The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 371

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 371

Togonapsin , that is, expelling old energy and taking in good energy, is the foundation of martial arts training.

No, more fundamentally, breathing could be said to be the beginning of life itself.

We must oxidize nutrients with the oxygen we inhale to obtain the qi, the energy necessary for life activities.

“Let me first take a look inside your throat.”

Sandro began his approach from a different direction than mine.

He had first received his education at a medical university in Italy.

With Chairman Richi’s support, the clinic was equipped with an otorhinolaryngology examination unit and diagnostic equipment like X-rays.

There was no reason not to check what could be easily confirmed.

“As you said, I don’t see any inflammation. Let me also check the muscle tension in your neck and shoulder area.”

But as expected, just as other hospitals had already examined, there were no notable findings on endoscopy.

The next diagnostic method Sandro chose was muscle palpation.

Quite a few muscles are involved in breathing.

When inhaling, we use the diaphragm, external intercostal muscles, as well as the sternocleidomastoid, scalene, serratus anterior, pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, trapezius, and erector spinae muscles.

Exhaling is basically the relaxation of the intercostal area and diaphragm releasing tension, but as the ribcage is lowered, abdominal muscles like the rectus abdominis, obliques, and transverse abdominis contract.

Thinking the problem would be around the neck rather than the chest and abdomen.

He palpated the sternocleidomastoid, scalene, and trapezius muscles.

“Does it hurt when I press?”

“Not really… I’m not sure.”

Surprisingly, Enrico didn’t complain of tenderness.

“Hmm? I thought there would be severe tension, but they’re actually atrophied.”

“Really? Is that so? The previous doctor just said it was muscle tension-related and didn’t actually feel around.”

Confusion appeared simultaneously on both Sandro’s and Enrico’s faces.

But Sandro quickly composed his expression and explained the situation.

“This doesn’t mean it’s not muscle tension dysphonia. What I palpated were the large muscles of the neck and shoulders, and there are many small muscles right around the vocal cords that are difficult to distinguish and touch by hand.”

That was correct.

The thyroarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles around the vocal cords control vocal cord tension and pressure.

There are also the suprahyoid muscles that help pull the larynx upward from the tongue root area, and the infrahyoid muscles that pull it downward.

“Usually when muscles stiffen, they all stiffen together, but it’s entirely possible for the large muscles to atrophy while overusing the muscles around the larynx.”

“Ah, so that’s what it was.”

Fortunately, Enrico soon understood.

“Acupuncture treatment will work to relax the muscles around the larynx as much as possible within a safe range. The location happens to be at the front of the neck, so it might be scary. I’ll use ultrasound guidance to avoid structures that shouldn’t be touched, like the carotid artery, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Oh, thank you.”

He visibly relaxed at the mention of ultrasound guidance.

After all, not the back of the neck but the front… anyone would be scared if told they’d be poked there.

“You said you’re willing to take medicine too, right?”

“Yes.”

Enrico nodded firmly.

He had the determination to do anything if it would help him recover.

“In Traditional Chinese Medicine, voice disorders are viewed as related to deficiency or excess of lung function. I’ll ask a few more questions for an accurate prescription.”

“Ah, good.”

Sandro conducted a very detailed interview.

Appetite, digestion, sleep, excretion, musculoskeletal pain, etc.

Since he asked specific questions about areas outside the respiratory system as well, the time easily exceeded 30 minutes.

“Your voice isn’t lacking strength, but your pulse is surprisingly weak. I’ll prescribe respiratory tonics to supplement lung deficiency.”

“Yes, please take good care of me.”

In any case, considering the chief complaint, systematic interview, tongue coating, and pulse altogether.

Sandro arrived at the same pattern identification as me.

“Voice therapy should be done concurrently for now, right?

“That’s right. We need to relax the laryngeal muscle tension while helping proper vocalization become familiar.”

“Understood.”

Overall, it was smooth and very carefully conducted treatment.

Normally, we would conclude the consultation like this and send the patient to the treatment room.

Swoosh.

Sandro turned to look at me as if asking whether he did well.

Following that, Enrico’s gaze also naturally turned toward me.

Since another doctor had observed, Enrico seemed curious about my opinion as well.

“I think the same. In Traditional Chinese Medicine pattern identification, this corresponds to lung qi deficiency, and as Dr. Lucarelli pointed out through the pulse that it’s weak, metabolism is also significantly reduced.”

“Ah, is that so.”

Terms like ‘lung qi deficiency’ wouldn’t be familiar to Enrico.

Moreover, unless he was an unusual Eastern culture enthusiast like Chairman Richi, he probably wasn’t very curious about the meaning.

In fact, even Korean people don’t know it well.

“You explained everything well, but if I may add one thing, both inspiration and expiration are not working well during breathing. Starting with lung qi deficiency, this time the voice showed problems first, but if you had continued singing as is, your breathing would have become shallower and metabolic decline would have severely damaged your body.”

Enrico rolled his eyes left and right.

It didn’t seem to quite register with him.

In times like this, it’s faster to show directly.

“From where you’re sitting, try exhaling loudly ‘hoo-‘ ten times. You’ll get dizzy.”

He thought, “Surely not,” but still exhaled as instructed.

Though I didn’t direct him to, Sandro also joined in with Enrico.

Huu-. Huu-.

On the third exhalation, I had already moved to support Enrico’s head and back with my arms.

And when he exhaled for the sixth time.

Enrico’s body swayed greatly.

“Oh, Jesus! Just now! Everything spun before my eyes!”

Fortunately, it wasn’t to the extent that I needed to support him.

Like orthostatic hypotension, he felt dizzy for a moment and soon regained his composure, so Enrico stepped forward and balanced himself.

But just the fact that it happened as I said shocked him greatly, and he held his head in his hands.

“When you inhale, the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated, and when you exhale, the parasympathetic nervous system is stimulated. Usually, modern people under a lot of stress unconsciously inhale more, and when you touch the neck and shoulders of such people, they’re stiff and hardened.”

This is lung excess.

For people like this, taking ten deep exhales actually relieves shoulder tension.

Even Sandro’s complexion had brightened immediately.

In the case of Athlete Myeongseonju, her symptoms from sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity were severe, so I deliberately taught her breathing exercises focused on exhalation.

“What about me… no, I’m the opposite type?”

This time he understood properly.

“Yes. It’s not exactly opposite, but you can think of it that way. Mr. Enrico, your metabolism is low, so both exhalation and inhalation aren’t smooth. Speaking and singing both involve exhalation. Even when you’re talking now, you’re exhaling, right?”

“That’s right. When singing, I exhale even more!”

“Since you can’t draw on your whole body’s strength then, only the muscles around your vocal cords are overworked.”

“Ah!”

Enrico clapped his hands, saying he finally had a realization.

“You don’t need to worry too much. You came for treatment before it became serious.”

I smiled gently to reassure him.

“As Dr. Lucarelli explained, treatment for the neck can be done by loosening the muscles with acupuncture, and he’ll prescribe good herbal medicine for metabolic recovery. Once lung qi is fundamentally restored and energy is well supplied even to the fine muscles, voice therapy will be more effective too.”

“I understand perfectly.”

If he had time, he could play some meditation music and do slow deep breathing.

If possible, do some aerobic exercise too.

If he had the will, I added that he should also build up the atrophied upper muscles like shoulders and chest.

He would recover even without going this far, but if he had the will, wouldn’t it be good to become even healthier while getting treatment?

“Wow, how can I get so dizzy just from exhaling? It’s just me, right? I thought it was some kind of magic.”

“Try it with people around you. Most people won’t feel much difference, or will actually feel their tension release. Oh, in the case of very thin elderly people, they might get quite dizzy, so support them well.”

It was easy if you thought it was easy, difficult if you thought it was difficult.

But showing it as a performance seemed to make it feel closer in many ways.

“Then let’s go to the treatment room.”

We guided Enrico to the treatment room.

As soon as he left, Sandro said he was exhausted and let out a deep breath.

This kind of sigh is also naturally exhaling to regulate when there’s been too much inhalation from tension.

“I was incredibly nervous. If it weren’t for you, Clinic Director, it would have been a disaster.”

“What disaster? I just repeated what the Clinic Director said once more.”

“The moment Enrico felt dizzy, his eyes changed. Even with the same diagnosis… it was moving treatment.”

It seems like Sandro was the one who was moved, not Enrico?

It wasn’t much, but he was so nervous that I probably seemed impressive for no reason.

“Come on, it’s just a little trick. What you did today is sufficient.”

We can’t have long consultations like today every time.

But as experience accumulates, you’ll get a sense of where to focus during medical interviews.

I explore breathing while cultivating qi through breathing exercises, so other people’s breathing catches my eye particularly well.

It really was sufficiently excellent treatment.

“Phew, yes. Thank you. If it’s alright, I’d like you to observe the treatment too.”

Since I was watching anyway, why not.

I gladly followed to the treatment room and watched Sandro perform acupuncture.

He opened the four gates – Hegu, Taichong, and Siguan points – considering qi circulation.

After treating acupoints of Soeuimp’yeongyeong like Shaoshang, Yuji, and Lieque.

As discussed earlier, he accurately needled the front of the neck with ultrasound guidance.

“Excellent.”

The acupuncture treatment was flawless.

“I was thinking of Ziyinqianghua-tang for the medicine, would that be okay?”

“Good. It would improve even with just Ophiopogon and Asparagus. But as I said earlier, overall metabolism is low and there’s some spleen deficiency overlapping… if possible, I’d like to add ginseng. Since we have to use preparations, um… Ah, let’s just give Ziyinqianghua-tang and Sijunzi-tang together.”

He chose the medicine well too.

Under Italian local pharmacy law, it was difficult for doctors to prepare decoctions in clinics.

So we went with prescribing preparations approved in Europe.

Fortunately, when PK exported preparations for the Saudi Arabia project, they had opened European routes as well.

Patients like Enrico don’t improve easily with acupuncture treatment alone.

“Ah, that would work then. Thank you.”

So Enrico happily finished his treatment.

Naturally, he wasn’t completely cured after just one acupuncture session.

But he seemed very satisfied as he returned home.

Ding-a-ling~.

“Huh, they came again?”

“This time you’ll have to conduct the consultation in Italian.”

After that, five more patients came.

Like Enrico, one violinist introduced by Park Miseun complained of shoulder pain.

Min Jeong-eun, who had previously interpreted when Chairman Richi visited our Oriental Medicine Clinic with Paolo, brought two acquaintances.

Since they were Korean expatriates familiar with traditional Korean medicine treatment, Sandro was able to conduct the consultations without difficulty.

And lastly.

An Italian patient with rhinitis who was passing by came to get a Western medicine prescription, but after consultation decided to receive a Socheongryong-tang prescription instead.

“Wow, six people on the first day is much more than when I first opened my clinic?”

“Except for one person, they were all referrals from you, Clinic Director…”

Still, you treated that one person really well.

Anyway, today’s start was really good.

After organizing the clinic at closing time, we shared our thoughts about the first day of opening over dinner.

And the next day.

“Since receiving treatment, I feel like the trembling at the end of my words has lessened somewhat. Oh, I brought an acquaintance today.”

Enrico, who had decided to receive acupuncture treatment as frequently as possible, came again right at opening time.

He even brought a referral patient after just one day.

“This is Cardinal Rucio.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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