The Treatment of Hypertensive Heart Failure from "Wind Leads to Water Invasion" Theory

The key pathogenic factors and the basic pathogenesis of hypertension with concomitant heart failure are water evil and water evil invading the lung. In response to the cognitive difficulties of how water fluid, which tends to descend, ascends and invades the heart and lungs during the onset of heart failure, the pathogenesis theory of "fluid evil accumulates, wind evil instigates, and water fluid ascends and invades" was proposed. It is believed that the yin deficiency of liver and kidney and qi deficiency of lung, spleen and kidney are the basis of the pathogenesis of hypertensive heart failure. The qi deficiency of lung and spleen and imbalance of ying and wei lead to easy attack of external wind; the yin deficiency of liver and kidney and yin not restricting yang cause internal wind to move easily; the deficiency of the lungs, spleen, and kidneys, as well as the dysfunction of transportation and dispersion, lead to the accumulation of water fluid. Induced by wind evil, water fluid invades upwards, leading to invasion of the heart and lungs, resulting in various heart failure symptoms such as asthma, stuffiness, palpitations, swelling, sweating, and obstruction of the chest and abdominal qi. The principle of "treating wind as the main focus, regulating the hub as the foundation, and preventing occurrence as the priority" and the treatment methods of "regulating ying and wei to resist external wind, nourishing yin fluid to extinguish internal wind, regulating the liver and spleen to benefit the hub, purging lung water to help promote lung transport, supplementing heart qi to unblock blood vessels, warming kidney yang to facilitate qi movement" are proposed.