Congestion looks dark red, indicating one's inactive condition, coldness. When congestion stays inside of the body for a long time, the power of normal qi of the body is gradually absorbed in it, and one tends to lose energy. For example, one starts to complain the symptoms such as the cold of the body, dizziness and pain.
There are two types of congestion, one resulting from the problem of the inside of the body and the other caused by the trauma. The former is not easy, one has to get the power of the body itself to absorb stasis qi.
Women who gets close to menopause sometimes have blood congestion that looks like a bruise (purple spot or purpura). This diminishes within a few days without any pain. It can be described as a physiological phenomenon discharging so called unnecessary qi.
Traumatic blood congestion such as a bruise, strong pressure and sprain requires special care. When one is young, sometimes the normal qi can surpass traumatic blood congestion naturally (in other words, blood congestion disappears naturally), but it is important to have a proper treatment done, otherwise its influence stays there even if one gets older. It may appear as cold, pain or difficulty to move the body much later.
Therefore, when one has a pain though he/she has no idea of its cause, one should look back the past whether or not he/she had been hit strongly when he/she was young.
In contrast, traumas with bleeding, such as a cut or a scratch, do not cause such a problem. However, one has to be careful with the amount of bleeding, and it is necessary to avoid a lot of bleeding. Hemophilia that one has difficulty to stop bleeding once received a trauma is a serious condition that the qi of the body diminishes rapidly.
(note)
<blood congestion>
(1) internal cause
Ask a specialist for its diagnosis and treatment.
(2) traumatic cause
The affected area would be very painful, but bear the pain and rub it well for about 30 minutes.
<bleeding >
(1) Ask for a professional treatment for the large quantity of bleeding which cannot stop easily.
(2) For other cases, apply moxa to the affected area and fix with a plaster. Moxa has a function to stop bleeding and to sterlize, so it is okay to apply moxa to the affected area directly.
(3) One can use any kind of moxa.
(4) It is important not to let the affected area wet as possible, and there is no need to change the moxa until it stops bleeding enough.
*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" p. 169-171, written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005. Articles of the book were meant to be written for patients who came to Taishido Acupuncture Clinic.
