Ok, I stole the title from here. But by now you've heard about the terribleness that is the latest resurgence of swine flu. Face masks are in people. But as the authors discuss, making public health policy decisions (do you immunize a population, do you restrict travel, etc.) are difficult to make when you don't know very much about the nature of the virus and the deaths it has caused.
But chinese medicine is rich in a history of treating this type of epidemic outbreak. In fact, based on the symptom picture that the disease presents with, swine flu could fall under what is termed "Triple Yang Disease" where wind cold attacks Taiyang and simultaneously turns to heat in the Yangming and Shaoyang layers. Chai Ge Jie Ji Tang is the indicated formula for such symptoms as: severe but gradually decreasing aversion to cold and shivering that turns into increasing fever, mild sweat, head and body aches, orbital pain, dry nose, restlessness, and insomnia, tongue has a thin yellow coat and the pulse is wiry and slightly surging or rapid. Though this formula is not strictly classical (it was developed in the 15th century and is based on Chai Hu Gui Zhi jia Ge Gen Tang) it apparently has a wonderful clinical efficacy.
But the real point is, and the CDC is finding this out all over again, that the flu will effect different people differently. In Mexico, it has reportedly killed over a hundred people, but in the United States it has yet to do so (knock on wood). This is another indicator that the material pathogen is never entirely responsible for disease but it is the combination of the pathogen and the constitution or landscape that indicates severity, death and recovery.
Oh, and for more hillarity, make sure you watch this.
No comments:
Post a Comment