Traditional Chinese Medicine: Herbs
By admin on 2014-12-29

Herbs, such as Indigowoad Root and honeysuckle, are believed to ease some flu symptoms, according to traditional Chinese medicine.

In early May, the Chinese Ministry of Health and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine raised public debate when they unveiled a Chinese-medicine plan, including prevention, to combat H1N1, the world's newest epidemic, popularly known as swine flu.

The recommended concoction called on mulberry leaves, cogongrass rhizome, honeysuckle and nine other ingredients, but netizens raised doubts over how a traditional preparation could help prevent such a new disease. "Has anyone ever heard Chinese medicine say there's a disease they don't have a cure for?" joked a commenter on the popular message board site, Douban.

Yet, Chinese-language media have been quick to weigh in against those who don't understand traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

"From the perspective of Chinese medicine, the swine flu is not so different from other types of flu and can most certainly be prevented and treated by means of Chinese medicine," says Dr Heiner Fruehauf, Founding Professor of the School of Classical Chinese Medicine in Portland, Oregon.

According to TCM theory, by adjusting the body to its environment, even people exposed to the virus will not become infected, says Dr Liu Qingquan, director of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine's Dongzhimen emergency treatment department.

Based on his experience in treating patients with SARS, Dr Liu explains Chinese medicine's theoretical framework for fighting diseases, such as H1N1.

"The environment that we find ourselves in might have the swine flu virus but [if you're properly suited to your environment] Chinese medicine thinks it's not nosogenetic [harmful] to you, whereas it is nosogenetic to me."

According to Dr Xu Wenbing, Chairman of the Hope Institute of Chinese Medicine in Beijing, the traditional medicines for SARS and the H1N1 do not attack the virus. Instead, they try to remove those internal conditions in the body that allow the virus to live.

"There is no medicine to directly kill the virus. A virus is like a seed: It needs things like temperature and water to grow," Dr Xu says. "When you take away these conditions, the body will cure itself."

In adjusting the body to fight H1N1, TCM doctors use medicines that target the digestive system. Whereas medicines designed for SARS treated the respiratory system, medicines for H1N1 target the digestive system, reflecting the finding that the illness triggers symptoms, such as vomiting and diarrhea.

In order to treat the digestive system, TCM takes into account factors, such as the season and the weather. The summer season, says Dr Xu, can throw off the digestive system, cutting appetite, sending the body's heat to the surface, and making the stomach cold.

He suggests some simple steps to put the stomach's temperature back in balance: "Drink hot water and put ginger or cinnamon in it. If people always take cold beverages, eat ice cream, or drink water directly from the refrigerator, they will harm their stomach."

TCM classifies green tea, milk, and ice cream as having a cold nature, so practitioners recommend avoiding them during the summer months.

This year's Chinese medicine response echoes the response to the SARS epidemic six years ago. At the time, Chinese news media reported shortened hospital stays for SARS patients who took traditional medicine, sometimes in combination with Western medicine. Chinese communities in Hong Kong and Singapore also saw throngs of worried citizens rushing to Chinese medicine stores to buy herbs to ward off the disease.

Since the outbreak of H1N1, Chinese media have reported increased sales of Indigowoad Root, known locally as banlangen, and even a 50 percent increase in the price of honeysuckle, both of which are thought to treat the flu.

During regular hospital visits, Chinese patients are much more likely to consult Western medicine, rather than traditional medicine. Statistics reported in the local newspaper Fazhi Wanbao show that out of 5,000-8,000 daily patients to the Beijing Friendship Hospital, only 200-300 consulted the Chinese medicine division.

But in the uncertain face of a modern epidemic, some Chinese are turning to traditional culture and ancient sources, such as the 2,000-year-old Chinese medical guide Neijing Suwen or The Inner Canon of Huangdi for solutions. One blog on the popular portal Sina even uses the text to fix a date to the end of the epidemic: July 23.

Yet Chinese medicine's effectiveness against SARS was never proven conclusively, and even more uncertainty surrounds H1N1. In a 2003 report of the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Portland, Oregon, director Dr Subhuti Dharmananda concluded, "With a new disease like SARS, it is almost impossible to know if the herbs that may have prevented or treated a similar disease will be effective for this one."

One factor hampering TCM is that many Chinese treatments still lack Western clinical research support. Some doctors of Chinese medicine, like Dr Qi, argue that treatment should continue even without research evidence.

"The outcomes of some physical and chemical tests in Western medicine and their relation to evidence for Chinese medicine are still unclear, so we cannot bother with that for the moment," says Dr Qi. Others argue that Western methods of scientific research aren't suitable for Chinese medicine's focus on individual treatment.

However, even some doctors who practice Chinese medicine are wary of the Ministry of Health's announcement, arguing that Chinese medicine cannot be blanket-prescribed. "Certain groups of people, like the 'young and healthy crowd' susceptible to the swine flu, might have certain commonalities, so preventions may have certain similarities, but this is only an approximation," says Dr Qi.

Dr Fruehauf insists that, to be effective, traditional Chinese treatments must be tailored to the individual: "No responsible Chinese medicine physician would blanket-prescribe the same remedy for thousands of people and expect that it will work for all of them."