Chinese Medicine

Acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment can relieve the pain of rheumatoid arthritis mainly by expelling cold-dampness and activating blood to dredge collaterals. According to the theory of acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment, rheumatoid arthritis falls into the category of Bi Syndrome. Bi Syndrome refers to syndrome of stagnation of blood and Qi due to blocked meridians caused by the invasion of the human body by pathogenic wind, cold, dampness and heat and so on.

Bi Syndrome, as a single symptom, can be seen in a lot of diseases in western medicine. They include rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica, bone proliferative diseases, brucellosis, thrombosis obliterans, scleroderma, erythematic nodosum, nodular vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and polymyositis and so on.

Acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis history

As a matter of fact, the etiology, syndrome classification, as well as the prognosis about rheumatoid arthritis had been clearly recognized in Huangdi Neijing. And doctors of later generations continued developing this theory and accumulated a wealth of clinical experience on acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment.

For example, in Han and Tang Dynasties, a lot of effective prescriptions had been accumulated and recorded. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, the pathogenesis, syndrome differentiation and compatibility of herbs had been developed further, which made acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment more sophisticated.

Clinical manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is inflammatory diseases of soft tissue around the joints caused by a variety of reasons. It mainly refers to the manifestation of an acute or chronic systemic disease of connective tissues. Modern medicine believes that rheumatoid arthritis is generally related with streptococcal infection.

Main manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis include as follows:

• Pain, numbness, heavy, difficulty in extension and flexion on muscles, bones, joints and other parts of the body;
• Even hot and swollen joints in some severe cases.

Acute and chronic rheumatoid arthritis

• In acute phase of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple and wandering redness, swelling, heat and pain in large joints are main symptoms, accompanied often with fever, heart disease, erythema, subcutaneous nodules and so on.
• In chronic phase of rheumatoid arthritis, it is a longer duration, in which sufferers are with consciously joint pain and the inconvenience of activities.

Rheumatoid arthritis and pathogens

Chronic rheumatoid arthritis is slow and generally without swelling. There is usually persistent dull pain or sore. From the perspective of acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment, the symptoms may vary from person to person due to invasion of different pathogens.

• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by pathogenic wind, the pain is usually wandering, elusive or radiating to distance;
• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by pathogenic cold, the sufferers tend to have severe pain, even worse during cold weather while relieving during warm weather;
• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by pathogenic dampness, the sufferers tend to have heavy and sore joint pain, which can be triggered easily in cold and rainy seasons;
• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by heat transformed by exogenous pathogens, the main manifestation includes swelling and painful joints, even refuse to press.

General acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment

Take knee rheumatoid arthritis as example. The inflammation locates in the knee. Usually acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment needs to relax tendons and activate collaterals while expelling pathogenic wind and cold, removing dampness and clearing heat.

Main acupuncture points: Xue Hai (SP10), Dubi (S 35), Tsusanli (ST 36).
Secondary acupuncture points: Xiyan (ST 35), Heding (Extra 31), Yinlingquan (SP 9), ashi points, Weizhong (B 40), Weiyang (B 39), Sanyinchiao; (SP 6) and so on.

• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by pathogenic wind: Fengmen (B 12), Kanshu (BL18), Leshu (BL17);
• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by pathogenic cold: Dazhui (GV 14), Guanyuan (CV 4);
• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by pathogenic dampness: Pishu (BL 20), Chungwan (CV 12), Yinlingquan (SP 9);
• If rheumatoid arthritis is mainly caused by heat transformed by exogenous pathogen: Quchi (LI 11), Hoku (LI 4).

Acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment prevents and cures rheumatoid arthritis by stimulating the human body through the role of meridians and acupuncture points. Joints have complex structure. Their activities and stability depend on mainly the surrounding muscles, ligaments, bursa and other structures so that joints are vulnerable to acute and chronic injury due to the invasion of exogenous pathogens. The exogenous pathogens cause blockage of meridians and thus blood stasis, which lead to pain. Acupuncture rheumatoid arthritis treatment works to expel cold-dampness and promote blood circulation to dredge collaterals. Once blood and Qi flow smoothly again, rheumatoid arthritis will disappear as well.