Diseases 2, head and neck

Head

Hemilateral headache (偏头痛 piān tóu tòng), also known as migraine, is a recurrent headache on one side of the head. It appears in ascendant hyperactivity of liver yáng, in blood vacuity, and in blood stasis patterns. Contrasted with regular headache (正头痛 zhèng tóu tòng), which is classed as a symptom or disease. See headache.

Head wind (头风 tóu fēng): Persistent remittent, usually intense headache attributed to wind-cold or wind-heat invasions and obstruction of the channels by phlegm and static blood. Accompanying signs may include eye pain, loss of vision, dizziness, runny nose, numbness of the head, stiff neck, and nausea.

• Bulging fontanel gates
• Depressed fontanel gates
• Distension in the head
• Dizziness
• Hot head
• Headache
• Head wind
• Hemilateral headache
• Hemilateral head wind
• Shaking of the head
• Thunder head wind
• Sweating head
• Ununited skull

Scalp

• Bald white scalp sore
• White scaling wind

Eye

The liver opens at the eyes; many eye diseases are understood as liver problems and treated as such.

Clear-eye blindness (青盲 qīng máng): Gradual blindness that in severe cases can be total. It is attributable to insufficiency of the liver and kidney and depletion of essence-blood, combined with spleen-stomach vacuity preventing essential qì from reaching upward to the eyes.

Biomedical correspondence: optic atrophy. It is called clear-eye blindness because there is no visible obstruction in the pupil.

Night blindness (夜盲 què máng): Also called sparrow vision (雀目 què mù). Reduced visual acuity in poor light. It is attributed to liver blood vacuity.

External obstruction (外障 wài zhàng): Any condition of the eyelids, canthi, white of the eye (sclerae), or dark of the eye (iris) that obstructs vision. External obstructions include painful red swollen eyes (e.g., wind-fire eye), tearing, eye discharge, dryness of the eyes, and excrescences of the canthi. Most involve fire or phlegm, and less frequently, liver-kidney yīn vacuity with vacuity fire flaming upward or spleen qì vacuity.

Internal obstruction (内障 nèi zhàng): Also called eye screen (目翳 mù yī). Any condition of the pupil and inner eye obstructing vision. This includes green wind internal obstruction (绿风内障 lǜ fēng nèi zhàng), which corresponds to glaucoma, and coin screen (圆翳 yuán yì), which corresponds to cataract.

Coin screen (圆翳 yuán yì): A round white opacity covering the pupil below the surface of the eye, so called because it resembles a silver coin. It is one form of internal obstruction. It is usually attributed to insufficiency of the liver and kidney with yīn vacuity damp-heat or liver-channel wind-heat attacking upward.

Excrescence creeping across the eye (胬肉攀睛 nǔ ròu pān jīng): A gray-white fleshy growth at the canthus that progressively grows over the eye, in severe cases partially affecting vision.

Biomedical correspondence: pterygium.

It arises when heat congesting the heart and lung channels cause qì stagnation and blood stasis. It may also result from yīn vacuity with effulgent fire.

Eye gān (疳眼 gān yǎn): A disease of the eyes in infants and children characterized by dryness, aversion to light, screens on the dark of the eye (iris and cornea), and in severe cases, withering of the eyeball and blindness. It is attributed to spleen-stomach vacuity with essence-blood depletion depriving the eye of nourishment and to liver heat attacking the upper body.

Wind-fire eye (风火眼 fēng huǒ yǎn): A disease characterized by sudden reddening of the eyes. It is attributed to wind and fire.

Biomedical correspondence: It mostly corresponds to acute conjunctivitis.

Heaven-current red eye (天行目赤 tiān xíng mù chì): A contagious disease characterized by red eyes (reddening of the whites of the eyes), thick sticky eye discharge, dryness that makes opening the eyes difficult, and fear of light. It can affect one eye or both. Often transmitted from one family member to another. It is similar to wind-fire eye but is more severe and contagious. Heaven-current (天行 tiān xíng) means prevalent in the atmosphere, that is, contagious.

Others

• Sudden blindness
• Squint
• Clouded vision
• Farsightedness
• Nearsightedness
• Blood flying to the eye
• Blood pouring into the pupil spirit
• Rouge coloring pattern
• Chaotic red-thread vessels
• Child eye gān
• Congealed-fat screen
• Crab’s-eye
• Falling curtain screen
• Fire gān
• Green wind internal obstruction
• Hanging red membrane
• Heaven-current red eye
• Internal obstruction
• Murky eye obstruction
• Red areola surrounding the black wheel
• Red vessels spreading across the eye
• Red vessels invading the eye
• Red blood threads
• Residual screen
• Starry eye screen
• Tangled red-thread vessels
• Upsurging yellow humor
• White dry eye
• White membrane invading the eye
• Yellow wind internal obstruction

Eyelid

• Blinking
• Drooping of the upper eyelid
• Phlegm node of the eyelid
• Cinnabar eye
• Ingrown eyelash
• Millet sore
• Peppercorn sore
• Phlegm node of the eyelid
• Sty
• Twitching of the eyelid
• Ulceration of the eyelid rim
• Weeping canthus

Ear

The kidney opens at the ears. It governs the bones and engenders marrow. The brain is the sea of marrow. For these reasons, depletion of kidney yīn and kidney essence causes hearing problems. The gallbladder channel passes through the region of the ears and directs liver-gallbladder repletion evils to the area to cause hearing disturbances.

Tinnitus (耳鸣 ěr míng): Ringing or other sounds subjectively felt in the ear. A distinction is made between vacuity and repletion.

• Vacuity: Tinnitus that develops gradually, is faint like the sound of cicadas or mosquitoes and is relieved by pressure is ascribed to vacuity. It is usually attributable to liver-kidney yīn vacuity, ascendant hyperactivity of liver yáng, or insufficiency of kidney essence. It can also occur in spleen vacuity qì fall.
• Repletion: Tinnitus of sudden onset that is like the sound of frogs or the rushing sound of the sea on the shore and that continues when the ears are pressed is ascribed to repletion and is mostly associated with exuberant liver-gallbladder fire or phlegm-fire.

Deafness (耳聋 ěr lóng): Partial or complete hearing loss. Mild cases are known as hardness of hearing (重听 zhòng tīng). A distinction is made between fulminant deafness and gradual deafness.

• Fulminant deafness (暴聋 bào lóng) is sudden and severe deafness as if the ears were plugged. It is associated with a bitter taste in the mouth, headache, and nasal congestion. It is attributable to liver-gallbladder fire rising to the head through the channel or to external evils affecting the lesser yáng (shào yáng) (shào yáng) channel, which passes through the ears.
• Gradual deafness (渐聋 jiàn lóng) is of slow onset, usually in advancing years, and can affect one or both ears. It is caused by insufficiency of kidney essence or insecurity of kidney qì.
• Deafness can also be caused by streptomycin, especially in children.

Purulent ear (聤耳 tíng ěr): A disease marked by the leaking of pus or pus-like yellow discharge from the ear. It is caused by fire or damp-heat.

See also the following:

• Ceruminal congestion
• Ear mushroom
• Ear pain
• Deafness
• Fulminant deafness
• Hearing impairment
• Itchy ear
• Tinnitus
• Purulent ear

Nose

Sniveling nose (鼻鼽 bí qiú): Runny nose with clear nasal mucus, usually attributable to wind-cold fettering the lung. Acupuncture texts often give sniveling and nosebleed (鼽衄 qiú nǜ) as indications for certain acupoints that treat both conditions.

Deep-source nasal congestion (鼻息肉 bí yuān): Persistent nasal congestion with turbid snivel, attributed to wind-cold, wind-heat, or gallbladder heat.

Biomedical correspondence: paranasal sinusitis or chronic rhinitis.

Nasal polyp (鼻息肉 bí xī ròu): A growth inside the nose causing blockage of the airways and in severe cases deformation of the nose. It is attributable to wind, dampness, and heat stagnating in the lung channel.

Others

• Brain-gripping sand
• Brain leak
• Deep-source nasal congestion
• Drinker’s nose
• Nasal congestion
• Nasal polyp
• Nosebleed
• Sniveling nose
• Withered nose

Mouth

Mouth sore (口疮 kǒu chuāng): Also mouth and tongue sores. A pale yellow or gray-white ulceration appearing singly or multiply on the inside of the mouth (lips, cheeks or palate). A mouth sore is usually oval in shape, surrounded by a red areola, and has a cratered surface. It is associated with scorching pain, affects eating and swallowing, and is recurrent. It is attributed to repletion fire, spleen heat engendering phlegm, or dual vacuity of the spleen and kidney.

Biomedical correspondence: aphthous stomatitis.

Gān of the teeth and gums (牙疳 yá gān): Often called galloping gān of the teeth and gums (走马牙疳 zǒu mǎ yá gān) when it is severe and develops rapidly: A condition of red swollen gums, in severe cases with putrefaction, suppuration, ulceration, and bleeding. It is attributed to heat toxin. Gān of the teeth and gums begins with soreness, reddening, swelling, and hardening of the edges of the gum, in severe cases with whitening and putrefaction. The affected area may turn from white to black and exude a purplish-black bloody discharge that is accompanied by a foul smell. The ulcerated area is sore and slightly itchy. If the ulceration is deep, the alae nasi and surrounding area assume a green-blue or brown color. In the worst cases, the lips are affected, the teeth may drop out, the ulceration may pierce the cheeks, and the bridge of the nose may collapse. When at the same time blue-black lumps appear in the legs, this is called black-leg gān of the teeth and gums (青腿牙疳 qīng tuǐ yá gān).

See also the following:

• Bone trough wind
• Gaping gums
• Gān of the teeth and gums
• Galloping gān of the teeth and gums
• Spontaneous bleeding of the gums

Throat

Putrefying throat sand (烂喉痧 lán hóu shā): An epidemic disease attributed to pestilential toxin in the lung and stomach, prevalent in winter and spring, and marked by painful swelling and putrefaction of the throat, sometimes with ulceration and an easily removable pseudomembrane. There is pronounced heat effusion and aversion to cold, with generalized pain. Tiny red papules called sand speckles appear all over the body.

Biomedical correspondence: scarlatina.

Diphtheria (白喉 bái hóu): An epidemic disease characterized by whitening of the throat together with headache, generalized pain, heat effusion, vexation and agitation, bad breath, and nasal congestion. It is attributed to seasonal epidemic scourge toxin exploiting vacuity of the lung and stomach.

Throat moth (喉蛾 hóu é): Also called baby moth (乳蛾 rǔ é). Painful redness and swelling of either or both of the throat nodes (喉核 hóu hé, tonsils), with a yellowish-white discharge visible on their surface. It is most commonly attributed to lung-stomach heat in warm-heat disease with further contraction of wind evil. The wind and heat contend with each other and ascend the channels to the throat.

Biomedical correspondence: tonsillitis.

See also stone moth.

Throat impediment (喉痹 hóu bì): Any swelling or soreness of the throat. The term often refers to severe conditions.

Throat wind (喉风 hóu fēng): A severe painful swelling of the throat, with panting, discomfort in swallowing, phlegm-drool congestion, difficulty talking, and in severe cases clenched jaw and clouded spirit. It corresponds to biomedical conditions such as peritonsillar abscess, retropharyngeal abscess, and acute epiglottitis. It is caused by wind-heat with preexisting lung-stomach heat.

Dysphagia-occulsion (噎膈 yē gé): A disease characterized by sensation of blockage on swallowing, difficulty in getting food and drink down, and, in some cases, immediate vomiting of ingested food. The Chinese term is a compound of yē meaning difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia), and gé meaning blockage preventing food from going down (occlusion). Dysphagia and occlusion may occur independently. Dysphagia most commonly but not necessarily develops into occlusion. There are four principal patterns: phlegm and qì obstructing each other, liquid depletion and heat bind, static blood binding internally, and qì vacuity and yáng debilitation.

Diseases of the Neck

Crick in the neck (落枕 lào zhěn): Stiffness of the nape and neck that results from taxation fatigue, twisting, sleeping in the wrong posture, or from exposure to wind or a draft (wind-cold). Called torticollis in biomedicine.

Scrofula (瘰疬 luǒ lì): Lumps under the skin, mainly on the side of the neck and under the armpits. Scrofula is mostly attributed to lung-kidney yīn vacuity and enduring depressed liver qì with vacuity fire concentrating fluids into phlegm, which binds in locally to form lumps. In some cases, it is caused by wind-fire toxin.

Goiter (瘿病 yǐng bìng): A swelling at the front and sides of the neck that moves up and down as the patient swallows.

Biomedical correspondence: Mostly corresponds to enlargement of the thyroid gland. It is particularly prevalent in certain areas, now known to be attributable to lack of iodine in the diet. In traditional Chinese medical terms, it manifests in association with various factors including depressed liver qì, phlegm, blood stasis, and heat. Modern sources often differentiate the following causes:

• qì depression and phlegm obstruction;
• phlegm bind and blood stasis;
• exuberant liver fire;
• heart-liver yīn vacuity.