Theory and explaination

Chinese medicine’s explaination of eczema

Or my understanding of Chinese med is this: Chinese medicine believes to treat the body as a whole. Inflammation of the skin is linked to the sickness of the internal organs, more specifically, the sickness of the liver. In our daily lives, we ingest different types of “toxic” from chemical in water, junk food, polluted air, alchol and so on. The function of the liver is to get rid of the toxic in our blood. The root cause of eczema is the failure of the liver in performing detoxification. When a sick liver fails to get rid of the toxic in our body, the toxic will accumulate in the liver and circulate in the blood. Normally, a sick liver can self-recover given enough time. But a poor lifestyle, junk food, not enough sleep may harm the liver beyond self-repair. The toxic in the blood eventually reflected on the skin as inflammation, eczema. (In contrast, the food allergy type of eczema is because the liver has problem dealing with a particular food protein. As soon as the patient stop ingesting the food, the symptom will clear.) The toxic may also weaken the digestive system.

Western medicine has no idea what cause eczema, and only tries to cure eczema symptom by using anti-inflammation drug like steroid. This is bad because,
1. By subpressing the symptoms, the patient is unaware of the seriousness of the disease. He/she may not take any corrective action to reduce the toxic level in the body.
2. Toxic continue to accumulate in the liver and eventually slow down the functioning of the liver for self recovery.
3. Steriod itself is toxic to the body, yes, even the cream type.

What to expect from Chinese medicine?

The Chinese doctor can use many methods to diagnose a disease and formulate a treatment. The doctor will normally look at the symptoms, ask the patient of the sleeping pattern, appetite, look at the colour of the patient’s tongue and taking the pulse. Because each person has an unique body type, the prescriptions can vary from person to person. As the healing progress, prescription for each stage of treatment is a bit different. That’s why the doctor would only prescript 3 -4 days of drugs at most.
The prescription would be of the herbal variety and must be boil and drink everyday. It’s important not to stop medication until fully recovered. (much like the antibiotic cycle) Because of the complication of eczema, treatment can last from 1 month for a mild case to up to 6 months for serious case. Do not take western medication with Chinese medicine as it can cause unpredicted side effects.
The symptoms can get worse before it gets better. For a serious case, the first week of treatment is probably the worst, esp if the patient was a prolong steroid user. I lack a theory to explain this but I suspect that because the Chinese med assists the liver in expelling the toxic. The toxic leaves the liver and temporarily concentrate in the blood. This can worsen the illness and cause intense itchness. (refer to as healing crisis, see link)The itchness is the worst at midnight for most people. Chinese medicine believe the organs take turns to rest at night. My Chinese doctor said the liver is shut down from 12-2am. I suspect the increase itchness has to do with this.
Recovery can follow a zip-zag upward trend. While the body surely gets better on the long run, the patient can experience the symptoms getting worse (or even mini-localized outbreak) for 1-2 days. This is normal, be patience and keep faith.
The drawback of Chinese medicine is that it is mild and can take a long term to clear all toxic from the body. Also, the arsenal of Chinese herbs seems to lack something to deal with the itchness. This can cause some major degrade in sleeping quality.