As the weather gets colder, the number of patients with facial paralysis begins to increase. Some people wake up after a night of sleep and find that half of their faces cannot move. This is simply too terrifying. This disease is called facial paralysis. So, what is this disease all about?
"Facial paralysis", also known as facial neuritis, commonly known as facial nerve paralysis (i.e. facial nerve paralysis), "crooked mouth", "hanging thread wind", is a disease characterized by motor dysfunction of facial expression muscles.
In fact, the disease can occur in any season. The cause of the disease we usually hear is that the windows are not closed at night, or the air conditioner is blown, which will cause the disease. It is a common disease, frequently-occurring disease, not subject to age restrictions. The general symptom is crooked mouth and eyes, which is also called crooked mouth and eyes in Chinese medicine. The patient's face on the affected side droops, and the mouth is tilted to the other side. At the same time, the most basic movements such as raising the eyebrows, closing the eyes, and puffing the mouth are often unable to be completed.
The facial paralysis we are talking about here is called peripheral facial paralysis. It is caused by internal problems, such as stroke, intracranial tumor, etc. This kind of Chinese medicine is called "middle viscera", which is more serious. In the past, common people called these two types of stroke, but in fact, there is a difference between the two. In some areas, peripheral facial paralysis is called "mini-stroke", which I think is quite vivid.
In the past two days, I have sorted out the disease of facial paralysis for everyone!
👉First of all, what causes this facial paralysis?
Let me sort it out for you:
1. Insufficient righteousness: This is a fundamental problem. A Chinese doctor once said in a chat, why do most of the facial paralysis patients I see have spleen and stomach problems? For example, people whose stools are always shapeless? In fact, this is the lack of righteousness. A person with sufficient righteousness will not be easily disturbed by external evils. Therefore, this is the underlying cause of the disease.
2. Cold on the face: On this point, Chinese medicine and Western medicine are unprecedentedly consistent. In fact, Western medicine seldom admits that some diseases are caused by cold, what cold and wind evil? However, Western medicine will also tell you to avoid cold wind as much as possible for this disease, because they also believe that one of the pathogenic factors is cold air, which leads to facial nerve spasm, edema and necrosis. In Chinese medicine, this is called cold evil, and wind-cold injury is often an important reason. In this season, when you go to the hospital, you will find that most of the patients with facial paralysis are caused by the cold wind when they sleep without closing the windows at night, or because they sleep with the air conditioner on and are blown by the cold wind.
3. Liver fire: This is an important reason. Firstly, it is bad mood and uncomfortable liver qi, which then leads to liver fire. This kind of internal fire plus external cold makes the disease more complicated. I once saw a girl who broke up with her boyfriend, but her boyfriend still pestered her every day. The girl suffered from mental torture for a long time, and her liver qi was uncomfortable. As a result, she woke up one day and suddenly had facial paralysis. This is due to internal causes. In this case, most patients have Sudden easy to get angry, a precursor to bad temper.
4. Viral infection: In traditional Chinese medicine, this is an exopathogen lurking, called subduing evil, and in terms of nature, it belongs to heat poison. Doctor trained in Western medicine says that there are reasons such as herpes virus hidden in the human body, decreased immunity, etc., leading to the onset of the disease, which causes facial neuritis and facial paralysis. This etiology, and the previous two in traditional Chinese medicine are mutual cause and effect, and are mutually conditioned, and the virus may attack when you catch a cold, or the virus will attack when you get angry. Such patients will have pain in front of or behind the ears before the onset of the disease, and even this pain runs through the entire disease process.
There are very many patients with facial paralysis caused by viral infection, which is worthy of attention.
5. Caused by dental surgery: The dentist will not admit it, they think there is no relationship between the two. But it is true that many patients with facial paralysis develop the disease after dental operations such as tooth extraction. In fact, the facial organs are interlinked, and the nerves often run next to each other, so infections will also affect each other. Most of these are bacterial infections.
6. Other bacterial infections: For example, some ear-derived diseases, otitis media can cause facial paralysis, and other bacterial infections of the facial features can also be the cause, but ear infections are the most common cause.
7. Other reasons: such as metabolic disorders, diabetes, etc., some are caused by poisoning, some are caused by vascular insufficiency, etc., but these types are relatively rare and can be ignored.
👉So, what are the symptoms of facial paralysis?
The main manifestation of facial paralysis is that the facial expression muscles on the affected side are paralyzed. When the eyebrows are raised, the forehead wrinkles on the affected side disappear, the eye clefts expand, the nasolabial folds become flat, and the corners of the mouth droop. The drooping of the corners of the mouth and the tilting of the face are more pronounced when smiling or grinning. The affected side cannot perform actions such as wrinkling forehead, frowning, closing eyes, blowing air, and pouting. When puffing the cheeks and whistling, air leakage occurs because the lips of the affected side cannot be closed. When eating, food residues are often stranded in the tooth-buccal space of the diseased side, and saliva often drips down from the side. Since the puncta are everted with the lower eyelids, the tears cannot be drained normally and overflow.
The vast majority of facial paralysis is on one side, and it is particularly strange that it is more common on the right side. Some patients may have hypogeusia in the front 2/3 of the tongue, and some patients may have hyperacusis.
👉So, how to treat facial paralysis?
Let me sort it out for you!
First of all, the first week or so after suffering from facial paralysis is the acute stage. During this period, the disease develops rapidly, and timely treatment will get twice the result with half the effort, otherwise the subsequent adjustments will be more troublesome.
1. If you catch a cold, you must be vigilant when you first catch a cold. This is the first stage. If you deal with it in time, the problem can be solved soon. The best prescription at this time should be the classic prescription: Gegen Decoction.
I remember that when I had a brother from Qingdao, he went to work in the seaport in winter, and when he came back, he felt numb on one side of his face, so he called me immediately, and I prescribed kudzu root soup for him, and he went to the pharmacy to get the medicine. The Chinese medicine doctor looked at it and said it was a "classic prescription!" After my friend took the medicine, the symptoms were quickly relieved, and the disease did not continue to develop. This is the first time he caught the cold to deal with it, and the effect will be very good.
At this stage, some traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions for dispelling cold and dredging collaterals are also acceptable, and some wind medicines commonly used in clinical practice, such as Qianghuo, Fangfeng, Angelica dahurica, and Ephedra, are all acceptable.
2. Internal heat: In this case, the patient usually has stagnant heat in the body and feels external cold at the same time.
Let me cite a few prescriptions with Chinese medicine experience that have this compatibility, and explain them to you.
For example, Mr. Zhang Qiucai, an old Chinese doctor in Hebei, has the following formula for his Juqing Gegen Decoction:
15 grams of chrysanthemum, 15 grams of kudzu root, 30 grams of Daqingye, 10 grams of Fangfeng, 10 grams of Angelica dahurica, 10 grams of cicada slough, 10 grams of silkworm, 10 grams of Chuanxiong, and 6 grams of licorice.
This is Mr. Zhang's experience. He believes that in any season, if you suffer from facial paralysis, as long as you have peripheral facial paralysis, you can use this prescription without any other treatment. In this prescription, Fangfeng, Angelica dahurica, Cicada slough, Bombyx silkworm dispel cold and clear the collaterals, chrysanthemum, Folium chinensis and other medicines clear the heat in the interior, this is a prescription with both external and internal solutions.
Mr. Zhang believes that after taking it for a week or two, you can add 15 grams of astragalus and 10 grams of angelica to nourish qi and blood. For pain behind the ears, you can add 10 grams of Bupleurum bupleurum and 10 grams of Scutellaria baicalensis to relieve Shaoyang. For those with red tongue due to yin deficiency, you can add trichosanthes or dendrobium to nourish yin.
To give another example, Mr. Zhang Qionglin from Anhui Province has "Facial Paralysis One-Diagnosis Qianzheng Drink". This prescription is taken from the beginning of the illness. Generally, after seven treatments, the basic recovery can be achieved, so it is called "One-diagnosis Qianzheng Drink". Some Chinese medicine practitioners have tried it and think that the effect is indeed as described. This prescription is as follows:
25 grams of honeysuckle, 15 grams of forsythia, 20 grams of kudzu root, 10 grams of Qianghuo, 20 grams of silkworm, 15 grams of cicada slough, 15 grams of red peony, 10 grams of Fangfeng, 15 grams of wild chrysanthemum, osmanthus twigs Six grams, six grams of licorice.
This recipe needs to be soaked in water overnight, soaked for two hours in summer, and then boiled for a while.
In this prescription, Fangfeng, Guizhi, Notopterygium dispel cold, and honeysuckle, forsythia, and wild chrysanthemum detoxify and clear internal heat. It is also a prescription for dispelling external cold and clearing internal heat.
There are many similar prescriptions, all of which are the experience of Chinese medicine, which are worth summarizing.
Ordinary patients basically miss the stage of just catching cold, and now there are many people with internal fire, so this kind of external cold and internal heat is the state of most patients. If this kind of prescription can be used at this time, it will be beneficial to It is very beneficial to control the disease.
3. Du Sheng: So is it true that all facial paralysis can be treated with the previous prescription? I don't think so. There are many causes of facial paralysis, and the syndrome types are more complicated, which requires accurate certification. There is also a state of poisoning, which needs to be paid attention to. Such patients have obvious facial pain, such as pain in the front or back of the ear, and some cannot sleep all night, and the pain is unbearable. In this case, Western medicine believes that there is often herpes virus inside Attacks, such as the herpes zoster virus, lead to inflammation of the facial nerve, edema and necrosis, and thus facial paralysis.
In this case, traditional Chinese medicine believes that the excess of heat and toxin is related to liver fire, accumulated heat, phlegm dampness and blood stasis in the body. Generally, for mild patients, it is enough to use the previous prescription to clear and detoxify. However, for some severe patients, if the heat toxin cannot be relieved at this time, it will lead to facial nerve necrosis, which will cause poor prognosis and cause irreparable damage. There are many stubborn patients who have not been cured for many years, but they have not been treated well at this stage, resulting in failure to recover in the end.
At this time, my experience is to use Puji Antiseptic Drink, which is Li Dongyuan's prescription, which is specially designed to detoxify the head and face. It has a very specific target, and its positioning is as accurate as a guided missile. If such severe pain occurs, it can be used immediately, and the heat poison will be relieved immediately.
There was once a patient who suffered from facial pain after the onset of the disease. He described it as pain in the front and back of the ear, which was especially severe at night and could hardly sleep, and it was milder during the day. I asked a western doctor, because I didn't see herpes in my ear, so I can only say it's neuralgia, don't worry about it. But the patient's condition did not improve. So I used Puji Antiseptic Drink, and after drinking one pair, the pain basically disappeared. After drinking two pairs, the pain was no longer there. At the same time, with the cooperation of acupuncture and moxibustion, the facial muscles began to recover obviously, and various movements could be performed.
For facial paralysis caused by tooth extraction, the treatment method can refer to the idea of Puji Xiaoxiaoyin, which is also to remove heat and poison, control the situation, and prevent further damage to the facial nerve.
4. Acupuncture: Acupuncture has a very unique effect in the treatment of facial paralysis, but for the acute progression within seven days, there are many disputes about whether to use acupuncture or moxibustion. Western medicine often advises against piercing because of fear of damaging the nerves, while Chinese medicine has its own opinions.
As far as I know, acupuncture and moxibustion can be performed during the seven-day period of acute progression. The specific method is to pierce the healthy side, such as the Jache and Dicang points, and the Hegu point on the healthy side, in conjunction with Yintang and other governor channels. Acupoints, but for the affected side, it is necessary to select fewer acupoints and pierce them shallowly. Many acupuncturists reported that in the acute stage, such pricking works very well.
It should be noted that the side of the face that hangs down is the affected side (the diseased side), and the contracted side is the healthy side (the healthy side), because the healthy muscles contract normally, and the muscles on the diseased side are weak. Being involved in the past, the face will be tilted to the healthy side. General medical workers know this truth, but ordinary people often feel confused.
So, how does western medicine deal with this stage? Western medicine has two ideas, one is to use hormones to control infection, and the other is to use drugs that nourish the nerves, such as vitamin b1 and vitamin b12. I have checked the literature and found that hormones have little effect on the prognosis of patients. I think that if traditional Chinese medicine is used properly, hormones may not be used. As for nerve-nourishing drugs such as vitamins, it doesn’t matter if you use them. As for various nerve factors and other drugs, I am not optimistic about their effects, and you can decide whether to use them or not.
In addition, some Western doctors believe that facial paralysis is a self-limiting disease, and no treatment is needed. After the acute phase of about a week passes, the body will recover by itself. However, some people who are against Chinese medicine use this as an excuse to say that Chinese medicine is treating diseases that would otherwise be cured. In fact, this is very wrong. Some people with this disease will indeed heal on their own, just like common exogenous infectious diseases. If you think about it carefully, if you have a cold or pneumonia, what will happen if you don’t treat it? Also two, the body recovered by itself, or became heavier. However, we cannot stop treating these diseases because they have a certain rate of possibility of self-healing. We must fight the most certain battle to maximize the recovery of patients. This is a medical ethics issue. Advantages, hormones and neurotrophins are also prescribed. Is this also treating a disease that would otherwise heal itself? Moreover, many of the patients we have seen are very serious, and some have not recovered for decades and are disfigured for life. This is sad. In foreign countries, we often see such old people with crooked faces. , is the result of untreated disease.
After the acute phase passes, the disease enters the recovery period of the body. However, many patients recover slowly. Once they do not recover within three months, the nerve damage will be difficult to recover. Most of the medical circles believe that facial paralysis after three months is refractory disease.
External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine, especially acupuncture and moxibustion, has a very unique effect on this disease, which is the contribution of our ancestors to mankind. On this issue, I once specifically asked my friend for many years, Mr. Dong Baoqiang, the vice president of the School of Acupuncture and Moxibustion of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Dean Dong is a master of acupuncture and moxibustion. The problem is that the meridians are blocked everywhere, leading to the stagnation of qi and blood, which is transmitted layer by layer, and the problem is finally reflected on the face, so he treats diseases by considering the whole body and making local breakthroughs. I am amazed by his theoretical system, and I am very happy.
Next time I have a chance, I will continue to talk with you about the disease of facial paralysis and Mr. Dong's clinical thinking.
