TCM Diagnosis Methods for Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Most parents do not know much about hand, foot and mouth disease, which often leads to their children not receiving timely treatment in the early stages of the disease, delaying the disease and hindering recovery. Therefore, everyone should learn more about it. How much do you know about the Chinese medicine diagnosis methods for hand, foot and mouth disease? Let me introduce it to you below.

Some doctors also believe that the main cause of this disease is internal factors. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the heat in the heart meridian causes mouth sores, and the theory in "Children's Health General Micro-discussion Recipe·Lip and Mouth Disease Theory" that "wind, dampness and heat, follow the weak parts, fight against blood and qi, and then cause sores", it is pointed out that due to different sites of onset, herpes and papules can appear on the hands, feet, buttocks and even the whole body, but they are more common in the palms and soles. The main cause of "mouth sores" is the accumulation of heat in the spleen and stomach or the inflammation of heart fire, and most of them are positive clinical evidence.

According to the clinical symptoms of patients, Chinese medicine doctors differentiate and treat them, and add or subtract medicines according to the symptoms, achieving good results. This article briefly reviews the Chinese medicine treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease in order to better treat and control the occurrence and spread of the disease. In terms of etiology and pathogenesis, hand, foot and mouth disease belongs to the category of "epidemic" and "febrile disease" in traditional Chinese medicine. This is because the occurrence of hand, foot and mouth disease is sudden, explosive, seasonal, highly contagious and epidemic, and it often has early symptoms such as fever.

Although doctors have not reached a complete consensus on the etiology and pathogenesis of hand, foot and mouth disease, they generally believe that the cause of hand, foot and mouth disease is exogenous evil epidemic toxins, internal injury of damp heat accumulation, and blazing heart fire; the disease is located in the lungs, spleen, and heart; its basic pathogenesis is exogenous evil epidemic toxins, the defense surface is suppressed, and the lung qi fails to be released. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, etc. Due to the internal damp heat and strong fire in the heart meridian, there is a struggle between the internal and external forces, and the fire of the heart meridian steams up to the mouth and tongue, and the damp heat of the spleen and stomach steams to the limbs, which then causes herpes.

In the early stage of hand, foot and mouth disease, it manifests as a series of exogenous symptoms such as fever, sore throat, and cough. In the middle stage, it manifests as the appearance of herpes and internal heat symptoms such as persistent fever, irritability and thirst. In the late recovery stage of the disease, it manifests as a series of yin fluid depletion and spleen deficiency symptoms such as the gradual disappearance of herpes, fever, dry lips, and poor appetite. Therefore, the treatment should be based on the development of the disease and the use of drugs based on syndrome differentiation.

The treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease in Traditional Chinese Medicine can be roughly divided into three stages: the prodromal stage, the eruption stage and the recovery stage. During treatment, doctors formulate prescriptions based on the patient's different clinical symptoms and add or subtract medicines according to the symptoms.