Taboos of Mud Moxibustion

Many friends are familiar with mud moxibustion, and there are also many patients who receive mud moxibustion treatment. Mud moxibustion is a treatment method in traditional Chinese medicine. This method is not suitable for everyone, nor can it cure all diseases. There are many contraindications in its treatment. The therapeutic principle of mud moxibustion is to transfer heat through the acupuncture points to reach the diseased area, dredge the meridians, and achieve the purpose of treatment. Let’s take a closer look at the contraindications of mud moxibustion.

1. Mud moxibustion therapy is not suitable for patients with symptoms of real heat, yin deficiency fever, internal pathogenic heat, such as high fever, hypertensive crisis, late stage of pulmonary tuberculosis, massive hemoptysis, vomiting, severe anemia, acute infectious diseases, skin carbuncles, boils and fever.

2. Try not to apply moxibustion on the face, heart area, large blood vessels and tendons. Moxibustion on prohibited or cautious acupoints should be used with caution. Mud moxibustion is prohibited for patients with organic heart disease accompanied by heart failure, schizophrenia, and the abdomen and lumbar sacral area of ​​pregnant women. Mud moxibustion is not suitable for the face, body surface areas where large blood vessels pass, and near mucous membranes.

3. There are many records about forbidden acupuncture points in ancient literature, but there are discrepancies between various books and they are quite inconsistent. For example, the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Classic only lists 24 acupoints that are prohibited from moxibustion, while the Complete Works of Acupuncture and Moxibustion lists as many as 49. From the perspective of clinical practice, there is no need to prohibit moxibustion on most of the acupoints. However, for some acupoints on the head and face or near important organs and large blood vessels, moxibustion should be avoided as much as possible or appropriate moxibustion treatment should be selected, especially direct moxibustion.

During the mud moxibustion treatment, patients may sometimes experience dizziness, headaches, etc. during or after the treatment. Severe cases may even lead to insomnia. The author believes that the reasons for this phenomenon may be: 1. Those who are using mud moxibustion for the first time or have high blood pressure; 2. Using mud moxibustion after a meal or when hungry or overworked; 3. If mud moxibustion has been used before and the body has not shown any discomfort or the discomfort has improved, but dizziness, headaches, and worsening of physical discomfort occur after mud moxibustion, it is generally a benign reaction of the body's self-adjustment and a sign of improvement. Mud moxibustion treatment can continue.

When using mud moxibustion, some people feel extremely hot, while others do not feel too hot. Here we need to explain in detail that the feeling of heat is not the criterion for judging whether mud moxibustion is effective or not. Some patients have heavy cold in their bodies, which blocks their meridians and causes meridian insensitivity, so they do not feel obvious when using it. Generally, within 1 month of use, you will naturally feel it as the body continues to expel the cold. Another reason is that everyone has different levels of sensitivity. For the same disease, treated with the same mud moxibustion, some people may feel very hot while others may not feel hot. However, the immediate effect is unquestionable. Therefore, efficacy is the only criterion for judging mud moxibustion.

A small number of patients may experience increased pain during the use of mud moxibustion. This is a typical phenomenon of "Qi rushing to the lesion". This is caused by the strong evil Qi and weak righteous Qi, which cannot defeat the evil Qi. It will soon be relieved and is a normal reaction to the improvement of the condition. Please do not panic. Generally, the increased pain will stop after 2-3 days.