Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1123 Flesh Twitching Syndrome (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets: 3K Chapters)

"Roll up your trouser legs," Fang Yan said to the patient.

The patient was taken aback. He had just touched her hand and hadn't even taken her pulse yet, so why was he suddenly being asked to roll up her trouser leg?
Although she was a little confused, she still did as she was told.

Fang Yan then got up, squatted down next to the patient, and touched the patient's two calves. The temperature was also lower than normal.

Then Fang Yan touched below his knee and found that the temperature had finally returned to normal.

The temperature of my hand, especially around my elbow, returned to normal.

Fang Yan sat back down and began taking the patient's pulse. Only then did the patient ask Fang Yan a question:

"Dr. Fang, what's wrong?"

Fang Yan said to her:
"When did your limbs start to feel cold? Have you noticed?"

The patient nodded and said:
"Yes, my hands and feet are indeed a bit cold, but not most women have this problem."

After saying that, she pressed Fang Yan for an answer:

"Dr. Fang, is my problem very serious?"

Fang Yan shook his head and said:

"No, I just wanted to ask when you started."

Upon hearing the reply in dialect, the patient said somewhat nervously:
"I...I really don't remember, it must have been more than ten years ago?"

She paused for a moment, then said:

"Right, it appeared after I gave birth."

Fang Yan seemed thoughtful after hearing this, but wasn't sure if there was any connection.

He then examined the pulses in both the patient's hands and found them to be deep and slow.

Just as Fang Yan picked up his pen to begin recording the medical case, the patient cried out:
"Eh!"

Then she said to Fang Yan:

"Oh dear, Dr. Fang, look, my back pain has started again!"

As she spoke, she stood up, lifted the back of her shirt to reveal her waist, and showed it to Fang Yan.

The muscles on the left side of the patient's lower back were throbbing rapidly, like a startled mouse scurrying under the skin. Sometimes they would bulge into a small mass, and sometimes they would spread out into a fine tremor, causing the surrounding flesh to undulate slightly.

The throbbing was completely erratic, sometimes darting to the side of the waist, sometimes shifting upwards along the spine, creating a strange sense of "muscles out of control."

The patient himself was a little flustered. He pressed his hand on his waist, but couldn't stop the throbbing. Instead, his abdominal muscles twitched slightly.

“That’s how it is,” she gasped, “sometimes it’s on my arms, sometimes on my calves, and today it’s even on my waist…”

Most of the people present stared in disbelief, and for a moment, gasps of astonishment filled the air.

That jumping up looks absolutely bizarre.

It was as if there were living things inside.

Fang Yan got up and walked behind the patient, gently pressing his fingertips on the throbbing muscle. The touch was cold, and the subcutaneous fascia was hard, like a thin layer of ice.

He pressed down along both sides of the spine, and when he touched the vicinity of the Shenshu acupoint, the patient suddenly hissed.

"What's wrong?" Fang Yan asked her.

"It feels like there are ice cubes inside," the patient responded.

Ice cubes?
Fang Yan looked at her throbbing back and pressed the acupoint again, this time with a little more force. The patient grimaced and got goosebumps all over her body, as if she had been frozen.

"No, no, no, Dr. Fang, I can't take it anymore!" the patient quickly begged for mercy.

The dialect was pressed on the spot where the other person was throbbing, and at that moment the throbbing seemed to be stimulated, and continued to move around.

It was even more intense than before. Fang Yan recalled the freshly slaughtered beef in the beef hot pot restaurant in his previous life, and it throbbed uncontrollably.

"What's this?" Jin Wubing asked Chen Mike from the side.

Mike Chen shook his head:

"I can't tell yet."

Then he looked at the others, even at He Dong, but no one understood what he was seeing.

"Anyway, it shouldn't be neurosis or autonomic nervous system disorder," Chen Mike said after thinking for a moment.

Everyone looked at him, including the patient's family.

Fang Yan seemed to be thinking at this moment. Chen Mike scratched his head, intending to give Fang Yan some time to think. After considering his words, he explained:

"Let's talk about neurosis first. In Western medicine, it should be classified as a neurosis."

"The book says that the physical symptoms of neurosis are often closely related to psychological factors, and the symptoms are often suggestive, subjective and variable, but the core is that there is no clear organic lesion, and the symptoms are more inclined to 'sensory abnormalities' than 'objectively visible physical movement abnormalities'."

"In other words, this is the point that doesn't apply."

"Furthermore, this vegetative-nervous system disorder, also known as autonomic nervous system dysfunction, mainly affects organs innervated by the autonomic nervous system, such as internal organs, blood vessels, and glands." "Symptoms are mostly abnormalities in visceral function or vasomotor disorders, such as... palpitations, chest tightness, blood pressure fluctuations, abdominal distension, diarrhea, constipation, abnormal sweating, abnormal skin sensations, numbness, tingling, and the like."

"In short, its core issue is autonomic nervous system dysfunction, while the voluntary movement of skeletal muscles is not directly controlled by the autonomic nervous system, but by motor nerves."

"The current symptoms of this lady are abnormal twitching of the skeletal muscles in her waist, arms and legs. In Western medicine, this would be classified as 'abnormal function of the motor nerves or muscles themselves,' and is unrelated to the internal organs or blood vessels controlled by the autonomic nervous system."

"It should be more of a problem with the body's movement or circulatory system, rather than an abnormality in visceral function caused by autonomic nervous system disorder. Therefore, it does not meet the characteristics of autonomic nervous system disorder."

After saying that, he looked at the still somewhat confused patient's family members and got to the point:
"To summarize, neurosis is characterized by 'abnormal subjective sensations related to psychological factors,' while vegetative nervous system disorder is characterized by 'abnormal function of visceral blood vessels controlled by the autonomic nervous system.' Neither of these symptoms matches the characteristics of the woman in front of us, so the judgments made by doctors in hospitals over the past ten years have all been wrong."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Fang Yan, who seemed to have figured things out. He asked the patient who was still resisting the muscle twitching:
Is your lower back sensitive to drafts?

The patient's throbbing had almost stopped by now. Hearing Fang Yan's question, she came to her senses, touched the still slightly twitching muscles, and nodded at Fang Yan:

"I'm scared! In the summer, I have to cover my lower back when I sleep, and I get cold as soon as the fan blows."

"Moreover, when I jump really hard, I feel panicked, and the coldness in my back gets even stronger, like a chill seeping into my bones."

Fang Yan nodded after hearing this, then stroked his chin thoughtfully, muttering to himself:
"The limbs below the elbows and knees are cold, the lower back feels like it's covered in ice, the muscles twitch in various places, there is abdominal peristalsis, palpitations, the tongue is pale red with a white and slippery coating, and the pulse is deep and slow."

Then he raised his head and slowly said:

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be what Traditional Chinese Medicine calls 'fleshy twitching'!"

Upon hearing this, Jin Wubing looked completely bewildered and asked:

"What kind of meat???"

He Dong also looked at his father, He Jingwei.

He Jingwei frowned, probably because he hadn't heard of it either.

He Dong's gaze towards Fang Yan has changed somewhat; before, it was jealousy, but now it feels a bit frightening.

We're the same age, how did he train?
The others present had probably never heard of it either, and their expressions varied, but no one spoke up. At this point, Fang Yan finally explained:
"'Flesh twitching syndrome' is a term in traditional Chinese medicine. It should have first appeared in the record of "eye twitching" in the Suwen Zhizhen Yaoda Lun. Here, "twitching" describes the twitching of muscles or eyelids, accompanied by twitching symptoms.

The traditional Chinese medicine practitioners only realized what was happening when they heard this.

Wow, so that's where this character was hiding! The key question is, who could remember it so clearly?

Then they heard the dialect continue:

"Furthermore, the *Shanghan Lun* also discusses twitching syndrome. For example, Article 82 records: 'In Taiyang disease, if sweating does not relieve the symptoms, and the person still has a fever, palpitations, dizziness, body twitching, and a feeling of wanting to collapse to the ground.'"

The "Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber" refers to it as "body twitching" and records it as "the limbs twitching".

Everyone was speechless; dialect really does have a good memory.

Fang Yan continued:

"It is related to wind, dampness, deficiency, and cold. If a person is deficient in blood and lacks nourishment, the tendons and veins will not be adequately nourished, which can lead to internal wind and cause muscle twitching, often accompanied by symptoms such as pale complexion, dizziness, and weakness."

"If the twitching is caused by dampness, which obstructs the flow of qi and blood and leads to malnourishment of the tendons and vessels, it may also occur. It is often accompanied by symptoms such as heaviness of the body and a thick, greasy tongue coating. In addition, factors such as overwork and emotional stress can cause qi stagnation, which may also induce or aggravate twitching."

After saying that, he pointed to the patient:
"Her back felt as cold as if she were carrying a block of ice. This illness had been going on for ten years and couldn't be cured because it was actually caused by 'dampness'."

"There are many kinds of diseases caused by dampness. Because the production of fluids originates from the spleen, and then is distributed to the five internal organs and circulates in the five meridians, nourishing the internal organs and the muscles and bones of the whole body. Once the function of the triple burner is disordered, the spleen cannot control the production and transportation of fluids, and the kidneys cannot control the excretion and evaporation of fluids, which will lead to diseases of abnormal fluid metabolism."

Most of the TCM practitioners present understood what was going on after hearing this.

The patient seemed a little confused.

She thought for a moment and said:

"You just mentioned it's related to wind, but during the previous treatment, it was based on the assumption that there was wind in the body..."

Fang Yan shook his head:
“This is not a simple case of ‘wind syndrome’ nor can it be summarized as neurosis.”

"Muscle twitching and abdominal peristalsis may seem like movement, but the root cause is 'cold and dampness' and 'deficiency'. Spleen and kidney yang deficiency means insufficient fire, which cannot evaporate dampness or promote the flow of qi and blood to nourish the limbs and bones."

He pointed to the medical records and continued:
"The spleen governs the muscles, and the kidneys govern the bones and produce marrow. When Yang is deficient, the muscles are not nourished, just like grass and trees in winter that are deprived of Yang energy and easily wither and tremble. The Triple Burner is the channel for the circulation of fluids. When Yang is deficient, the Triple Burner fails to function properly, and the clear and turbid fluids cannot be separated. Some of them turn into cold phlegm and remain in the muscles, causing throbbing. Some stay in the heart, causing panic and palpitations. Some sink into the back, causing a feeling of coldness as if carrying ice. You previously treated it as a 'wind syndrome' and used dispersing medicine, which actually depleted Yang energy, so naturally it was ineffective."

Upon hearing this, the patient asked in dialect:

Is there any way to treat it?

Nodding in dialect:

"Of course, now that the diagnosis has been made, there must be a way to treat it."

Fang Yan thought for a moment and said:
"If you want to treat it, you need to invigorate yang and promote diuresis, and warm and nourish the spleen and kidneys. Once your yang energy is restored, your spleen's digestive function will be able to operate normally, and your kidneys' diuretic function will become vigorous. At that time, the qi transformation and evaporation function of the three jiaos in your body will be restored, and the water passages will become unobstructed. Then your condition will begin to gradually improve."

Upon hearing this, the patient felt her heartbeat stop. As if grasping at a lifeline, she earnestly said to Fang Yan:
"Then please prescribe the medicine as soon as possible, Doctor Fang!"

Fang Yan nodded, picked up the medical records and prescriptions, and began to write.

PS: After finishing this chapter, I currently owe everyone 18000 words.

That's all for today, please come early tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)