Author’s notes:
This is part of a series of pieces on epilepsy. It is best read in sequence from oldest blog posted date to earliest. The easiest way to find these entries is to select “epilepsy” from the categories on the sidebar. Each entry in the series will come up. I suggest you start reading from the bottom blog entry, the earliest posted, and read up to the most recent one.
In this epilepsy series, there is an overlap of a number of Chinese Medicine theories among them. The detailed Chinese Medicine theory will be covered in depth the first time it is presented, and after that, it will be covered at a higher level. This will reduce the redundancy to – hopefully -- facilitate an easier read of the pieces.
Also, it will reduce the mistaken impression that all these epilepsy pieces are the same, when there are big differences among them. Again, I urge you to read from oldest to newest in order to build up your Chinese Medicine knowledge along the way.
Introduction:
During my research on epilepsy, I ran across, with a friend’s help, a radio piece streamed over the Internet of a radio personality, Jon Elliott, interviewing Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek about the cover story on epilepsy. (Note: It's October 15, I just posted the epilepsy piece on John Meachan. I tested the links created months ago. Of course, the "radio piece" link is gone. Initially I was pissed, but -- what are ya' gonna do. Maybe live and learn, and post these pieces sooner before they become inevitably obsolete. Or maybe remember a funny story from my days designing computer systems. There was a consultant, who was working on the same huge project as me. He was completely full of himself. Any piercing detailed question, that he was unable to answer from anyone on the project, was eventually answered with "Trust Me". It was spoken with such arrogance, it never failed to make me go ballistic. So you'll just have to "Trust Me" about what was said on this radio interview. Full circle I guess. His weakness becomes my main teaching tool.)
During this broadcast Jon Elliot says that he has epilepsy. I then did a Google Image Search of Jon Elliott and he appeared to be obese. I thought that this was another Chinese Medicine perspective on epilepsy and how being obese could trigger an epileptic episode.
I obviously have limited access to Jon Elliott’s Medical history, so I started to research the best herbal formula for a person’s obesity being the trigger for an epileptic seizure. I found the formula called in Chinese, “Ding Xian Wan”. In English, the formula is called “Arrest Seizures Pill”. The pathomechanism behind this formula is explained in the Diagnosis section below, along with the related symptoms for using this formula.
The symptoms Jon Elliott might experience during a seizure are -- seizures, consciousness impaired, deviated mouth, and spitting up mucus with loud and raspy sounds.
CMG Diagnosis:
Pre-existing phlegm that is a substantial amount and systemic. The phlegm obstructs the natural qi flow leading to pent-up qi that flares up into internal wind. The internal wind carries the phlegm upwards into the heart, throat, head, and head channels.
The phlegm covers the heart and pericardium creating veiled sensory orifices.
That’s it.
Let me fill in a few blanks above to make it more understandable before going into the symptoms for the Jon Elliott.
When wind carries phlegm into the channels, it is called wind/phlegm. Wind/phlegm obstructs the natural flow of qi and blood in the channels where the wind/phlegm is stuck. This will be further covered in the Symptoms section.
Internal wind is a general term to indicate wind that is in the inside of the body. This is in contrast to wind that comes from outside of the body like wind/heat invading the body. Liver wind is one type of internal wind.
Phlegm in Chinese Medicine has a wider meaning than it does under Western Medicine. Phlegm includes what Western Medicine considers as phlegm like snot and mucus coughed up. But also includes the phlegm like stuff inside the body that probably looks like phlegm, we are use to seeing, but isn’t coughed up or spit up. Yet it is still there causing pathological problems.
Veiled orifices means the the orifices are covered so being unable to express their functions. It usually refers to the heart or brain’s sense organs. For example, when the heart is the veiled orifice the functions related with the brain can not be performed often resulting in an unconscious like state. (Note: This definition is found in the CMG Glossary page found by clicking on the applicable blog sidebar entry and scrolling down to -- veiled orifice.)
Comparisons below:
Jon did not have an invasion by wind/heat. Lauren, Henry and AJ all had an invasion by wind/heat.
Henry had spleen/stomach phlegm, while Jon had systemic phlegm resulting from being obese. Where the phlegm is located is important for properly treating it.
Lauren had phlegm, but it wasn’t the result of being obese. It resulted from the qi naturally circulating fluids getting screwed up by the invading wind (her common cold that went out of control). How the phlegm was created is important for knowing how to properly treat it.
Jon does not have heat covering the pericardium. AJ has heat covering the pericardium, but not phlegm. Henry has phlegm and heat covering the pericardium. Jon, AJ and Henry all have veiled sensory orifices from the pericardium being covered by at least one pathogen.
Lauren, Henry, AJ and Jon all have wind. Lauren, Henry and AJ all have liver wind. Jon didn’t have liver wind, but had internal wind created from an obstruction of the qi flow from the systemic phlegm, created by the excessive weight. Henry also had internal wind due to phlegm/heat obstructing the qi flow only in the spleen and stomach.
All of the these differences are important distinctions among these four cases, that result in differences in their symptoms and their herbal treatment.
Symptoms:
Seizures.The pathogenic internal wind results in uncontrollable movement of tendons causing seizures.
(Comparison: Lauren, Henry, AJ and Jon all have wind from one place or another causing the seizures. The more the internal wind in the body the more severe the seizures will be.)
Consciousness Impaired. The pericardium phlegm covers the heart resulting in veiled sensory orifices leading to the consciousness being negatively affected.
(Comparison: Jon does not have heat covering the pericardium. AJ has heat covering the pericardium, but not phlegm. Henry has phlegm and heat covering the pericardium. Jon, AJ and Henry all have veiled sensory orifices from the pericardium being cover by at least one pathogen.
Jon and AJ have impaired consciousness. Jon’s is caused by phlegm covering the pericardium. AJ’s is caused by heat covering the pericardium. Henry has a greater amount of the pericardium covered by phlegm and heat causing a coma. The more the sensory orifices are covered the greater the negative impact on one’s consciousness -- from a little-out-of-it to a coma or even death. Again, the continuum concept at work.)
Deviated Mouth. Wind and phlegm moved upwards and got stuck in the channels going into the mouth. The qi and blood that naturally flows to nourish the muscles in the mouth was obstructed by the wind and phlegm. The face and mouth muscles on the obstructed side of the face are undernourished, resulting in these muscles unable to contract becoming flaccid. As a result, the face and mouth muscles on the other side of the face are nourished by the qi and blood and can naturally contract. However, they contract drawing the flaccid face/mouth muscles on the other side of the face toward it resulting in a deviated mouth.
(Comparison: None of the other case have wind/phlegm obstructing the channels in the face, and as a result, none of these other cases have deviated mouth as a symptom.)
Spitting Up Mucus with Loud and Raspy Sounds. Wind and phlegm moved upwards and got stuck in the throat and mouth. Also, the sounds of spitting up this excess mucus/phlegm are loud and raspy that reflects the significant amount of phlegm in these areas, which one would expect from an obese person.
(Comparison: Jon had much more general body phlegm than Lauren. In both cases, wind carries it upwards into the throat and head. Jon was spitting up a substantial amount of mucus. While Lauren has much less phlegm, so she only had congestion and not the spitting up of significant amount of mucus/phlegm. Again the continuum concept at work.
Henry had a somewhat similar symptom of excessive secretions of mucus and saliva that reflected the substantial amount of phlegm for him too.
AJ didn’t have any phlegm, so he did not have any of the forementioned phlegm symptoms of -- spitting up mucus, excessive secretions of saliva or mucus, and congestion.)
CMG Treatment (Chinese Herbal Formula):
The formula chosen for Jon Elliott is called in Chinese, “Ding Xian Wan”. In English, the formula is called “Arrest Seizures Pill”. It doesn’t arrest all seizures, but only those seizures that are similar to the case presented here with Jon Elliott. The formula is on page 813 of the Chinese Herbal Formulas book. The formula contains 16 herbs.
The formula’s purpose is to get rid of the phlegm, open the veiled sensory orifices, and extinguishes the wind. Again, I won’t go into detail how each herb in the formula plays its important role in achieving the formula’s overall purposes. This is way too detailed, but years from now I’d love to teach it to interested students.
Let’s take each of the symptoms Jon had and show in detail how the formula gets rid of them.
Seizures. As in Lauren’s, Henry’s and AJ’s cases, the wind is causing the seizures. In Jon’s formula, it puts out this internal wind by using herbs that primarily get rid of the phlegm, which is causing an obstruction to the natural qi flow that is flaring up as wind. Once the phlegm is gone, no additional wind will be created. Also, some herbs are used as a secondary purpose to extinguish the wind already created.
(Comparison: In Lauren’s, Henry’s and AJ’s cases, liv wind caused the seizures. Therefore, cool and anchoring herbs entering the liver channel were used in their cases. If these herbs were used in Jon’s case, it would only worsen the phlegm leading to a greater obstruction to the qi flow, which would then lead to a worsening of the internal wind. The result: worse seizures.
Henry also had internal wind resulting from a blockage of the qi flow by phlegm that required being removed like in Jon’s case.)
Consciousness Impaired. The pericardium phlegm was veiling the heart and pericardium causing the impaired consciousness. Therefore, herbs were used to open up the pericardium to allow the consciousness to naturally flow out. Also, herbs were used to eliminate the phlegm covering the pericardium.
(Comparison: AJ has his consciousness mildly impaired by heat covering the pericardium. Jon has his consciousness impaired by phlegm covering the pericardium.
If Jon incorrectly was given AJ’s formula, Jon would have herbs that incorrectly cooled off the heat in the pericardium. Because there was no heat there, these herbs would cool off the phlegm in Jon’s pericardium making the phlegm congeal. This would worsen the phlegm there -- resulting in a worsening of his conscious awareness.
This is an example of why there is not one seizure formula for all patients and the disastrous results by trying to use the same from for all of them. Is this possibly what is happening in Western Medicine by applying one drug treatment to all epilepsy patients with widely varying and troubling side effects?
Mouth Deviated. Wind/phlegm stuck in the channels of the head resulted in a deviated mouth. Therefore, herbs were used to scour out both the wind and the phlegm from the channels in the head. This would allow the natural qi and blood flow into the muscles in the face and mouth allowing proper contraction and relaxation of these muscles – and resulting in elimination of the mouth being deviated.
Spitting Up Mucus with Loud and Raspy Sounds. Wind and a significant amount of phlegm moved upwards and got stuck in the throat and mouth. The formula gets rid of the phlegm, which eliminates creating any additional wind, as mentioned in the seizure treatment section above. Once the wind and phlegm are eliminated, the spitting up of mucus with these sounds will go away.
Next Treatment Steps. The main premise for this epilepsy piece is that the person was obese and that the excessive weight was the main trigger for the epilepsy. The formula used is called “Arrest Seizure Pill”. Its primary focus obviously is to get rid to of the seizures and any impaired consciousness. In order to do that, enough phlegm had to be eliminated to make sure seizures and loss of consciousness don’t occur.
The patient will be still obese after the treatment. And that means they still will have a lot of phlegm that is just waiting to build up again into a critical mass that leads to seizures again. Therefore, Chinese Medicine treatments will probably need to continue to reduce the phlegm build up. Also, the Chinese Medicine practitioner would need to educate Jon on the specifics of his lifestyle that were helping to create the phlegm in the first place, which might not be apparent to Jon.
Wrap Up:
These cases illustrate how epilepsy and its cause vary from a Chinese Medicine perspective – it’s important to look at the root causes of the symptoms and create a Chinese medicine treatment based on the symptoms and their severity.
A more detailed comparison of all these epilepsy cases will be presented in the final pieces in this series.
CMG Related Blog Entries:
CMG Responds: Obesity’s Risk Factors. In Obesity Risk factors blog entry, it states a Western Medicine study where two-thirds of Americans are “fat”. Being fat puts one at risk for a “laundry list” of risk factors -- with the top four being heart disease, diabetes, cancer and arthritis.
The piece then uses Tim Russert as an example of an obese person and how from a Chinese Medicine perspective one is susceptible to these four disease. The Chinese Medicine explanation centers around how fat, from a Western Medicine perspective, is similar to phlegm from a Chinese Medicine perspective. It then shows how this fat/phlegm accumulates around certain organs and tissues results in heart disease, diabetes, cancer and arthritis.
In Jon’s epilepsy case, we show how being obese also puts one at risk for epilepsy through a similar patho-mechanism, as described in the Obesity Risk Factors blog entry.
