Scleroderma is a kind of connective tissue disease due to the sclerosis of skin and organs. In TCM, it belongs to the numbness of the skin, which has a close connection with the lung, spleen, and kidney.
According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, there are four contributing factors that leads to Scleroderma:
1. Cold and damp damage the meridians, the grain of skin and the texture of subcutaneous flesh.
2. Wind and damp invading to body, it stops the skin and flesh from connecting with meridians each other.
3. Qi-stagnation and blood stasis, it causes the imbalance of yingqi and weiqi, the blood and Qi cannot flow easily through the meridians.
4. Deficiency of kidney and spleen. This can lead to the imbalance of Yin and yang, and so the skin cannot be warmed and nourished. As time goes on, amyotrophy occurs, and the skin becomes stiff like leather.
The above factors interact each other, and interact as both cause and effect. So when treating scleroderma, specific prescription is given to the patient according the type of syndrome.

In TCM, a disease or a symptom might be caused by one pathogenic factor, even two or three pathogenic factors. When diagnosing a disease or a symptom, TCM doctors must follow the principle of "Syndrome Dfferentiation", and then "Suit the Remedy to the Case". In order to gain a more definite and valuable diagnosis, it's important and necessary for the doctor to learn the detailed health information of the patient, including his/her disease duration, age, sex, height, weight, family history, urine, stool, diet, sleep, sweat, energy, mood (emotion), as well as the tongue conditions and the palm conditions, etc. If you would want our expert to create a TCM diagnosis, you're welcome to contact us.