Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine - Eczma

Chinese Herbal Medicine really came to the fore in this country with its treatment of Eczma and Psoriasis in the late 1990's. Unlike Western medicine, which regards Eczma as essentially a disease that begins and ends on the skin, in China it is seen as having its origins inside the body.

Known in China as Si Wan Feng which means 'four crooks wind' because of its characteristic presentation in the crooks of the elbows and knees its major cause is an excess of heat inside the body. In children and infants this heat tends to be constitutional that is to say they are just unlucky enough to be born with it.

In adults the origins can be constitutional as well as being generated or maintained by other factors. These factors can be physical or emotional in origin and different factors can combine to give the many varieties of ecxma that are seen in the clinic. Each persons Eczma is unique to them and needs to be analysed as an individual case. (This is why Western medicine has failed to find a nice, patent universal formula which could be given to everybody from the successfully used Chinese herbs ) Eczma sufferers can help themselves by avoiding heating foods such as sugar or very sweet foods, spicy foods, and heavy fatty meats such as lamb. Maintaining emotional eqilibrium wherever possible is good general advice and especially so for ecxma sufferers.

© 2013 Rob Parnell