Acupuncture treatment for Long Covid and Post-Viral Syndromes
Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history of treating viral and post-viral conditions, which were referred to at the time as exterior invasions. The Shanghan Lun is a Chinese medical text compiled by Zhang Zhongling c. 220 CE. The treatise attributes symptoms associated with infections to damage from cold and divides the stages of disease progression into 6 phases.
The first 3 phases strongly resemble symptom patterns
associated with the acute phases of Covid or influenza. The latter 3 phases describe symptom patterns that are quite similar those experienced in Long Covid or Post-Viral Chronic Fatigue.
The more recent Wen Bing Xue (warm disease theory) was established in the late 1500’s CE and accounts for symptoms
associated with epidemic diseases of that time period that were not delineated in the earlier Shanghan Lun text.
When we treat Long Covid or Post-Viral Syndromes in the modern TCM clinic we diagnose patients according to the patterns of these two traditional texts. We can then choose appropriate acupuncture points, prescribe herbal formulas and make food recommendations to assist in restoring the patient to health.
