Traditional Chinese medicine for Covid patients

What I’ve learned from treating Covid-19 patients with telemedicine, for both the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Generally speaking, covid-19 symptoms are categorized as “hot” influenza under Chinese medicine pathology.

As with all illnesses, I would prescribe specific formulas to accommodate each individual’s health conditions and Covid symptoms.

One example is an 87-year-old who consulted me, via a video call, on the second day of contracting Covid when he had a fever of 37.7 degrees Celsius. The chronic disease patient had already received three jabs of the Covid vaccine, and was suffering from a dry cough.

Based on his conditions, I prescribed some herbal powders that were “anti-inflammatory” in nature. These ingredients can also be found in Lianhua Qingwen capsules.

Lianhua Qingwen is a type of Chinese medicine that is often used to alleviate symptoms of severe flu and other respiratory diseases and strengthen our immune system to fight viruses.

According to a report published in Integrative Medicine Research in March 2021, the Lianhua Qingwen formula has been seen as complementary treatment for patients with ordinary Covid-19. The medicine, as a result, was sold out for awhile.

I also added some herbal powders that would help the patient quench his thirst, produce mucus, and thus settle his cough and reduce phlegm.

Immediate medication was needed to yield the best results so I sent a four-day dose of Chinese herbs in powder form by express to him.

They arrived on the same day as the tele-diagnosis.

The next day, at a follow-up diagnosis, he showed me that his fever had dissipated.

By the fourth to sixth days, his cough and all other symptoms had become moderate.

On the seventh day, he tested negative for Covid-19. After testing negative again on the eighth day, he returned to his normal daily activities the following day.

Another patient, aged 50 and unvaccinated, had suffered not only a fever, but also a severe sore throat, a cough, and muscle ache.

Unfortunately, he was out of town, so I could not have the medicine delivered to him as I had with the first patient.

But as luck would have it, he had the Lianhua Qingwen capsules on hand. So, after looking at the color of his tongue and analyzing his other symptoms, I asked him to take the capsules.

For better follow-up diagnosis, I had him monitor his heart rate and use a pulse oximeter to gauge his blood oxygen levels.

Two days later, the patient felt better. I also asked him to buy a specific over-the-counter Chinese cough suppressants to alleviate his cough. It took around two weeks for the patient to fully recover from the Covid-19.

Patients are always our teachers. The Covid-19 cases that I have encountered are a testament to the role of vaccines and Lianhua Qingwen in reducing severe Covid-19 symptoms and hospital admissions.

In any case, we should get vaccinated as soon as possible, and seek professional advice when in doubt. Finally, it is important to always consult a Chinese medicine practitioner before using Chinese herbs or formulae to treat an illness.

The article was published on the Standard newspaper on 14 April 2022. Click to read.