TCM Treatment of Vertigo
I remember one particularly instructive case early in my apprenticeship
with my wife Nai-shing. We saw a gentleman who had suffered from
vertigo for more than a decade and gotten no relief from Western
medicine. Nai-shing diagnosed him with the Chinese syndrome
called Liver Wind.
She explained that longstanding hyperactivity of Liver Yang with signs
of heat stirs up wind in the Liver, leading to symptoms of trembling
and vertigo. She treated him with two basic TCM herbs to quell
this problem, gou teng twigs (Uncaria sinensis) and tian ma rhizome (Gastrodia elata), in a formula of supportive herbs.
Within a month his symptoms had subsided, and were completely gone in
less than six months. Nai-shing then said to me, "See, Liver Wind
really exists, and now it is gone." Since that time I have seen her
treat several other cases, and I have never found another herb
combination that works as well. If the vertigo patient has more
heat symptoms, simply add cooling herbs which work on the liver, such
as scute root and chrysanthemum flower to the basic two herbs. If there are sign of deficiency, add liver nourishing herbs like white peony root, eclipta and cornus fruit (shan zhu yu or Cornus officinalis).

