Guest guest Posted April 11, 2000 Report Share Posted April 11, 2000 In the post of Kidney Jing Deficiency, I made the statement that the Kidney Jing Deficiency pattern is derived from the Kidney Qi Deficiency pattern which in turn is derived from the Qi Deficiency pattern. The Kidney Jing Deficiency has all the symptoms of Kidney Qi Deficiency plus some like serious development problems, premature aging, brittle bones, etc. I want to go more into how patterns can be derived from patterns, but I want to do it with Liver Yin Deficiency. I also want to offer a review for long-term readers and reintroduce some info for new readers. In Wicke's first text book, he goes from the general to the specific in diagnosis. The first thing the reader learns is Diagnosis by the Eight Principal Patterns. These are Exterior & Interior, Excess & Deficiency, Hot & Cold, and Yang & Yin. He gives the general symptoms of say Interior Deficiency Cold (Yang Deficiency). The remarks for this condition apply to all Interior Deficiency Cold (Yang Deficiency) conditions. Then a few chapters later he goes into how Spleen Yang Deficiency, Kidney Yang Deficiency, etc. will differ from each other. He goes from the general to the specific. I want to demonstrate this with Liver Yin Deficiency. I also want to offer a review for long-term readers about how to differenciate TCM syndromes. First, let's start with the general symptoms of Interior Heat. By now some of you will start to remember the very general symptoms of Internal Heat, regardless if the cause is Excess Heat or Deficiency Heat. All Internal Heat conditions will have the symptoms of the person feels too hot and will be bothered by hot. The person will tend to be thirsty and want cold drinks. The urine will tend to be dark-colored and scanty. If there is pain or discomfort, cold will relieve it, hot will make it worse. Body movements and speech will tend to be rapid. The tongue will be red, and the pulse will be rapid. These remarks apply to all Internal Heat conditions regardless of rather or not they are Excess conditions or Deficiency conditions. So how do you tell if the condition is Excess or Deficiency? First, let's review what an Excess and a Deficiency condition are. In Excess conditions there is a problem because of too much of something. In the case of Excess Heat, there is too much infection, too much spicy food, too much Phlegm (any Phlegm is too much), etc. In Deficiency conditions there is too little of something. In this case, too little Yin. Yin cools and calms the body. In Yin Deficiency (Interior Deficiency Heat) conditions, there is not enough Yin to cool the body adequately, and Heat arises because of the Deficiency of Yin. What are the symptoms that will tell you rather the Heat is Excess or Deficiency? In an Excess condition the breathing will tend to be heavy and rasping if the breathing is being affected. In Deficiency, the breathing will be shallow with perception of shortness of breath if there are breathing problems. There are some other things as well. Remember how cold will relieve pain and discomfort in any Heat condition? Well, pressure will aggravate pain and discomfort when the root is Excess; it will relieve pain coming from a Deficiency condition. In both Excess and Deficiency Heat, the movements and speech will tend to be rapid. But, in Excess Heat the movements and speech will tend to be both rapid and forceful. In Deficiency Heat the movements and speech will tend to be rapid but weak. Looking at the tongue coating is one of the best ways to distinguish Excess from Deficiency. In Excess conditions, the tongue coating with be thick. In Deficiency conditions the tongue coating will tend to be thinner than normal or absent altogether. I want all of you to get a mirror and look at your tongue. Notice if the coating is thick, thin, or absent. Now, ask some family members and friends to show you their tongues. If you see some thick coatings, chances are the person *may* have an Excess condition. If the tongue coating is very thin or absent, changes are the person *may* have a Deficiency condition. I say *may* because at this point most of you don't know that much about tongue diagnosis, don't know what a normal tongue coating looks like, and could be mistaken about what is abnormal and what is normal. But this is a good way to start learning tongue diagnosis as long as you don't take your findings too seriously at this state. (See the Giovanni Maciocia website for some pictures of tongues and explanations.) The pulse will tend to be rapid in all cases of Internal Heat. But, in the Excess Heat conditions it will be both rapid and strong. You can feel that sucker very clearly no matter how much or how little pressure you put on the wrist. In cases of Deficiency Heat, the pulse will be rapid but weak. You will have trouble feeling the pulse. Another distinguishing characteristics between Excess and Deficiency is that all Deficiency states (Yang, Yin, Qi, Blood) have fatigue as a symptom. A distiguishing characteristic between Interior Excess Heat and Interior Deficiency Heat is that even though dark-colored, scanty urine is a symptom of both, in Excess Heat the urine will tend to smell stronger than in the case of Deficiency Heat. The same remarks apply to bowel movements. In Excess Heat conditions, the bowel movment will tend to stink a lot more than in Deficiency Heat conditions. Now that we've looked at differentiating Interior Excess Heat from Interior Deficiency Heat, let's finetune this to looking specifically at Interior Deficiency Heat in the Liver (Liver Yin Deficiency). You're going to find most of the general symptoms of Internal Heat, most of the general symptoms of Internal Deficiency Heat, but you're also going to find some symptoms that tend to occur most often when the Interior Deficiency Heat is in the Liver. Remember how the eyes and vision are considered part of the Liver system? Well, when it comes to Interior Deficiency Heat in the Liver (Liver Yin Deficieny), in addition to all the general symptoms of Internal Deficiency Heat there may also be vison problems. Things like blurred vision and the eyes being dry. (Yin cools and moistures. There's not enough Yin in the Liver, the eyes don't get moistened and are dry.) In Liver Yin Deficiency there also tends to be dizziness and light-headed sensations. Remember how the emotion of anger is most associated with the Liver and Gallbladder. Well, in cases of Liver Yin Deficiency, you may see irritability. Crabbiness. You may also see depression as some cases of depression are due to unacknowledged anger. What are some of the differences between Liver Yin Deficiency (Interior Deficiency Heat) and Yin Deficiency in some of the other systems. In Kidney Yin Deficiency the fatigue is much more pronounced than when Yin Deficiency affects other systems. All Deficiency states have fatigue as a symptom (Qi, Blood, Yang, or Yin). But in cases of Yin Deficiency, the fatigue may be masked by nervousness (Yin calms). The exception to this is when it's Kidney Yin Deficiency. In cases of Kidney Yin Deficiency the fatigue is not masked and is very apparent. Also, in cases of Kidney Yin Deficiency, there will be pain in the lower back. In all cases of Kidney imbalances there will tend to be pain and discomfort and even weakness in the lower back. This is one clue that the Kidney system possibly is involved. In Deficiency of Stomach Yin, the accent is on stomach problems. In addition to the general symptoms of Interior Deficiency Heat, you amy see dry vomiting or belching, and dry mouth and lips. The pain will tend to be in the epigastric area (upper middle part of the abdomen, there area where the stomach is). You can see something odd when it comes to thrist. Even though the person is thirsty a lot and desires cold drinks (typical of any Interior Heat condtion), the person may not wish to swallow. Stomach Yin Deficiency also is the Deficiency condition where you're the most likely to see no tongue coating or tongue coating absent in patches. In Deficiency conditions in general, the tongue coating tends to be thinner than normal, but there usually is a coating. When it comes to Yin Deficiency, its more likely to be absent. This is especially true when it's Stomach Yin Deficiency. When it comes to Yin Deficiency and the Lung, you guessed it. The accent will be on breathing problems, irritating, non-productive coughs, scratchy throat, really thick mucus (Phlegm) when any occasionally is coughed up, etc. In addition to the usual Heat symptom of is thirsty a lot and desires cold drinks, the throat may be dry. Night sweats may be really pronounced with this Yin Deficiency. Victoria --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Share what you know. Learn what you don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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