AIDS tx

[Guest guest]

The ITM book called the Key Link summarizes the developments during

that time. Fruehauf is co-author. the book is cheap. call

503-233-4907. In a nutshell, we found the bian zheng of AIDS

patients to be different in distribution than previous writings had

suggested.

 

We attributed this largely to climactic differences between cold,

damp Portland, where we were and hot dry California where much of the

early work had been done. We thus found a high degree of damp,

dampheat, phlegm and qi xu, but a very rare incidence of pure yin xu.

 

Later stage patients tended more towards yang xu and moxa became and

remains the central therapy used for these patients at ITM.

 

Heiner, myself and a japanese style palpation acupuncturist came at

this problem from three angles. Heiner used shang han lun six stage

theory to form his framework of understanding. I relied on TCM bian

zheng in every case and basically ignored the prevailing writings on

yin xu. Charles Wilk discovered that the majority of late stage

patients had kidney cold type abdominal conformations in his system

and early stage ones were shaoyang, according to both Heiner and

Charles. I diagnosed liver depression, qi xu and phlegm in early

cases, which concurred with Fruehauf's use of xiao yao san, chai hu

gui zhi tang or si ni san as the base rx for these pt. Giving these

yang tonics and warming herbs or liver rx helped empirically, further

confirming this position. We actually used questionaires, scales and

other valid measuring devices to track such changes.

 

, " Mark Reese " <tcm2@e...> wrote:

>

>

> I have followed your comments, classes, and articles with great

interest.

> I to the Institute of Traditional Medicine's (ITM) START

group

> mailings (some of the best sources of practical herbal info I've

ever

> found), and have read the Fruehauf articles that ITM puts out as

well as

> purchased his booklet put out by ITM. So I was especially

tantalized by

> your comment that Fruehauf's ideas about HIV/AIDS revolutionized

your

> treatments at the Immune Enhancement Project.

>

> About 15% of my client base are HIV+, and working in an HIV clinic

was what

> originally prompted my interest in TCM. I follow ITM's information

on HIV

> closely, as well as trying to hark back to very traditional

approaches to

> patients' symptomology.

>

> I'm interested in hearing more about Freuhauf's approach or

thoughts

on

> HIV. Perhaps others in the group have a similar patient

[Guest guest]

 

 

I work in a TCM HIV clinic in Seattle, and I agree that HIV patients (at

least in this region) often times present with spleen weakness, dampness, qi

stagnation and heat (appears to be in the ying level and expresses itself in

the upper burner while the spleen tends towards cold), which leads me to a

yin fire diagnosis.

 

Is this consistent with your thinking? I know that you are appreciative of

Li Dong Yuan's theories, but I noticed that you didn't mention yin fire when

describing your assessment of HIV patients which surprised me.

 

Dave Lerner