Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease characterized by synovitis of the joints. Persistent and recurrent synovitis can lead to the destruction of articular cartilage and bone, joint dysfunction, and even disability. Vasculitis can involve various organs throughout the body, hence the disease is also referred to as Rheumatoid Disease. The condition predominantly affects the small joints of the hands, wrists, and feet, with symmetrical distribution and recurrent episodes. In the early stages, there is redness, swelling, heat, and pain in the joints, along with functional impairment. In the later stages, joints may exhibit varying degrees of stiffness and deformity, accompanied by atrophy of the bone and skeletal muscles, making disability highly likely. Rheumatoid Arthritis falls under the category of "Bi Syndrome" in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The pathogenesis involves insufficient vital energy, with external factors such as wind, cold, dampness, and heat invading the body, obstructing the meridians, and hindering the smooth flow of qi and blood, which leads to the development of this disease.
Wind-Dampness-Cold Type: Joint swelling and pain, migratory or with a fixed location, exacerbated by cold and alleviated by heat, limited joint mobility or local cooling, heavy limbs, numbness of the local skin, general chills and aversion to cold, loose stools, clear and long urine; pale tongue, white and greasy coating, pulse deep and tight or deep and slow.
Rheumatic Heat Type: The onset is relatively acute, with joint swelling, severe pain, local heat, redness, and inaccessibility by hand, limited movement, accompanied by fever, thirst, restlessness, preference for cold and aversion to heat, and dark yellow urine; the tongue is slightly red, with a dry white or yellow and rough coating, and the pulse is slippery and rapid or moist and rapid.
Qi and Blood Deficiency Type: Joint pain, swelling, and deformity, difficulty in walking and grasping, pale complexion, palpitations, fatigue, and general lethargy; pale and swollen tongue, thin and white coating, pulse deep, fine, tense, and tight.
Spleen and Kidney Yang Deficiency Type: Joint swelling and pain, long-term persistence with difficulty in healing, stiffness of the affected bones, limited movement, difficulty in flexion and extension, persistent dull pain, while also having a pale complexion, emaciated muscles, fatigue, reduced appetite, aversion to cold, sore and weak waist and legs, loose stools, clear and long urine, frequent nocturnal urination; pale tongue, thin and white coating, pulse deep, fine, and weak.
Liver and Kidney Yin Deficiency Type: Persistent joint pain or difficulty in movement with slight local heat, redness, and swelling, with pain more pronounced at night, accompanied by a thin physique, dizziness, blurred vision, tinnitus, dry throat, irritability, insomnia, hot soles of the feet and palms, and sore and weak waist and knees; red tongue, little or no coating, and a thin and rapid pulse.
Phlegm and Blood Stasis Obstruction Type: The condition has lasted for a long time, with joint rigidity, dark joints, severe pain, tendon stiffness, muscle atrophy, possible joint deformities, or the appearance of subcutaneous nodules, poor overall health, a purple tongue with stasis spots, and a moist and unsmooth pulse.
It is recommended to perform moxibustion once a day, targeting 2 to 3 acupoints each time, with each acupoint being treated for 30 to 40 minutes. Rotate the points treated, with a 10-day period constituting one course of treatment, and then rest for 2 to 3 days before continuing with the next course. (If time permits and there is a need, more acupoints can be treated with moxibustion. The specific duration should be adjusted according to one's own physical needs.)
1. Patients should develop scientific living and hygiene habits, actively preventing various inducing factors. Strengthen physical exercise to enhance their physical fitness. 2. Avoid eating foods that affect the stability of the body's immune function. For example, seafood such as shrimp and crab, and during rheumatoid flare-ups, avoid spicy and irritating foods. 3. Dietary therapy recipe: Rooster Soup. Clean a rooster, wrap 10 grams each of Achyranthes bidentata and papaya in a cloth, and place them inside the rooster's cavity. Add an appropriate amount of water and simmer. Eat the meat and drink the soup. Dry the remaining bones and take with yellow rice wine.