What is stroke?

Many people may be familiar with major stroke, because we usually see stroke patients in our lives, and even more often, we can see stroke patients. However, despite this, there are still relatively few people who truly understand what stroke is, and many people's understanding of stroke is only at the most superficial stage. Stroke is a disease of our human body, and the incidence of stroke in the past two years is still very high.

There are still many treatments for stroke in reality, but the general methods are not very effective in treating stroke, so many people often seek other unknown methods. In fact, if we want to cure stroke, we must understand the disease of stroke from its essence. So, let’s take a look at what stroke is.

Stroke, the name of a disease in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is divided into external wind and internal wind. External wind is caused by external evil (wind evil), and is called stroke in "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" (also known as Guizhi Decoction syndrome); internal wind is a syndrome of internal injury, also known as para-stroke, cerebral infarction, stroke, and wind rash. In modern times, it is generally called a stroke, which mostly refers to a type of stroke caused by internal injuries, mostly caused by disorder of Qi and blood, obstruction of cerebral vessels or blood overflowing into the brain. A brain and nerve disease with the main symptoms of sudden fainting, hemiplegia, limb numbness, tongue paralysis, crooked mouth and tongue, and numbness on one side of the body. It is a disease with the characteristics of acute onset and rapid changes, such as the frequent changes of wind evil. What is introduced here is a stroke-like condition (cerebral infarction).

There are many causes of this disease, and from a clinical point of view, most of them are caused by internal factors. The occurrence of stroke can be summarized into six causes: deficiency (yin deficiency, qi deficiency), fire (liver fire, heart fire), wind (liver wind, external wind), phlegm (wind phlegm, damp phlegm), qi (qi reversal), and blood (blood stasis).

1. Emotional depression and anger

If the five emotions are excessive and the heart fire is very violent, it may induce internal wind and cause a stroke. Clinically, violent rage is the most common cause of liver damage, because violent rage will cause the liver yang to become hyperactive in an instant, causing both qi and fire to float, forcing blood to surge upward, and the symptoms will inevitably occur. As for worry, sadness, fear and emotional tension, they are all causes of this disease.

2. Improper diet

Excessive consumption of fatty, sweet and alcoholic foods can cause the spleen to function improperly, causing dampness to accumulate and produce phlegm. The phlegm turns into heat, which can induce liver wind and cause the phlegm to disturb the liver, which can lead to the onset of illness, especially excessive drinking.

3. Overwork

The Suwen (Suwen) states: "The Yang Qi will expand if one is troubled or overworked." This means that if the Yang Qi in the human body is disturbed too much, it will become excited and unrestrained. The disease can also be caused by excessive exercise, which leads to malnutrition of the body and mind, resulting in the hidden depletion of yin and blood, and the transformation of deficient yang into wind disturbance. Furthermore, excessive indulgence in sex will damage sperm, which will cause water deficiency in the lower part and fire excess in the upper part, thus causing illness.

4. Climate Change

This disease can occur throughout the year, but is related to seasonal climate changes. The weather suddenly gets colder in winter, and the invasion of cold evil can affect blood circulation. Just as it is said in Suwen · Tiaojing Lun, “If the cold stays alone, the blood will coagulate, and if it coagulates, the meridians will be blocked…” Secondly, when the temperature suddenly turns warm in early spring, it is the time when Jueyin wind and wood are in charge, which corresponds to the liver. The secret movement of wind and yang can also lead to the occurrence of this disease.

5. Blood Stasis

The formation of blood stasis is mostly due to qi stagnation and poor blood circulation or qi deficiency and inability to circulate blood, or blood accumulation due to anger, or stagnation due to cold, or blood stasis due to damage to yin caused by heat. The most common pathogenesis of this disease is blood accumulation due to anger or blood stasis due to qi deficiency.

Clinical manifestations

The classification method of "Golden Chamber" is used to distinguish whether a stroke affects the meridians or the internal organs according to the severity of the disease and the depth of the disease. Generally there is no change in consciousness, and symptoms such as sudden onset of facial paralysis, slurred speech, hemiplegia, etc. occur without fainting. These are caused by a stroke affecting the meridians. According to the syndrome differentiation method of Chinese medicine for stroke meridians in the "Guiding Principles for Clinical Research of New Chinese Medicines" formulated and issued by the Ministry of Health in 1993, it is divided into five types: liver yang hyperactivity, wind-fire disturbance syndrome; wind-phlegm and blood stasis, obstruction of meridians syndrome; phlegm-heat in the viscera, wind-phlegm disturbance syndrome; qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome; yin deficiency and wind movement syndrome. The clinical manifestations of the five types can be seen in the symptoms of each syndrome in dialectical treatment.

After learning so much about stroke, I believe everyone should have a certain understanding of this disease. After having this understanding, we should be able to treat the disease better. Therefore, our stroke patients should stop being so anxious and worried. We must keep a calm mind and actively cooperate with doctors to treat stroke. Only in this way can the stroke be cured.