Al Stone, L.Ac.
Beyond Well Being
Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicines
Santa Monica, CA.
(310) 264-6668
TrickySchenectidy
For the last 10-12 years, I have experienced a propensity
for urinary tract infections, yeast infections & other vaginal
ailments. I am looking for an answer beyond antibiotics and
the other traditional western treatments for these problems.
We have some great treatments for you. Excellent ways to treat those nasty UTIs without the use of digestion damaging antibiotics.
We often refer to UTIs as a "lin" syndrome. There are a variety of different types of lin syndromes, they all suggest a urinary tract difficulty, but not all of them are your typical bladder infection.
There are some great Chinese herbal decoctions available for this. Actually, the herbs in these formulas for your typical UTI will make you pee, but at the same time, they'll kill the infection. In Chinese medical terms, we usually think of the infection as heat in the Bladder. So, the herbs clear heat and perform a few other functions as is appropriate to the condition being treated.
Here's a quick recap of the kinds of urinary difficulties that we treat:
Lin Syndrome: Painful, burning, frequent, urgent urination. Ouch.
Gao Lin: Cloudy urination, likely due to a kidney or ureter (tubes from the kidney to the bladder) infection, the cloudiness is pus from the infection. Other problems can give rise to cloudy urination too like proteinuria which is a kidney problem wherein excessive amounts of protein get into the urine. That's a severe condition that should include Western medical intervention.
Shi Lin: That means "stone" lin. That's a kidney stone. We have herbs to break up and even melt the stone. We've got herbs for gallstones too. They're often times the same herbs, actually.
Xue Lin: That means blood in the urine. Often times associated with a stone, but not always.
Re Lin: That means heat lin, suggesting an infection of some sort associated with the urinary difficulty.
Personally, I find one of the most interesting of all the unique Chinese medical theories to be found in association with bladder infections.
Organ systems are paired up in Chinese medicine. I've heard these pairs described as "husband and wife" relationships. The Liver and Gall Bladder are husband and wife. That pair makes sense. So does the Kidney and Urinary Bladder as well as the Spleen (Pancreas) and Stomach. The others make less sense. Lung and Large Intestine, Heart and Small Intestine.
The Small Intestine in Chinese medicine has a unique function of "separating the pure from the turbid." In a sense, this is the same as our Western understanding of this organ. It absorbs the pure (nutrition) and excretes the turbid (fecal matter). Chinese medicine says that the Small Intestine produces urine as well as fecal matter. So there's a direct relationship between the Small Intestine and the Urinary Bladder in the body.
Where I'm going with all of this is here: There is a pathology in Chinese medicine known as Heart Fire. Heart Fire symptoms include: Insomnia, sores on the tongue, restlessness and a tip of the tongue that is decidedly redder than the rest of the tongue. Other symptoms of Heart Fire include an overly dramatic or passionate approach to life. Its fun to have strong feelings and fully experience the depth of one's humanity. However when the feelings are too strong, sometimes the problem can be explained as Heart fire.
So, the Heart fire originates in the Heart, but fire spreads and because of the husband/wife relationship between the Heart and Small Intestine, the S.I. also catches on fire. That doesn't have too many of its own symptoms, until some of that fire starts to pour down into the Urinary Bladder and then you've got your bladder infection.
A popular formula for Heart Fire leading to Lin syndrome is: Dao Chi San (in raw herbal form) and Dao Chi Pian (in pill form). Most Chinese medicine herbalists have access to the ingredients to make up this formula or you can often find the pills in a Chinese medicine pharmacy
So, for one with chronic bladder infections, the first place I go is to the tongue to check to see if the tip is red. Another common tongue presentation in association with bladder infections would be a thick greasy, almost cottage cheesy type tongue coating, kind of yellow in color, especially in the rear of the tongue, toward the throat. This would explain the bladder infection as a problem of dampness and heat. Damp heat explains many urogenital infections.
A common sign of damp heat infections is that they tend to put out a thick yellow exudate that can smell bad. This explains many yeast infections, bladder infections, and even venereal diseases. This is likely the best explanation for your propensity toward urogenital issues that are damp and hot in character.
A popular formula for this condition is called: Ba Zheng Tang
A popular formula for the Lin syndrome associated with kidney stones is: Shi Lin Tong or Shi Lin Tong Pian.
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Al Stone, L.Ac. |