All dried out: Yin deficiency

Life can be real hard.



Busy being a mother of six, a farmer and dealing with the death of her elderly parents, Miss M.'s health has greatly deteriorated.

Mentally, she feels unhappy, depressed, and tired all the time. Physically, she says her body has turned to dust.

When she walked in I noticed she looked very blushed, a bit dry and seemed she had been depressed for years.

She first mentioned she has constant ringing in her ears, dizziness, and neck pain. The Classic symptoms of Meniere's disease, which her doctor didn't inform her of having. Tinnitus, vertigo, hearing loss, double vision, lack of coordination, recruitment, disequilibrium, or "brain fog" is how bad it can get. She stopped taking medications he gave her since they weren't working and gave her stomach pains which aggravated her acid reflux condition.

Meniere's disease is a western diagnosis for what is particularly similar to kidney and liver yin deficiency in T.C.M. Its signs include dull occipital and vertical headaches, ringing in the ears, dizziness, blurry vision, dry eyes, dry mouth, rosey cheeks, numbness of hands, lower back pain, difficult-dry stools, feeling of overwhelming heat at night, difficulty to fall asleep and waking up many times during the night.

I asked her about depression and her daughter attested it always came on in the springtime. In T.C.M, organs are connected to specific seasons. Liver dominates in the spring. Liver controls emotions and dominates in depression pathologies. She felt low and anxious. She also has some heart yin deficient signs since she complains of shortness of breath upon slight exertions, palpitations, chest oppression, anxiety.

These are signs of yin deficiency. Yin is what I like to consider all the cooling liquids that keep your body from overheating. Yin deficiency embodies blood deficiency and blood is the first thing that is evaporated. A good example-growing old is a slow depletion of yin...

You basically dry out.

Miss. M is 57 and recently had an intense emotional upset with her parents dying which "burns off" lots of yin so to speak.

What's really contradictory is that she also presents with cold signs which indicate a lack of warming Kidney yang function. I noticed her swollen belly with excess fluids in her abdomen and pittting arm edema.

So, I took an eager glance at her tongue for some clues. It was very small indicating it was a long time she had suffered from yin deficiency, tending to shrink even the tongue size. The tip of it was red indicating heat in the heart which makes sense since she suffers from palpitations and insomnia. The tongue coating was thick and had a slight yellow tinge...

Her abdomen was filled like a balloon with fluids. Her arms and hands when pressed even left indentions. She has some dampness that wasn't totally burned off so I couldn't diagnose her with being completely yin deficient.

Kidney yang deficiency is when there isn't enough heat to transform fluids. She only unrinates once a day which is hardly at all and the reason why she is retaining so much fluid. Kidney-yang transforms fluids, when it is deficient it fails to transform fluids which accumulate under the skin and form edema. Her palpitaions, breathlessness, and cold hands could be due to water overflowing to the heart.

Diagnosis is a challenge when you have so many things going wrong. Do not wait till everything is so wacked out to get help.

After her "surprisingly calming" acupuncture treatment, she jumped up from the table. I've noticed people who are yin deficient tend do this. I asked her if that's how she got from her bed in the morning and she sheepishly said yes.

I explained to her, one of the most contributing factors to her poor health was her always feeling rushed and on the go. She wasn't suprised and promised to take it slow.

Next week, I'll be prescribing her a herbal formula to drain some of her accumulated fluids. I want to eliminate any excessive conditions before tonifying any of her deficiencies.