TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) finds and treats connected parts of the body, in this case lines and points of our muscles, fascies and nerves etc.
Basic parts of TCM are herbs (hot teas), acupuncture, cupping therapy, gua sha, massage, (bonesetter,) exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy (cf. wp). I’ll write about those, but:
What has been helping me a lot, more than anything else is a form of (ear) acupressure which is based on the meridian-lines and points of traditional acupuncture, but is a modernized version. Like reflexology on the feet, ear acupressure assumes that points all over the ear lobe reflect the body and that applying pressure (pain) to them will like trigger points affect that region. She also uses acupressure points all over my body. For both she mainly uses small metal rods. The Chinese would maybe laugh about it, but there were at least 4 body treatments that had immediate and long-lasting effect on my hot/cold-system, my leg energy, my breath and need for oxygen and… I forget… Talking to my rehab-psychiatrist about this, he says: This may all not be proven, but there obviously are bodily reactions which are helpful, and the meridian etc. theories may seem old-fashioned because they were developed in and for a different way of thought milleniums ago, but if they help and don’t harm, then they are good.
Shiatsu is a term I know which is an acupressure massage.
Of these hot Chinese herbal teas don’t agree with me, like anything hot, I’ve tried them once. (Fairly sure at least.)
Acupuncture didn’t help first time, but it was done incompetently, so I’m giving it a second chance.
Cupping (assistants of my pain docs tried that) hurt my dry skin more than it helped.
Gua sha (skin scraping) would be bad for my skin too, but doing it gently above and below my eyes with a jar lid seems to get the tear fluid of my dry eyes flowing again, so it stops itching (after warming the eyes/fluid with warmed, cupped hands of my eyes).
Massage: Most massage is harmful for my skin, too, but one type in the rheum./fibro clinic seemed ot hurt, but was OK, connective tissue massage.
Exercise/Qi Gong: Qi Gong balls as hand exercise I’ve used even before fibro, and now do it again after they also used it for fibro in the rheum./fibro clinic. The Qi Gong movements I learnt there were very painful for me, because you had to wave around with your hands, which I can only do for under 30 seconds. But on youtube I saw that you can do it lying down, which is easier for me. That way I realized that just putting my hands up improves the Ache in my hands and arms much quicker than if I just rest.
Dietary therapy: I’ve tried 3 diets aside from my elimination diet for my hyperacidity/IBSD, and now have a fairly stable one. I’m pretty sure many suggestions of TCM-diets do not agree with me. Not sure how a TCM-dietician would see that tho.