The last year and a half has been challenging for all of us. However, just like the night sky there is also light sprinkled in with the dark. An example of this light I would like to focus on is Chinese medicine’s success in treating “long hauler” symptoms of Covid-19.
Covid-19 has been a challenge for standard care as we all know. One of the most difficult aspects of the virus for some are the symptoms that never seem to go away even after recovering from the initial illness. Most common long hauler symptoms that we see are shortness of breath, loss of sense of smell/taste, fatigue, and brain fog. Thankfully we are seeing some great clinical successes treating these lingering symptoms. I recently have seen a patient with shortness of breath that has been improving with the help of herbal medicine and another whose sense of smell is returning with acupuncture.
What the average patient/reader might find the most fascinating about this process is that our approach is no different for the patient who is post-Covid vs. the one who is not. For example, if someone came to me without having Covid as far as they know, but is experiencing acute shortness of breath, the herbal formula I would use to help them would probably be identical to the one I’d give them as a lingering Covid symptom. Why is that the case? Because Chinese medicine works through a system called “pattern differentiation.”
A “pattern” is a holistic gathering of symptoms into one or more categories that inform our treatment as practitioners. Just as the mainstream standard care approach groups symptoms into criteria that meet a Western medical diagnosis, we do the same, however our diagnoses aren’t dependent on the “microscope cause.” By that I mean, as a Chinese medicine practitioner, my concern isn’t whether the cause is viral or bacterial. I’m simply providing the herbal or acupuncture treatment that is long established for treating the pattern of symptoms in the person in front of me.
It’s no accident that the very herbs we use to treat symptoms that we would now call viral or bacterial in origin, in fact contain anti-viral and anti-bacterial phytochemicals. In other words, even though the ancient Chinese physicians didn’t have Germ Theory, their holistic approach yielded great results anyway. Results that we still see today.
In fact, Chinese herbal medicine has made such a splash in regards to Covid that currently there are two major FDA-approved clinical trials taking place at UCLA and UCSD. It is my hope that out of these trials comes greater appreciation of the efficacy of Chinese medicine, and more widespread acceptance.
Until then, if you or anyone you know is experiencing “long hauler” symptoms of Covid, please give acupuncture and/or herbal medicine a try by scheduling a session today.
Sources:
Researchers in California Explore the Impact of Natural Medicine on COVID-19
