I have met a 91 year old man, former professor, famous author and brave warrior.  The skin on the back of his hands and one leg is purple, striated and patchy purple colors.  Why?  What simple things can be done to help this?

In curiosity,
Frannie

Dear Frannie,

This is a classic blood stasis condition, complicated by yin deficiency.
The purple and the striations are from the stasis of blood.  The blood is not moving properly and is leaking from the vessels. The yin deficiency will leave the skin and tissues (yin substance) very thin as they are not regenerated, so it is easier to see the blood stasis.

Doctor Yan De-xin changed the Chinese Medical orientation to aging a few years ago with his book on blood stasis, where he implicates it as the primary proximate cause of aging.  Until this book, the accepted cause of aging was kidney (yin and yang) deficiency.

In biomedicine there is a new accepted theory every month.  In TCM there is a new accepted theory every few hundred years, so this was a very big deal.

For this person you would need to move the blood and nourish the yin.  There are a few herbal formulas that can be very helpful.  As a single herb, Dan Shen (salvia miltorriza) as a daily drink would be helpful.

If he can get someone to burn moxa, or do it himself, there are several points that can be very helpful.  The single most important point to burn moxa over is zusanli (stomach 36).  This is about the width of four fingers below the “eye of the knee” on the outside of both legs.  The point is one thumb width off of the highest point of the tibia (big bone at the front of the lower leg). If you run the finger down from the knee, there will be a clear divot at Zusanli.  Burn moxa over this daily.  One can also massage this point to good effect.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!

Be Happy!

Dr. John Nieters, L.Ac. DAOM