The hepatophilic viruses invade the body in the form of wetness-heat and hide in the blood system and eventually would result in heat in the blood system and hurt the yin, causing the deficiency of the yin. As the body fluid in the blood is insufficient, the blood become thick, dense and inactive. The blood density of the patient is high, thick, and forming blood stasis blocking various channels and collaterals and affecting the internal organs of the body. The pathology and the cause of blood stasis can be interpreted as the retention of the immunity compounds inside the body, which lead to the change the pathology of the body. This explains the development, the changes and different forms of TCM classification caused the hepatophilic viral diseases. As the onset and the process of blood stasis are more emphasis on the blood system, therefore this state of illness is more serious.
The typical cause of blood stasis at the meridians and collaterals is DIC (Disseminated intravascular coagulation) which is a blood clotting problem found in heavy hepatitis, particular in acute icteric hepatitis especially in heavy hepatitis which leads to death. As the problem of blood stasis is commonly found in hepatophilic viral diseases patients, the symptoms found at different parts of the body vary and would depend on the seriousness of blood stasis. Female patients who are infected by hepatitis viruses would have heat in the blood causing deficiency for yin. The heat hurt the blood stream and caused imbalance of blood and qi. The blood become unclear and inactive and affects the production of the new blood cells. The imbalance of blood system causes irregular menstruation. If the heat and water in the kidneys lose balance, the blood would be overheated and caused advanced menstruation with massive discharge. If the Thoroughfare and Conception Vessels cannot give nutrition to the blood, then the blood flow would cause irregular bleeding. This type of massive and repeated blood loss in the form of irregular menstruation is one of the causes of the deficiency in blood for female and is one of the common factors of female secondary obesity.
It is because the Thoroughfare Vessel[1] and Conception Vessel[2] or the meridians and collaterals are not functioning properly and that the blood and qi are thicken and densify, it will easily lead to liver depression, qi stagnation, blood stasis. If the heat is persistent and cannot be released due to the blockage by the wetness for a long period of time, it will result in the deficiency of the qi and blood causing irregular menstruation or abdominal pain. It is often characterized by headache, breast distension, touch pain, stabbing pain in the lower abdomen with tenderness, waist pain, chest and ribs discomfort, occurring before and during menstruation with massive or little discharge. The pain is alleviated after discharge of blood clots, which are usually dark red or brown red in color.
In long run, the blood stasis in the meridians and collaterals would cause frequent menstruation. Such massive discharge will result in the deficiency of qi and blood, the depression of both the liver and kidneys. The symptoms that can be seen are irregular discharge, either indefinite discharge or once every several months. This may lead to quarterly discharge where the qi in the kidneys – the genuine vital function still exist). If the liver qi is depressed for quite a long time, this may lead to amenorrhea.
If female patients continuously have blood stasis, causing the deficiency in qi and the deficiency of blood, the fire in the heart and the kidneys would eventually extinguish. The uterus will become weak, cold, and unable to retain and gather together the blood. Such coldness of the uterus will often lead to infertility. However, TCM would be able to warm the uterus and cure hepatophilic viral disease as well as recover the fertility function.
The pathology of blood stasis usually leads to irregular menstruation, amenorrhea and infertility. It is the main cause of various bleeding diseases (e.g. nose bleeding, stomach bleeding, subcutaneous tissue bleeding, hematochezia, haematuria) as result of the failure of blood clotting mechanism.
Blood stasis is also a tempting factor for a change of the pathology for the heart and blood vessels, especially high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and embolic vasculitis. If at the early stage the problem of blood stasis can be put under control, it will help to prevent as well as to relax the development of such diseases. As a matter of fact, patients having such diseases often consult doctors at a later stage. The morbid condition is often marked by the exterior syndromes – the deficiency of yin and yang, which will be discussed in the later part.
Apart from the above, the problem of blood stasis is often highly related to the formation of benign (malignant) tumour. Tumour may develop at different parts of the body (e.g. thyroid gland, breast, ovary, oviduct, uterus, etc) namely cyst, adenoma, uterus tumour and the addition of new glands. In some cases, the tumour stopped growing and even disappeared after the patients received systematic TCM treatment. Other cases also showed that after receiving clinical treatment, the tumour did not continue to grow further. Therefore, the uterus tumour, which leads to massive menstrual discharge and anemia as a result of blood loss, can be cured if the patient received TCM treatment for hepatitis.
It is commonly acknowledged that the onset and the process of blood stasis resulted in cirrhosis and liver cancer. At present, people who have cirrhosis and liver cancer tend to be younger. This implies that people are commonly invaded by the hepatitis viruses at an earlier stage. It is therefore very important to note the prevention and treatment of hepatophilic viral diseases for young people, especially at infant stage and pre-school age.
Clinically, patients who are in the blood stasis form usually have the following common symptoms: thin, look pale with chest distension, stabbing pain around the ribs, hepatomegaly, marked by yellowish urine, have difficulty in excretion with dry or sticky loose stools, redden tongue or purple tongue, with whitish coating or yellow coating, redden palm (liver palm), spider nevus, heavy pulse, the veins in the abdomen cavity become visible and increase in size and even bend.
(translated in February 2002)
Note
[1] One of the eight extra meridians which originates from the uterus, comes into confluence with the kidney Meridian and then runs upward along the two sides of the abdomen to the chest. Its pathological manifestations are irregular menstruation, abnormal uterine bleeding and infertility.