You mentioned in class that Fibromyalgia could be a cold disease lodged internal. Do you have further recommended reading on this information and the TCM treatment of the symptoms that would be typically referred to as Fibromyalgia knowing that you have to look at all the symptoms of the individual.

Andrew said: 1. Here is a brief article: https://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=33176 2. This brief blog post has a few patterns: https://acuproacademy.com/basic-tcm-treatment-protocols-fibromyalgia/ 3. Read this quote from Cao et al. (2010): …The interventions included education, relaxation therapy, cognitive–behavioral therapy, acupuncture, and hydrotherapy, and there was some preliminary support for aerobic exercise. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, FM is mainly caused by emotional upsets, which affect the Liver. Stagnation of qi activity leads to the stasis of Blood, which causes pain. The principle of treatment is regulating the qi and Blood, combined with dispelling Cold and removing Damp.10 TCM is a whole system that uses a range of therapies to treat FM; these include acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine, and massage. Two systematic reviews have suggested that acupuncture alone is effective for treating FM; one analysis involved three RCTs and four cohort studies and the other analysis included three positive RCTs and two negative RCTs.11,12 No systematic review reported the effect of herbal medicine or other TCM therapies for FM, but a review published in 200513 suggested that “many of the herbs and other dietary supplements used by our patients are known to have potential adverse effects and may pose a risk to the patient.” This current systematic review aims to update the evidence from RCTs to evaluate the therapeutic effect and safety of TCM, including Chinese herbal medicine for FM. (Introduction, para. 4 and para 5) Cao, H., Liu, J., & Lewith, G. T. (2010). Traditional Chinese Medicine for treatment of fibromyalgia: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(4), 397–409. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2009.0599 4. Another good article with patterns: https://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=30049 5. This page has a whole bunch of good info: https://theory.yinyanghouse.com/conditions-treated/alternative-natural-options-for-fibromyalgia-cfs 6. If you want a more complete discussion, this book has thorough chapters: https://www.amazon.com/Clinical-Handbook-Internal-Medicine-William/dp/0939616866 The two sections you would start with include the section on fatigue and the section on bi syndrome (chronic pain syndrome). There is also a section discussing TCM application for chronic inflammatory disease (which may or may not apply to fibro). Happy reading!

Thank you so much for this information.