’s correspondent visited a popular Chinese medicine hospital that treats many diseases with herbs. Official China recommends traditional medicines for the prevention and treatment of coronary infection.
BEIJING In China, the government recommends treating and preventing coronavirus infections with traditional drugs. For example, local authorities have distributed flu remedies to residents of Shanghai, who have been in a rate cut for a couple of months, to increase resistance. In hospitals, the symptoms of coronary infection are mostly relieved with Chinese herbs.
Traditional medicines have not been found to be an effective treatment for the coronavirus worldwide, but millions of people in China and elsewhere in Asia are relying on their power.
visited a hospital at the Chinese University of Medicine in Beijing, where 10,000 patients visit each year to seek help for a variety of ailments from fatigue to diabetes, cancer and, of course, coronavirus infection.
At the hospital pharmacy, pharmacists collect dried roots, tree bark and herbs on the table in heaps. They measure with a few grams of weight at the end of the stick that the amount of herbs on the scale is exactly according to the recipe.
The Chinese pharmacy looks like a nostalgic movie scene, but it serves the residents of China’s modern capital.
Behind the pharmacy window, a number of patients are already waiting for their medication. The mixture is prepared for each according to their own recipe. Peking Chinese Medical University Hospital is particularly popular because the university professors receive patients there.
Millions rely on traditional medicines
Professor Jia Dexian has been familiarizing students at the university with the secrets of Chinese medicine for years. He describes the condition of the gut as important. Jia always checks the patient’s tongue, pulse, and asks for appetite and bowel function. He has also taught foreigners before coronary virus infections closed China’s borders.
Since then, Professor Jia has been asked for a lot of advice on treating and preventing coronary infection.
– When people found that the disease was worse than the common flu, they quickly sought help from Chinese medicines, Jia recalls the early days of the pandemic in early 2020.
Official China has chosen Chinese medicine as its primary means of preventing and treating coronavirus infections. When microbial infections began to spread in Shanghai, a population of 25 million, early in the year, virtually everyone infected was treated with Chinese herbs, said the director of Shuguang Hospital Fang Min at a briefing in the early stages of the wave of infection.
– We need to introduce traditional medicines as soon as possible because omikron is spreading fast, he said.
The neighborhood district committees shared news agency information (you switch to another service)according to the authorities recommended Lianhua Qingwen flu medicine to Shanghai residents to increase resistance. The capsule has been widely used during a pandemic to relieve the symptoms of coronary infection.
There is not enough research evidence on the benefits of medicines
There is insufficient scientific evidence for the efficacy of Chinese medicine against coronavirus. In the United States, the drug authority has banned the sale of Lianhua Qingwen as a medicine to cure coronary infection. Singapore has also recalled that herbal medicines have not been shown to be effective in treating corona.
Yet there is a strong belief in the power of Chinese medicine in China and elsewhere in Asia – at least in conjunction with conventional Western medicine.
According to Jian, a large proportion of Chinese have at least sometimes used traditional medicine. Conventional modern medicine is common, but traditional treatments are still popular. Traditional medicine hospitals can be found all over China.
President Xi Jinping has audibly promoted Chinese medicine and health tourism has also been built around it.
Statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Health five years ago show that a third of doctor visits in China were made to a traditional medicine practitioner.
Herbs can also be found on the grocery store shelf
Chinese medicine is based on the theory of Qi energy flows that travel through the body. Health is based on a balance of so-called yin and yang forces. Body health is treated with herbs and acupuncture, among other things. Jia says Western and Chinese medicine strive for the same result, but in different ways.
He explains that Chinese medicines cut off the energy pathways from the virus, removing the growth media that are favorable to it, that is, the body’s unnatural moisture. According to Jian, different people react to the coronavirus differently. Some become mildly infected but others become seriously ill.
– Your body may be cold and damp. Then the energy level drops and the body is unable to defend itself against the covid-19 virus. We give herbs, Jia says.
Moisture is mucus and protein.
– It’s a perfect food for viruses and bacteria, Jia says
Jia lists a number of medicinal plants used in China to treat coronary infections. Some are familiar herbs like honeysuckle or mint. Others have exotic Chinese names like lianqiao, qianghuo or Notopterygium root or cangzhu.
Chinese medicine is pretty much based on nutrition and bowel function. Jia reminds us that even a regular grocery store makes plants easier to feel.
– Fresh ginger is good, as is cinnamon, Jia says. The cinnamon must be the bark of a cinnamon tree or a young branch.
Jia also recommends ginseng, onion and yellow soybeans.
– Everyone also knows that fresh ginger and dark sugar in the right proportions warm the body and strengthen the immune system, he says.
In Chinese medicine, medicines are prescribed for everyone because everyone’s body is different.
– You may have the same ailment as another, but your body is different. Even different seasons are affected because temperature and humidity change with different seasons, Professor Jia says.
The changes are visible in the bacterial strain of the gut. Chinese medicine takes special care of it.
Jia herself is convinced of the effectiveness of Chinese medicine. He has been teaching and researching it for decades.
– For 3,000 years, Chinese medicine has known viruses and bacteria, even though they did not use the same name. The virus changes quickly. Chinese medicine has learned to convert medication, he says.
At the clinic of Beijing Chinese Medical Hospital Julia presenting woman lying on nursing bed. Dozens of acupuncture needles have been attached to the abdominal skin. Julia wants to prevent hysterectomy with treatment. He will test for a few months whether Chinese acupuncture will help before deciding to go for surgery.
Julia says when she catches a cold, she usually relies on Chinese medicine first.
– It works. In Western medicine, aspirin is taken. Chinese medicine uses nutrition to warm the body and cure the flu, he says.
At zero tolerance, the corona is controlled by restrictions
The fight against the coronavirus in China is much more severe than in the rest of the world. Shanghai has been closed since the beginning of April. Millions are still not allowed to move from their homes.
There are also interest rate restrictions in dozens of other cities. Dozens of areas in the capital, Beijing, have been quarantined. In many places, subways and taxis are not allowed. Millions have been ordered to telecommute and residents will have to undergo coronavirus testing every couple of days.
In China, more than four-fifths of the population has been vaccinated, but only Chinese coronavirus vaccines are approved in the country. Their efficacy has been found to be weaker than that of western mRNA vaccines.
China has justified its harsh corona restrictions on a widely unvaccinated elderly population. According to the country’s leadership, the illness of millions could undermine the carrying capacity of medical care.