Moxibustion for the treatment of liver ascites

Some people find that they have ascites and experience swelling of the body, bloating and pain in the stomach, often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. You can choose to go to the hospital to drain ascites, or you can choose to take some medication to treat ascites, but in addition to these two methods, you can also choose to use acupuncture to treat it. Let’s learn about how moxibustion treats ascites.

Ascites due to liver cirrhosis is commonly known as hepatic ascites. A normal person has a small amount of free ascites in the abdominal cavity, generally about 50 ml, which plays a role in maintaining lubrication between organs. When there is too much free fluid in the abdominal cavity, it is called ascites. Ascites due to cirrhosis is a chronic liver disease. The liver is transformed into massive, nodular and diffuse types of hepatocytes, necrosis and regeneration; regeneration and necrosis promote the proliferation of tissue fibers and the contraction of scars, causing the liver to harden and form cirrhosis. Cirrhosis of the liver leads to decreased liver function, which causes portal hypertension, leading to splenomegaly, and the non-absorption of protein and vitamins, which results in the leakage of protein fluid and the formation of ascites.

The appearance of ascites is a signal that the organ function is beginning to seriously decline. When it reaches a certain level, diuretic drugs can only increase the burden on internal organs and cannot play any diuretic effect. Almost all internal medicine clinicians understand this: ascites is an extremely dangerous signal.

We can use traditional Chinese medicine moxibustion therapy to treat liver ascites and eliminate ascites in the body. The specific methods are as follows:

Moxibustion method:

Suspended moxibustion area

Three on top and four on bottom, the emphasis is on three on top! The so-called upper three and lower four are two acupoints: Shuifen and Qihai.

Place your ring finger on your belly button, and the area where your index finger presses is the water (three fingers above the belly button).

Place your index finger on your belly button, and the area where your little finger is pressed is the Qi Hai point (four fingers below the belly button).

How to operate

After lighting the moxa stick, keep it about 5 cm (about four fingers wide) away from the acupuncture point and roast it until there is no burning pain. If there is a burning sensation, raise it a little bit. After baking for a while, blow off the dust on the moxa stick and continue hanging the moxibustion. When doing moxibustion, you can use your little finger and ring finger as a fulcrum to maintain stability.

If the patient's nerves are insensitive, place your fingers near the patient's acupoints during roasting. Continue if your fingers can tolerate it. If it feels hot, raise it a little bit.

The reason why hanging moxibustion can dissipate ascites is actually just to enhance the body's water transport function a little bit. So if you want to dissipate severe ascites, just use your carefulness, attentiveness and patience to slowly perform moxibustion.

The patient's skin is not as sensitive as that of a normal person, so care must be taken to avoid getting burned. If blisters form during moxibustion, do not continue moxibustion on this point. If we miss the opportunity to moxibustion this point (the main point for water and diuresis), we may lose the chance to treat the patient (ascites in the late stage of liver cancer).

A small amount of ascites can be treated with decoctions. If chest congestion or severe chest congestion occurs (all the meridians in the chest and abdomen are blocked and there is only one day left to live), moxibustion and meridian-clearing therapy is safer than decoctions.