6　What Are the Indications of Suspended Moxibustion?

Suspended moxibustion administered on acupoints can induce the transmission of channel qi. As the saying goes, “The indications include all diseases along the route of the channel qi.”[11] Thus suspended moxibustion is effective for cold, heat,exterior, interior, def icient and excess patterns.

Suspended moxibustion prevents and treats disease by using the radiant heat produced by burning moxa or other material to stimulate acupoints without touching the skin. It activates channel qi to regulate imbalanced physiological and biochemical functions. Its indications “include all diseases along the route of the channel qi.”[11]Suspended moxibustion is therefore effective for cold, heat, exterior, interior, deficient and excess patterns.

Suspended moxibustion can treat invasions of colddamp more effectively than acupuncture.

Pathogenic cold has a contracting effect, and pathogenic dampness causes coagulation and stagnation. When these combine and attack the body, the channels and collaterals become blocked and obstructed. As suspended moxibustion can warm and unblock the channels and collaterals, dispel dampness, and dissipate cold, it can be used to treat exterior and interior patterns caused by cold-damp constraining the exterior and blocking the channels and collaterals. Based on the principle of, “Using yang to suppress yin,”[12] suspended moxibustion can treat diseases caused by cold-dampness to achieve a maximum result with minimum of effort.

For yang def iciency, moxibustion is better than acupuncture.

Yang-natured ài yè (mugwort leaf) can unblock the channels and collaterals, and adding fire only increases the yang nature of moxibustion. The combination can effectively supplement deficiency and lift the sunken.

Moxibustion is indicated in blood stasis blocking the collaterals.

Pathogenic cold is coagulating and contracting, and when it invades the body, blood circulation will stagnate, eventually forming blood stasis. Qi deficiency and blood deficiency can also cause blood stasis to block the channels and collaterals. Suspended moxibustion can warm and unblock the channels, and warm qi and blood to promote their movement. When qi moves, blood will as well, dissolving blood stasis. Suspended moxibustion can therefore be used to dissolve blood stasis and unblock the collaterals due to its “warming and unblocking”[13] effects.

Moxibustion can be used to treat qi and yin deficiency.

Zhu Dan-xi, one of the most famous doctors of the Jin and Yuan dynasties, said using moxibustion in heat patterns was an example of a “coacting treatment,”[14] or treating disease with a therapy of the same nature. Moxibustion can be used to treat yin deficiency because it can supplement yang and “yin increases when yang grows.”[15] In qi and yin deficiency, moxibustion can be used because its heat can supplement qi. When the qi of the spleen and stomach is strengthened, normal transportation and transformation can be restored. This strengthens both qi and yin are supplemented, or in this case,“Supplementing yang to transform yin.”[16]

Moxibustion can treat heat-toxin patterns.

Throughout history, many doctors have said that moxibustion is contraindicated in heat patterns. The famous Zhang Zhong-jing of the Han Dynasty was one of them. He said that using moxibustion to treat heat patterns would have adverse consequences,so moxibustion should be avoided in heat patterns caused by yang exuberance or yin deficiency. The Qing Dynasty physician Wang Meng-ying said, “Moxibustion can attack yin,”[17] and forbid the use of moxibustion in heat patterns. In modern times, many teaching texts also list heat patterns as a contraindication for moxibustion. Some of them even go so far as to say that using moxibustion in heat patterns is like “adding oil to fire, making it hotter than before.”[18]

However, nowhere in The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic does it forbid moxibustion is cases of fever. However, there is section on the “twenty-nine moxibustion methods for febrile diseases[19]” in Basic Questions – Great Treatise on the Regular Principles of the Six Origins, which states, “Constrained fire must be dispersed.”[20]Moxibustion can expand blood vessels, speed up circulation and diffuse the interstitial spaces, which will dissipate pathogenic or constrained heat. Gong Ju-zhong of the Ming Dynasty in Inspiring Thoughts said moxibustion could be applied in all patterns of cold,heat, deficiency and excess. The use of moxibustion in heat patterns is therefore allowed because “heat can remove heat,”[21] and that one can “use fire to rescue from fire.”[22]From the above it is clear that heat patterns can also be indications for moxibustion.