Doctor Yu’s Clinical Notes VIII: Keep Your Knees Healthy for a Lifelong Time | 如何让健康的膝关节伴你一生

Last week I mentioned a young girl with knee problems. Actually, she did not come for the knees---when she came she did not know her knees have problem. This was how I found out:

1. She came for her hair loss. Her hair were becoming thin and soft. Her scalp was also getting thinner. Together with other symptoms, I figured she had insufficient “blood” in the “liver”;

2. Her job consisted of working long hours in front of a computer, and she was looking at her cellphone frequently in her free time too. Therefore she must have over-used her eyes;

3. Her pulse was wiry and thin, also a sign of lack of “liver blood”;

4. Her menstruation cycle was not consistent.

As many traditional chinese medicine enthusiasts know, the “liver” in TCM is related to the emotion, eyes, ribs, women’s menstruation, and the tendons. Furthermore, the joints are also considered the “grand intersection” of tendons. Therefore, I paid extra attention to her knees during the inspection, and noticed marginal swelling at yang ling quan point sp9 and the xi yan point. I pressed on sp9, and it was painful for her. I asked her again about the knees, and she told me there were occasions that her knees could not move smoothly.

Why would over using the eyes affect the knee joints? Well, it is like a machine with gears. You have to add enough lubricating oil to the gears so it can run smoothly without much noise. Once the oil runs out, the friction will become bigger and the machine will run louder. If no oil is added in time, the machine may be destroyed, or completely destructed. This also applies to our body, and the only difference is that the “oil” for the joints coming from the “liver”. If the “liver” stays powerful, it can supply our joints with enough “oil”.

Many people nowadays use computer or cellphone for long hours every day. According to the TCM theory, over using the eyes will trigger your body to use up more “liver blood”. “Liver” is also associated with the tendons. The joints are also considered intersection of tendons too. Therefore, over using eyes will damage “liver” which will not produce enough “oil” for the tendons and finally make joints having problems. That is why this young girl developed these problems such as noise in movement at neck, hand, and knee joints. At this stage if someone over exercises, pain and injury will occur. In addition, many people may also show symptoms such as fatigue, lack of energy, sore eyes, irritability, depression and deficiency of blood. Other problems include abnormal menstruation for women, and sexual dysfunction for men.

How can we maintain or repair damaged joints? I saw a metaphor in a book once, which is suitable here: for the trees in wilderness, if their branches are lack of water, any bending may cause it to make a cracking sound. If it absorbs enough water, it can sustain bending much better without making a cracking sound. For the same reason, when our joints start to crack, we need to add more “water”---in this case, the qi and the blood, which can be increased by strengthening the “liver”.

Here is a prescription for those who use their eyes too much that their joints make a cracking sound: take equal sizes of peony root, rehmannia, radix, medicinal indian mulberry root, morinda, cuscuta, and make them into pills to take daily.

If you do not want to take medicine, you can keep massaging these two acupuncture points to add “oil” to the joints:

1. Yang Ling Quan: this point is located at depression anterior and inferior to the head of fibula. It is a healing point for the joints and tendons all over the body;

2. Yin Ling Quan: this point is located in the depression posterior and interior of the tibia. This point is the converging point of the spleen channel. When there is a problem of the knee joint, this point will swell and have pain when being pressed. It is an excellent healing point for swollen knee joint. It can also re-balance the body in healing rib pain, insomnia, and digestive problems.

These two points are very important. Everyone should know how about them.

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上周我们谈到一位年轻女孩的膝关节问题。其实她来看诊时自己并没有意识到膝关节的问题，我是这样发现的：

1. 这位女孩是为脱发而來，她整个头部的头发都显得稀疏、细软，头皮也显薄，加上其他身体情况，是肝血不足的原因；

2. 她长期在电脑前工作，闲暇时间也经常看手机，这说明她用眼过多；

3. 她的脉是弦细脉，这可能是肝血不足的脉象；

4. 月经不正常。

爱好中医的人都知道，中医的“肝”同妇女的月经、情致、眼睛、筋、胁肋都有直接的关联，且中医认为关节为“筋之大会”。因此，我在给她做经络检查时，就特别注意了关节是否有变化。当时我发现她的阴陵泉穴sp9这里较为饱满，膝眼穴亦较为饱满，当指压sp9时病人有明显疼痛。我再问她，她才说有时候会有膝关节运动不畅的情况。

那为什么用眼过度就会引起膝关节的问题呢？我们打个比方，就像一台带齿轮的机器，上足润滑油后，运转起来就没有响声噪音。但当润滑油用光后，摩擦力加大，响声就越来越大。如果不及时保养，机器就会损坏甚至彻底坏掉。我们的人体是同样的道理，只是我们人体各个关节的润滑油来自我们的肝脏，肝脏的能量充足就可以供应足够的润滑油给我们的关节。

怎么保养或修复受损的关节呢？我在一本书上看到一种比喻很恰当，这里跟大家分享一下：你看自然界中的树木枝叶，如果缺乏水份，轻轻一弯就会发出断裂声。它吸收水分时，弯曲自如，不会断裂。所以同样的道理，当人体的关节出现响声时，就需要“水分”——气血的滋养。补养肝脏，就可以增加气血。

给大家推荐一个药方，对经常用眼、关节作响的人有好处：取白芍、熟地、麦冬、酸枣仁、巴戟天、菟丝子各等份做成丸药每天服用。

如果不愿意吃药，可以长期按摩以下这两个穴位来为关节“加油”：

1. 阳陵泉：这个穴位位于腓骨小头下方的凹陷处，是治疗全身肌腱和关节的第一要穴；

2. 阴陵泉：在胫骨内侧髁下方凹陷处，是脾经的合穴。当膝关节有病时，这里常常表现饱满，伴有明显压痛。这是祛除膝关节肿胀的妙穴，这两个穴不仅可以治疗膝关节的病变，同时对身体有多种调节作用，如各种原因引起的胁肋痛、消化不良、腹胀、失眠等等。

这两个穴位至关重要，大家不可不知。