Qi Spot

Okay, I meant that as a joke.  What isn’t a joke is that so many people have sleep problems and are reliant on western drugs that sometimes counting sheep is the only apparent alternative option.  Just today, after our weekly conference at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine Dept. of Family and Community Medicine, a colleague asked me to treat her with acupuncture for her jet lag.

How fitting, it seems, that I then stumble on this news article a few hours later:

Traditional Chinese Medicine Effectively Treats Insomnia <http://www.naturalnews.com/027348_medicine_insomnia_Chinese.html>

Melissa Sokulski starts:

Acupuncture, which actually treats the person, not the disease, helps to balance the body’s energy, strengthening weak areas and moving energy where it’s stuck…

Insomnia can have many causes; figuring out the cause is an important part of diagnosis and treatment. For instance, pain can cause insomnia because the person is not able to get into a comfortable position for sleeping and the pain wakes them up. In that case acupuncturists treat the pain.

Okay, “balancing body energy” isn’t exactly accurate, but it’s not that far off either.  What she did hit right on the point (pun intended) was the importance of treating the CAUSE and not just the symptom.  Of course, for western medicine, cause means “what biological agent is missing or excessive” whereas for us cause means “what’s causing the imbalance” whether internal or external…

Is Counting Sheep the Gold Standard for Insomnia?

The rest of the article is so good I’ll just reprint it here, but it ends with some points and formulas that can be used and I discourage people from taking these over the counter – it is still best to be evaluated by a professional:

Eating late at night is a common cause of insomnia. When people stop eating after 7 pm, sleep often comes much more easily and is more peaceful. According to the Chinese Clock, digestion is the strongest in the morning, between 7 am and 9 am for the Stomach, and 9 am to 11 am for the Spleen/Pancreas. Twelve hours later (7 pm to 11 pm) digestion is the weakest, and eating at this time will cause gas, bloating and indigestion, making it difficult for one to fall asleep easily. Other causes of insomnia according to Traditional Chinese Medicine are yin deficiency, an imbalance of yin and yang, heart imbalance, spleen deficiency and stagnant liver qi.

In my practice, Spleen Deficiency is the most common cause of insomnia.  It leads to decreased production of Blood and thus, the Mind has no place to rest.  Thus, sleep is inefficient.  EVERYONE these days seemingly has some form of liver qi stagnation.  I believe it affects sleep by affecting Blood as well.  (In TCM, the Liver stores Blood.)

Acupuncturists take a detailed history, which includes questioning, pulse analysis and tongue diagnosis, to give a complete picture of the patient as a whole. Even if it is determined that two different patients have insomnia as a result of yin deficiency, their treatments may still be different, depending on each person’s constitution (strength and type of overall body and health) and other factors.

This is what makes acupuncture so individualized and effective: there is no one prescription for a condition. Each time a patient comes in, they are re-evaluated, and each treatment is specifically selected. This is also why it is so common to see all sorts of symptoms clear up – not just the one someone has come in to treat. Rarely do acupuncturists just work on one symptom alone; in every treatment, the whole person is being addressed and treated.

Again, an emphasis is put on customized treatment for an individual person.  Sure, by picking points and formulas symptomatically, you can treat symptoms.  But that is not the same as effecting a long term solution.  It does sound weird, though when I question an insomniac lady about her menses and poo-poo in great detail…