Diagnostics
The proper treatment and even the fate of the person depends on the correct diagnosis. It’s hard to argue with that.
Tibetan medicine, which history traced a thousands of years, has always put three methods in the first place in “recognizing the appearance of the disease”. “Gyushi” diagnostics is presented as an allegorical tree with three branches, each of which represents these methods: survey, examination, pulse diagnostics. With their help, the doctor accurately determines which of the vital principles (Dosh) in the body has gone out of balance and what measures should be taken in this regard.
Survey
The survey is the most important component of the diagnosis of the disease. “To reveal the concept of the disease, first of all you need to find out the conditions that caused its activation” (“Gyushi”, Tantra of Explanations).
The recognition of diseases is performed through this assessment, which is an important component [preceding to the direct] treatment of various diseases. When making a diagnosis, you should rely on the signs of diseases. The connection between the concept of disease and the symptoms of the disease is alike a connection of fire and smoke [in the sense that] the concept of the disease lies in the basis of symptoms of disease [or in other words], the symptoms are a brief manifestation of the disease, so with the symptoms you can recognize the concept of the disease – similar to how the smoke indicates the presence of fire, for external manifestations it is possible to determine the [inner] concept [of the disease]. Based on this, the so – called “diagnosis” is based on the possibility of determining [the disease] – whatever it may be sometimes contradictory-by carefully “following the external manifestations of [the disease]. Further, the Tibetan medicine doctor conducts an assessment starting from the conditions that cause [this] disease, an assessment from the symptoms of the disease and an assessment from the prospectives of what harms and what helps. For example, if we can determine what reasons and conditions in the diet, lifestyle, etc. caused this disease, we can get a primary idea of the concept of the disease; if we examine in detail the signs of the disease, we can understand how dangerous the disease is and where it located; or carefully examine what harms and what helps [in the diet, lifestyle, etc.], this will helps to more [accurately] establish the concept of the disease and [choose the appropriate] treatment.
About the so-called ” survey by speech”: through a survey, [finds out] what reasons and conditions caused this disease, how much time has passed since [the beginning] of the disease, how the disease currently [declare itself], where it hurts, how [the manifestations of the disease] depends on the area and season, which types of diet, lifestyle, medications and procedures help, and which are harmful, etc. – based on the analysis of the responses to these questions, they reveal the concept of the disease: among all assessment methods, the survey is the most important, [this method] is also called as “ability to listen”.
The data obtained during the patient’s survey is supplemented with data from the examination and pulse examination.
Examination
The examination can be either cursory or more thorough, depending on the complexity of the disease. since the first minutes of communication, the doctor observes the arrived patient. In the course of observation, the Tibetan medicine doctor identifies human Constitution type and hence, scope of health problems that are peculiar to a particular type. By the way the patient acts, gesticulates, what is his glance, voice, how he talks about himself and what feelings he feels – on this whole the doctor makes a certain idea about the nature of the disease. This first impression serves as a fillip and starting point for the subsequent survey of the patient.
Close up examination includes the assessment of tongue, eyes, visible mucous membranes, skin coverings, lymph nodes, muscles, spinal column, joints, and abdomen palpation. During palpation places of increased pain sensitivity are identified, as well as the painfulness of acupuncture points corresponding to certain internal organs. The pressing pain on these points indicates the ill-being of the organs to which they correspond. Also, the survey, if necessary, includes the examination and assessment of sewages, in particular, urine. After comparing all the survey and examination data, supported by pulse diagnostics, the doctor makes a final conclusion about what kind of disease or a whole set of diseases the patient suffers from, and what caused it. The next step is to prescribe appropriate treatment.
Pulse diagnosis
Pulse diagnostics made by an experienced Tibetan medicine doctor allows to determine what diseases the patient had in the past, what he is suffering from at the moment, what is the progression of the disease, and also helps to prevent the future problems if the person will not pay an attention to his health.
The pulse reflects the state of each individual organ and the entire body as a whole. With a use of a pulse diagnostics the Tibetan medicine doctor is able to detect the seeds of disease, even a stage of disease that modern computer diagnostics has not yet found any abnormal changes. Pulse diagnostics allows to find the “entrance doors” of the disease, which means to find out in which organ the abnormal changes originally occurred.
Methods of pulse diagnostics
On a pulse diagnostic first of all the Tibetan medicine doctor checks the link between the patient’s pulse and breathing.
For healthy people, there should be five heartbeats for each inhalation or exhalation (complete breathing act). If the number of beats exceeds five, it indicates heat and fever, if less – the body of the person is dominated by cold.
It is badly if the pulse is almost not heard, which indicates on chronic cold, organ dysfunctioning. The pulse of cold is determined by the fact that when you press the artery more or less long (at any point of body), the pulse suddenly disappears and becomes soundless, and when you release it, it appears again.
The doctor tests the patient’s pulse by placing the pointer, middle, and ring fingers on the wrist of the right and left hands. Three points on each patient’s wrist, to which the doctor applies his fingers, provide him an information of the state of the twelve internal organs-the heart, spleen and pancreas, lungs, kidneys, liver, large intestine, stomach, small intestine, bladder, gall bladder, as well as the males prostate gland and females ovaries and uterus.
According to the pulse characteristic, the state of internal organs is determined, the degree of perturbation of a particular Constitution is revealed, as well as the nature of the disease – “heat” or “cold”. More than a dozen of parameters are taken into account during the pulse examination, such as the pulse speed, its rhythm and frequency, amplitude, power, completeness, hardness or softness, and other indicators.
A weak, deep, slow, sluggish, and empty pulse of cold is common for a people of the Wind and Mucus types with characteristic diseases. Wind type people are predisposed to the nervous system diseases, Mucus type people – to a hormonal and lymphatic system disorders.
The Bile pulse is strong, knotty, tense, fast and hard. It is typical for people with Bile constitution,to be predisposed to heart diseases, coronary heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus of the “hot” type, chololithiasis, chronic hepatitis and cholecystitis, pancreatitis. The best time for pulse diagnostics is early morning. A comfortable, relaxed atmosphere is vitally important.
Pulse diagnostics is not advised to be undertaken after:
– alcohol adoption.
– Cardiovascular medications adoption.
– Narcotic drugs adoption.
– Intense physical exertions.
– in stressed condition.