郭兆起医师

本文的目的：间质性肺纤维化是常见病。这种病的发病率在患类风湿性关节炎的病人中是7.7/100。该病死亡率高。诊断作出后，即使病人有西医治疗也只能生存2.6年。间质性肺纤维化99/100 发生在类风湿性关节炎病人身上。

在过去，我治疗过3例间质性肺纤维化病人。我把这3例病人治疗经过总结如下。

        第1例，男，1992年首次就诊时40岁。因呼吸困难前来就医。我用治哮喘的办法对他进行治疗，他的情况一切转为正常。自那之后他每次复发都会到我这里接受治疗。有时一年一次，有时几年一次。每次都是经针灸治疗转为正常。这中间，他也曾因类风湿性关节炎来此就医。他的总体情况是越来越稳定。到了2016 年底，他合并感染了流感，他又回到我这里治疗。肺纤化加流感，针灸治疗显得有点慢。几次治疗后，我在下述穴位上作了羊肠线包埋：身柱、脾俞、志室、中脘、阴陵泉、关元、照海。埋线后患者迅速康复。至今已近一年，他的状况非常稳定。

       案例2 是1位59岁男性。他在中国山东人民医院被诊断为间质性肺纤维化。2016 年4月，我回国时对他进行了羊肠线包埋治疗。半个月后他去医院复查。X光显示他的肺部阴影已全部消失。这种局面持续了5个月。5个月后他的病情又开始慢慢复发。在我出席日本国际针灸研讨会期间，他去了日本。在那里我为他作了第二次羊肠线包埋。这次治疗后至今已一年多，他没有复发的任何迹象。

       第3例是一59岁男性。他于2014 年被确诊。他于2016 年3月来此就医。他当时的主要临床表现是：肝肾肺阴虚。在治疗上，我主要是给他补肾阴、补肺阴。经过7次治疗后，他的全部症状消失。他的肺部气体交换能力由治疗前的66/10。上升到69/100。 

       后因故停止针灸治疗，他的状况逐渐恶化。19个月后，他的肺部气体交换能力由69/100 下降到了55/100。2017 年10月初，他又回来接受治疗。经过几次针灸治疗后，我给他作了羊肠线包埋。自那时起，他的健康状况又迅速好转。 

       讨论与结论：案例1，经定期治疗，不仅使他得以生存了25年以上，而且生存得跟正常人一样。针灸对案例2和案例3也同样非常有效。羊肠线包埋与常规针灸相比较显得更有优越性。因为羊肠线包埋治疗次数、化费明显减少，疗效明显提高，很可能为肺纤化提供一个治愈的方法。

The Treatment of Interstitial Lung Disease by Acupuncture (Abstract)

By Zhaoqi Guo R.TCMP &R.Ac

The purpose of the study

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is not a rare disease.  The incidence rate among 

rheumatoid patients is 7.7/100.  It also has a high death rate. Once the 

diagnosis is made, patients survive only on average 2.6 years,even with Medicare. Western medicine does not offer an effective treatment. 

I have had 3 ILD patients in the past and I found acupuncture very effective.  The purpose of the article is to summarize my work and share this information with my colleagues.

Three Cases Report

The first case is a 40 years old male who cameto see me in March of 1992. He told me that he had difficulty to breathe.  I gave him some treatments to enforce the spleen and kidney yang. It went well. He could breathe normally after the treatments.       

After 1992, he came  for a couple of treatments either every year or two, or every two to three, or even four to five years. He called it tune up. Besides that, he also came for rheumatoid arthritis.  It went on for 25 years, till 2017. In that year he caught a flu which brought hisold  symptoms back. I gave him some acupuncture treatments, the recovery was a little bit slow. Then I applied cat gut embedding on the following acupuncture points: shenzhu, pishu, shenshu, shanzhong, zhongwan, yinlingquan, guanyuan. After that his lungs have been very clear. 

Case 2 is a 59 year old male. He was diagnosed as having ILD in Shandong people's hospital in China. In April, 2016, I gave him two acupuncture treatments before I applied cat gut embedding. In a third session, just before I left. I applied cat gut embedding on the following acupuncture points: shenzhu, pishu,zhishi, zhongwan, yinlingquan, zhaohai.  Half a month later, he had a check up and a X ray in the same hospital. It showed his lungs had cleared up. It lasted 5 months. Then his condition started to deteriorate. He went to Japan while I was there for the international symposium. I gave him a second cat gut embedding. It's been more than one year, and his condition is still stable.

Case 3 is a 62 year old male.  In August 2014, he was diagnosed as having ANCA vasculitis (microscopic polyangilitis) and interstitial lung disease. He was treated with high doses of prednisone, cyclophosphamide andseptra, after that, the drug was changed to azathioprine and he has been on that ever since. When he came to see me in March, 2016, hehad symptoms of liver, kidney and lung yin-deficiency.Treatment: The acupuncture points I choose were: shenzhu, pishu, zhishi, shanzhong, zhongwan, yinlingquan, taixi, and taichong.        

After 7 treatments, all of his symptoms had disappeared.  His lung diffusing capacity went up from 66/100 to 69/100.

Even though he felt better he decided to quit the treatment after 7 visits, because his specialist had warned him that any therapy which boosts the immune system will make the disease worse. ILD is an autoimmune disease. He feared that acupuncture may activate the immune system.  He stayed on medication prescribed by the specialist for 19 months and his condition slowly worsened. His lung diffusing capacity went down from 69/100 to 55/100. He realized that the only thing which hadhelped him was Chinese medicine and he came back in October, 2017.

This time his main symptoms were: shortness of breath and tiredness. He could not even walk for 10 minutes. His tongue was a little bit purplish with white greasy fur. It's foamy. His pulse was slippery.  His urine was light yellow and his stool was well formed but soft. He moved his bowels twice a day. Most of the time he felt cold easily.

My diagnosis is "Zhong qi deficiency due to kidney yang deficiency".The acupuncture points I choose were: baihui, shenzhu, pishu, shenshu, lieque, hegu, zhongwan, yinlingquan, guanyuan. After 7 treatments he was much better. He felt everything was normal again after I applied cat gut embedding in the same points.

Discussion and Conclusion

After reviewing the history of the first case, I found that the patient started having asthma symptoms and rheumatoid arthritis before I met him. His family doctor did not give him a special test prior to diagnosing him with asthma. This led me to believe that his ILD started more than 25 years ago. With regular acupuncture treatment, he could have had a normal life for more than 25 years. Conventional acupuncture treatment also worked well for case 2 and case 3. However, cat gut embedding proved more effective. For the first case, one cat gut embedding has proven effective for close to a year now. The client is still well, he says. For the second case, the cat gut embedding was repeated 5 months after the first treatment. It is still effective over a year afterwards. The third case was treated recently. Regular cat gut embedding could offer a cure for patients with ILD. I therefore recommend this method to all my colleagues.