A Cold Climate Condition In Sunny Florida
Over the past several months at the Acupuncture by Andrea offices in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, I have treated a number of patients with Bell’s Palsy. Normally a practitioner sees Bell’s Palsy in colder climates in the Northern US States including Colorado (where I received my training in Traditional Chinese Medicine). This neurological disorder is understood in Chinese Medicine to result from exposure to extreme cold such as a high-mountain wind on your face as you fly down the ski slope, or a below-zero day with a negative windchill factor which finds you shoveling the sidewalk in Pittsburgh. These weather conditions are not occurring in North Florida, so why have I seen an increased number of Bell’s Palsy cases in my clients? Let’s take a deeper look into this to understand why this condition is occurring here in Florida.
Symptoms and Causes
Someone afflicted with Bell’s Palsy generally presents with one side of the face affected with a “rooping. The eye on the affected side cannot close entirely and tends to become dry and irritated. The person’s mouth cannot turn up in a smile as it seems to be “frozen”. People with Bell’s palsy may even have trouble closing their eyes or moving their mouths to eat, and their speech may seem slurred. These symptoms can lead the patient to believe that they have had a stroke. While Bell’s Palsy is a serious diagnosis, it is far less destructive and more easily treatable than a stroke.
Bell’s Palsy in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is diagnosed as External Wind-Cold attacking the channels of the face. According to the principles of TCM, one of the main contributing factors in this condition is an underlying deficiency of a person's inherent energy, or qi.
TCM practitioners treat Bell’s Palsy as a condition caused by a deficiency of zhèng qi, or weakness and deficiency in the immune system, specifically in the upper portion of the body. In the patient’s face there is blockage or stagnation limiting movement and circulation, causing drooping and lack of muscle control because the body is unable to circulate blood. During a treatment for Bell’s Palsy or deficient Zheng qi, I would try to increase the movement of blood to boost and strengthen the overall system and keep the circulation open and strong.
My clinical curiosity has been piqued by the increasing number of patients I have treated and heard about with Bell’s Palsy. Normally an illness that appears in a cold climate, I’m curious why am I seeing this in a growing number of patients in Florida during the summer. One patient disclosed that he had gone in and out of a freezer as part of his job, on a very warm Florida day, and thought that might have been the cause. I applauded his insight and shared that TCM characteristics of stress, or overwork signaled that this exposure would have led to his symptoms due to the extreme alternating conditions.
Many of the patients I treated for Bell’s Palsy showed some co-morbidities including diabetes and high blood pressure, with long-term use of high blood pressure medication. Diabetes has been researched as a possible contributing factor to Bell’s Palsy, and notably actress Angelina Jolie suffered from high blood pressure and Bell’s Palsy simultaneously (and she attributed her recovery to acupuncture!).
Perhaps the increase of Bell’s Palsy cases in sunny Florida is due to amplified stress from Covid-19 fear and isolation causing a rise in blood pressure and resultant Bell’s Palsy symptoms. Two of these symptoms, wind and shaking, are associated with the liver in TCM. The liver stores emotions, particularly anger, resentment, frustration, and unfulfilled wishes. The last eight months of uncertainty have only increased intense emotions in most of us and could certainly have contributed to an increase of External Wind-Cold attacking the channels of the face ( Bell’s Palsy in Wesern medicine).
Treatment
In both traditional Chinese medicine and Western Medicine, the sooner the patient seeks care, the better the outcome. Western treatment for Bell’s Palsy may include corticosteroids or antiviral drugs, while TCM takes a less invasive, gentler, long-term approach. During a treatment for Bell’s Palsy I target acupuncture points on your hands and feet, specific points on your face, or I will select scalp acupuncture points that connect the 12 cranial nerves with the areas of the face affected by the condition. I may also massage your face to relieve symptoms by loosening affected muscles around the mouth, cheeks and forehead.
Bell’s Palsy patient outcomes are generally determined on an individual basis. The sooner you schedule a visit to an acupuncture practitioner after the onset of symptoms, the better your chance of regaining normal facial movement. The longer you wait to receive treatment, the longer the symptoms may persist, and the longer the course of treatment may be, dealing your healing.
In TCM and acupuncture, keeping your body and mind fit and healthy, minimizing your stess, eating right and exercising will better your chances of avoiding illness. Building a foundation of health and wellness will improve your recovery time and future health outcomes.