Good Methods for Preventing and Treating Cirrhosis
Liver disease (hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and cirrhosis) gravely threatens health. It is now common in our country: 10% of the population carries Hepatitis B. Among them are 750,000 carrier mothers-to-be — a sobering figure. For the hepatitis patient, the most feared development is cirrhosis. How to prevent and treat cirrhosis is what the broad patient body urgently needs to solve.
The TCM name for cirrhosis is gu-zhang. Clinical presentation: abdomen distended like a drum; flanks distending and aching; appetite poor; distension worse after eating; whole-body fatigue; limb-weakness; scant urine; sluggish stool. Lab: liver function often abnormal; albumin and globulin inverted.
The etiology is complex. The common methods are soften the hard, scatter the bound; soothe the liver, regulate the qi; promote urination, relieve distension.
TCM cirrhosis treatment rests on discern the pattern, seek the cause; weigh the cause, decide treatment. The illness mainly relates to dietary lapses, emotional injury, over-strain and sexual excess — leading to qi-stagnation, blood-stasis, water-damp lodgement. Dietary lapses mostly injure spleen-and-stomach; emotional injury mostly injures liver and spleen; over-strain mostly injures liver and kidney. So cirrhosis's pathological change involves the functions of three storehouses: liver, spleen, kidney.
The great methods of treatment are attack the evil and supplement the deficiency. For deficient cases, supplement first then attack; for substantial cases, attack first then supplement; for mixed empty-and-substantial, combine attack and supplement. With heavy deficiency, attack within supplement; with heavy substantiality, supplement within attack.
Dispelling evil: chiefly soothe the liver, regulate qi; promote urination, relieve distension; soften the hard, scatter the bound. Supplementing right qi: chiefly supplement the spleen, regulate the liver, nourish the kidney.
Chinese medicine has a long history of treating gu-zhang with marked results — breaking the saying that cirrhosis is irreversible. Many patients on Chinese medicine have seen symptoms resolve, indicators return to normal, and return to normal work and life. We urge cirrhosis patients: do not lightly give up treatment. Chinese medicine and pharmacy may bring you new life.