Overview
Logan, a 74-year-old man, visited our clinic mainly for the symptoms of insomnia. He had issues falling asleep and even when he did fall asleep, he would wake up often during his sleep. According to Logan, his recent day to day life looked like this: He would feel angry very easily and had difficulty controlling the anger. Also, whenever he got angry, his hands would shake violently. He never had much of an issue with digestion, but when he felt angry, it was difficult for Logan to digest his food. Also, the migraines he occasionally had, became worse and worse. Yet, there was not much of a difference in his urine or feces.
Treatment
Herbal medicine
Yi Gan San
Yi Gan San is a formula consisting of Kang Zhu, Fu Ling, Chuan Xiong, Gou Teng, Dang Gui, Chai Hu, and Gan Cao. It is widely used to treat symptoms of excitement, anger, anxiety and restlessness. Gou Teng, the main drug, has a function that drops blood pressure and a function to stabilize mentally. It is therefore used to treat symptoms of headaches often. Chai Hu is used to treat all symptoms caused by decreased immune function due to long-term excitement of sympathetic nerves.
In Japan, Yi Gan San is widely used for symptoms such as depression, anxiety, nervousness, and sleep disorders. It is also known to be particularly effective in controlling emotions especially impulse, aggression, excitement, and restlessness. There is also a research report of Yi Gan San showing a clear improvement for the drug induced Parkinson’s disease, which shows symptoms such as twitching of hands, twitching of the surroundings of lip and tongue.
Acupuncture
Yin Tang and Shen Men (HT 7)
Treats insomnia with the effect of mental stabilization
Yang Fu (GB38) and Zhi Gou (SJ 6)
Treats symptoms of chest congestion by promoting lymphatic circulation of thoracic cavity
He Gu (LI 4) and Tai Chong (LR 3)
Most established combination of acupuncture points to ease tension in body
