Long Covid: an article by Martin John on its treatment with Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Martin John is a member of the Jade Screen Project and keen to transmit the knowledge that was gathered over the course of the pandemic by herbal practitioners worldwide into the treatment of COVID and Long Covid.

"What studies have shown is that Long Covid can affect a spectrum of patients regardless of severity and duration of the initial infection. This debilitating condition continues to confound Western medics although many theories are emerging from the thousands of research papers that have been written about SARS Cov-2 and its after effects. Chinese Medicine, however, has a long history of treating epidemic diseases and has numerous diagnostic models to explain their progression and treatment. Whilst I will be exploring what we are learning about Long Covid I will try to draw some parallels with traditional understandings of its patho-physiology. Detailed explanations of Chinese medicine theory are however beyond the scope of this article."

https://rchm.co.uk/getting-to-the-root/getting-to-the-root-of-long-covid-article
#longcovid #traditionalmedicine #acupuncture #tcm #alternativemedicine

Gastrointestinal problems, Irritable Bowl Syndrome, constipation, allergies, Crohn’s disease, etc., are all connected to the gut. On the alternative medicine corners of the internet, the advise given is mostly about food and supplements.
While eating good food is an important pillar of health, there can be a certain obsessive quality to these recommendations. If the digestive system is not strong enough, foods cannot be broken down and absorbed properly, nutrition cannot be taken adequately from the food. Focussing on what is missing and supplementing those deficiencies, is typical for Industrial Medicine and the forms of alternative medicine that mainly mimic Industrial Medicine with other means.
Nature-based medicine focuses on the root causes, like emotional disturbances, unhealthy breathing or exercise habits, scars, tensions in the body and ancestral legacies and uses things like acupuncture to increase the blood flow to the abdomen, and creating a healthy “fermentation vessel” in the gut, so that the balance between the “good” bacteria and the “bad” ones shifts naturally, and the intestines can function properly, increasing the uptake of nutrients. Instead of focussing on what suppositiously is lacking in our lives or, the opposite, focussing on “detoxifying” what we perceive as being unwanted, natural medicine, like traditional acupuncture, aims to optimise the body’s normal, healthy functions, and trusts that this will allow the body to re-align itself with its true purpose according to nature’s design.

All this being said, here is a page full of wonderful ideas by Salvador Katz. He is a master of the dark arts of fermentation, the process that pre-digests your foods, adds flavour and good bacteria as well. Incorporating some fermented foods into your diet will be a great way to enhance it. Doing the fermentation yourself is cheap and fun, and can have you experimenting with flavours you would never get in the store. Fermenting foods is a traditional practice, and fits well into how our bodies have evolved.

https://www.masontops.com/pages/sandor-katz-fermentation-workshop

#acupuncture #gastrointestionalhealth #fermentation #traditionalmedicine #medicine #alternativemedicine #neijing #health #gut

Cold baths and cold showers, even plunging into ice baths, have become very popular lately, as a suppositiously healthy way to “boost the immune system” and for general health.
In traditional medicine, we see this very differently: Cold is one of the main problems that can invade the body, and it can cause much harm. The Huang Di Nei Jing (the Yellow Emperor’s handbook of internal medicine) describes how to treat damage caused by cold with acupuncture needles. The later classic Shang Han Lun (Treaty on Cold Damage) focusses more on herbal medicine. Protecting the body from cold, by covering it up adequately according to the weather, and eating warm instead of salads and juices, is important to stay healthy.

The longing of modern man to reconnect with his body, to feel viscerally, is understandable in this age where we are pushed towards experiencing life through screens, personal relationships have been taxed and artificial foods (highly processed foods and “meat substitutes”) are supposed to nourish our bodies. However, cold is not your friend.

To really support our body and mind, long brisk walks, being in nature, genuinely connecting to another human being, prayer or meditation are much better.

https://anncecilsterman.com/cold-plunge-cold-shower-hot-mess-by-ann-cecil-sterman/

#cold #tcm #traditionalmedicine #notyourfriend #icebaths #health #immunesystem