Severe Shoulder Pain 2
Diarrhea is a common problem, but something that modern medical science cannot really treat. Essentially, if it is not caused by bacteria, then your MD likely can't do anything about it. Some people choose to take probiotics, but I have doubts about this. It more or less still believes there's something to do with bacteria. I hate to say this but human problems aren't always about bacteria. It really isn't that simple.
From the mouths of many patients I also discovered many naturopaths like to blame things on "yeast infections" and "candida". I don't know where they get this conclusion from, but to me it is still pointing the problem to some kind of micro-organism, completely neglecting the body itself. To Chinese Medicine, this is however a rather simple problem.
I had a patient who visited me because he has been having a painful mouth ulcer that won't heal for over a week. Upon further inquiry it is revealed that he has increased bowel movements, between 4-5 times a day. I performed Chinese Medicine diagnostics and determined this is a case of imbalance between the warming and cooling forces of the body in the intestinal system. In Chinese Medicine we also understand that oral problems have close relations with bowel problems.
Here we don't need to care what "disease" he has, or what "bacteria" is causing his problem, certainly not "yeast" either. I prescribed a week's course of Chinese Medicine and told him to come back after he's done. Almost a week passes and I didn't hear anything from him, so I decided to call and check him up. He happily told me over the phone that his mouth ulcer was pain-free on the 2nd pack of herbs and his diarrhea also decreased remarkably. He was able to properly eat a meal without the discomfort of his mouth ulcer again. When he returned shortly thereafter, he told me his bowel movements are now between 2-3 times, and not sloppy and watery like before. I prescribed another week's worth of medicine to regulate his digestive system and his bowels were generally fine afterwards.
The problem with people these days, is the problem of wanting to know what on earth is really wrong with themselves. In order to find this out, people go do various types of tests. In the end, it doesn't lead to much conclusion or any meaningful treatment. Why? Because when modern medical exams find something wrong with you, usually you are in a serious state of disease. Most chronic problems don't reflect on these panels.
In Chinese Medicine we don't need to know what "disease" you really have yet we are still able to treat the problem very effectively. The reason is simply a different understanding of illness. Through Chinese Medicine diagnostics we are able to determine the state and health of the body before tests show abnormalities. To put this in perspective, a person with digestive disorders who doctors cannot put a disease label on, could be treated with Chinese Medicine 10 years prior to the digestive disorder actually turning into some kind of disease, like cancer or severe GI ulcer etc. Of course, disease labelling is not always useless, but patients need to be a bit more critical in evaluating how useful this actually is.