Acu. | Issue #31 | Summer 2021
Practice
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Casebook: combining acupuncture & herbal medicine in the treatment of long Covid In outlining two case histories Conny Cooper illustrates how acupuncture and herbal medicine can work together to boost patient recovery: patient names have been changed to preserve anonymity
Conny Cooper RCHM Member & CEO: London Chinese medicine is no stranger to epidemics. One of the Chinese medicine classics, the Shang Han Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage), which outlines the six divisions of Chinese medicine and mentions herbal prescriptions as well as some acupuncture treatments, was written during a time when epidemics were ravaging China. In its preface, the author Zhang Zhong-Jing mentions that over the last ten years, two thirds of his extended family had died, leading him to assiduously and painstakingly study the medical literature available to him at the time. He also gathered as much first-hand understanding of the prevalent diseases as possible, in the hope of understanding their progression and therefore finding the means of stopping them. In 2021, we are faced with a new epidemic. While the treatment of acute Covid-19 is not within our scope of practice as Chinese medicine practitioners in the West, there is much that we can do to support patients in
their recovery from it, especially when symptoms can linger for weeks or even months after the initial illness has resolved (long Covid). It is true that the presentations we may see in long Covid patients can have different characteristics to what we have seen before. However, by focusing on the underlying perspectives of Chinese medicine, and utilising its flexibility and pragmatism, we realise that we often already have the necessary tools at our disposal to help these patients. Here I outline two cases of patients presenting with long Covid, describe approaches to their treatment, and specify how acupuncture and herbal medicine can be combined so they mutually strengthen each other. The focus is less on the actual treatments (points and herbs used) and more on the thought process behind said treatments. In particular, I look at how the effectiveness of each treatment is evaluated to inform the next step of the treatment plan.
