STROKE
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart attack and cancer, and it is a leading cause of adult disability. Stroke patients must receive emergency treatment with Western medicine. It is important to identify a stroke condition as early as possible because patients who are treated earlier are more likely to survive and become less disabled.
Dysphagia
Dysphagia is the medical term for the symptom of diffificulty in swallowing. The signs and symptoms of dysphagia include difficulty controlling food in the mouth, inability to control food or saliva in the mouth, difficulty initiating a swallow, coughing, choking, frequent pneumonia, unexplained weight loss, gurgly or wet voice after swallowing, nasal regurgitation, and swallowing diffificulty.
Plantar Fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis and heel spurs are commonly lumped together when patients are discussing their heel pain but they are not the same condition. Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of the connective tissue surrounding the muscles of the sole of the foot and running from the heel to the ball of the foot. On the other hand, a heel spur is a soft, bendable deposit of calcium on the calcaneus or heel bone. While about 70% of patients with plantar fasciitis have heel spurs as well, 50% of patients with heel spurs do not have pain. Heel pain is most often caused by plantar fasciitis. A heel spur by itself does not cause pain.
Fibromyalgia
Restless Legs Syndrome
Herpes Zoster
Low Back Pain
Multiple Sclerosis
Spinal Cord Injury
Often caused by a car or sporting accident, spinal cord injury is extremely serious. When cervical discs are injured, compression fractures may cause permanent disability. Also hernias or bulges of intervertebral discs may cause spinal cord
Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury is a serious condition that may lead to permanent or temporary impairment of the brain’s functions. Brain damage is often related to quick acceleration and deceleration of the brain, which results in injury to the area of impact and its opposite area. The symptoms of brain injury depend on the area of the brain affected. When the speech and motor areas are damaged, body dysfunctions appear such as aphasia and paralysis.
Bell’s Palsy
Bell’s palsy is a paralysis and weakness of the muscles that control expression on one side of the face. The disorder results from damage or trauma to one of a pair of facial nerves (Cranial Nerve VII) that controls the muscles of the face. Symptoms of Bell’s palsy usually appear suddenly and reach their peak within 48 hours. Symptoms range in severity from mild weakness to total paralysis of the face, and Bell’s palsy can often cause significant facial distortion. Until recently, in most cases its cause was unknown.
Motor Neuron Diseases
The motor neuron diseases (MNDs) refer to a group of progressive neurological disorders that affect motor neurons associated with controlling voluntary muscle activity including speaking, walking, breathing, swallowing, and general movement of the body. They commonly have distinctive differences in their origin and causation but a similar result in their outcome for the patient, which is severe muscle weakness.
Quadriplegia
Quadriplegia means paralysis of all four limbs or of the entire body below the neck. When the arms, legs, and torso are paralyzed, this is commonly caused by damage to the brain, injury of the cervical spinal cord, polyneuritis, myasthenia gravis, progressive myodystrophy, multiple myositis, or acute infective multiple radiculoneuritis.
Pain
Aphasia
Aphasia is a neurological disorder caused by damage to the portions of the brain that are responsible for language. Primary symptoms of the disorder include difficulty in expressing oneself when speaking, trouble understanding speech, and difficulty with reading and writing. The most common cause of aphasia is a stroke. It can also result from a head injury, brain tumor or infection, Parkinson’s disease, or dementia that damages the brain. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, such as the result of a stroke or head injury, but it also may develop slowly, such as in the case of a brain tumor.
Anomic Aphasia
Patients with anomic aphasia usually have fluent speech, intact auditory and writing comprehension, but an inability to name objects. Anomic or “not naming” often is an initial presentation of aphasia and sometimes it may follow recovery from another type. It is less specific in lesion location than other aphasias previously discussed. It may occur with lesions in the parietal lobe, the dorso-lateral frontal cortex, or the thalamus. Scalp acupuncture has a fairly good effect on anomic aphasia. It can stimulate and restore affected brain tissue or retrain unaffected brain tissue to take over the lost functions of damaged brain areas. In this case, anomic aphasia was caused by stroke, which has the best prognosis compared to head injury or brain tumor.
Vocal Cord Paralysis
Dysphonia is a voice disorder characterized by hoarseness, weakness, or even loss of voice. This can occur if the nerves controlling the functions of the larynx are impaired as a result of an accident, a surgical procedure, or a viral infection. Overuse and emotional stress can cause loss of voice as well. Sometimes the trouble stems from paralysis that damages the nerves that move the vocal cords.
Expressive Aphasia
Scalp acupuncture has been found to have a very good effect on expressive aphasia. The potential for functional recovery from expressive aphasia after a stroke is excellent. Patients should get acupuncture treatment as soon as their condition is stable. The earlier the treatment, the better the prognosis. Most aphasia patients treated at our clinic show improvement in the initial three treatments, and many of them appear better after the first session.
Ménière’s Syndrome
Ménière’s syndrome is characterized by the buildup of fluid volume in the semicircular canals causing elevated pressure in the ear. The pattern and incidence of the symptoms may vary from patient to patient, but the general symptoms are the same: dizziness, vertigo, headache, tinnitus, and the sensation of pressure in the ear. There may also be severe nausea and vomiting and profuse sweating during an acute episode. In some cases, there is progressive deafness in the affected ear, often leading to a permanent hearing disability or entire hearing loss.
Tinnitus
Tinnitus is a perception of sound in the absence of an acoustic stimulus. The sound may be high- pitched like whistling, roaring, or hissing, or low pitched such as buzzing, ringing, and humming. Tinnitus may be intermittent, continuous, or
pulsatile, and it can be in one or both ears. The mechanisms causing tinnitus are obscure.
Hearing Loss
Vision Loss
Blindness is the condition of losing visual perception due to physiological or
neurological factors. Total blindness is the complete lack of visual light perception
and is clinically recorded as NLP, an abbreviation for no light perception. Blindness
sometimes refers to severe visual impairment with only light perception. In those
cases, the person has no more sight than the ability to tell light from dark and the
general direction of a light source.
Diplopia (Double Vision)
Diplopia (double vision) is the perception of two images from a single object. The
double images may be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal in relationship to each other.
When double vision occurs because the two eyes are not correctly aligned while they are aiming at an object, this is called binocular diplopia. It is called monocular
diplopia when double vision occurs while viewing with only one eye. Alcohol
intoxication or head injury such as concussion can cause temporary diplopia.
Coma
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Female and Male Disorders Female and Male Disorders
Uterine Bleeding
Impotence or Erectile Dysfunction
Female and Male Infertility
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood characterized by signs of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Children with ADHD are unable to focus and concentrate on a task or purpose, be productive, and physically settle down and be still. They are impulsive, disruptive, and even aggressive in the classroom, at home, or in other social settings. They have difficulty organizing tasks or play activities. It is said that they seem as if driven by a motor because they fidget with their hands or feet, squirm in their seats, and interrupt or intrude on others.
Down’s Syndrome
Seizure
Pediatric Aphasia
Disorders of language affect children and adults differently. For children who have not used language from birth, the disorder often occurs in the context of a language system that is not fully developed or acquired. However, for an adult with aphasia, the loss of speech and language abilities is commonly caused by a stroke. An individual with aphasia may hear or see a word but may not be able to understand its meaning and may have trouble getting others to understand what he or she is trying to communicate.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that is triggered by a shocking or painful event. One can develop post-traumatic stress disorder from experiencing or witnessing an event that causes intense fear, helplessness, or horror, overwhelming the individual’s ability to cope. Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms are commonly grouped into three types: intrusive memories, avoidance and numbing, and increased emotional arousal.