Ryan's Acupuncture and TCM Site

With the oncoming season of allergies and the accompanying symptoms, I am seeing more patients in the clinic who want to address this. I’d like to breakdown the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) approach to diagnosing and treating this very common condition.

As most of us know, either from personal experience, friends or family who deal with this, or from seeing the blitz of commercials advertising allergy medication at this time of year, the common symptoms range from sneezing, dry or sore throat, itchy watery eyes, and a runny or congested nose. Firstly, I’d like to clarify how we view the onset of these symptoms in TCM.

In TCM we can break almost any condition down into the categories of Yin and Yang. However, these are not specific enough to understand something like this. So, we break each category down further. Seasonal allergies often have an acute onset at the start of the allergy season. This is our first clue. Acute will belong to the category of Yang (Yang being the more external, hot, moving, protecting, warming, dynamic energy of the body). We can also see that the upper part of the body, mainly the head, is mostly affected by the allergens. Lastly, we know that the allergens are an external influence affecting the body. This external, acute “invasion” of the upper body (upper, especially the head, belonging to the yang part of the body) are all signs that point to a “yang” type of syndrome. The reason that I say “invasion” is that we can describe signs and symptoms in terms of the six ‘pathogenic influences’ or from the literal Chinese translation, Xie Qi – 邪气- evil qi (qi being translated as energy).

The main Xie Qi in seasonal allergies are wind, and either heat or cold. The pathogen of ‘wind’ has the characteristics of coming on quickly and leaving quickly, moving around the body, and often ‘enters’ through the head. This is often combined with heat, which will lead to symptoms like fever, inflammation in the sinuses, or throat, and red itchy eyes. If the Wind is combined with a cold pathogen, then we would see symptoms of a runny nose with clear discharge, an aversion to wind or cold, and more sneezing. Both the cold and the heat can cause headaches, but they will present differently.

Of course, we must consider why some people have allergies and others don’t. Yin and Yang must be in balance. If they are not, then we can see presentations like a weakened immune system. If the immune system is weak, then allergens have a better chance of affecting someone. So, this would be the second part of our focus of treatment. This would be more of a Yin syndrome as it is chronic. This could be due to many factors such as poor lifestyle habits like smoking or a poor diet, lack of sleep, use of too many pharmaceutical medicines, or hereditary factors.

So, now our treatment plan takes shape; to clear the wind and heat or cold from the yang external meridians (energetic pathways running throughout the body) which are causing the symptoms, and also to boost the immune system to guard against these influences. But, how can we do that?

With acupuncture, we will target the meridians which affect the nose, sinuses, and head in general. We will also choose some systemic points on the body to strengthen the overall immune system. So, we can choose points on the yang/ external meridians that are affecting the head and face, and also points on the yin/ internal meridians that are affecting the immune system.
We can see from this image that this Yang meridian （Yang Ming- Bright Yang-阳明）has a connection to the nasal area. We can choose 2 or 3 points on this meridian to help with headaches, and relieve inflammation causing sore throat, and nasal congestion (no points on
the neck/ throat area would be used for this purpose).

The Large Intestine Meridian – 手阳明大肠经脉

We can also see from this other image (below left) that this meridian (Tai Yang – Great yang- 太阳) starts at the upper sinus area, runs over the head, and down the back. We can also choose some local and distal points from this meridian to help clear the head, and nose. This is considered to be the most external meridian in the body and thus is often the first affected by external pathogenic influence.

In addition to using acupuncture to treat the symptoms affecting the head and face area, we will also provide an herbal formula that will aid in expelling the pathogenic influences in addition to strengthening the immune system. A common treatment plan in TCM in a case like this would be: 益气固表，扶正去邪 – to benefit the energy and solidify the exterior defense, and strengthen the immunity while chasing out the pathogenic influence.

This can be combined with some simple dietary changes that may be influencing the condition, as well as some recommendations for vitamins which will supplement the immune boosting focus of the treatment plan.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions, or would like to start on a treatment plan to address any of these (or any other) health concerns.