Blood Stasis: China's classical concept in modern medicine

393 Pages·2006·4.4 MB·English

by  Gunter R. Neeb

An imprint of Elsevier Limited
© Elsevier Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.
Originally published in German as Das Blutstasesyndrom
Copyright © 2001 Verlag für Ganzheitliche Medizin Dr. Erich Wühr GmbH
The right of Gunter R. Neeb to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
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First published 2007
ISBN 0-443-10185-X
ISBN 13: 978 0 443 10185 4
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Acatalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
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About the author
Gunter Ralf Neeb MD TCM (China) was born in Chinese with a Master’s degree in Chinese Inter-
Wiesbaden, Germany in 1959. He became inter- nal Medicine. His thesis was titled ‘Physiology
ested in Chinese culture at an early stage. As and pathology of acute and chronic Blood stasis
a student he read translations of Chinese philoso- and its treatment’. From 1996 he worked as a
phers and later on during 3 years of studying doctor of Chinese medicine in the clinical centre of
naturopathy he became deeply involved with the Research Institute of Tianjin University and in
Chinese acupuncture and Western phytotherapy. addition, has translated many classical texts into
After his Heilpraktiker examination (German German.
equivalent of naturopath; apart from that of In January 2001 he finished his doctoral thesis
medical doctors, the only profession entitled to on geomedical aspects of Chinese medicine and
practise medicine – Translator’s note) he carried thus concluded his 12 years of studies in Taiwan
out a study on the comparison of herbs used in and China and returned to Germany, being the
traditional Chinese and traditional Western medi- first non-Chinese with a doctor’s degree in
cine. In order to study Chinese medicine in China Chinese medicine. Following his teaching activi-
himself, in 1987 and 1988 he successfully com- ties at the University of Tianjin he was accepted
pleted the three-stage Chinese language course at into the university’s teaching staff as a lecturer,
the Sinikum, University of Bochum, and then and is now instructing at the Universität Witten-
went on to Taiwan in 1988. Herdicke and various other medical institutions in
For 3 years at the Taiwan National Normal Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands
University he studied the traditional characters of and Spain.
modern and classical Chinese to the highest level, So far, he has published articles on Chinese
and was awarded two scholarships by the Chinese medicine in English and Chinese and several arti-
Ministry of Education in Taiwan, which are only cles and book contributions in German, amongst
available to the top 3% of all students. which is Das Blutstasesyndrom. His well-known
From 1991 to 1993 he also worked as an homepage www.TCMinter.net publishes exten-
acupuncturist in the clinic of Professor Chang sive amounts of new material from modern scien-
Cung-Gwo PhD, MD, and completed a 2 years’ tific as well as classical sources of Chinese
training in Qi Gong and Taoist techniques with medicine.
Master Li Feng-Shan in Taipei. He believes in his aim of combining the tradi-
In 1994 he first studied at the College for tional experience of classical sources with the
Chinese Medicine in Yunnan province and later on latest findings of research and science into one
commenced his Master’s degree at the Interna- system of medicine, which is able to meet the
tional College for Traditional Chinese Medicine of requirements of the third millennium.
Tianjin. In 1998 he graduated as the first non-

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Foreword
This is less a book than a banquet, a banquet beginning to approach the sophistication of
with a theme: the understanding and treatment Chinese medicine.
of blood stasis. Its various interwoven courses My own field of gynaecology is a good
include Chinese and Western, theory and practice, example. Clinical observation and analysis of suc-
single herbs and formulae, sprinkled with illumi- cessful treatments over twenty years have shown
nating case histories, with the main course being unequivocally that clotting during menstruation is
a full translation of the seminal work on blood not only abnormal, but significantly related to a
stasis in Chinese medicine, Wang Qing-Ren’s Yi wide variety of disorders such as endometriosis,
Lin Gai Cuo from the Qing dynasty. This is fol- menorrhagia, infertility, dysmenorrhea, and many
lowed by a rich dessert in the appendices. All in others. The sad fact is that many instances of these
all, not something to be attempted in one sitting, conditions could have been prevented by early
but rather to be savoured over time. attention to the appearance of clots in the men-
Ten years ago I met Dr. Gunter Neeb in Rothen- strual blood, but in the West all is confusion. On
burg on the Tauber river in Bavaria, and was the one hand, it is recognised that normal men-
immediately impressed. Here was a Westerner strual blood should not clot. On the other it is felt
living and practicing Chinese medicine in Beijing, that some degree of clotting is ‘normal.’ “And
with several scholarly research articles already besides, trying to clear up clotting just isn’t worth
published in Chinese, not to mention German, and the trouble!” one doctor confessed, when tackled
some in English. But he did not seem to regard this on why he thought clotting was acceptable. Blood
as anything particularly special, and was soon coagulation factors, platelet function, fibrinolysis,
entertaining me with his gentle quirky humour. plasma proteins – repeated measurement and
Having enjoyed his writings that have since occa- investigation of these cell-level factors are ineffec-
sionally appeared in European and Australian tive without a firm guiding conceptual principle:
journals, it is a pleasure to greet the English trans- clotting is not normal or acceptable during
lation of this comprehensive book, which was menstruation.
published in German in 2001. Doctors of Chinese medicine (and most
Blood stasis is an area where Western medicine women!) have known for centuries that clotting
appears, at first sight, to be more advanced than during menstruation is abnormal. Women know it
TCM, an appearance due primarily to the presen- because often they can feel it for themselves; one
tation of impressively technical measurements. type of severe dysmenorrhea is directly due to the
However technology is only as good as the pain of clots passing, when the clots are cleared,
conceptual principles which guide it, and – as the pain goes too. The aetiology of endometriosis,
Dr. Neeb shows throughout this book – in this which is by definition a disease of blood stasis in
fundamental arena Western medicine is only the Chinese conception, may again be related at