Moxibustion

Moxibustion:  The Ling Shu, Guan Neng says that where needles do not work, moxibustion does. Theory holds that moxibustion has a dual effect of tonification and purgation. Different from needles and drugs, characteristics of moxibustion in materials and using fire determine that its efficacy is inclined to warming and nourishing.

Moxibustion is often applied in deficiency-cold syndrome, though in some excess-heat syndromes it can also be used. Moxibustion can be broadly grouped into: warm nourishing, warm dredging, and warm melting. Warm nourishing: warming Yang, tonifying qi, nurturing blood, and relieving depletion; warm dredging: activating blood, dissolving stasis, promoting qi, dredging channels, and relieving pain; warm melting: reducing phlegm, eliminating stagnation, removing wind, dispelling dampness, drawing out poison, and purging heat. Some believe that warm dredging is the nature of moxibustion and is the key role of it’s effects.

The functions of moxibustion: expelling cold, promoting the circulation in meridian channels and collaterals, clearing away heat, detoxification, etc., are dependent on the efficacy of moxibustion for circulating qi and blood.

Moxibustion effects are based on two aspects: the action of the meridian system and the role of moxa and fire.

The basic belief is that diseases which cannot be cured by drugs or acupuncture should be treated with moxibustion. The unique effects of moxibustion are related to the combination of moxa and fire.

With regards moxibustion fire, there is a discussion in Shen Jiu Jing Lun stating that moxibustion using fire, by being hot and rapid, it can move instead of stay and always go into organs. Fire is hot, so it can warm the Yang and eliminate the cold of the Yin, it can even melt the poisoning things caused by damp, wind, phlegm, etc. Fire is speedy, so it can dredge the channels, remove the pain or numbness, and activate blood and qi. These properties of moxa fire demonstrates the main role of moxibustion.

Materials are very important to moxibustion. The choosing of materials of moxibustion can be really hard. Examples from Pu Ji Fang (Prescriptions of Universal Relief), cited the Xiao Pin Fang on eight kinds of fire moxibustion with: pine wood , hard to cure; cedar wood, ulcer and pus; orange wood, skin hurt; mulberry wood, muscle withered; jujube wood, body emaciated; bamboo wood, tendons injured, excessive lead tendons flabby; trifoliate orange wood, veins “collapse”; elm wood, bone hurt, excessive lead bone withered; none of them can be used.

Moxa fire is warm without drying, and it can ascend and descend with strong penetration ability into the viscera. The Compendium of Materia Medica said that moxa leaf is slightly bitter and over-spicy when raw, and slightly spicy and over-bitter when processed.

Moxa has the nature of pure Yang, raw moxa is warm and becomes hot after processing. It can take the Tai-Yang fire and bring back dying Yang. It can go through three Yin, get rid of all the cold and dampness, and turn the cold into warm after taking it orally.

Moxibustion with moxa leaf can get into the channels and cure hundreds of diseases. Its function is great. The drug properties of moxa leaves (raw) are that they turn warmer after being processed, become moxa wool (processed), which are then suitable for moxibustion, and the older the better. The ancients chose moxa as moxibustion material for it is easy to collect and more for its drug properties, and long-term clinical practices have proved that.

Moxibustion therapy is effective in simple and infantile diarrhea, chronic gastroenteritis, peptic ulcer, bronchial asthma, rheumatism of muscles and joints, neurasthenia, hypertension, menstrual disorders, chronic pelvic inflammation, and climacteric syndrome [menopause].

Definite effect was obtained in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, and thromboangitis obliterans. A report of 182 cases of asthma treated with scarring moxibustion at acupoints selected on the basis of differential diagnosis resulted in a shot-term effective rate of 76.9%, with 70% long-term effective rate on follow-up examination for three years. Other reports claim that scarring moxibustion may markedly lower blood pressure, reduce blood viscosity, and dilate various vessels.