Patient who often fainted due to severe palpitation basically recovered after two years of treatment
One day in December 2009, an ambulance took a young lady to the hospital for emergency rescue as she fainted suddenly. Fortunately, she was fine and discharged, but the cause could not be found. The patient was a 27-year-old Indonesian Chinese woman who was married and had a son. On that day, she drank two cups of coffee and then her heartbeat suddenly accelerated. She felt very dizzy and was about to faint. She was sent to the emergency room of a hospital for help. She came to me to seek medical treatment for her heartbeat problem. She said that in the previous few years, her heartbeat suddenly accelerated once or twice a month, and it would cause extreme panic at the same time. This is what Western medicine calls panic attack. The panic attack this time was the most serious compared with those previously. For that reason, she had been very busy dealing with her health during the previous few months. She went to St. Teresa’s Hospital for a comprehensive check-up but found only gastritis and urethritis and there was no other problem. Later, she took many tests, but they were all in vain. In the end, she took a western drug to slow down her heartbeat, which was actually a blood pressure lowering drug, making her whole body weak.
Since giving birth to a child in 2004, she had had frequent headaches. The following year, her neck suddenly became weak and she could not lift her head and hands. After three years of western medicine treatment, there was no improvement, so she sought treatment with traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture. The situation improved slightly. Each month during menstruation, there was blood clots discharged, indicating deficiencies in both her vital energy and blood as well as coldness in her uterus. Since having the problem of rapid heartbeat, her muscles often twitched. When she was in crowded places with a lack of oxygen, her heartbeat would become faster, and her face and ears would turn red that she needed to leave immediately. She could often hear a throbbing sound inside her ears that synchronized with the rhythm of her heartbeat. The back of her head often felt swollen and she always felt restless. When she was young and going to Kindergarten, she once fell and injured the bridge of her nose.
After a detailed diagnosis and analysis, I believed she had anemia. In addition, there was accumulated blood stasis in her brain pressing her meridians and nerves, resulting in the blockage of some blood vessels, which affected the circulation of her vital energy and blood in her meridians, as well as causing ischemia and hypoxia in some brain cells. When brain cells lacked oxygen, the sympathetic nerve would send a signal to the heart to request heartbeat to speed up, so that more blood could be sent to the brain to support the need. However, as the patient suffered from anaemia and her heart was not strong enough, even if her heartbeat had accelerated, the problem of cerebral hypoxia still could not be solved. She would then feel extreme panic. If this continued, she would black out and faint due to a lack of oxygen. Since she started to take antihypertensive drugs, her heartbeat had slowed down and her blood pressure had dropped. Ischemic in her brain cells thus had become even more serious. Due to ischemia, her cerebellum could not send out a pulse with sufficient amplitude to command limb movements, resulting in muscle weakness. Therefore, on the whole, in order to cure her illness, it was necessary to eliminate the accumulation of blood stasis in her brain first, at the same time discharge the blood stasis in her myocardium, so as to strengthen her heart and increase blood supply to the brain. Her problems, which were not understood by Western medicine, needed to be solved one by one.
After drinking the medicine, the patient’s body became warm, her head and neck sweated after waking up with a foul smell of rust. Brown urine was discharged, her heartbeat slowed down and her limbs became strong. The urine brought in during the first follow-up consultation was dark orange red (indicated blood stasis excreted from her heart muscle), purple red (indicated stagnant blood and toxins excreted from her liver) and other colours. The bottom of the bottles contained pink sediments, which were necrotic heart cells. At the second follow-up consultation, the patient said that when she woke up in the morning, her heartbeat accelerated significantly, her limbs felt weak and there was blood in her urine, which should be necrotic cells discharged from her heart or liver. She could fall asleep easily at night and the condition of waking up with a startle had reduced.
Vital energy flowed all over her body after drinking medicine
During the course of treatment, the patient’s body had many reactions. For many times, shortly after drinking the medicine, she would feel a flow of vital energy all over her body, her heart would beat wildly, and she had also experienced insomnia. I told her that it was the best to drink the medicine before 9 pm. Afterwards the condition improved. Her hands began to sweat less (hand sweating was also the sign of a weak heart). Her nasal swelling had been eliminated, indirectly indicating that the blockage of blood vessels in her nose had been opened up. She found that her sense of smell had restored sensitivity. Blood tests showed her red blood cell count slightly exceeded the standard and her liver enzyme indicator was normal. I thought that during that period, her heart beat violently because necrotic cells were being discharged from her heart, undergoing self-adjustment. Blood clots in her menstruation had reduced, indicating her liver had also greatly improved. At the sixth follow-up visit, in order to speed up the strengthening of her heart, I advised her to drink ginseng tea. After drinking it, she felt her whole body warmed up and her heartbeat accelerated. After that, each time after drinking, the above occurred, but the reaction was not as strong as the first time. She did not hear the throbbing sound in her ears anymore, indicating part of her auditory nerves had been opened up. At the seventh follow-up visit, the patient told me that she felt herself thinner. This was because blood circulation was improved after her heart was strengthened, which promoted the excretion of accumulated water in her body. Many friends who saw her said that she became slimmer. The swelling on her face at the first visit had also disappeared. These were all the good signs of a strengthened heart.
During the treatment, the patient had caught a cold. After recovery from the cold, the cough persisted. I suspected it was triggered by allergies that caused the backflow of nasal water, so I added some medicines to clear her pathogenic influence. It really worked and the condition was improved. Her cough reduced by half, but it took five weeks to be cured. Based on my analysis, her continuous cough was not only caused by the backflow of nasal water to her trachea, but also insufficient oxygen supplied to brain cells, so the brain’s sympathetic nerve sent out signals of an itchy throat to request the body to cough and even expand the lobes of the lungs so as to inhale more oxygen. For this reason, I told the patient to exercise to accelerate the heartbeat and increase blood supply to the brain to increase oxygen supply. Her cough indeed reduced significantly, proving my analysis was correct.
Toxin in liver, urine turned black
At the thirteenth follow-up consultation, the patient’s urine turned black after a week of oxidation, indicating that her liver was very poor with a lot of stagnant blood and necrotic cells, which were being discharged. During this period, her heartbeat was still very fast, but the feeling of panic was greatly reduced. After having dinner with a friend one night, she suddenly had a strange feeling in the back of her head, similar to that the previous time before she nearly fainted, which caused her to panic. Fortunately, nothing happened this time. That phenomenon was a reaction to the treatment. When toxin in the liver was being discharged, it must pass through the heart and the brain, and then finally through the kidney before it was excreted. When the toxin passed through the brain, the body would have some strong reactions, such as heartbeat acceleration, panic and nervousness, etc. I taught her to lie down immediately or put her head down on her lap if she felt uncomfortable. In addition, she could chew some winter ginger to revitalize her cranial nerve, and everything would calm down. It would be helpful for her.
The patient’s heartbeat problem gradually improved and stabilized. The feeling of panic and anxiety also reduced a lot. However, at the 22nd follow-up consultation, the patient said that every now and then her heartbeat would suddenly accelerate and return to normal after about a few minutes. During menstruation recently, she would feel tense and cramp in her abdomen from menstrual pain. The menstrual blood was not as bright as the previous time and there were a few clots. On the whole, she felt calmer and more cheerful than before. The urine samples she brought in this time were mostly purple-red and some had even changed to black with some white cholesterol deposits. Compared with before, there was less pink liver cell tissue. After a period of treatment, the patient experienced a rapid heartbeat again and felt panic, but it disappeared after about an hour. On the following day, pink heart cells were excreted in her urine. This was the process of regeneration, with dead cells being removed before new cells could grow.
During the following period, the feeling of panic caused by her heartbeat gradually reduced. Sometimes it would suddenly occur and disappear after a little over ten minutes. At the 28th follow-up consultation, the patient said that heartbeat acceleration still occasionally occurred, but she had gotten used to it without feeling panic. I advised her to drink more pig liver soup and ginseng tea to replenish vital energy and blood, which would be beneficial to her body. Recently, the patient had not slept well and felt a little depressed. There was a time that she couldn’t fall asleep again after her son woke her up at 4:00 a.m. When she was shopping the following day, the top of her head became hot being shone by all the lightings. Panic suddenly occurred and she had to go home immediately. She began to calm down after taking a rest. She also had the habit of running. Recently, every time after exercising, there would be bloodshot in her eyes, which never happened before. I thought that was the dissolved blood stasis in her brain being brought out through microvascular blood vessels in her eyes after it was dissolved by the medicine. I told her not to worry as it would disappear after a while.
Unpredictable heart rate
The patient’s heartbeat was really unpredictable. Sometimes it would remain steady for a while and sometimes it would suddenly speed up. At the thirty-third follow-up consultation, the patient said that she had severe atrial fibrillation during the previous few days. One day, palpitation reoccurred, her right brain felt numb, her left ear became deaf, her nose was blocked and her thinking was confused. She had abdominal cramp and she wanted to defecate, but as she was in a meeting at that time, she could only suppress it. When she finally had the chance to go to the toilet, she felt relaxed. This was caused by the blood hitting her central nervous system when her heart beat too rapidly.
Every November, when the weather became cold, the patient would have difficulty raising his hands up high. Sometimes she couldn’t even raise her hands to brush her teeth. However, after taking my medicine, this never happened again, and she could also lift her head. In fact, because her heart had been weak and she suffered from cerebral ischemia for a long time, the signal from the cerebellar nerve axis was weak, and the amplitude was not enough to stimulate the muscles to respond. Her illness was actually the main cause of severe muscle weakness. With the heart strengthened, supplying sufficient blood to the brain cells, the signal was strengthened, and the muscles could be stimulated to make corresponding actions.
In nearly eight months of treatment, patient progressed well. In general, her heartbeat was normal. She felt some tension usually only in the evening, but without palpitation. Heart fibrillation occurred occasionally, but it was tolerable and without dizziness. Recently, a friend whom she hadn’t seen for a long time told her that she seemed to have become younger and her face had become slimmer. Judging from the colour of her urine, there was still stasis in her liver, but on the whole, the colour was lighter and much clearer, which was a great improvement. The patient told me that although she had become much better now, she still felt flustered when she took her child to the park or crowded places, which made her unwilling to go out. I explained to her that besides her heart problem, she also had a liver problem. “The heart lay the soul and the liver lay the spirit”. When both of the organs were weak, she could not focus and would feel restless, uneasy and flustered.
Anxious feeling when going out, psychological cause
The patient’s panic might be psychological related. When her parents came to Hong Kong from Indonesia to celebrate the New Year with her, they dined out many times without anything unusual. Afterwards, she even travelled to Macau by ferry and did not experience any panic. It only happened once or twice during the period and were very mild. After her parents returned to Indonesia, the panic reoccurred when she went out. She thought that it might be related to the experience of the first time she fainted, which had caused a psychological impact. At the forty-seventh follow-up consultation, she said that when she went out for activities, her palpitation reduced. Occasionally her heart would shiver, but it was not serious. After two months, the patient’s family came to Hong Kong from Indonesia again. The family often dined out. This time, she no longer felt flustered and her conditions had improved a lot. At the 64th follow-up consultation, the patient’s complexion was very good. She had just returned from a trip abroad. During her stay in Singapore, although she had some cough, she was in good conditions during daytime. When she was in Indonesia, she experienced panic only once. She still had palpitation, but it was milder than before. During that period, she ate bird’s nest which relieved her cough. Since this supplement was good for her lungs, I suggested her eat more.
In the later stage of her treatment, she went to Indonesia to attend her sister’s wedding. During that time, she was very busy, but she coped with it with ease, and she no longer had panic attacks. Occasionally, her heart would shiver but would calm down quickly. Her physical conditions had greatly improved. Later, I advised her to take deer tail soup to strengthen her back and kidneys. After drinking it for a while, she felt that her back was stronger than before, along with further improvement in her health. Soon afterwards, she stopped taking my medicine and the treatment ended with a total success. About four years later, her husband came to seek treatment for his sore foot. I learned that she had remained healthy and was pregnant again. At the beginning of this year, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Both mother and child were safe. The patient first saw me on 16 April 2010. Until 2 March 2012, she was treated for almost two years, with a total of 96 consultations.
This article was written by Dr. Sik-Kee Au
May 23, 2017
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Medical case number: 100416