Acupuncture Treatment of Allergic Hives

Chief Complaint: Hives with itchiness
Western Diagnosis: Allergy
Medical History: 37 female, full-time mother of two children.
Developed the Hive condition all over the body in Oct 2004.
Approx 30 lbs overweight. Went to a dermatologist to check for allergies but found none. Indicated that she can only wear gold/silver jewelries. She likes to eat Cheese but does not drink Milk, nor smokes. Has a mild scoliosis. Taking over-the-counter allergy pills but needed to take more recently (every 12 hours or more). She feels stressed taking care of kids and not getting enough sleep. She also reported a nagging lower back ache.
She never had a acupuncture before.
Questioning exam: Unless she takes the allergy pill every 12 hours, her body gets covered with Hives, especially the upper body. The size of hives varied but 1/2 – 1 inches long and 1/4 inch width, reddish but not raised. She also feels hot when Hives occur.
Also while being treated the first time, her Hives came up since her allergy medication time-table ran out. (It was interesting to actually see how the Hive progressed, i.e. bottom to top, reaching her face!)
Pulse exam: Pulses were very slow and weak generally, especially the Kidney (Yang/Yin) pulses. The Spleen pulse was slippery. The Liver pulse was NOT tight (contrary to what Tongue shows)
Tongue exam: Relatively prominent white coating with reddish color on the tip & side.
OM Diagnosis: Used Kiiko’s abdominal assessment (Japanese style):
- Oketsu (abdominal blood stagnation) reactive
- Adrenal reactive
- Spleen/Sugar reactive
- Left inguinal & top of ASIS reactive
Treatment Principle: In Kiiko’s term, release reactive areas using distal points
Point Prescription: – left LV 4 (for Oketsu)
- KI 7, KI27, LU5 (for Adrenal)
- SP 5, SP9, BL20 (for Spleen/Sugar)
- ST Qi, ST13 (for Left inguinal)
- KI9, LI15 (for “detoxing”)
- Ear points: Allergy, Shenmen, O (to calm the shen & adress “allergy”)
Herbal Formula: None
Lifestyle Prescription: Suggested to:
- stay away from Cheese while being treated
- Watch what she eats to find out whether other food may contribute to the s/s.
Results: On 2nd visit, she indicated that she forgot to take the medicine and still felt fine! She is slowly not eating the Cheese! (Tx was basically repeated)
On 3rd visit, she is definitely weaning out of the medication. Added right LV1 for “LV14 PP(dull-pain)” finding.
On 4th visit (she skipped 1 week in between), she reported that she is no longer taking the medication!!! but got the stomach flu previous day. Upon abdominal palpation, only mild ‘adrenal & LV14 reactive. Decided to use TCM tx protocol for this visit. (CV12, ST21, SP6, BL20, BL21, Yin-tang, ST36)
Also she was reporting that she thinks she is allergic to chocolate (actually she observed experiencing a bit of Hive condition after consuming a bit of chocolate lately).
Synopsis: It was necessary to ‘show’ the needles and what reactions one may experience at the moment of needling and after-effects prior to the first treatment. Once she realized that the needles are not what she was expecting (like the western Drs needles), it was easy after that!
Also it was good to see her doing the detective work of what she eats that may contribute to her allergic reaction.