Amy, a 74 year-old female, paid her first visit to the Clinic on March 20, 2000, and complained of shaking of both arms and hands.

She noticed the shaking of her hands a year prior to her first visit to the Clinc, and it had been progressing slowly. Her head started shaking six months earlier, and the shaking was usually aggravated by stress and emotional disturbance. She also had frequent urination, particularly at night. On average, she got up three to four  times a night and was slightly constipated. Other symptoms included lower back pain and fatigue. Her tongue was purple with lots of small cracks.

She was diagnosed with Shaking Syndrome (Zhen Chan), which was caused by stirring of the liver wind due to Yin deficiency, accompanied by blood stagnation. From a Western medicine perspective, her diagnosis was senile tremor.

She was treated with body acupuncture, scalp acupuncture and herbs.

For body acupuncture treatment, points selected were:

LV3 (Taichong), punctured perpendicularly with a 1.0 cun needle to a depth of 1.0 cun

KI3 (Taixi). Punctured perpendicularly with a 1.0 cun needle to a depth of 0.8 cun

KI1 (Rongquan), punctured perpendicularly with a 1.0 cun needle to depth of 0.5 cun

LI4 (Hegu), punctured perpendicularly with a 1.0 cun needle to a depth of 0.8 cun

GB20 (Fengchi), punctured perpendicularly with a 1.0 cun needle to a depth of 1.2 cun

DU16 (Fengfu), punctured perpendicularly with a 1.0 cun needle to a depth of 1.0 cun

DU20 (Baihui), punctured transversely with a 1.0 cun needle to a depth of 1.0 cun

ST9 (Renying), punctured perpendicularly with 1.0 cun needle to a depth of 1.0 cun

Treatment was administrated twice a week for successive 40 weeks.

For scalp acupuncture, points selected were

Chorea Area (both side), punctured transversely with 1.0" needles from both ends and stimulated with electric stimulator for 30 minutes.

Treatment was given twice a week.

Herbal Prescription: Patent medicine Liu Wei Di Huang Wan (Six Flavor Pill) was administrated

Shui Di Huang

Shan Yao

Shan Yu Rou

Ze Xie

Dan Pi

Fu Ling

Three capsules each time, three times a day.

After one month of treatment and eight sessions of body and scalp acupuncture, her tremors were relieved greatly.  She then received acupuncture once a week and continued the herbs at the same dosage. Her condition has remained very stable.