Pain
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- Pain cycle
- I feel pain → Try to cope by ignoring it → Shut myself off from feeling my body → Aren’t aware of or don’t address core emotional issues → Hurt and pain locked in → I feel pain
Excess
- Intense - worse with pressure
- Usually stuck stagnant
- With swelling and inflammation - damp heat
- Fixed - blood stagnation
- Moving - Qi Stagnation
Deficient
- Dull - better with presure
- Worse with fatigue - worse at end of day
- Check which area where pain is
- Eg lower back - water - dull - ki def
Digestion
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Poor digestive fire - digestive process not working well
- Causes
- Poor constitution, intense lifestyle, chronic illness, age → Ki Yang Deficiency → Poor digestive fire
- Excess Thinking → Sp Qi Deficiency → Poor digestive fire
- Stress → Stagnation → impedes digestion → Sp Qi Deficiency→ Poor digestive fire
- Sp Qi deficiency → Damp → impedes digestion → Sp Qi Deficiency → Poor digestive fire
- Impeded digestion → vitality wanes → Poor digestive fire
- Diarrhoea
- Fatigue in the afternoon, with cold
- Undigested food in the stool
- Sensitivities
- Bloating
- Abdominal aches
Stagnation - when stress affects digestion - SNS causes the PNS to tone down
- The flow through the digestion is affected - in line with the stress
- Intermittent with stress - constipation, diarrhoea
- Regurgitation
- Reflux, burping
- Nausea
- Distension, bloating, pain of abdomen
Constipation - causes
- Dryness - metal issue - holding on
- Holding on - LI
- Dryness - yin deficiency or excess heat
- Poor bowel motility - yang deficiency - so tired the bowel muscles not working
- Changes with stress - Qi stagnation
Fatigue
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In TCM fatigue may be due to deficiency – of qi or blood or yin or yang – in which case the client will feel more fatigued later in the day.
Sluggishness/fatigue may also be felt from stagnation or damp, in which case the client will feel worse in the morning.
- Morning or afternoon?
- Morning - stagnation
- Afternoon - deficiency
- Breathing? Shallow breathing
- Digestion? See above
- Sleep?
- Difficult to fall asleep - intense thinking
- Stay asleep - yin deficiency
Menstruation
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- Ovulation - pain difficulty ovulating - yin deficiency, yin issues, stagnation re mother or yin
- Before - PMS Pain - Qi Stagnation ← emotional stress
- During - Painful, clotted, dark - Blood stagnation, stagnation, Qi Stagnation, Cold ← emotional stress and deficiency
- Knife like pain - blood stag
- Cramping - qi stag
- Severe - cold - worse when tired - better for heat packs
- Certain types of clots - pin prick - cold
- 5 - 20 cent piece - Qi Stag
- 50 cent piece - blood stagnation
- After - Pain tired - Blood deficiency ← Deficiency 7
- Lead up - progesterone drop - if not enough progesterone → oestrogen dominant symptoms - Fluid buildup, breast distension, moodiness, irritability
- Why? Progesterone is used to make cortisol - so when stressed, progesterone is used up
Lumps
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- Damp or Phlegm (congealed stagnation)
- Long term emotional issues, toxic emotions, blame, guilt
- Channel? Area?
- Uterus - earth or mother issues - fibroids
- Breasts - earth or wood
- Abdomen - earth or wood
Thirst
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- Thirsty - heat
- Not thirsty - cold or damp
- Drink hot drinks - yang deficiency
- Drink cold drinks - stagnation - heat inside
Tinnitus
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- Loud tinnitus – usually from stagnant heat and feeling stuck and angry
- Soft – usually from deficiency of the Kidneys and relates to not listening to self, feeling run down and demotivated.