Treatments in Conventional Medicine and Their Limitations
Conventional medicine chooses to treat the underlying disease (infection, cancer) or surgically remove the organ if the enlargement causes problems.
BM Korean Internal Medicine Clinic requests tests to rule out malignancy under a Korean Medicine physician's diagnosis and offers non-surgical alternatives for benign enlargement or functional problems that do not require surgery.
- Treating the Cause: Administering antibiotics, antivirals, or chemotherapy.
- Surgical Removal (Splenectomy): Removing the spleen when it becomes too large and poses a rupture risk or destroys blood cells excessively (Hypersplenism).
[Limitations]
Removing the spleen exposes the patient to lifelong risk of severe infection (sepsis), requiring vaccinations and antibiotic management.
Additionally, for chronic lymphadenopathy of unknown origin or post-viral enlargement, patients are often told to 'wait and see' without distinct drug treatments, leaving them with anxiety and discomfort.
BM's Integrative Solution: Softening Firmness (軟堅散結) and Lymphatic Detox
BM Korean Internal Medicine Clinic softens what is hardened and opens blocked paths.
- Softening Firmness and Dissipating Knots (Yeon-gyeol-san-gyeol, 軟堅散結): Using herbs like Bupleurum, Prunella, and Oyster Shell to soften and reduce hardened lymph nodes and splenic lumps.
- Activating Blood and Resolving Stasis (Hwal-hyeol-geo-eo, 活血祛瘀): Removing blood stasis accumulated in the spleen to help blood circulation and lower portal hypertension to alleviate splenomegaly.
- Lymphatic Detox: Promoting systemic lymph circulation with herbal medicine and acupuncture to discharge toxins accumulated in the immune system, creating an environment where lymph nodes do not have to overwork.
- Health Freedom Camp (Life Care): Guiding hydration and stretching to aid lymph circulation, and a digestible diet to reduce the burden on the spleen.
Evidence-Based Korean Medicine (Scientific Evidence)
Research has revealed that lymphadenopathy can be a precursor to autoimmune diseases, and that herbal medicine restores enlarged organs and edema by inhibiting liver fibrosis and improving lymph circulation.
- Association between Kikuchi-Fujimoto Disease and Sjögren’s Syndrome: Long-term follow-up of patients with Kikuchi's disease (Histiocytic Necrotizing Lymphadenitis) confirmed cases progressing to autoimmune diseases like Sjögren’s syndrome years later. This suggests that lymphadenopathy may be an early signal of systemic immune dysregulation, supporting the need for fundamental immune regulation (Korean Medicine approach) even after acute treatment.
- Alleviation of Splenic Burden via Inhibition of Liver Fibrosis: The 'Fuzheng Huayu' formula prevents activation of hepatic stellate cells and degrades collagen to reverse liver fibrosis. It possesses a fundamental therapeutic mechanism that alleviates splenomegaly caused by portal hypertension by improving microvascular circulation in the liver.
- Liu C, Hu Y, Xu L, Liu C, Liu P. Effect of Fuzheng Huayu formula and its actions against liver fibrosis. Chinese Medicine. 2009;4(1):12. doi:10.1186/1749-8546-4-12
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- Effect of Saireito on Post-Radiotherapy Lymphedema: When Saireito (Chai-Ling-Tang) was administered to patients with refractory lower limb lymphedema after cancer treatment, edema reduction and pain relief were confirmed in about 70% of patients through regulation of water channels (Aquaporin) and anti-inflammatory action.
- Nagai A, Shibamoto Y, Ogawa K. Therapeutic effects of saireito (Chai-Ling-Tang), a traditional Japanese herbal medicine, on lymphedema caused by radiotherapy: a case series study. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2013;2013:1-6. doi:10.1155/2013/241629
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