Case History 4.3
Wheezing: Kidney-Yang Deficiency-Female, Age 42
A 42-year-old woman had been suffering from asthma for 10 years. It started after the birth of
her second child. She experienced a feeling of oppression of the chest and sometimes coughed
up some yellow phlegm.
She also suffered from lower backache and often felt dizzy. Occasionally she experienced
tinnitus and her urine was pale and frequent. She felt very tired.
Her tongue was slightly Pale but with a yellow coating and her pulse was Deep and Weak,
especially on both Kidney positions.
Diagnosis This is a clear case of asthma from deficiency of Kidney-Yang, with the
Kidneys not grasping Qi. There is also some Phlegm-Heat (yellow
sputum and yellow tongue coating), but not significant.
Treatment principle The treatment principle must therefore be aimed primarily at
strengthening Kidney-Yang and secondarily at tonifying the Spleen and
resolving Phlegm.
Treatment This patient was treated only with acupuncture. The main points used
were:
BL-23 Shenshu, Ren-4 Guanyuan and KI-3 Taixi, with moxa, to tonify
Kidney-Yang.LU-7 Lieque on the right and KI-6 Zhaohai on the left, to open the
Directing Vessel, tonify the Kidneys and restore the descending of
Lung-Qi.LU-5 Chize and Ren-22 Tiantu to restore the descending of Lung-Qi.BL-20 Pishu and Ren-12 Zhongwan to tonify the Spleen.ST-40 Fenglong and SP-6 Sanyinjiao to resolve Phlegm.P-6 Neiguan to open the chest and relieve breathlessness.This patient was treated every two weeks (as she lived quite far away)
for 18 months, after which time there was an improvement of about
80% in her condition and she experienced only occasional
breathlessness.