Painful Knee? Acupuncture on the Elbow May Solve It | 如何告别痛苦不堪的膝关节炎？银针刺肘见奇效

Would you believe it when I claim that healing of the pain at the knee caused by arthritis can be done by applying acupuncture at the elbow? Sounds unbelievable, isn’t it? Well this is actually very true.

Let me start from a recent case. Last week during lunch time, Ms.K, who I know very well that her family are all my patients and friends, came to see me for an emergency. When she came in, she was crippled and in great pain. Her right knee was not able to bend so she had to walk on the left leg. Because there was no appointment, I only had 30 minutes. Therefore I immediately invited her to the treatment room. She followed me in, and started to tell me the details.

She said that her knees had been in pain for a while, and the right knee was more serious. Before came to see me she had sought assistance from other acupuncture doctors, but it were not getting better. Now her knees are really painful so that she could not get down stairs, nor turning her body during sleep. It was so serioud that she could only sleep for two or three hours a day.

I checked her, and found that both her knees were swelled, and the right knee was more serious. The knee could hardly move, and its look was of the typical degenerative osteoarthritis. In addition, consider her age and diagnosis of her family doctor (who also concluded “OA”---osteoarthritis), I tried to find a good way of treatment. I noticed that there was a painful point on the inside of her knee, which was right on the QuQuan point of the liver channel, so I helped her to sit on the bed and let her legs hanging off the ground. Then I applied acupuncture on her left elbow, including points such as the ShaoBai point, with the reinforcing-reducing method. After I the needles were pierced in place I asked her to move her knees. In doubt, she tried to move several time, and she started to laugh in awe---to her surprise, her knees could already be moved. Then I asked her to get off the bed, and try walking, kicking and doing squats for 10 minutes. She did and then I asked her how did she feel. She told me, in Cantonese, “it seems all well, so comfortable!” Then I asked her to lie on the bed, and treated her with blood-letting puncture for 5 minutes. Once it was done, Ms. K was very satisfied went home confidently. I looked at the watch and it only took 20 minutes. Now, after 5 treatments, Ms.K’s problem almost all disappeared, and she could move and sleep normally again.

This case was a typical case of my treating “OA”. In the beginning I was not treating the problem this way. 15 years ago, I used to use the “knee’s four needle” method most frequently. This method was applied on the Zu San Li, Dou Bi, Yin Ling Quan, Yang Ling Quan points, thus the name. The effect of this method was just average, and it took a long time to heal. Later on I combined the “three edged needle”, and the“plum needle” blood-letting puncture method to the treatment, and the effect became better. Then I found many ancient TCM classical books talked about using the Qu Ze point and Qu Chi point on the elbow to treat the knee pain---this was very special indeed. I studied this method, and after 5 years of practice, I found it indeed worked surprisingly well efficiently on the knee pain. This method plus the “knee’s four neelde method” can achieve a healing speed that even the patient themselves could not believe.

Therefore, it is clear that knee problem is not difficult to heal if we can find the correct way. Traditional Chinese Medicine has lasted for thousands of years, and a tremendous amount of clinical cases and experience are recorded.We TCM doctors need to seriously study and excavating it, so that we can be more capable.

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我们先从最近一个病例讲起。有一位病人，K女士，是一位第一代移民。她全家都是我的病人和朋友。上礼拜有一天中午，K女士突然出现在我的办公室，走路跛脚，右膝不能弯曲，只能用左腿走路，十分痛苦。因为她突然到访，我只有半小时时间。因此，我马上让她进到治疗室。她告诉我，膝盖疼痛已有一段时间，右膝较重。在来看我之前，曾经看过其她针灸医生，治疗无效，在家人劝说下才来看我。她的膝盖十分疼痛，下楼梯困难，睡觉不能翻身，甚至到了每晚只能睡两三小时的程度。经过检查，我发现她的双膝均有轻度肿胀，且右腿较严重，行动困难，外观呈现典型的“退行性骨关节炎”状态。结合她的年龄和家庭医生的诊断都是“OA”(骨关节炎），我开始思考治疗的办法。我先想了几个方案，然后我发现她膝盖内侧面有一处最痛的点，是在肝经的曲泉穴上。我立刻把她扶到床边坐下，让她双腿悬空，在左侧肘关节对应部，少海等穴位行针，使用“先补后泻”的手法。入针后，我让病人活动双膝。她疑惑地动了三、五次，就开始哈哈大笑——令她不敢相信的是，她的膝盖已经可以活动了。于是我叫她下床，让她走路，踢腿，下蹲十分钟，然后我问她怎么样。她用粤语说“哎呀，基本都好了，好舒服啊。”过了十分钟，我让她躺平在床上，用刺络法治疗五分钟。治疗结束，病人满意地回家。我看看表，一共20分钟左右。现在治疗了五次，这位病人的症状基本全消，活动正常，睡眠正常。

这个“退行性膝关节炎”的治疗是我治疗“OA”的一个典型案例。十五年前，我最常用的办法是“膝四针”，就是取足三里，犊鼻，阴陵泉，阳陵泉，等穴位的治疗手法，效果只是中规中矩，且疗程较长。后来我加用“三棱针”，“梅花针”法，效果就明显加强了，疗程也缩短了。后来我读古书时，发现很多本书里都提到用肘部尺泽穴，曲池穴治疗膝关节痛。近五年我多次实践后，发现肘部穴位治疗膝关节痛效果很神奇，可快速止痛恢复功能。若再加上“膝四针”，康复的速度往往快得让病人不敢相信。

由此可见，只要找对疗法，膝关节问题并不可怕。中医有几千年历史，积累了大量临床资料和经验，我们只有从这里不断学习和挖掘，才能不断提高我们这些中医人的能力。