Academic Experience Of Professor Yang Minghui In Treating Insomnia By Harmonizing The Stomach To Calm The Mind

My tutor, professor Yang Minghui, has rich clinical experience and stresses combination syndrome differentiation with disease differentiation. He has particular views on such disease as insomnia, senile disease and parkinson's disease,etc. In this study, we aimed to summarize his views on the etiology and pathogenesis of insomnia and his clinical experience of treating insomnia by harmonizing the stomach to calm the mind, observe the clinical effect on insomnia and it's possible mechanism of He-wei-an-shen Prescription (HWASP) invented by Professor Yang Minghui, conclude his acdimic thought on insomnia, which shoule be inherited and developed.We visited and learned with Professor Yang Minghui, collected his TCM cases, reviewed literatures on insomnia in past dynasties, and specially those which treated insomnia from stomach in TCM, recalled his medical experience and achievements, recalled his medical experience and achievements,summarized his views on the etiology,pathogenesis,treatment, dietary and emotional nursing on insomnia, induced his academic thought and clinical experience on insomnia. He studied insomnia from Canon of Internal Medicine, uphold "When the Stomach is in Disharmony, One can Hardly Lie Still", combined the pathogenesis of insomnia, proposed in Canon of Internal Medicine,"defensive qi failing to move from yang to yin normally" and stomach is the pivot which makes wei qi move from yang to yin normally, proposed by historical physicians and put forward treating insomnia from stomach in Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM). He considered the etiologic factors of insomnia mainly include inappropriate diet, excessive seven emotions and inappropriate work and rest, the pathogenesis include defensive qi failing to move from yang meridians to yin meridians normally and evils ascending to disturb the mind when the stomach qi failing to descend normally. He considered insomnia was ascribed to stomach from the correlation between brain and intestine in western medicine, proposd treating insomnia by harmonizing the stomach to calm the mind, formulated He-wei-an-shen Prescription (HWASP),which had good effect on insomnia.117 patients were diagnosed and randomly divided into the treated group (treated with HWASP, n=59) and the control group (treated with Zolpidem,n=58). Before and after 4 weeks' treatment, Pitsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), WHO Quality of Life Assesment-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) and TCM symptoms of patients were assessed. Micro-movement Sensitive Mattress Sleep Monitoring System (MSMSMS) and Encephalofluctuograph(EFG) were also detected. We found that HWASP could improve quality of sleep of patients with insomnia and reduce PSQI scores.The effective rate in treatment group was the same as that in the control group (P＞0.05). HWASP could improve concomitant clinical symptoms of patients with insomnia, reduce TCM sydrome integration.The total effective rate in treatment group was better than that in the control group (P<0.01). Compared with the control group, HWASP can prolong insomniac's deep sleep and rapid eyemovement sleep (P＜0.01), improve insomniac's sleep phase, elevate insomniac's WHOQOL-BREF scores (P<0.05), regulate the level of nerotansmitters in the brain of insomniac (P<0.05). HWASP is safe and effective and has no obvious side effect and toxicity.We investigated 307 patients with insomnia, observed and analyzed their stomach symptoms, common TCM symptoms, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). We discovered 79.48% patients with insomnia complained stomach symptoms, mainly manifested as abnormal taste, adverse rising of stomach qi, abnormal appetite, stomach qi failing to descend normally. The incidence rate of anxiety and depression in these patients was 50.16% and 43.32% respectively.The common symptoms of TCM in patients with insomnia differentiated as "stomach disharmony" included difficult to fall asleep, dizziness and distention of head, fatigue and weakness, dreaminess, oppressed sensation in the chest and palpitation, bitter taste, epigastric distention and oppression, loss of appetite, uneasy sleeping at night, halitosis, anxiety, abnormal stool, etc.The common tongue color was red, carmoisine or light white. The common tongue coating was white and greasy coating, white and thin coating, yellow and grease coating. The common pulse was wiry and slippery pulse, thready and slippery pulse, wiry and thready pulse, wiry pulse or deep and thready pulse.We concluded professor Yang Minghui's academic thought on inomnia include:The etiologic factors of insomnia mainly include inappropriate diet, excessive seven motions and inappropriate work and rest. The basic pathogenesis include defensive qi failing to move from yang meridians to yin meridians normally and evils ascending to disturb the mind when the stomach qi failing to descend normally. The common treatment on insomnia is harmonizing the stomach to calm the mind, which can improve insomniac's quality of sleep and concomitant symptoms, improve their sleep phase, regulate the level of transmitters in theie brain, improve their quality of life and has good and safe effect.