The weather changes make the old fracture sour and painful, which can be relieved by Chinese medicine.

It's getting colder and colder. For patients with a history of old injuries and fractures, it is like a "human meteorological observatory", which plays the aches and pains of the whole body. For patients with this kind of fracture, in addition to pain, it is accompanied by symptoms such as stiffness, numbness and weakness, which causes unfavorable exercise and affects work. How to deal with and alleviate similar old injuries and sequelae? This kind of patients have more serious swelling than the initial stage of injury, and then the swelling is slower, which is easy to block the injured part and often touches the post-injury fibrosis changes, such as lumps.

For Chinese medicine, this is local qi stagnation and blood stasis, which may be accompanied by phlegm and dampness for a long time. When the weather changes, the movement of qi and blood is weakened, or the blockage is aggravated, which is easy to cause soreness. Local qi and blood are unfavorable, which easily leads to muscle loss and stiffness, and more serious block will cause numbness and weakness.

In addition, due to the accumulation of local injuries, over time, it may lead to compensation phenomenon (other parts begin to produce pain) or local minor injuries gradually worsen (recurrence of old injuries), and these symptoms will also lead to poor motor function and increase the chance of re-injury. (Recommended reading: "Blood stasis" constitution is prone to physical pain. Chinese medicine: eating hawthorn can relieve menstrual discomfort, soothe the liver and relieve depression)

In the treatment of related fracture sequelae and old injuries, the main treatment principle is "warming and nourishing", which promotes local blood circulation through heat energy and gradually restores the nourishment of tendons (soft tissues such as muscle ligaments). Therefore, the treatment of ordinary hot compress, infrared lamp and traditional Chinese medicine fumigation and washing is not enough, because such accumulated injuries often lead to bone dislocation (or improper reduction of original fracture) and tendon groove.

Step 1: To reduce the repeated accumulation of injuries, we must first understand the causes of old injuries, which may be contusions, occupational injuries or accidents, and then understand how different the functions of the injured are from the original ones, so as to establish a basic understanding of this old injury.

In fact, old injuries often lead to disability in some movements, so the body will use other parts to compensate. For example, if you have a shoulder injury, you can't lift things. You may lift things through your shoulder blades and spine. After a long time, it will naturally cause shoulder pain and stiffness, and the original shoulder will become worse because of shoulder stiffness, forming a vicious circle. Therefore, breaking the vicious circle is the key to relieve the discomfort caused by old injuries. (Recommended reading: Can old joint injuries be cured? Chinese medicine has a good relief)

Step 2: It is very important to give proper heat energy in daily health care to promote blood circulation. It is suggested that hot compress should be mainly wet compress, and qi-blood reaction should be strengthened through damp heat. Because for old injuries, most of them are in a state of dystrophy, so they are often in a state of yin deficiency (except in the acute stage of repeated injuries). If dry heat is used alone, it may aggravate local yin deficiency. Therefore, it is suggested that the temperature of hot compress should be about 40 ~ 42℃ and the time should be about 15 minutes, twice in the morning and twice in the evening.

You can also use * * * massage at ordinary times to raise the temperature of local tissues and loosen stiff soft tissues. It is recommended to massage and knead locally, combined with pressing and pushing, twice a day for *** 10 minute each time, aiming at local tissues for health care.

The third step: light exercise. Remember not to overuse the old injured part, but it is not advisable to do no exercise at all. Therefore, when hyperthermia and local soft tissues are soft, light joint activities can be carried out, mainly stretching, and the tight tissues can be gradually released. Remember not to overstretch, but stretch your body slightly tight, because the flexibility of the injured tissue will decrease. If you overstretch, it is easy to cause secondary injuries.

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To reduce the formation of old injuries, the most important thing is initial nursing. It can relieve swelling at an early stage and reduce the formation of fibrotic tissue. Therefore, in case of injury, remember not to delay medical treatment, and don't work hard because of minor injuries, which will lead to aggravated injury accumulation.

(The writer is the attending physician of the Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University. )

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