While vaccinations and western medical interventions continue to evolve, we can also be treating COVID-19 with East Asian medicinal formulas.
Current guidelines concerning symptomatic presentation of a potential COVID-19 contagion (fever, fatigue, dry cough) is to stay at home and isolate for up to 2 weeks after symptoms abate. In other words, wait it out to prevent spreading the disease to others. However, this does not mean we can’t be treating the disease at the onset to lessen the severity of the symptoms as well as hasten recovery.
China has been dealing with this for a lot longer than us, and a Guidance for Corona Virus Disease 2019; Prevention, Control, Diagnosis and Management has been published by the National Health Commission of the PRC and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the PRC. It has been authored by doctors from the Beijing Ditan Hospital, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Chinese Preventative Medicine Association. This 130 page CIP database documents various COVID-19 manifestations and their subsequent treatment with East Asian herbal medicinals. Based on that data and what I’ve learned about how COVID-19 has been presenting in Seattle, I have put together a pharmacy of what I feel would be appropriate herbal formulas for treatment.
Since I cannot allow symptomatic patients to enter the clinic at this time, I am instead offering treatment with herbal medicine.
Here is an interesting article on the uses of acupuncture and herbal medicine being used in Beijing, China for the treatment of COVID-19.