Treating Hair Loss with Acupuncture | 针灸治脱发，5个要点你要知！

In the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the hair is related to the lung, kidney, and liver. Therefore, these three places are checked first whenever a TCM doctor deals with hair loss problems. Acupuncture has been proved very effective to all kinds of hair loss conditions except the scar-related hair loss.

Therefore, when a TCM doctor treats hair loss, he would use herbs and acupuncture at the same time. Normally, the treatment starts with hair loss prevention, and then more treatment to cure the problem will follow. It is important that the prevention treatment works first, because if the hair loss is not prevented, any treatment to grow more hair will end in vain. Normally the prevention treatment takes up to fifteen sessions.

Lung and Skin

TCM doctors believe the skin is closely related to the lung. There has not been enough studies done to test this theory, but there is one thing that the lung and the skin shares. That is the function of breathing. The Lung is essential to breathe and the skin can somehow breathe. This may be the indication that these two are closely related.

A pair of strong lungs is the key tender and smooth looking skin. The hair grows on the skin, hence is the lung related to the hair. Therefore, when a skin disease is preventing the growth of the hair, it is better to treat the condition from the lungs. Once the lung becomes healthy, the skin will be healthy so that the hair loss will be cured.

“Qi” of Kidney, and a lack of Blood

At the same time, hair growth can reflect whether the “Qi” is abundant in the kidney. The TCM theory states that, in simple words, the essence of the kidney (the “Qi” of the kidney), is material for the blood, and blood is the nutrients of hair. Therefore, a new born baby has a few “Qi” of the kidney, and this “Qi” grows more and more abundant as the baby grows until teenage. Therefore a person’s hair is most abundant at teenage. After teenage the “Qi” of kidney eventually drains out, so does the hair. Therefore hair loss may be a result of lack of Blood caused by lack of “Qi” in the kidney. Therefore if the hair loss is caused by a weak growing ability of the hair (i.e. hair being too soft or too thin), we need to check the kidney to have any effects.

Liver and Hair Loss

In TCM, liver’s function is quite special. It is thought to be able to affect the emotion. For example, anyone who is easily angered, or is depressed for a long time, usually feels pain behind the ribs beside the liver. Another negative effect of emotional conditions is that the blood circulation of the whole body is harassed, resulting in hair loss.

Therefore, alopecia areata and emotion-related hair loss should be treated from the liver.

Doctor Yu’s experience: Acupuncture + Herbs

As said, acupuncture has been proved very effective to all kinds of hair loss conditions except the scar-related hair loss, and the effect will be much better if it is combined with herbs.

Meanwhile, here is some food is good for your hair:

Food rich in vegetable protein: oatmeal, peanut, corn, walnut, and beans; Food rich in iron: potato, beans, spinach, carrot, shrimp, egg, banana, poultry; Food rich in iodine: seaweed, amaranth, kelp, jelly fish, sea cucumber, laver, persimmon; Food that is alkaline: fruits and vegetables; Food that is rich in vitamin E: sesame, mustard, spinach.

Avoid Certain Food

In contrary there is some food that you should avoid, especially if you are suffering from hair loss or have a high potential of hair loss. Please eat the food that is good for hair growth, as listed above. At the same time please avoid eating spicy food such as those cooked with chili pepper or numbing pepper. The oily and deep fried food should also be avoided. Food rich in sugar, fat and salt should be avoided at all cost. Alcohol drinking and smoking is also very bad for the hair and should be avoided too.

Avoid Staying up Too Late

This is a kind reminder from Dr. Yu. If you are suffering from hair loss, you should always have enough sleep. If you stay late all the time, your “Qi” will be drained, and your blood circulation will become worse. You will also become more likely to get depression. All these factors can negatively affect the growth of hair.

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在中医里，毛发与肺、肾、肝有关，若毛发脱落，需从这3方面着手看诊、检查。针灸几乎对所有类型的脱发都有不错的疗效，除了疤痕性脱发。故此，一般会同时采取针灸治疗。整体而言，在治疗上，我们着重于先防止脱发，过后才着力于生发治疗，否则头发一直脱，生了头发，情况也没改善。而这个过程只需要15次的治疗。

肺与皮毛的关系

中医认为皮肤同肺脏有密切关系，我们都知道肺脏是一个呼吸器官，很多现代的研究和现象都表明皮肤是有一定的呼吸功能的，这从一个方面证明皮肤是与肺有关的。

皮肤的润泽有赖于肺的强壮，而毛发是皮肤的附属结构，所以有了肺主皮毛之论。因此，当皮肤疾病影响到毛发的生长时，从肺下手医治比较理想，一旦肺脏恢复健康了，皮肤也就健康了，脱发现象自然会停止。

脂溢性的脱发，及头发多油可以从调节肺脏而得以痊愈。

肾气、血液不足

与此同时，毛发的生长也能反映肾气的盈亏与否。中医理论认为：「发乃血之馀，头发的营养源于血，但其生机则源于肾，因而有肾主骨生髓，其华在发之说。」简言之，肾中精气（肾气）是血液的原料之一，血液则是头发的营养来源。理论上，婴儿出生之后，直至青少年时期，肾气渐渐充盈，毛发也逐渐茂盛起来。接着，年事渐高，肾气渐少，头发也逐渐少了。所以脱发也可能与肾气、血液不足有关。也因此，若毛发本身的生长状况不好，那就得从肾、从气血下手，效果才会显着。

稀疏性的脱发，或头发细软可从肾脏入手。

肝脏和脱发

中医理论里认为肝脏的功能很特出，其中一个重要功能就是调节情志，举个简单的例子，经常情绪压抑的人或大脾气的人容易在肝区后肋骨部位疼痛，情绪疾病引起的另外副作用就是全身的血液循环受阻，脱发就是其中的一个症状。

斑秃、精神性的脱发治疗就要从调节肝脏去达到治愈的效果。

于存海博士的治疗经验：针灸＋药物

　 针灸几乎对所有类型的脱发都有不错的疗效，除了疤痕性脱发。如果同时服用一些中药会起到事半功倍的效果。

有益生发的食物： 　●含植物蛋白质食物：如燕麦、花生、玉米、核桃、豆类等等。 　●含铁元素食物：如马铃薯、豆类、菠菜、萝卜、虾、蛋类、香蕉、禽类。 　●含碘高食物：如海带、苋菜、发菜、海蜇、海参、紫菜、柿子。 　●含碱性食物：如水果和蔬菜。 　●含维生素E食物：如黑芝麻、芥菜、菠菜。

避免摄取辛辣食物

脱发者和潜在脱发高危者，平时应多吃有益生发的食物（请参考上面列表），同时尽量避免摄取辛辣食物，如辣椒、花椒、油腻、油炸，还有高盐的食物，及高糖高脂肪食物，并且避免烟酒，以防脱发。 避免熬夜是治疗脱发的基本疗法

于存海博士提醒，脱发者应避免熬夜。经常熬夜的人经常会有精力，血液循环差，易患忧郁症等，这些因素都可以影响头发的正常生长。