Heart Blood Stasis

This condition, also known as Heart Vessel Obstruction Syndrome (心脉痹阻证), is caused by the obstruction of the heart vessels, leading to poor blood circulation. It is commonly seen in TCM patterns such as “Chest Bi” (胸痹, chest impediment), “Jue Xin Tong” (厥心痛, syncope with heart pain), and palpitations (心悸), as well as in Western medical conditions like coronary heart disease, arrhythmia, schizophrenia, and congestive heart failure.

Clinical Manifestations

The clinical manifestations include a stuffy, oppressive pain in the chest that may radiate to the shoulder and back, and down the Heart meridian of the Hand Shaoyin along the left arm. There may be a purplish discoloration (cyanosis) of the mouth, lips, and nails. The tongue is typically dark red, or may have petechiae (small purple spots) or ecchymosis (bruise-like patches).

• Mild cases: The individual may only experience chest pain, a feeling of stuffiness, or a dull, uncomfortable ache in a fixed location, which comes and goes.

• Severe cases: The onset can be sudden, with a sharp, knife-like pain, accompanied by palpitations, restlessness, a pale or ashen complexion, dark lips, cold limbs, and spontaneous sweating. The pain radiates along the inner aspect of the left arm. The tongue is purplish-dark or has stasis spots.

Heart Blood Stasis Syndrome mainly includes the following types:

1. Internal Obstruction by Blood Stasis (瘀血内阻): This is the most common type. The key diagnostic points are a stabbing, or even angina-like, unbearable pain in the precordial region, and a purplish-dark tongue with petechiae or ecchymosis.

2. Stagnation of Phlegm-Turbidity (痰浊停聚): This is often seen in overweight individuals who have a lot of phlegm. The pain is predominantly a stuffy, oppressive ache, accompanied by a feeling of heaviness and fatigue, a white greasy tongue coating, and a deep, slippery pulse, which are signs of internal phlegm-turbidity.

3. Stagnation due to Yin-Cold (阴寒凝滞): The characteristic of the pain is a sudden, severe onset that is relieved by warmth. It is accompanied by signs of cold, such as an aversion to cold, cold limbs, and a pale tongue with a white coating.

4. Qi Stagnation (气机郁滞): This is often related to emotional factors. The pain is typically a distending pain. The tongue is pale-red or dusky-red with a thin white coating. The above patterns of phlegm, stasis, cold, and stagnation can also appear in combination.

Treatment and Conditioning

Treatment Principle: Invigorate blood and transform stasis, regulate Qi and unblock the collaterals.

Dietary Advice

• Suitable Foods: It is advisable to eat more foods that nourish and supplement blood, invigorate blood, and dispel stasis. Examples include:

  • Nourishing/Invigorating Blood: Black beans, soybeans, hawthorn, peach kernel, longan, red dates, shiitake mushrooms, eggplant, rapeseed (canola), mango, brown sugar, yellow wine, red wine, rose flower, peach blossom, vinegar, green tea, He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum), Ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin), white peony root, Dang Gui (Angelica sinensis), Goji berries.

  • Promoting Qi Flow: It is also beneficial to consume foods that can move Qi, regulate Qi, and relieve depression, such as radish, daylily, kelp, mushrooms, onion, bergamot, orange, tangerine peel, buckwheat, sorghum bran, sword bean, Zhiqiao (bitter orange), Chenpi (aged tangerine peel), and Chaihu (bupleurum root).

• Unsuitable Foods:

  • Foods that cause bloating: Sweet potato, taro, broad beans, chestnuts.

  • Foods that are astringent and may impede blood flow: Dark plum, bitter melon, persimmon, plum, peanuts.

  • Spicy and greasy foods: Fatty meat, cream, crab roe, fish roe, chocolate, fried foods, and sweets.

  • It is also recommended to consume fewer cold drinks and frozen foods.