Dark Blood Spotting in TCM view??

[Guest guest]

as i mentioned in my previous msg, i started to spot again (2nd time)

in this cycle alone. is dark blood always considered as old blood/

blood clot?

 

marilyn

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " emailme_marilyn "

<emailme_marilyn wrote:

>

> as i mentioned in my previous msg, i started to spot again (2nd time)

> in this cycle alone. is dark blood always considered as old blood/

> blood clot?

 

From a previous post:

 

> im taking metformin 500mg and avandia 8mg.

 

For readers who are unfamiliar with metformin and avandia, they are

drugs used to treat type-2 non-insulin-dependent diabetes. They also

are used to treat Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)and increase a

woman's chance of conceiving though the FDA has not approved the drugs

for this use in the US.

 

One of the things about metformin is that it can interfere with the

absorption of some B vitamins, in particular B12.

 

http://www.drugs.com/metformin.html

 

" A decrease in vitamin B12 may also occur during metformin therapy.

Your doctor may want to monitor your blood levels of vitamin B12 and

you may need to take B12 supplements. A vitamin B12 deficiency may

rarely cause anemia. "

 

This following link on metformin and the treatment of PCOS gives even

more info on B vitamins - in particular B12 - and the drug:

 

http://www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/glucophage-metformin-pcos.html

 

Severe B12 deficiency is associated with Pernicious Anemia. Usually

the problem is due not to a shortage of B12 but to a deficiency of

something called " intrinsic factor " which enables the body to absorb

B12. Thus, the treatment for these cases is B12 injections which

bypass the problem with a deficiency of intrinsic factor. However,

some vegetarians are at inreased risk of B12 deficiency because of

their diets.

 

BUT, B12 deficiency is not just a matter of one either having or not

having Pernicious Anemia. There is no magic number in which everyone

on one side of the number is perfectly healthy and the people on the

other side have Pernicious Anemia. It's more complex than that. If a

person does not have enough B12 for the person's individual needs (not

some average but the individual's needs), problems other than

Perncious Anemia can start to appear.

 

B12 plays a major role in the production of properly-shaped and

flexible red blood cells. Long before the usual laboratory signs of

Perncious Anemia appear, there can be problems with high percentages

of mishapened, rigid red blood cells (aka " nondiscocytes " ). These

nondiscocytes usually have no problem making it through the arteries

and veins because of their relative large diameter. But they do have

trouble making it through the smallest capillaries. What we're talking

about here from a TCM standpoint is Blood Stasis.

 

Your doctor may want to check your B12 and folic acid levels. The

reason both need to be checked is that an excess of one can cause a

decrease in the other. Green leafy vegetables tend to be high in folic

acid. Sometimes pregnant women are given folic acid supplementation to

decrease the risk of certain neurological problems in the babies

they're carrying. If the woman is not receiving enough B12, this can

trigger an imbalance.

 

In The Foundations of , Giovanni Maciocia writes that

some of the usual questions about a woman's period may " have limited

value with regard to women who take the contraceptive pill, or had an

intra-uterine device fitted, or in multiparous women. " (p. 161).

Keeping that in mind, here is some of the basic info:

 

" Congealed blood with clots indicates stasis of Blood or Cold. Watery

blood indicates Blood or Yin deficiency.

 

" Turbid blood indicates Blood-Heat or stagnation of Cold. " (p. 161.)

 

" A dark-red or bright-red colour indicates Heat in the Blood. Pale

blood indicates Blood deficieny.

 

" Purple or blackish blood indicates stasis of Blood or Cold. Fresh-

red blood indicates Empty-Heat from Yin-Deficiency. " (p. 161.)

 

For more info on nondiscocytes and B12, see the work of L.O. Simpsom,

MD, NZ researcher.

 

The biggest risk from the two drugs is something called lactic

acidosis.

 

Info on avandia:

 

http://www.drugs.com/avandia.html

 

" Other, less serious side effects may be more likely to occur.

Continue using Avandia and talk with your doctor if you have any of

these side effects:

· easy bruising, pale skin; or

· sore throat, nasal discharge, cough, cold symptoms. "