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Controlling blood pressure, the Traditional Chinese Medicine way.

“As we do not have equipment to measure blood pressure in the past, hypertension was not something that the practitioners of TCM recorded,” says acupuncturist and Chinese physician Dr Yong Kian Fui, who is also a TCM senior lecturer at the INTI International University Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences
“That is why it is only in the last few decades we have managed to come up with some basic theories about the condition, as well as the management of the disease,” he says.
Dr Yong ... To prevent hypertension, try to eliminate lifestyle habits like overexerting yourself, eating too much salty or oily foods, and sleeping late all the time.

As TCM practitioners evaluate diseases or conditions based on their patients’ symptoms, TCM practitioners in the past have categorised hypertension symptoms into vertigo or dizziness, or even stroke when it manifests. “These are basically categorised under the ‘wind’ category,” says Dr Yong.

“What we are doing now is working backwards. We are using our knowledge of modern medicine – which make up 40% of our current TCM syllabus – to identify the symptoms of hypertension so that we can relate those symptoms to those described in the TCM literature we have,” he explains.

Today, TCM practitioners are able to measure blood pressure using sphygmomanometers, and hence identify hypertension. The theories of how hypertension develop and manifest in the body are parallel to conventional medicine. However, they still return to their symptom-based diagnostic method (what they call syndrome differentiation) to determine the appropriate advice and treatment to give to their patients.

“Based on the symptoms and disease progression of hypertension we learn in conventional medicine, we believe that in TCM, it involves symptoms we categorise under the ‘wind’, ‘phlegm’ and ‘blood stasis’ group. These groups of symptoms can be linked to the liver, spleen, and the heart respectively. So, we have to prescribe Chinese medicines to take care of those organs,” says Dr Yong.

That said, TCM practitioners usually do not treat patients with TCM alone, and more research is going to be done to find out how conventional medicine and TCM can be integrated to provide patients with better care.

“What happens is patients who are already on conventional treatment sometimes come to us to find out if they can do something else to help make them healthier,” he says.

When it comes to prevention, Dr Yong’s advice does not differ much from what any doctor will tell you. As hypertension is a result of the interplay between genetic factors, our lifestyle choices, and natural factors such as advancing age, we may not be able to totally prevent its development. But by adopting good lifestyle habits, we may be able to stop or slow its progression.

“Try to eliminate lifestyle habits like the tendency to overexert yourself, eating too much salty or oily foods, and sleeping late all the time,” Dr Yong advises.

“On the other hand, practise healthy lifestyle habits like observing regular exercise and taking time to relax. It fits into the yin-yang theory: our body needs to move so that our blood circulation will improve, and it needs to have its down time to relax so that the body can heal. If you don’t balance that, you are going to have health problems.”

The exercises do not have to be strenuous. Even slow walks and exercises like tai chi can help. On top of that, Dr Yong also emphasises that it also helps to take life easy and reduce the stress in your life.

“As we believe the health of our liver is linked to our emotions, feeling constantly stressed is not good for our liver,” he says. And as the liver is one of the organs linked to hypertension (in TCM theory), its poor health may lead to the progression of the condition.

“As for people with existing high blood pressure, the reason to reduce stress is obvious. When you are angry or stressed out, your blood pressure will shoot up. It is as simple as that,” he notes.