It is clear that anusitis is a case of inflammation. The “itis” in anusitis is Latin for inflammation. Western medicine used to be written in Latin back in the day so learning the meaning of some of these Latin root words can help to decipher all manner of medical language without Google.
In any case, inflammation is another way of saying Heat or Fire which is how inflammation is described in Oriental Medicine. This word meaning gives us clues, but the focus of treatment is on the actual symptoms. Symptoms such as burning (heat) and itching (another symptom of heat) and bleeding due to inflammation, all give direction in how to treat this condition. Then from looking at the presenting tongue and pulse, I gather further information about treating the individual case.
What I have seen with long-term anusitis is bright red tongues (another heat sign), as well as cracking or fissured surface of the tongue and a peeled coating. A healthy tongue coating is thin and white, neither thick, nor totally stripped off.
We must understand the way heat works in the body over the long-term. Excess heat starts to burn up the fluids. In this case, the Stomach Yin that builds the normal healthy coating on the tongue has been burned off by long-term heat of anusistis lasting 5+ years. The fissures or cracks in the centre (the Stomach/Spleen area of the tongue), is further evidence that the moisture of the Stomach/Spleen has been burned off, leaving the internal landscape resembling a dry desert.
Cracks on the tongue look like cracks in the soil of very parched earth when there has been no rain. It’s always helpful to use patterns in nature to understand the body because our bodies are often mirroring things that go on in nature.
Pain in anusitis may come from swelling of the rectal tissues. Both pain and swelling are classic signs of inflammation. Some patients may also have rectal bleeding which can be another sign of inflammation. Bleeding should also clear up as part of the heat-clearing treatment strategy. If the bleeding is truly from the rectum or anus it will be a bright red colour and not a darker colour such as black. Black means bleeding from higher up the digestive track such as in the stomach in most cases, and has become dark because of oxygenation during the passage of time where it takes roughly 18 hours for the stomach contents to get to the anus. In other words, black blood means old blood. The colour of the blood helps us to know which area has the bleeding problem.
For anusitis cases I like to use a Global Balance treatment approach of balancing the Stomach, Spleen, Large Intestine and Lung channels. The reason is, the rectum connects to the Large Intestine channel, which carries the food products stemming from the Stomach. The Large Intestine channel will often carry similar pathologies stemming from the Stomach so it is often useful to treat these two channels together. The Spleen channel supports mucosal lining repair and it supports the Stomach channel as it’s Yin-Yang pair. The Lung channel deals with skin issues (itching, cracking, bleeding) and it supports the Large Intestine channel as its’ Yin-Yang pair. With these four channels, I use appropriate points for inflammation by selecting the Water over Fire Gua #36 elemental pattern because, as we all know, one of the best ways to put out a fire is with water. Applying this Gua to these channels produces a treatment plan as follows:
In addition to those channel points, I also use two points around the navel which is a mirror image of the anus. In this way I can target the anus tissue using the navel points so that I never need to put needles in private areas.
The result of this treatment in my experience has been that the itching and burning sensations have decreased significantly over usually about ten treatments and then finally disappeared. The tongue becomes less red, dry and cracked, evidence of less inflammation and then finally the tongue returns to normal pink colour. The tongue cracks starts to be less deep and then disappear altogether and a normal amount of tongue coating returns showing that the heat is more under control and no longer burning off fluids in the Stomach.
As for the self-care routine, I recommend topical castor oil liberally around the anus because castor oil used topically functions as an anti-inflammatory that de-flames the skin as well as deeper layers of tissues beneath the skin. You may find that its’s best to do this at night wearing a pair of old pajamas because castor oil is very messy and stains clothes badly.
I also recommend avoiding Heat-producing foods until the anusitis gets under control. Heat producing foods include red meat, (especially lamb), peanuts, chili, cinnamon, wasabi, vinegar, chicken and turkey, alcohol, eggs (the yolk, egg whites are fine), garlic, ginger and coffee. Although these foods aren’t necessarily bad foods in and of themselves, for a person with heat issues, they will often make those heat issues worse. When the body has deflammed and come back into balance then you can return to those foods in a balanced way.
Yours in health,
Cynthia McGilvray, R.Ac.
Cynthia's Classical Acupuncture and Wellness 