Moxabustion

Moxabustion is the burning of moxa (an herb also known as mugwort or artemisia vulgaris) for therapeutic purposes.

The oldest and most basic type of moxabustion is burning the mugwort over injury sites, to relieve pain and speed the process of healing. When I do moxa treatments, I use a stick of compressed moxa, holding it near (but not on) the skin, so that the skin is stimulated by it but not burned.

This works partly because of the heat that is produced, partly because of the substances that are released as the plant burns, and partly because the process causes the body to produce substances that let the system known that a given area needs healing. This method of healing goes back to a very early date in human history, and is common to the greeks and romans, the Chineses, and the Native american tribes of N. america. It has been rigorously scientifically studied in the last five decades, and has been shown to be quite effective. In my own practice, I have seen cases in which torn cartilage repaired itself, and bones healed much faster than could normally be expected (or healed after many years of staying broken in a couple instances) with the help of moxa.

In addition to being used for injuries, traditional Chinese medicine (and some other systems of traditional medicine) has developed a system of points and "meridians" on the surface of the body for acting on any organ in the body, with the use of moxa. These are similar to (in most cases, identical to) the points used for acupuncture. In china, there are moxa practitioners who use this form of treatment for just about everything. In my own practice, I have found it to be especially useful for endocrine and metabolic conditions, those involving digestion and the hormones. Sometimes it also works well for insomnia.

I first encountered moxabustion while studying traditional medicine in central asia. A few years later, I was talking to an elder of the Blackfeet nation, in western Montana. He described to me the exact same process I had seen used in western China for treating an injury with moxa. When I asked him about other uses, he gave an example its use in promoting fertility in a woman-- using the same points that would have been used by the asian practitioners. So either the process has been developed independently in two places, a world away from each other; or it was developed before the two groups of people went their separate ways, many thousands of years ago, and passed down through time relatively unchanged. Either way, it's a good sign that this form of therapy has been extremely valuable to the people who have benefitted from it.

Cupping

Cupping is a treatment, like moxabustion, that has existed all over the world for a long time. In essence, it consists of applying suction to the surface of the body, using a cup. The Original type of cupping involves heating up the air inside a cup made of some rigid material (mine are glass, but I've also seen them made of pottery or horn) and applying this to the skin. As the air inside cools down, it draws up the skin into the cup. If enough suction is generated, this will draw blood out of the circulatory system and into the skin, leaving a scarlet suction mark (sometimes called a "hickey" from the Irish gaelic phrase "Marc na hIocai" or mark of the physician). Hippocrates was familiar with cupping, as was the Persian writer Avicenna. Traditional Chinese Medicine makes extensive use of cupping, and in western europe it has been used at least since the times of the ancient druids. So it's fairly well tested at this point.

The uses of cupping are numerous. Many of them are for acute conditions-- fevers, poisoning, difficulty breathing, and so forth. Cupping can also be used to produce differences in someone's constitution, and has been traditionally used for a number of what we would now call psychiatric complaints.

The most dramatic use to which I have personally seen cupping put, was in resuscitating someone who had collapsed and apparently expired from alcohol poisoning. He was a construction worker in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, and had been on a drinking binge for a couple weeks. He collapsed, and a bystander (after taking his pulse and not finding it) attempted to perform soviet-style CPR on him, which did not work. His girlfriend, a member of the domestic staff of the building, applied cups to his back, and said some prayers in kazakh. He started breathing again, and opened his eyes about half an hour later.

I've never had the opportunity to use cups in this type of scenario myself (and it's probably not what I would try), but I do have a lot of respect for it as a form of treatment, when properly applied. Mostly, I use it to help people manage severe flare-ups in certain types of inflammatory conditions like crohn's disease or rheumatoid arthritis (its effects often being more long lasting and complete than just taking antiinflamatory substances). I've also used it to break fevers and clear the airways, mostly after other treatments (that don't leave a mark) have been tried and found wanting.

Authors differ on exactly why cupping works the way it does. Some have said that it reduces excess blood, energy, or heat from the body. Others have said that it draws out evil spirits (djinn) or poisons from the body (and special cupping kits for snake bite are still popularly sold). For all I know it may do any or all of those things, but I believe that it also causes some change in the chemistry of the body, resulting in an increased production of adrenaline, cortisones (which are natural antiinflammatories) and strengthening of the factors in the blood which prevent bleeding. Those three things will have some impact on almost any condition short of (and apparently sometimes including) death. Cupping on specific parts of the body can also have an effect on specific organs, which gives it many more uses.

Gua Sha

Monday, May 19, 2008


Gua sha

Gua sha is the chinese name for a treatment otherwise known as dermabrasion, scraping, or strigilation. Gua Sha is the name it's most commonly called by in the complemetary medicine sphere these days, so it's what I'll call it for this blog. What it consists of is scraping the skin with some sort of instrument, for the purpose of increasing circulation and nerve sensitivity in the area. Where moxa is heating, and cupping removes heat, gua sha is neutral.

Usuallly, oil of some sort is applied to the area to be treated. This will generally be some sort of medicated liniment, infused with medicinal herbs, that will work on the problem that needs to be addressed. Then the area is rubbed back and forth with the gua sha implement. This can be almost anything that is smooth, rigid, and will scrape the skin without cutting it. Special gua sha implements are sometimes made of metal or horn. Old coins are traditionally used in folk medicine as gua sha implements, but circulated coins would be too dirty by modern standards. I use a jade spoon, which is also traditional.

After a few minutes of being rubbed this way, an area will turn a bright red color. There should not be any sort of bruise like there is with cupping, and the procedure should be just about painless.

This treatment is useful when someone has a part of their body that they can't feel very well, such as numb hands or feet. It can also be useful in cases of chronic pain, by "distracting" the nervous system from the area that is truly painful, and making it feel the gua sha instead. This is especially useful in back or joint pain, Chronic muscle pain (such as the sort associated with fibromyalgia), and nerve pain (like the kind people get after they've had shingles).