Difficulty walking after Angioplasty. Perennial illness cured after two years of treatment
She was one of the very cooperative patients I have ever treated since I started practicing. She took the medicine on time regularly without interruption. It took two whole years to cure the perennial illness and was able to enjoy her glorious old age. When she first came to visit me, the first sentence she said was, “please save me”. Fortunately, I lived up to her trust and saved her from the illness.
At her first visit, she was fifty-eight years old. Her face was dull and her limbs were weak. She could not stand steadily and could not walk without the support by her husband. She said she had a pain in her right neck two years ago. She tried acupuncture but was ineffective, so she went to Shenzhen Hospital for a correction and bone spur removal surgery under local anesthesia. After two weeks of rest, the pain came back. Shortly after, after exercising, she suddenly felt tightness in her chest and had difficulty breathing. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance for emergency treatment. She was diagnosed with coronary heart disease and underwent Angioplasty surgery later. Three months after that, her limbs suddenly became weak and she walked shakily, like having Meniere’s Disease. Western doctors did a blood test and took MRI for her, but the cause could not be found. Feeling hopeless, she went to Beijing to seek medical treatment from a famous local Chinese medicine practitioner. Unfortunately, her conditions did not improve but became increasingly worse.
The patient’s hands were red, her palms were hot and her hands kept shaking, especially her right hand. I brushed her fingers with an object and told her to tell me where I brushed with her eyes closed. Her answers were all wrong, indicating neurocognitive disorder causing confusion with body parts. Based on my preliminary analysis, she suffered from sequelae after her vascular surgery. It was very likely that some atherosclerotic substances (i.e. plaques) fell off and flowed up to her brain via her carotid artery. When they flowed to smaller blood vessels, they formed a blockage resulted in a lack of blood flowing to the brain cells in the posterior segment. This led to disorders in her nervous system, which could only send out incomplete or weak signals. When pulses sent out by the neural axis of the cerebellum were too weak, her limbs would become weak. In addition, I thought her coronary heart disease had led to myocardial infarction, causing her heart to be even weaker. It was necessary to strengthen her liver and kidneys, at the same time bring out dead myocardial cells to restore the strength of her heart and blood supply to her brain. Accumulated blood stasis needed to be removed to restore blood supply to her cerebellum, so that her limbs could receive instructions and operate normally. I told her that during the treatment period, there would be swelling in her head as well as tightness and pain in her chest. I assured her that after taking the medicine for three weeks, the mobility of her limbs would be greatly improved.
Limbs weak, condition fluctuates
After started taking the medicine, the patient felt hot all over her body and sweated a lot. If she woke up at night, she had a hard time falling asleep again. When she woke up in the morning, her limbs were numb, which would disappear after a short while. Her condition fluctuated. On the third day, she called and told me that she suddenly felt unwell in the afternoon. Her limbs became even weaker than before and her heart was beating irregularly. I explained to her that those were reactions to the medicine which was clearing the myocardial blockage and bringing out stasis from her myocardium. Those were very good signs, indicating regeneration in her body. I told her not to worry as after experiencing those a few times, her heart would gradually be strengthened and blood would be able to flow to her cerebellum. With sufficient oxygen supply, her neural axis would generate enough pulse amplitude and her limb muscles would restore normal operation. The patient also told me that her daughter learnt from the Internet that her illness was multiple sclerosis, which was incurable. I emphasized that Western medicine knew the illness but did not know the cause, only focusing on external symptoms, failing to seek the root cause from a holistic perspective, let alone seeking a treatment. My approach of treatment for this kind of illness was to strengthen the liver and kidneys first (kidney, the water element, generates liver, the wood element, and liver generates heart, the fire element – the five elements engender each other). After the heart was strengthened, more blood would reach the brain to bring out accumulated stasis. When brain cells were supplied with sufficient blood, they will be regenerated, and signals sent out by the nervous system would be strengthened.
At the first follow-up consultation, the patient’s face was still dull. I asked her to walk. After walking for a while, her strength had run out. She had to be supported by her husband and her conditions were very poor. At the second follow-up consultation, the urine samples that the patient brought in was mostly dark brown-red, indicating a lot of accumulated stasis in her heart and brain, with some containing cholesterol as well as heart and liver cell sediments. During the previous few days, her body was hot and her head slightly sweated. When she woke up the following day, her limbs were strong, her heartbeat accelerated and her face and ears were red, indicating that her blood circulation was accelerated with increased blood sent to her brain. She defecated once a day, occasionally every other day, without nocturia anymore, indicating her renal function was strengthening. The patient’s limb movements returned to normal at the third follow-up visit, after three weeks of treatment. Her response was swift, and she could trot and repeatedly walk back and forth steadily like a normal person. Later, she could even go out and enjoy tea with her friends. However, the situation did not last long before the situation worsened again. There was one time when she went shopping with her maid at a furniture store that was situated in a basement. Probably due to insufficient oxygen, her heartbeat accelerated and her steps became unsteady. She immediately walked out of the store and it took a while to recover. About a month later, she developed a pseudo fever syndrome. She had headache, vomiting and muscle pain. After recovery, the mobility of her limbs improved significantly.
At the 10th follow-up visit, the patient’s complexion turned from green, yellow and dull to brighter and fairer. Her skin started to tighten and the swelling on her face diminished. She also lost some weight and looked younger than before – even her daughter said so. She could walk with big steps without support. Occasionally, she felt her steps unsteady. After walking for a long time, she had to slow down, indicating a lack of strength in her heart. During the Chinese New Year, the patient was in a good condition, but to maintain the condition, she had to cooperate and discipline herself. There was one time she played mah-jong and went to bed late. On the following day, her face became dull and she looked dazzled.
Strange pulse with strong and weak beats
At the 19th follow-up consultation, the patient’s pulse was strange with alternating strong and weak beats, indicating contraction force in her atria and ventricles was inconsistent hence blood flow to her brain was uneven. This might be the main reason for her unsteady steps. She went to the park every day for more exercise to strengthen her thigh muscles. After sweating, her whole body relaxed. At the 27th follow-up consultation, her cheeks were pink for the first time. Earlier, I had suggested her to drink red date and egg soup to enhance blood supply to her heart. The effective was very significant. Her complexion improved and she had no more discomfort in her heart and weak legs. In the following follow-up consultations, her pulse returned to normal with no more unevenness. After a period of treatment, the patient’s condition was very good. She walked swiftly and could climb up and down the stairs more easily than before with only a little gasp. I told her to do sit-and-stand exercise twice a day, ten times each. Since her conditions had improved and she had become used to it, she was no longer afraid even when her steps were a bit unsteady. At the thirty-fourth follow-up visit, the patient felt that her progress was good. She kept talking and was full of energy.
For unknown reason, the patient’s groin suddenly swelled up and developed a large sore. I immediately prescribed a new formula for heat clearing and detoxification. The sore quickly disappeared. At the 36th follow-up consultation, the patient used two umbrellas as walking cane and walked slowly from her home to my clinic. The journey was not short, but she had no problem with that. Her pulse was even and strong and her palms radiated heat. Afterwards, she traveled to Huangshan and went up to the middle of the mountain by cable car. She had no problem of lack of oxygen and panting. After returning to Hong Kong, she had a feeling her feet were floating and her legs were sometimes weak, but everything else remained normal. At the 40th follow-up visit, the patient said that sometimes she felt her steps unsteady and weak, and she was not confident to walk to my clinic alone and had to be accompanied by a friend. Her pulse sometimes would suddenly beat slower. Her sleep and defecation were normal. She had sores and ulcers in her mouth a while ago, indicating strong internal heat (ministerial fire) in her liver. I advised her to go to bed early and rest more and added some medicine to remove the heat in her liver. Her immune system gradually returned to normal and her mouth sores and ulcers disappeared.
Stomach pain caused by failure of abstinence
In the eleventh month of treatment, the patient’s urine samples were still mainly dark brown-red, brown and orange, one bottle turned black after oxidation, two bottles were purple-blue with black objects attached to the wall, and many bottles had cholesterol and hepatocyte sediments. The colors and sediments indicated there were still many stasis and blockage in her meridian and blood vessels as well as many blood-stagnant toxins and necrotic cells in her liver, which needed to be discharged. At the 48th follow-up visit, the patient’s complexion was very bad. I saw her wearing high heels for the first time and she walked without any problem. The friend who accompanied her told me secretly that she went to karaoke and played until 4:00 in the morning. After that, she stayed at Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island for a week. During that week, she had heart pain and edema from her ankles to knees at night. Her husband was anxious and hurriedly called me for help. After asking, I learnt that during her stay in the monastery, she ate a lot of foods made from soy (vegetarian diet). Due to the high concentration of monosodium glutamate, which directly damaged her cranial nerves, it also affected her heartbeat and the strength of her heart. With weakened urination function of her kidneys, water accumulated in her lower limbs, causing edema in her feet. I told her to immediately stop the vegetarian diet and drink more regular coke to neutralize the monosodium glutamate in the diet. The swelling disappeared on the following day and her feet returned to normal. According to my decades of medical research, regular coke is good for heat clearing, detoxification and diuresis. Whenever I attend a banquet in a restaurant, I drink a lot of coke to detoxify, eliminate the grease and dissolve unhealthy food while others drink red wine excitedly. I am turning seventy-six and I am as healthy as young people. Of course, this is not applicable to patients with diabetes.
Diet was very important to the patient. There was one time she secretly ate sashimi which caused a stomach-ache and her husband had to call me at 4:30 in the morning. Turned out, she had had steak, bread and sashimi, all not suitable for her. Foods like sashimi were particular bad as they were full of salmonella bacteria, as repeatedly reported in the newspapers. Her current treatment aimed to remove stasis and toxin in her liver. Eating such foods would, on one hand, add burden to the detoxification process, on the other hand, as the liver was damaged, her spleen and stomach would be invaded. So I told her to drink fried rice and ginger water to warm her stomach and eliminate stomach gas to relieve pain. Another time, the patient had vegetarian diet for a whole week and her pulse suddenly became weak. I emphasized the importance of a balanced diet during the treatment and, at the same time, avoid certain food and pay attention to changes in the environment. All those could directly affect her progress.
Due to a lacked confidence in herself, patient needed to hold on to her husband for support when walking every time she left home. After one time, however, she regained her confidence by chance. That time she needed to go out to buy something, however, her husband was playing mah-jong then and had no time to accompany her out. He told her to just take a taxi to go by herself. When she was on the street, she tried to walk. After walking for a while and her feet didn’t feel light, she decided to continue walking. After doing what she needed to do, she walked home. She was so happy and felt that she had made a “record”. Since then, when she came to my clinic, she never asked her husband hold on to her for support when walking. Later, she could walk around on the footpaths in Victoria Park. She would never have imagined being able to do that a year ago.
Lifestyle to be improved
The patient’s poor complexion and weak pulse were actually attributable to her lifestyle. There was one time that she went to karaoke again and did not go home until 3:00 in the morning. Later, when she came to my clinic to check the pulse, her pulse was very irregular again and even paused from time to time. There was nothing I could do besides advising her to abstain from playing till too late, should be no later than one 1:00 in the morning (the end of the first of 12 hours in a day created in ancient China), otherwise her yin would be impaired, directly affecting her progress. At the 68th follow-up consultation, the patient said that her legs were sore and she felt dizzy while walking on some days and she needed to be supported by her husband. All in all, her unhealthy lifestyle was the main obstacle to her recovery. Nevertheless, she had recovered about 70% and needed treatment to maintain it.
The patient went to Japan for her son’s wedding during which, she felt a bit dizzy and easily out of breath when walking. Due to the cold weather, and the warmer indoor temperature, she felt drowsy easily. After returning to Hong Kong, she agreed to add one more dose of medicine to treat the breathing problem. After taking it, she gradually returned to normal and became able to go out and walk by herself again. The problems were caused by her being in a new environment and was not able to adjust. In addition, with indoor heating always turned on, oxygen level in the room had become low. As such, the signals sent out from her cerebellar neural axis were weakened, which caused her legs to be weak and even her feeling dizzy.
One time the patient told me that she felt very well and had returned to the condition before she became ill. She played mah-jong all day at home and went out for walks when she was free. She spoke with a loud voice and she was full of expressions. Later, she went to New York alone to see her daughter. Seeing that she had recovered a lot, I agreed that she could stop taking medicine. The patient had an overall check-up in New York. Everything was fine, except her heart was slightly weak and her cholesterol was high. From 3 November 2005 to 11 January 2008, she was treated for more than two years, with 106 consultations. The treatment was successfully completed. Afterwards, she had referred other patients to me.
This article was written by Dr. Sik-Kee Au
May 30, 2017
For enquiries, please email to sikkeeau@gmail.com
Medical case number: 051103