Recurring cold/flu after acupuncture or massage

[Guest guest]

Hi all -

 

I have a patient that reports getting a cold or flu within a day or two of

getting massage or acupuncture. It's happened twice with me, and twice with a

massage therapist. She's a healthy 37 year old woman. Slight Sp and Lu Qi Xu.

Both times she came in for low back pain, and I did a simple back shu pt

treatment, with cups. She always reports feeling great after the treatment.

She is well aware of the importance of bundling up and staying out of cold and

wind, esp after treatments.

 

To me this sounds like potential wei qi xu, I just find it strange that she

doesn't seem to get sick much outside of these experiences. Have others on this

group seen patients that respond this way? And is their something I can do

differently to reduce her risk of getting sick after?

 

I've recommended she take Yu Ping Feng San, but I'd love to hear more

acupuncture specific suggestions.

 

Thank you!

 

Sean Michael Hall, L.Ac.

East Bay Acupuncture & Natural Medicine

2346 Stuart St.

Berkeley, CA 94705

(510) 457-8886

http://www.ebacupuncture.com

[Guest guest]

Hi Sean,

 

While more details are needed to reach a firm conclusion, those events that

your patient identifies as " cold " may not be " new " attacks by external

pathogenic factors. Indeed, why would that happen? In general, after

treatments (either massage or acupuncture) the flow of her qi should be

somewhat mobilized. Of course, you should make sure your patient is well

hydrated before and after treatments, and counsel her against strenuous

exercise, showers, etc. after her treatments -- to help prevent new epf's

from entering her.

 

Her apparent " slight spleen and lung qi xu " may indeed by a trapping and

displacement of wei qi to store unresolved pathogenic factors, generally in

either the luo or channel divergences. While it's possible that cupping may

have exhausted her wei qi, that therapy also helps bring unresolved pf's to

the surface, and the back-shu points should free up yuan qi to more

effectively support post-natal qi (wei and ying), which could easily

precipitate a " healing event. " Indeed, her " not getting sick " other than

after treatments may not be such a good thing. Instead of regularly

profusing wei qi to flush out any external pathogenic factors she

encounters, her embodied spirit may simply tolerate them, and store them

away. Your treatments and those of the massage therapist may, unbeknownst to

both of you, simply be dislodging some previously stored epf's and releasing

them to the exterior. While from the personality's " naive " point of view,

she gets sick after treatments, which it considers a " bad thing, " from her

embodied spirit's point of view those events may indeed be a very good

thing.

 

I've seen many hundreds of patients during the past dozen years who have

experienced such " healing events " after treatments (since I'd learned to

identify them as such). In general, those patients experience some

improvements in other functions after those events, so question and examine

your patient carefully. At least one of the participants in my seminar

series on the channel systems in San Diego has already experienced that

phenomena in both herself and one of her patients; the seminar participant's

event was after a simple sinew treatment to free up wei qi. You can read the

brief online

discussion<http://www.ccmforhealing.com/2010/02/liberating-wei-qi-can-be-volatil\

e/>about

those experiences, if you wish.

 

Steve

 

>

>

> Hi all -

>

> I have a patient that reports getting a cold or flu within a day or two of

> getting massage or acupuncture. It's happened twice with me, and twice with

> a massage therapist. She's a healthy 37 year old woman. Slight Sp and Lu Qi

> Xu. Both times she came in for low back pain, and I did a simple back shu pt

> treatment, with cups. She always reports feeling great after the treatment.

> She is well aware of the importance of bundling up and staying out of cold

> and wind, esp after treatments.

>

> To me this sounds like potential wei qi xu, I just find it strange that she

> doesn't seem to get sick much outside of these experiences. Have others on

> this group seen patients that respond this way? And is their something I can

> do differently to reduce her risk of getting sick after?

>

> I've recommended she take Yu Ping Feng San, but I'd love to hear more

> acupuncture specific suggestions.

>

> Thank you!

>

> Sean Michael Hall, L.Ac.

> East Bay Acupuncture & Natural Medicine

> 2346 Stuart St.

> Berkeley, CA 94705

> (510) 457-8886

> http://www.ebacupuncture.com

>

>

>