Acupuncture & Chinese Herbs For Chillblains
This winter we saw some cases of chillblains and have developed a few ideas of how acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine might help others with this condition. In this article we’ll look at what we know about chillblains in modern medicine and how it’s typically treated, then we’ll discuss some ideas from Chinese medicine and what we’ve observed in the clinic that may help those suffering.
Chillblains of the fingers or toes can really affect a person’s quality of life in the colder months. The condition presents as sores on the extremities in response to cold temperatures that can be swollen, painful and itchy. While sometimes there is an underlying cause such as lupus (an autoimmune disorder that affects connective tissue), most of the time the cause is unknown.
The standard approach to treating chillblains is to just recommend the person dress warmer, reduce exposure to the cold and ride it out until the weather gets warmer. If it gets bad, topical steroid creams may help relieve the inflammation, and severe cases need to be monitored for ulceration and possible infection. Other than that, there’s not much to offer in the way of relief.
Can acupuncture and Chinese medicine help chillblains?
First of all we can look at some traditional Chinese herbal medicine formulas that actually have part of the symptom already built into the title to give us an idea of how we diagnose chillblains in Chinese medicine. The formulas are Si Ni San, Si Ni Tang and Dang Gui Si Ni Tang, with “si ni'' translating to “frigid extremities”. Each of these formulas treats a different underlying cause for cold extremities and so as practitioners we have an idea of the different presentations we might expect.
We’ll discuss these formulas below but before we do, it’s important to know that when we use terminology involving different organ names in Chinese medicine, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the same organ that we know from biomedicine. This is why the Chinese medicine organs have been capitalised, to differentiate them from the regular usage of the word.
Si Ni San: This combination of herbs treats Liver Qi stagnation in Chinese Medicine. Liver Qi stagnation can be related to a nervous system that is a little stuck in the sympathetic response (i.e. fight or flight) and we know from modern physiology that activation of the sympathetic nervous system will cause constriction of the blood vessels. In these cases we would expect only the fingers and toes to be cold, but the body temperature is normal.
Si Ni Tang: This formula was designed for Kidney Yang deficiency. In Chinese medicine, Kidney Yang is the body’s warming and regenerative ability which declines as we age or with chronic illness and so we would expect the person to be not only cold in the extremities but also chronically cold in general and fatigued.
Dang Gui Si Ni Tang: This final Si Ni formula is for cold extremities due to Blood deficiency. Similarly in Chinese medicine and modern physiology, Blood is needed to provide nutrients to tissues and so manifests other symptoms such as dryness (i.e skin, hair, brittle nails), pale complexion and thin body. It is more common among women due to regular blood loss during menstruation. This pattern may explain why women and people underweight are at more risk of getting chillblains.
So in the clinic we look out for signs to suggest someone’s chillblains is due to Liver Qi stagnation, Kidney Yang deficiency, Blood deficiency or some combination of the above. While we may not always use the Si Ni formulas, we do have other formulas to help in these situations.
From an acupuncture perspective we’ve noticed that chillblains, and cold hands and/or feet in general, seem to also be associated with a lot of tension in the neck / shoulder and/or lower back / hip areas. If you think of the blood and nerve supply travelling from your trunk to your extremities as a hose, and if you have kinks in the hose from a lot of tension, it’s no wonder why there would be an issue of blood flow to the extremities. For some they may not even notice just how much tension is in these areas until we go through our assessment and palpation, but we have found addressing these areas of tension to be very important.
These are some of the things that we’ve learned to look for with chillblains, but we will always treat someone as a whole, rather than just cold and sore fingers or toes. This means that we’ll take into account things like stress levels, sleep quality, digestion and energy levels to come up with the best tailored treatment for you. If you’d like to try acupuncture for chillblains in Sydney CBD or Balmain, please book in online or contact us.
Our Acupuncture Clinics in Sydney's CBD & Balmain
If you would like to try acupuncture for chillblains, you can book online, contact us or call.
- Sydney CBD: 0412 728 227
- Balmain: 0478 753 881