Urticaria, commonly known as hives, is a disease in which itchy wheals suddenly appear on the skin and mucous membranes.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that urticaria is mostly caused by wind evil. In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, wind is the first of all diseases and can cause various diseases. Wind evil attacks the human body, which will cause the flow of qi and blood to be poor, resulting in symptoms such as redness, swelling, itching and pain on the skin.
However, some patients are caused by cold and dampness, which retains the intestines and stops the skin outside, and recurs repeatedly for more than ten years, with continuous itching.
Fang, male, 35 years old, from Zaoyang, Henan.
Chief complaint: The whole body is itchy and itchy, and the wheal is formed when scratched, which has been repeated for more than ten years.
Medical history: The patient lives in a humid environment, usually likes to eat chili peppers and pasta, sedentary, increased socializing in the early years, and once appeared skin wheals after working overtime all night, which developed quickly and disappeared quickly. He was diagnosed with urticaria by a hospital, but for convenience, he took anti-allergy drugs orally. However, once the drug is stopped, symptoms will return after a day or two. Symptoms persisted for more than a decade, and patients relied on oral antihistamines to control symptoms. He came to the clinic on November 22, 2022.
Symptoms: fear of cold, sweating a lot, obvious sweating on the head, itchy body, wheal when scratched, itchy throat cough, dry mouth, dry eyes, heavy feeling in the lower back, sometimes stomach distention, stomach acceptance, stool two lines a day, smooth, rotten and sticky, yellow urine. Sleep is available.
Tongue image: The tongue is pale and fat, pale and succulent, and cleft.
Prescription: Rehmannia Rehmannia, Angelica sinensis, Cinnamon Branch, Cinnamon (lower back), Jujube, Ginger, Salvia, Calamus, Red Ginseng Tablets, Artemisia Artemisia Leaf, Sophora Sophora, Boiled Licorice, Hemp Seed, Red Vine, Pig Shell, Chicken Arrow Vine, Raw Ephedra, Almond, White Peony, Fried Coix Seed.
Analysis: The pathogenesis of this case should be the cold and dampness of the intestines, the external suspension, and the deficiency of kidney essence.
During the booming period of Mr. Fang's work, his spleen and stomach were overwhelmed by frequent socializing, and drinking and eating irregularly damaged the yang energy of his spleen and stomach.
If the spleen and yang are lost, the human body will mobilize the kidney yang to warm the spleen yang, and this will be the case for a long time, resulting in the loss of the yang energy of the spleen and kidney.
The spleen and stomach are the hub of the body's qi, the main transportation artery, and the place where water and dampness are metabolized in the human body.
If the spleen and yang are insufficient, the excess water and dampness cannot be sent to the outside of the body, and if it stays in the skin, there will be skin itching and wheals; It cannot be excreted for a long time, resulting in intestinal cold and dampness retention. At the same time, the patient is often sedentary and has a damp residence, which causes cold and dampness.
The patient's left pulse is thin and weak, and the tongue is cracked, indicating that the kidney essence is deficient, the kidney qi is insufficient and the kidney yang is insufficient, and the waist is not warm and warm, and the cold and dampness are easy to stay in the waist, and there are symptoms such as backache and low back pain, nocturia, cold hands and feet, and cold intolerance.
Vegetarian loves spicy food, so it is easy to overtake the false fire. Staying up all night a few days before the onset of the disease, the kidney deficiency and fire became more and more aggravated.
Although oral antihistamines can inhibit the immune response for a short time, they will also inhibit the body's Qingyang qi, so many people will have adverse reactions such as tiredness and drowsiness after eating, because antihistamines only inhibit the righteous qi, so that the righteous qi and the evil qi do not react, so as to cover up the symptoms, but they cannot effectively get rid of the cold and dampness evil qi, tolerate and nourish adultery, so the drug will relapse when the drug is stopped.
The treatment in this case should be based on the method of removing cold and dampness on the surface and cultivating the kidney essence.
In the formula, half a decoction of cinnamon ephedra and six medicines for the intestines are sparse and leaked internally, then the cold and dampness have nothing to hide, and the lungs are open and the intestines are smooth, the lung and stomach can go down, and the void fire can also dive down.
The soup of cinnamon and ephedra is composed of ephedra, cinnamon branches, white peony, almonds, jujubes, and ginger. There is an unresolved wind and cold outside, and there is a lack of righteousness inside, and the body must not sweat lightly, so the itching will recur. Stir-fried atractylodes and fried coix seeds help dehumidify; Angelica, Rehmannia and cinnamon to nourish the kidneys; Red ginseng, salvia, calamus and cinnamon are combined with cinnamon to warm up moisture, open up the blood vessels, promote the operation of the heart and blood vessels, and discharge metabolites.
Second diagnosis: On November 27, the patient re-examined, complained that the itching symptoms were significantly reduced, and the onset time was also extended to once every 5 days.
Prescription: Goji Berry, Cuscuta Seed, Schisandra Chinensis, Psyllium Seed (Package), Raspberry, Morinda Morinda Root, Cistanche, Polygonum Multiflori, Artemisia Artemisia Leaf, Sophora Sophora, Hemp Seed, Chicken Arrow, Red Vine, Pig Shell, Salvia, Calamus.
Analysis: The patient's symptoms improved significantly, the cold and dampness on the lung surface were basically removed, and the treatment method was changed to nourish the kidney essence and clear the blood veins. Fang uses Wuzi Yanzong Pill to nourish the essence of the kidney, uses Cistanche, Morinda officinalis, and Shou Wu to share the kidney yang, and uses Salvia, Calamus and six medicines to open the intestines, pass the small intestine, and smooth the blood veins.
The patient complained of continued relief of shoulder, neck and lumbar pain, occasional numbness in the hands, dizziness decreased, fatigue and drowsiness.
Comment: In this case, Western medicine diagnosed "urticaria", which is believed to be mainly related to allergic reactions. However, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, there is no such thing as "allergies".
"Allergies" are actually caused by the feeling of the same qi as the latent evil qi in the body and the external evil qi. When this phase qi is dominated by cold and dampness and wind evil (including internal wind caused by blood deficiency), the patient will show "allergic" symptoms such as itching, wheals, and edema. For example, shrimp and crabs live under the water and have cold and damp turbidity, if the patient with dampness in the gastrointestinal tract eats it, it will inevitably lead to gastrointestinal dampness (that is, edema of the gastrointestinal mucosa) and diarrhea; If there is dampness on the surface of the lungs at the same time, it will inevitably cause wheals and itching of the skin at the same time.
Another example is the pollen endowment and moisture in spring, and patients who are known to have wind and dampness will inevitably be "allergic" and cause symptoms when they come into contact with it. The smell of pollen and cigarettes in autumn, as well as the smell of most perfumes, are dry, and patients with blood deficiency and wind will inevitably have "allergic" reactions when they come into contact with it. In terms of treatment, only by removing the evil qi in the patient's body and replenishing the righteous qi can the "allergies" disappear completely. Otherwise, no amount of antihistamines or hormones can only control the symptoms temporarily.