- Farida's TCM
Arthritis - Visible Stagnation..
Updated: Feb 15, 2021
Western Medicine separates between rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease where your own immune system starts attacking your joints (often symmetrically) and osteoarthritis, which can be described as a ‘wear and tear’ (degeneration) of your joint cartilage.
Both potentially cause pain, tender, stiff, and swollen joints, but in the case of RA, you may have additional, non-joint-related symptoms, as your immune system is involved.
In Chinese Medicine, wandering, dense pain is often categorized as ‘Wind-Damp’ that enters the body and sticks to areas where a deficiency exists. Basically, a pathogen finds a weak spot in the body to settle, in this case, a joint. Once an area is ‘blocked’ by these pathogens, Energy (Qi) and Blood cannot flow freely, get stagnant - pain & swelling follow. Pay attention if the pain gets better with application of Heat or with Cold packs, as this is a further pattern differentiation.