nourish the righteous qi, disperse wind and expel exterior pathogens. Another pattern of fatigue in Chinese medicine could be as a result of spleen deficiency with liver qi stagnation. Here an individual would present with fatigue, body aches, depression, insomnia, poor memory, poor appetite, and abdominal distention. There would be a pale tongue coating and a thready pulse. In this case, I would look to calm the liver, regulate the flow of qi, and strengthen the spleen.

When it comes to treating fatigue as an acupuncturist, I would do little in the way of recommending herbal formulas. I’m noticing that some of my COVID-19 patients who’ve come to me after so-called recovering from this virus but still feeling fatigued, I would administer acupuncture alone with great success. To this point, I’ve heard from all of the patients presently under my care for post-COVID-19 fatigue and they’re noticing great improvement in their energy levels and are sleeping much better. So along with seeing your physician, I recommend you also see your local acupuncturist if you’re experiencing symptoms of fatigue after having been infected with the coronavirus.

Until next time…Acupuncture Is My Life, what’s yours?

Hello everyone, I’m Doctor Lott your host and educator from Acupuncture is my Life. I’d like to say welcome back, and today I plan to talk about the functions of the large intestine meridian when it comes to Acupuncture and Chinese medicine. As I’d stated in my previous article on the lung meridian, the large intestine is the paired meridian to the lung. The main function of the large intestine is to receive food and drink from the small intestine.

Chinese medical theory is usually brief when it comes to the functions of the large intestine meridian. This is not to say that the functions of the large intestine meridian are not important, it’s just that when it comes to the functions of the large intestine in western medicine, a lot of those functions are attributed to the spleen and liver meridians in regards to the Chinese medical theory.

The spleen controls the transformation and transportation of food and fluids throughout the digestive system, including the small and large intestine. For this reason, in disease, symptoms such as diarrhea, loose stools, blood in the stools and mucus in the stools are usually attributed to a spleen disharmony. Symptoms such as abdominal distention and/or pain and constipation are often due to a liver disharmony under Chinese medical theory. Pathologically, large intestine patterns are often sub-patterns of a wider spleen or liver meridian patterns. In Chinese medicine, the large intestine controls passage and conduction.

The large intestine receives digested food from the small intestine; it transforms it into stools and it ensures that the stools are moved along and conducted downwards. Stagnation of Qi often affects the large intestine and this causes a disruption of the downward flow of Qi, resulting in abdominal distention and possibly constipation. It can also be said that the Qi of the large intestine could sink, causing rectal prolapse or blood in the stools; this condition would always be associated with the sinking of spleen Qi. A pattern of such, I go into detail about in my discussion of the spleen meridian. The large intestine is also recognized in Chinese medical theory for its ability to transform stools and reabsorb fluids. The large intestine performs the final transformation of the digested food to form stools which are then excreted from the body. Similar to western medicine, it reabsorbs fluids to the gut, thus achieving the right balance of fluids so that the bowels are neither too dry (resulting in constipation) nor too wet (resulting in loose stools). The lungs and large intestine channels are interiorly/exteriorly related to Chinese medicine. This relationship is important for the execution of commonly bodily functions as the descending lung Qi lends the large intestine the necessary Qi for the effort of defecation.

If lung Qi is deficient, it does not give enough Qi to the large intestine for the act of defecation, resulting in constipation. This tends to be a common pattern in people with declining lung Qi…one way to combat this problem is to add cardiovascular exercise to your daily routine.

There you have the simple functions of the large intestine meridian in Chinese medicine. Until next time…

Acupuncture is my Life. What’s yours?

A symptom such as shortness of breath under many circumstances requires hospitalization. An example of when it may not, is if it’s a symptom of anxiety as a result of a mental disorder, or as a result of exercise or walking up a flight or flights of stairs, extreme temperatures, high altitudes and so on. In most cases, shortness of breath is due to heart and lung conditions because your heart and lungs are responsible for transporting oxygen throughout your body and removing carbon dioxide.

Shortness of breath is defined as an intense tightening in your chest as if you’re hungry for air, having difficulty breathing, or feeling breathless. Ways in which you can tell if you’re experiencing shortness of breath is to see how well you can breathe while talking, and another is to notice if you’re simply watching television or relaxing for that matter and you feel as if you’re not getting enough oxygen.

As for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19, shortness of breath tends to be viewed as a severe symptom which is more times than not treated in a hospital setting with supplemental oxygen. This is done to increase the amount of oxygen in a person’s blood. If you were to become worried that you’re experiencing shortness of breath as a result of contracting the coronavirus, the first thing you should do although easier said than done, is to try to calm down to attempt to determine if it’s simply as a result of anxiety. If the symptom persists, call your doctor immediately, especially if you’ve noticed you’re experiencing other coronavirus symptoms along with shortness of breath.

Now let’s discuss how shortness of breath is diagnosed and treated in Chinese medicine. Now the underlying pathogenesis of shortness of breath in Chinese medicine is a persons’ lung qi failing to descend which can be the result of 2 different causes. 1) Can follow a pattern as excess in nature, as a result of wind-cold, or stagnant phlegm, or qi stagnation or internal heat obstructing lung qi; or 2) Following a pattern of deficiency such as lung and kidney deficiency which contributes to the failure of lung qi being able to descend.

Symptoms would present with a poor appetite with nausea and vomiting. The tongue would have a thick greasy coating to it and the pulse would be slippery. In this case I would look to clear out the phlegm to restore the descending function of lung qi. Another excess pattern could be phlegm heat accumulating in the lung. In this case there would be shortness of breath, heat sensation in the chest area accompanied with chest pain. There could be coughing with lots of thick yellow sputum. These are some of the basic patterns of shortness of breath in Chinese medicine. In my next episode I will discuss fatigue as one of the CDC’s 11 symptoms of coronavirus and how it’s diagnosed and treated by an acupuncturist.

Until next time… Acupuncture Is My Life, what’s yours?

With the pandemic occurring, I have received questions regarding 2 of the CDC’s 11 symptoms of the coronavirus. These symptoms are both losses of taste and loss of smell. I’ve received an overwhelming amount of chat requests from individuals interested in finding out if acupuncture can help with these symptoms. I must say, that if you experience loss of taste or smell, please see your primary care physician immediately to discuss this matter. Now have I ever treated someone who’s lost their sense of smell or taste? Yes, I have. Most patients in which I’d treated with these symptoms were not as a result of a respiratory infection, including COVID-19.

So let’s dive into the 3 main questions I’ve been asked over the past few weeks regarding these symptoms. The first is: Is the loss of taste or smell a common symptom COVID-19? Now I’ve been hearing from some of my allopathic medicine colleagues that somewhere in the ballpark of 75 to 80 percent of those who test positive for this virus have expressed having experienced loss of taste and smell. Loss of smell and taste does not necessarily mean that you’ve become infected with this virus. Loss of smell can be associated with such conditions as a simple cold, a sinus infection, or early-stage Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases. Some studies indicate that loss of smell has been present in as low as 35 to as high as 97 percent of individuals hospitalized as a result of becoming infected with this virus, which is far greater than those infected with other respiratory infections.

Another question is: What serves as the cause of these symptoms in those who have been infected with COVID-19? Now from a Chinese medicine perspective, I have to diagnose what aspect of yin and yang have been negatively impacted as a result of this exterior pathogenic factor. How does this pathogen play into one’s constitutional deficiency, what aspect of the human organism affected serves as the root and what serves as the branch in their case because everyone’s constitution is different whereby you may have certain channels that are constitutionally stronger than mine when it comes to fighting off certain pathogens and vice versa, and determine which yin organs may need to be nourished or reduced. Which meridians may be overacting, counteracting, or insulting other meridians. In many ways, I may approach my point of diagnosis. Whenever you get a moment either go to my website to gain a better understanding of acupuncture or simply go over some of the earlier episodes to gain a better understanding of how this all works.

Now the third most popular question is: What if someone only experiences a loss of taste and smell and none of the other CDC’s 11 symptoms of coronavirus? My answer to that is you should sit with your primary care physician to determine the actual cause of those symptoms to give you a clear understanding as to how you would like to approach some sort of treatment.

Of course, I’m going to throw in the biggest question of all which is how did I approach treating patients who were presented with these symptoms. I would incorporate Chinese scalp acupuncture using sensory points on the head to support body points as well as recommended Chinese herbs. I would use 4 points on the governing vessel of the body that restores a sense of smell, and 2 points on the conception vessel to restore taste, then focus on nourishing yin and clearing heat. There are plenty of acupuncturists out there that are great at treating these symptoms, but I also hold steady in saying you should see your physician who may refer you to a specialist depending upon the severity of your symptoms.

Until next time, Acupuncture Is My Life, what’s yours?

Hi everyone! I’m Dr. Lott, your host and educator from Acupuncture is my Life. Now today I’d like to talk about an interesting case which presented at my office today. A patient presented themselves as diagnosed with Manic Depressive Psychosis.

Now for those of you who do not know what that is manic depressive psychosis is a bipolar affective disorder characterized by severe alterations in mood that are usually episodic and recurrent. This mood fluctuates between depression and mania. Now in acupuncture and chinese medicine depressive psychosis is caused by Qi stagnation complicated by phlegm misting the heart’s orifice; it is characterized by depression, apathy, incoherent speech, dementia, and subdued and non-violent behavior. In chinese medicine this disorder is called “dian kuang.”

Now there are 5 etiology and pathogenesis categories to this disorder. One can be due to the lack of equilibrium between the yin and yang, another can be due to emotional factors. Thirdly, another can be due to turbid phlegm misting the heart’s orifice. A fourth can be due to Qi stagnation and blood stasis, and lastly you have a miscellaneous (sort of grey area) that can be seen as miscellaneous and due to influences from other contributing factors, including heredity and a persons constitution should not be underestimated.

When it comes to diagnosis there is identification of depressive and manic psychosis: Now we come back to “ Dian Kuang.” Dian presents with yin predominating depressive psychosis which presents clinically with depression, apathy, incoherent speech, dementia, quiet and non-violent behavior. Kuang on the other hand, presents with yang predominating manic psychosis which manifests with mental and behavioral hyperactivity; shouting, hostility and agitation, and violent behavior might also be present.

In Acupuncture and Chinese medicine, the basic patterns are:

Depressive psychosis (which is called “Dian” in Chinese medicine) and Dian has two representative patterns. The first can be stagnant Qi combining with phlegm, and the other can be heart and spleen deficiency. The other basic pattern is called manic psychosis (which is called “Kuang” in chinese medicine) and the representative pattern of Kuang is phlegm fire disturbing the heart or excessive fire injuring the yin. The basic treatment principle for manic psychosis is to sedate the heart, resolve phlegm, clear liver fire or nourish the yin and calm the spirit. The basic treatment principle for depressive psychosis is to soothe liver qi, resolve phlegm, open the sensory orifices or nourish the heart and calm the spirit.

Now the case in which I was presented with today was Dian which is considered depressive psychosis. The basic pattern in which I had to create a treatment protocol for was stagnated Qi combining with phlegm. The symptoms presented as depression, apathetic expression, incoherent speech, subdued and non-violent behavior, suspicion, anxiety and mood swings. The patient stated that he would talk to himself a lot and had pretty much no appetite. When it comes to tongue and pulse diagnosis, his tongue presented as pale with a white and greasy coating, and his pulse was wiry and slippery. As a result of my overall diagnosis, I knew I had to regulate the Qi, release the constraint, resolve phlegm and open the orifices. So I administered a point prescription of Xinshu, Ganshu, Pishu, Shenmen, Fenglong and Daling. I found that these points calmed the patient a great deal and when he left my office he appeared to be in a really good mood with much interest in his follow up treatment!

There you have it everyone, my interesting case for the week. Until then acupuncture is my life, what’s yours?

Hello everyone, I’m Doctor Lott I’m your educator from Acupuncture is my Life. Today I’d like to discuss the functions of the heart in acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

The heart is considered the most important of all the internal organs. Sometimes it is described as the ruler, emperor, or monarch of the internal organs. The heart’s main functions are to govern blood and blood vessels and to house the mind which represents the body’s shen. Shen in this case relative to Chinese medicine can be used in two different contexts: First, in the narrow sense, shen indicates the complex of mental faculties that are said to reside in the hea.rt. In this sense, the shen corresponds to the mind and is specifically related to the heart. Secondly, in a broad sense, shen is used to indicate the whole sphere of the mental and spiritual aspects of a human being. In this sense, it is related not only to the heart but also encompasses the mental and spiritual phenomena of all the other organs, notably the yin organs.

The functions of the heart in which I plan to cover are…one, the heart governs blood, two, the heart controls the blood vessels, three, how the heart manifests in the complexion, and four, how the heart houses the mind.

Let’s begin with the heart governing blood; the heart governs blood in 2 ways:

1. The transformation of food Qi takes place in the heart.

2. The heart is responsible for the circulation of blood just the same as in western medicine.

A healthy heart is essential for a proper supply of blood to all the body tissues. When its function is impaired, the circulation of blood is slack and the hands may be cold. The relationship between heart and blood is important in another way as it determines the strength of the constitution of an individual. Although our constitution is primarily related to the essence and the kidney, it is also partly determined by the relative constitutional strength of the heart and blood. if the heart is strong with blood in ample supply, and its circulation is good, a person will be full of vigor and have a good constitution. If the heart is constitutionally weak and blood is deficient, a person will have a poor constitution and lack strength.

Now let’s talk about how the heart controls the blood vessels:

As the heart governs blood it also naturally controls the blood vessels. The state of the heart’s energy is reflected in the state of the blood vessels. Blood vessels depend on the heart’s Qi and blood. If heart qi is strong, the blood vessels will be in a good state and the pulse will be full and regular. If heart Qi is weak, the pulse may be feeble and irregular.

Now the heart also manifests in a person’s complexion.

The heart governs blood and blood vessels and distributes blood all over the body. The state of the heart and blood can, therefore, be reflected in the complexion and particularly the complexion of the face. If blood is abundant and the heart strong, the complexion will be rosy and lustrous. If blood is deficient, the complexion will be pale or dull white. In a nutshell:

A dull pale face can indicate heart blood deficiency whilst a bright white face can indicate heart yang deficiency. A purplish or dark face can indicate heart blood stasis and a red face can indicate heart heat.

It is also known in acupuncture and Chinese medicine that the heart houses the mind:

Chinese medicine holds that the heart is the residence of the mind which represents the body’s shen.

There you have it everyone, the functions of the heart in acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

Until next time, Acupuncture is my life. What’s yours?