Traditional Chinese Medicine as Prevention for Covid-19

In my last post, I introduced some of the information coming from China about how TCM is being used for the treatment of COVID-19, generally in combination with standard Western medicine.

In this post, I would like to share some additional information on the subject, including three preventative herbal formulas that TCM practitioners in China and Japan say have been effective in the prevention of the disease, named “Yu Ping Feng”, “Zhong Yi Qi Tang” and “Shi Quan Da Bu Wan”. According to the sources, their development was based on TCM historical records and scientific clinical evidence.

As in my last post, however, I should add a note of caution. To the best of my knowledge, the safety and efficacy of these formulas have not been tested and verified according to accepted Western scientific methods. While the information is very interesting and encouraging, we shouldn’t necessarily accept everything said by the sources as correct.

In keeping with this practice, the current pandemic of COVID-19 resulted in many provinces in China issuing TCM prevention and control programs. From what I have read, the prevention programs adopted are mainly oral TCM herbal formulae. The study below reviews the historical and human research evidence on the use of TCM in the Chinese effort to prevent and control COVID-19 infections.

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“Can Traditional Chinese Medicine Be Used for Prevention of Corona Virus Disease e 2019 (COVID-19)? A Review of Historical Classics, Research Evidence and Current Prevention Programs”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7088641/

To briefly summarize the most important finding of this review, the author found “Yu Ping Feng” to be an essential formula which can help “reinforce vital qi” (the terminology used in TCM that is similar in meaning to Western medicine’s concept of boosting the host’s defensive capacity. Based on this formula, each region and each doctor tailormade the specific Chinese formula for their patients.

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“Some Traditional Japanese Medicine (TJM) practitioners have also been working along similar lines. In her article entitled “Treatment strategy of COVID-19 by Traditional Japanese medicine –Kanpo–”
http://www.kansensho.or.jp/uploads/files/news/gakkai/covid19_kanpou_0319.pdf

This is written by Dr Keiko Ogawa from the viewpoint of TJM, she states that, ”Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang” and “Shi Quan Da Bu Wan” can be useful for the prevention of COVID-19 through the strengthening of Qi to improve the immunomodulatory function. Qi is the principle of vital energy. Strengthening and unblocking this profound vital energy has the potential effect of facilitating the asymptomatic virus carriers to be recover from the disease. From the TJM perspective, it can be quite useful to understand the variety of clinical conditions involved in the disease.

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In conclusion, evidence appears to exist that Traditional Chinese and Japanese herbal formulae could offer an alternative or supplemental approach for the prevention of COVID-19 in high-risk populations, that might be especially valuable while we are still waiting for the development of a successful vaccine.

If you would like further information or are considering taking one of the specific TCM formula, please first of all consult your doctor and local TCM Specialist or one of these online platforms.

[Switzerland platform]

https://www.covid19-medecine-chinoise.ch

[France platform]

https://www.covid19-france-medecinechinoise.fr

Hope this information reaches to those who might benefit from this type of additional complementary treatment.

Please take good care of your families and yourselves in these difficult times.