Yan De-Xin - Aging and Blood Stasis: A New TCM Approach to Geriatrics (1st Ed.) [1 Scan OCR - PDF] (Taoism)

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Yan De-xin is one of the leading "old Chinese doctors" in the People's Republic of China today. His theories on blood stasis and aging have revolutionized 2,000 years of Chinese geriatric medicine. Besides being a clinical manual on the treatment of all the most commonly seen geriatric diseases, this book contains the best discussion of the inter-relationship of the qi and blood of any so far in the English language. This book is an important addition to the English language Chinese medical literature.

Peter Deadman in The Journal of Chinese Medicine 51 wrote:

Yan De-Xin is a famous 'old doctor' whose original theories and clinical work on aging have won him various prizes in China. It is well known that conventionally traditional Chinese medicine ascribes aging itself, and many of the diseases that accompany it, primarily to deficiency and decline, especially of the Kidneys and Spleen, and senility-combating formulas mostly stress supplementation of yin or yang. By contrast, Dr. Yan holds that blood stasis resulting from disharmony of qi and blood is the primary pathological state in old age, reflected by the saying "Life consists of transportation and stirring" and "Life consists of balance". Disharmony of qi and blood includes such patterns as qi deficiency and blood stasis, qi stagnation and blood stasis, rebellion of both qi and blood etc. Once blood is static, other patterns may emerge, for example heat may be generated, fluids may fail to move resulting in the formation of phlegm, or failure of free flow may lead to deficiency, reflecting the theory that blood stasis is itself a secondary cause of disease. Dr Yan states: we can see that, in the senility of the human body, vacuity is only a symptom, while stasis is its root. Vacuity is the result, while stasis is the cause. The root of human senility consists of static blood ... I have personally observed that, after entering the period of old age, human beings typically manifest marked symptoms of blood stasis. For example, the appearance of skin pigmentation, rough skin, sclerotic opacitis, and senile plaques are all typical manifestations of blood stasis. Among the commonly seen geriatric diseases such as arteriosclerosis, hypertension, coronary heart diseases, windstroke, senile dementia, prostatic hyperplasia, and diseases of vertebrae in the neck, the cause of these diseases and their clinical manifestations are all related to blood stasis. In this important book, Dr. Yan first lays down the theoretical foundations of his theory with references to many classics, and examines the symptoms and signs of blood stasis according to both Chinese and Western medicine. He then gives 10 primary 'balancing' prescriptions for treating different patterns of blood stasis (for example moving the qi and transforming stasis, clearing heat and transforming stasis etc.) and 4 balancing prescriptions for combating senility and preserving health. The bulk of the book, however, is devoted to prescriptions used in the treatment of various diseases of senility, and here we can see how his theory is carried out in practice. In many cases, standard prescriptions are used, with the addition of relatively small doses of one or two blood stasis herbs such as Chuan Xiong (Radix Ligustici Wallichii) or Dan Shen (Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae). In other cases, blood moving is more prominent, for example his prescription for impotence due to damage to Heart and Kidneys includes Dan Shen (Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae) 15g, Chi Shao (Radix Paeoniae Rubrae) 9g and Hong Hua (Flos Carthami Tinctorii) 9g. In the treatment of Spleen deficiency diarrhoea, the basic prescription is unsurprising except for the inclusion of Chuan Xiong (Radix Ligustici Wallichii). However an appended note says that if this prescription is not effective, one should add Ge Xia Zhu Yu Tang. One of the dominant characteristics of aging is loss of flexibility and increasing stiffness in both the body and mind. Recent research has clearly demonstrated the great value of moving and exercising the body to counteract this stasis, and it is no great surprise to see this basic concept emphasised so strongly in the clinical treatment of diseases of aging. Whether moving blood stasis should be seen as quite such a universally applicable principle of geriatrics, or one that should be applied appropriately, will be decided by many years of clinical experimentation with Dr. Yan's theories. Certainly the principle should be absorbed by every practitioner, and we should be grateful to Dr. Yan for his originality and innovation

MsSVig