multi-system atrophy and jia wei er miao san

[Guest guest]

Hello,

 

I have a patient who has MSA (multi-system atrophy) which in his case

is characterized by loss of balance and tendency to fall, weakness and

heaviness in the legs (difficult and slow to walk) with sometimes a

sensation of warmth rising up the legs. His lower legs have edema. He

also has some paralysis of the vocal cords and therefore difficulty

speaking, and paralysis of the lower nerve of the bladder such that he

has to insert a catheter to be able to completely void his urine. He

has incontinence at night, with a large quantity urine, yellow color.

He also has loss of hand co-ordination such that it is difficult to write.

The specialists have said that in his case the MSA was caused by sleep

apnea which deprived part of his brain of oxygen. This is considered a

degenerative and incurable disorder.

 

 

His history includes lymphoma 20 yrs ago which was treated with chemo

and was cured. His thyroid was partly removed because of a " cold

nodule " so he takes thyroxin. His prostate was removed 4 or 5 years

ago because it was enlarged. He has surgury to remove stricters in

the urethra so that the catheter could go in.

 

His blood pressure is high, and he is taking 2 medications to control

that, as well as Thyroxin.

 

His tongue is dark red, swollen, with a thick yellow unrooted coat,

with little cracks running down the center, peeled sides, and trembling.

 

His pulses are variable; they seem to change all the time. Sometimes

very deep and hard to feel (sometimes not) Sometimes after the

treatment they come up and are much fuller (and sometimes don't) . . .

unfortunately difficult for me to interpret.

 

In 5 element terms, His color is yellow and white, his odor a sickly

fragrant/putrid, his sound is a weep or groan (but hard to tell

because of vocal cord paralysis), and his emotion is lack of joy or grief.

 

I started by recommending an anti-candida anti-phlegm diet, and

treated him with acupuncture 2x week for a few weeks, but we did not

see much progress, and he decided to stop acupuncture, because it was

such a huge effort to come to the appointments, get undressed and on

the table, etcetera.

 

I would like to precribe him a formula, jia wei er miao san is what

comes to mind, but I have never used this formula before, and as this

is a very difficult situation I would like some input from more

experienced herbalists.

 

My questions are:

 

Does this seem like an appropriate formula?

 

What tonic herbs should I add to address the underlying deficiencies

(if any)?

 

I believe han fang ji has been outlawed; what herb should I replace it

with?

 

Do you think it is safe to prescribe herbs to someone who is taking

Atacand and Dacsosha (a BP med; I am not sure of the spelling) as well

as Thyroxin?

 

Thank you,

 

Valerie