by Alexander Kanevsky, MD
Traditional Chinese Medicine, through 3,000 years of learning and experience, has described an etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of this phenomenon, universally revealing itself in a realm of a great majority of diseases of mankind.
Blood stasis literally means stagnation, where the efficacy of blood’s circulation becomes sub-optimal, causing blood to gradually become deficient in quantity and quality, impairing the circulation of energy and body fluids.
This stagnated blood, energy, and body fluid transform into a phlegm-blood complex, which, if not resolved in a timely manner, eventually becomes a non-dispersing mass, then a soft tumor, then a solid one, that, upon reaching a certain size and location, might show itself on a standard imaging test.
A stagnated phlegm on its own might further obstruct the passage of blood and energy through a vessel, or it might be “caught” by an internal body heat to elevate a newly formed “phlegm-fire” complex to the upper regions of the body to cause obstructions in heart and brain circulation leading, for instance, to myocardial infarction and stroke.
Thus, as we see, blood stasis can be an underlying cause of formidable and life threatening conditions. Cholesterol, triglycerides, calcium, protein, and other metabolic elements deposit themselves within the area of blood stasis. Therefore, for example, striving to reduce cholesterol without resolving the blood stasis may lead, by means of so called “retaliating force” within the body, to the expansion of the blood stasis, which can lead to utterly undesired consequences. Similarly, drinking large amounts of pure water for people of some constitutional types prone to forming phlegm may contribute to formation of blood and energy stagnation.
Excessive heat, cold, wind, and dampness invasion into the body, emotional stress, mood instability, improper nutrition, and lack of exercise and oxygen are some of the common causes of blood stasis. Purple lips and tongue are common clinical manifestations of the syndrome.
Treatment of blood stasis involves a combination of nutritional, herbal, exercise, body, and psychological therapies.
Dr. Alexander Kanevsky practices Herbal, Traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic, Tibetan medicine, combined with Western Medicine, Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis.
366 Nassau Street, Princeton. 609-613-0225. www.DrAlexanderKanevskyMDNaturalHealer.com. See display ad page 17.
