Now millions have been infected by the coronavirus and have survived to not really understand the devastating effect it's had on multiple organs within their own body. There are cases today where people are concerned because they have recovered from the virus, but are still feeling subtle pain and discomfort in their heart, kidney, liver, intestines, and so on.
When you get a moment, please watch the episode on acupuncture, the coronavirus, and multiple organs...it may be in your best interest to do so. If you find yourself feeling as if something's wrong long after having been infected with this virus, please consult your primary care physician to discuss matters further. Now many people are confused as to the difference as well as similarities that this novel virus has compared to the flu. For starters, both diseases have a similar presentation that being, they're both respiratory diseases; and both have similar mechanisms of transmission, although it appears that COVID-19 is more transmissible than the flu. Now the speed of transmission is slightly different between the two whereby the flu has a shorter time before symptoms present itself (ie. a shorter incubation period) as opposed to the coronavirus, which can take up to 14 days before symptoms actually present. During this time, you can still transmit the virus to others. It appears that children present and transmit the flu virus more so than they do COVID-19.
The coronavirus is often asymptomatic and appears to be more deadly in comparison. I've been asked: How does an acupuncturist diagnose and treat influenza? In traditional Chinese medicine, influenza is viewed under the scope of epidemic cold disease because of its severity and transmissibility, as well as the severity of its systemic symptoms, organ involvement, and overall complications. Acupuncturists view the flu virus as being caused by an exterior wind attacking a person with inadequate resistance to exterior pathogens, whereby pathogenic wind lodges in the interstitial layer between the skin and muscle. The primary symptom of the flu is Fever: as being caused by epidemic toxicity. Secondary symptoms include Productive cough, congested chest, and dyspnea which is viewed as being caused by pathogenic heat accumulating in the lungs leading to failure of lung qi to descend and disperse. In traditional Chinese medicine, there are 4 basic patterns of influenza. Those are: 1) wind-heat attacking the protective level. in this case a person would display symptoms of high fever with a slight aversion to wind, a headache, and general body aches, sore throat with thirst.
Now my approach to treating influenza is I would look to disperse the exterior pathogens by using herbs that clear heat and relieve toxicity if it's in the initial stage. Now if it has already progressed to the interior I would focus on clearing heat and relieving toxicity along with dispersing lung qi and clearing heat from the heart. I hope this answers some questions individuals may have regarding acupuncture, the coronavirus, and influenza.
Until next time...Acupuncture Is My Life, what's yours?