↑ reinforcing ↓ reducing ⊥ even method.
1. Painful Obstruction with Wind-Cold-Damp
Clinical manifestations: Cramping and aching pain that worsens in cold, damp weather, heaviness in limbs, aversion to cold and wind, swelling without redness/heat, pain relieved by warmth.
Tongue: Pale, slightly swollen body with teeth marks and white greasy coating. Pulse: Wiry and tight, or slow, may feel soggy.
Treatment principle: Dispel Wind, eliminate Dampness, warm the channels.
Note: moxa applicable. No deck on this site has a Wind-Cold-Damp Bi-syndrome category, a confirmed and recurring absence, so no pattern link is given here.
2. Damp-Heat in the Liver Channel
Clinical manifestations: Hot, distending cramps, bitter taste in mouth, heaviness in limbs, dark scanty urine.
Tongue: Red body with red sides, yellow greasy coating thicker at centre and root. Pulse: Wiry, slippery, and rapid.
Treatment principle: Clear Damp-Heat from the Liver channel.
Note: no moxa. This site's Damp-Heat-in-the-Liver slide is genital-specific, not a match for generic limb cramps despite the shared name, so no pattern link is forced here.
Clinical manifestations: Fixed, stabbing cramps, worse with rest and better with gentle movement, history of injury or chronic tension, worse with pressure.
Tongue: Purple or dark body with stasis spots, distended sublingual veins, thin white coat. Pulse: Wiry and choppy.
Treatment principle: Invigorate Blood and eliminate stasis.
Note: no moxa. Direct match — a purple/dark tongue with stasis spots is the same discoloration marker named on this site's Liver-Blood stasis slide.
Clinical manifestations: Dull, achy cramps in the calves or feet, worse with fatigue or prolonged standing, poor appetite and abdominal bloating, loose or soft stools.
Tongue: Pale, puffy body with tooth marks and thin white coating. Pulse: Soft, weak, and flimsy, noticeably weak at right middle.
Treatment principle: Tonify Spleen Qi and raise clear Yang.
Note: moxa applicable throughout. Direct match — poor appetite, loose stools and a pale puffy tongue are the same markers named there.
Clinical manifestations: Cramps that occur mostly at night, soreness and weakness of lower back and knees, heat in palms/soles/chest, night sweats, dry eyes and dry mouth.
Tongue: Red, thin body with cracks and little or no coating, dry surface. Pulse: Fine and rapid, often wiry, weak at left Chi and Guan.
Treatment principle: Nourish Yin and generate fluids, relax spasms by moistening the sinews.
Note: no moxa (Yin-deficiency pattern). Direct match, reusing the well-established Kidney-and-Liver-Yin-deficiency slide.
6. Phlegm in the Channels, Joints and Muscles
Clinical manifestations: Fixed, stabbing cramps, heaviness or numbness in limbs, hard lumps or nodules near the cramped area, purplish skin discoloration, chest tightness.
Tongue: Purple body with stasis spots, white greasy coating, distended sublingual veins. Pulse: Wiry and choppy, or wiry and slippery.
Treatment principle: Clear Phlegm, dissolve Blood stasis, unblock channels.
Note: no moxa. No deck on this site has a Phlegm-in-the-channels Bi-syndrome category, a confirmed and recurring absence, so no pattern link is given here.