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Can Chinese Medicine Treat Corona Virus? (Part 1)

To answer this question accurately we need first look at the way Chinese medicine treats any disease. And what better way than to compare it with something that we are all so much more familiar with e.g. our own traditional medicine.

There is a saying in China that goes: “Western medicine treats the disease, Chinese medicine treats the person.”

What that means is that Western medicine’s main focus is on the end result of, usually, a very complex disturbances of the body’s normal self-protective and self-healing mechanisms. That end result (i.e. the effect) is known as the disease, characterised by specific symptoms and signs e.g. pain, headache, dizziness, coughing, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, to name a few.

Once that has been established, the next logical step is the treatment of the diagnosed condition with the preoccupation on temporarily masking the symptoms and signs (e.g. stop the pain, ease the heartburn, bring down the fever) or surgically removing the effect without regard to what caused it in the first place. That often, sadly, means removing parts of the body too e.g. an organ, an arm or a leg, a nose or an eye.

The treatment itself seldom takes into consideration who is being treated - male or female, young or old, strong or weak, white or black… In other words, if the “disease” is liver cancer they will most probably operate on the liver regardless of whether it was a baby girl or a ninety-year-old male.

If there is a high blood pressure detected then they’ll lower it with the same chemicals whether the patient is young or old, large-build or slim… The fact that no-one has ever been cured of high blood pressure by taking the lowering blood pressure pills is of no concern here. The pills do what they are supposed to do and that is to temporarily lower it until the next dosage is due!

And the same goes for the bacterial infections. It is all in establishing which strain has caused the infection so that it can be attacked with the “most appropriate antibiotics”. If it is a viral infection, no antibiotics will work anyway because viruses do not have their own metabolism and are multiplied only after they enter our own cells (and by them). Again, no thought is given to who is affected (the patient) but what pathogen (virus, bacteria, fungi, parasite…) is present.

As mentioned earlier, none of these treatments sees the person, only the disease. The sad truth is that, in this obsession with the disease, often the unthinkable happens - the chemotherapy or radiation has indeed destroyed the cancer cells but so did the patient. The operation was a great success but the patient has succumbed too.

On the other side, Chinese medicine never loses the sight of the person and the presented symptoms and signs (interpreted very differently) serve only to address the so-called “energy imbalances” (usually the blockages in the flow of chi or “life energy” within the meridians that connect all parts of the body with each other and with the inner organs, energy centres etc.).

And being holistic, it not only sees the human body as one, but also sees us all as part of nature and universe, inseparable and one with it. Everything in and around us affects us - some positively and some negatively (yin and yang).

So, all that needs to be done to be healthy and to live long is to implement as many beneficial influences in our lives as possible and to avoid or reduce as many damaging ones as possible.

Obviously healthy food, enough sleep, proper exercise, fresh air, proper clothing, rest, fun, peace, hygiene… are all beneficial while the opposite to that as well as pollution, addictive substances, stress etc. are all detrimental to our health and wellbeing.

For thousands of years the Chinese were saying that “When the positive chi (protective energy) is strong enough, the negative chi (invasive energy) cannot harm us.” This is not any less true today than it was 5,000 years ago.

Of course, there are many negative influences that were never mentioned in the old Chinese medical texts for the simple reason that they did not exist e.g. artificial additives in food and beverages, GMO’s, electro-magnetic radiation, plastics, chemicals…

Not only are they today present everywhere and in everything but are far more detrimental to health than the natural pathogens known to them for thousands of years and are all now taken into account as well.

But what does that practically mean? It simply means that when a patient with any of the above-mentioned conditions comes to see a practitioner of Chinese medicine they will all be treated differently. In other words, even if all of them suffer from the same condition as seen through the eyes of a western doctor (say high blood pressure), due to their differences in age, sex, constitution etc. they would all be presenting different chi imbalances and, as such, would be treated very differently. And often very successfully too!

Regardless of what modality is being used (acupuncture, herbal treatment, acupressure or Qigong) the aim in Chinese medicine always is to restore the flow of chi within the meridians. If being successful in doing that, the disease will go, regardless of what it was.

There is no mentioning of cancer, ulcers, stones, inflammation, bacteria or virus in Chinese diagnosis. No need to take x-ray, no blood tests, no biopsy, no operations. And yet, not only is Chinese medicine able to treat wide variety of almost all (especially chronic) conditions much better than western medicine, if used properly, it has no known side-effects and is far cheaper than its western counterpart.

But how is that possible? Well, let’s leave that to the theoretical researchers and scientists keen to explain the mysteries of the universe. Maybe it is due to the fact that Chinese medicine is based on chi (life force) that is still unknown to western medicine. Yes, western medicine is very developed and can explain to the slightest detail the physical structure of almost every cell of the human body but that is like trying to figure out and fix the problems of the world by looking at what our cities look like (i.e. by seeing the buildings, roads, bridges and cars) without ever encountering living people and finding out what they need.

What difference does a “new” virus make to a Chinese medical treatment? None! Each case is seen and treated differently (like it always has been) and, after a successful treatment is achieved, it is still unknown to both the Chinese medicine practitioner as well to the patient (and to his doctor if he had one) what happened to the virus? Who cares? It is the patient that matters.

Viral conditions have been successfully treated for thousands of years (flu, herpes, hepatitis, measles, chickenpox, mums, shingles…) in China. Corona virus is going to be just another example of how western scientists will eventually grow to know everything about a virus except how to treat it.

Yet, what is even more incredible is the fact that today, in the midst of this unprecedented panic pandemic and seeming search for a cure, no mainstream media is reporting that in China they are very successfully using their traditional medicine in the fight against this, currently, world’s most fashionable disease! (maybe, to them, it is already far too revolutionary to mention that even high doses of Vitamin C can help, something that has been used by Linus Pauling for decades to successfully treat anything from colds and flus to heart conditions and cancer)

But don’t get us wrong. We are not trying to make fun of it. It has even killed some people. But, what most people do not realise and what so many reputable scientists around the world are trying to tell them is that it is not any more deadly than the common flu.

Yet, mainstream media, the politicians and the health ministers are telling them otherwise and so, they reason, they must be telling us the truth. They sure know better! And, they also assure us - anyone who has tested positive and died must have died from it. So keep adding the numbers! Yet, somehow, the number of dead people for the same period last year in each country is basically unchanged. And the number of those that die from common flu each year is still far greater.

But the aim of today’s blog is not teaching people how to think. That is their own choice. As for all those interested to have a closer look at what sort of diseases have been treated by Chinese medicine, please check out our website. It is full of references and accounts (mostly from people recovered through practicing Qigong). Here is a link to some case histories and testimonials which, despite a large number mentioned, is really just a drop in the ocean.