Man with cardiac pain came to seek treatment for wife, taking my advice, he was cured from critical illness
This medical case involves a man who originally accompanied his wife from Dongguan to seek medical treatment in Hong Kong, but he did not know he was seriously ill himself. He could have lost his life if not treated in time if I had not advised him of the critical illness.
The patient was only thirty-two years old. His face was green and black without even little brightness. I could tell from looking at him that he was seriously ill. I took the initiative to tell him to pay attention to his heart because his complexion told me that he had a severe heart disease. He told me that he used to have a drinking habit, which he had quit recently. Due to frequent pain in his chest recently, he had an examination in Dongguan Hospital. When he came with his wife for the second visit, he tried to seek medical advice from me right out, saying that he had had X-ray and electrocardiogram examinations, which found nothing problematic. Western doctors diagnosed him with neuralgia. I immediately asked him if his hands and feet were numb. He nodded and said yes. I thought there was a blockage in his heart muscles with a lot of necrotic heart cells. His blood could not flow smoothly, so he had angina pectoris due to myocardial infarction.
Angina pectoris is the feelings of pain and pressure in the chest caused by myocardial ischemia. It is generally caused by the accumulation of atherosclerotic substances in coronary arteries, which leads to myocardial ischemia resulting from the narrowing and blockage of blood vessels. This is the so-called “chest numbness and heart pain” in Chinese medicine. Severe angina pectoris can cause the heart to stop beating and the patient to die. To treat angina pectoris, it is necessary to open up blocked and narrowed blood vessels, then open up the myocardial infarction and discharge necrotic cells in the myocardium. With blood supply, new cells will gradually grow back and heart function can be restored. The patient usually slept late and felt nervous easily. His eyes were tired and dry, with blurred vision in the evening. His shoulders and neck were stiff and very tired. He had frequent nocturnal urination, had no nocturnal penile tumescence and his scrotum was loose, indicating deficiencies in both his liver and kidney. Due to his drinking habit, his liver must have been damaged. The medical report also confirmed that he had a fatty liver.
Heart stasis excreted in large quantities
After taking the medicine, the urine samples brought in by the patient during the follow-up visit were dark orange-red and bright orange-red, with blood spots on the walls of many bottles. One of the bottles had pink sediments of myocardial tissue, which were the stasis and dead heart cells discharged from his heart on the second day after taking medicine, indicating very effective results. In fact, urine with accumulated blood stasis discharged from his heart is usually dark or light orange. After a period of oxidation, it will remain orange, but become slightly darker. In addition, there might also be deep burgundy red or purple red colored discharge, which is the stagnant blood in the liver, or heart and brain blood stasis brought out by the medicine. The patient told me that 80% of the numbness of his hands and feet had been cured. His shoulders and neck had become much relaxed and he was not as tired as before. He slept very well with reduced nocturnal urination. His eyes were moist with clearer vision in the evening. His scrotum had shrunken and become firm. His angina pectoris also decreased, but the pain had moved to the two sides of the chest. I saw that his complexion had improved and turned slightly reddish, unlike before which seemed to be shrouded in dark fog. The situation was much better than when we first met. The blockage in his heart was opened up, so the blood circulation of his whole body improved and his kidney function also began to strengthen. When I took the pulse of the patient, I found his heartbeat faster than before. Obviously, his heart was strengthened and blood supply to the brain was improved, promoting the revitalization of major organs, so the whole person had gradually got better.
During the second follow-up visit, he showed joy on his face, saying that his cardiac pain had been reduced by 90%. Sometimes he even felt no pain at all, with only a slight discomfort remaining. Considering he had only taken the medicine for two weeks, he had a fast recovery. His recovery could be observed based on the urine samples he brought in. Most of them were in brownish red, orange brown, dark brown red and other colours, indicating the main problem lay in his heart. One of the bottles had pink powdered precipitates, which was all sediments of dead heart cells discharged from his infarcted myocardium. The more stasis discharged, the faster the recovery. He said the numbness in the lower half of both his calves and his fingers sometimes reoccurred. I said this kind of ups and downs were normal. According to my “Theory on the Causes and Treatment of Numbness”, numbness occurs because the blood fails to reach the brain or the epidermis of the body. I explained to him in detail again the reason for his numbness: “as a large amount of stasis in your heart is being discharged, your blood circulation is affected during the process of heart improvement. When the stasis is pressing on your nerves and blood vessels, numbness will occur due to ischemia.”
Liver damaged due to long-term drinking habit
Later, the patient brought me a comprehensive medical report from Guangzhou Zhongshan Hospital. The electrocardiogram showed that his heart function was normal. From this, we could see that angina pectoris, of which the symptoms occurred only intermittently, was difficult to be reflected by electrocardiogram. Generally, electrocardiogram only shows whether the heartbeat is normal. Having a flooding pulse, his sickness was even harder to be detected. The previous diagnosis by Dongguan Hospital that his cardiac pain was caused by neuralgia instead of angina pectoris demonstrated that Western medicine, with very advanced testing equipment though, sometimes fails to correctly recognize complex but occasional symptoms. In addition, the report also pointed out that he had a fatty liver. The patient started drinking at the age of 18 or 19 and had only quit a year ago. Long-term drinking had definitely damaged his liver and led to the deterioration of liver function. Except for AFP which was normal, other indicators such as GGT, AST and ALT were all very high, especially ALT which was twice as high as normal. The above indexes indicated the possibility of liver cancer. Therefore, besides the serious heart problem, the patient also had to pay attention to his liver. Therefore, I enhanced particularly dosages of the ingredients which cleared liver toxins in the prescription, hoping to improve his liver function and clearing the obstruction to discharge and eliminate liver fat as soon as possible. Only after the liver was improved, his heart function would see further improvement. This is the so-called “wood nature of the liver ignites the fire nature of the heart” in traditional Chinese medicine.
At the third follow-up visit, the patient happily told me that he had started to have nocturnal penile tumescence with firm scrotum and penis, which had not been experienced for a long time. I was very happy as this phenomenon was what I call regeneration with the revitalization of kidney function. Meanwhile, I saw that he was energetic and his palms became reddish again. He said that his urination was stronger with larger volumes. His defecation was smooth, and his thirst was reduced with increased saliva.
By the fourth follow-up visit, the patient’s numbness had gotten much better. The numbness in his hands had all disappeared, though not his feet. The day before yesterday, there was a sudden tingling in his cardia and he called to inquire. After analysing, I learned that a large amount of stasis and pink heart cells excreted in the urine on the day, which had caused the notable tingling. This time there was only one pain point, compared to many pain points previously. His pulse became calm, even and powerful, which was no longer a flooding pulse, so the patient had also become peaceful. He said there was a white layer floating on the surface of his urine. I explained it was the fat excreted from his liver, which was very good for the recovery of his liver. Many bottles of urine he brought in this time were brownish-red and the walls of many bottles were stained with bright red blood stains. One of the bottles had pink sediments, indicating that the stasis in his heart had not been totally cleared.
Just one month after the start of the treatment, the patient said the pain on his chest had gone, his numbness was 90% cured and he was very energetic. When I saw him at the fifth follow-up visit, he looked like a totally different person compared with the first visit. His cheeks and nose were bright with the darkness totally disappeared. The whole person was radiant. He spoke loudly and powerfully. He said though his health had improved, his penis was still not firm enough during erection. I thought this was because blood stasis was still being discharged from his heart, which has not yet fully restored to normal and healthy status.
Twenty years of diagnostic experience through urine observation
In traditional Chinese medicine, “Observation, Listening, Enquiry and Pulse taking” are called the four approaches to diagnosis. Among them, “Observation” involves only the patient’s external appearance and facial complexion, but I have added one more item – the colors of urine. During my research study, I had also sent urine sediments to laboratories to confirm the substances. Having been observing urine for nearly 20 years, what I said is the result of accumulated experience instead of groundless fantasies. At the fifth follow-up visit, the patient’s urine had been greatly improved compared with the previous two weeks, indicating that much accumulated stasis in his heart had been discharged. The patient said that his cardiac pain had almost totally disappeared, with just some slight tingling and stiffness. If so, the risk of getting heart disease was gone. His numbness had also become rare – only after sitting for a long time that his feet would feel numb.
At the sixth follow-up consultation, it was apparent that the patient’s heart had been strengthened and his complexion had gradually become rosy. This was the result of improved blood circulation and increased blood supply to the brain after a large amount of stasis was discharged. The tingling and stiffness in his heart now was not the pain caused by the previous myocardial infarction but the pain when the medicine opened up the blockage in his heart. The patient used to feel a severe pain in his chest after getting up in the morning, which would take a while to disappear, but now there was no pain after getting up and he only felt a minor tingling or a “tug” after taking the medicine, indicating the medicine was opening up blockage in his heart. I estimated that after a few more visits, the minor pains would all disappear. In the clinic, I observed that the patient’s movements became much faster and his steps were brisk and light. He told me that he had let go a lot of businesses recently, becoming much more peaceful and relaxed. I thought to myself that people did not cherish their health until they had serious illness. It was good for the patient to think that way, which would speed up his recovery.
The patient went hiking with his friends and walked a lot without short of breath or tiredness, indicating that his heart and physical strength had improved greatly. His heart function was obviously strengthened, feeling only a little discomfort when catching a flu. Everything seemed to be making steady progresses, but at the twelfth follow-up visit, the patient’s complexion was shrouded with dark fog again and the radiance disappeared. I was shocked and asked why. He said that in the past few days, he had suffered from great pressure from family and work. The numbness in his hands and feet reoccurred. I told him to rest more, otherwise his conditions would deteriorate and his body would be hurt. Unfortunately, at the thirteenth follow-up consultation, the patient was even worse as he had not slept for two nights. His complexion was slightly better than the previous time, but still had not returned to the best state. I was worried that if the situation continued, his conditions would regress.
At the eighteenth follow-up consultation, the patient’s complexion was better than the previous week with the return of radiance. He said the pain area had shrunk, feeling only a bit on the upper left side of his chest. The numbness in his hands and feet had mostly disappeared, feeling little numb only after exercising. The condition of nocturnal penile tumescence had slightly improved, but his penis was still not firm enough during erection. His scrotum began to firm up, but sometimes it was still loose. After this visit, the patient stopped the treatment and was nowhere to be seen. His health had not fully recovered, but his myocardial infarction had recovered more than 90%. If he had not been treated early, he might have suffered from an acute heart disease which was difficult to be saved. The patient was first diagnosed on 25 March 2005 and the treatment ended on 23 July in the same year. He was treated for about four months with 18 consultations.
This article was written by Dr. Sik-Kee Au
May 16, 2017
For enquiries, please email to sikkeeau@gmail.com
Medical case number: 050325