Melanoma is a type of skin cancer with a high mortality rate, and the medical community is still researching drugs that can reduce its mortality. However, more than 30 years ago, an elderly person suffering from melanoma—the fifth case of melanoma growing on the cheek in the world, turned to traditional Chinese medicine for help when Western medicine was at a loss. Miraculously, the fist-sized melanoma on the elderly man’s face disappeared after being treated with traditional Chinese medicine.
In addition, many patients with symptoms and serious sequelae caused by COVID-19 have also recovered after being treated with traditional Chinese medicine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a history of thousands of years and is used in Asian countries including China, Japan, and South Korea. How does this medical theory and technology succeed in healing these patients?
TCM Treats Cancers and COVID-19 Based on Exogenous and Endogenous Factors
Those who have seen TCM practitioners must have had this experience: when you sit down and stretch out your hand, the doctor asks about the symptoms and takes the pulse on your wrist. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, TCM practitioners even asked patients to open their mouths to look at their tongues.In ancient China, TCM doctors had no instruments to see viruses, bacteria, or malignant tumors in the body. However, traditional Chinese medicine has a set of methods to deal with any disease, even complicated ones.
TCM categorizes the causes of diseases into three types: exogenous, endogenous, and non-endo-non-exogenous causes.
Exogenous causes refer to elements including wind, cold, dryness, wetness, heat, and fire, also known as external pathogenic factors.
Endogenous causes refer to mental emotions, such as joy, anger, worry, anxiety, sadness, fear, and shock, which can all impact the body.
Dr. Hu Nai-wen, a TCM physician in Taiwan’s Shanghai Chinese Medicine Clinic says that in the treatment of intractable diseases such as cancer and COVID, doctors generally examine the causes of the disease from both the exogenous and endogenous factors and treat the disease accordingly.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that there are 12 meridians in the human body, which are associated with different internal organs. TCM doctors use the eight principles of “yin and yang; external and internal; hot and cold; and deficiency and solidity,” to identify the nature, location, and severity of the disease, on which they base their diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Identifying External and Internal Causes to Cure Cancer
Dr. Hu Nai-wen said that the strength of traditional Chinese medicine is finding out what affects the body and treating the disease accordingly.He mentioned a melanoma patient whom he treated more than 30 years ago as an example. This elderly patient was the fifth patient in the world whose melanoma grew on the cheek. It was very rare and difficult to treat. His family, with a glimmer of hope, came to Dr. Hu for help.
Although Dr. Hu didn’t know much about melanoma, he found that the location of the melanoma on the elderly man’s face was in the running course of the stomach meridian, which is one of the 12 meridians of the human body. Dr. Hu presumed that the cause of cancer might be stomach-related problems such as stomach fire, stomach deficiency, or excessive stomach heat.
He asked the elderly man to open his mouth again and saw serious ulcers and tumors in his mouth. Based on these observations, he was certain that the patient had symptoms of stomach fire.
To cure stomach fire, TCM usually clears the fire or replenishes water.
The patient was advanced in age and suffering from cancer, so Dr. Hu reckoned that it was not suitable to use the method of clearing fire. Since fire is energy, clearing fire could reduce the patient’s immunity and make him very weak.
Therefore, Dr. Hu used replenishment for treatment. He prescribed a herbal formula called “Ganlu Drink” (made from rehmanniae radix preparata, radix et rhizoma, dendrobium, loquat leaves, and some other ingredients), along with oyster shells and fritillary, to soften and resolve hard masses. As a result, the fist-sized melanoma on his face disappeared after the elderly gentleman took the prescribed formula for two weeks.
The patient went back to the hospital for a physical examination, and Western medicine found that the cancer had rapidly disappeared.
After the cancer treatment was completed, Dr. Hu prescribed a formula for the patient to supplement his deficiency, that is, to replenish his energy and vitality.
Kuo Shih-fang, director of Kuo Shih-fang Chinese Medicine Clinic in Taiwan, often treats cancer patients. He believes that Chinese and Western medicine theories can cross reference and sometimes coincide with each other.
For example, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death in women.
Western medicine believes that breast cancer is related to emotions, diet, obesity, and genetics.
TCM holds that the liver and stomach meridians pass through the breast, hence breast cancer is affected by these two meridians.
The liver meridian is related to physical and mental balance and mood. TCM believes that anger damages the liver. Anger and unstable mood will affect the liver qi, which makes people feel chest congestion and headaches.
The stomach meridian is mainly related to diet. A greasy diet will affect the digestion function of the stomach meridian, resulting in poor fat metabolism and obesity. Western medicine has also found that fat is one of the raw materials of female hormones, and estrogen in female hormones is related to the cause of breast cancer.
Kuo pointed out that when he was taking the pulse, he could sometimes clearly feel that the liver qi was relatively hard. If the patient’s emotions seemed tense, he would ask the patient if she had done a routine breast examination. Some people find out that they have breast problems because of this.
In Kuo’s outpatient clinic, most of the breast cancer patients are professionals in the financial and education industries. He speculates that it may be particularly related to the emotional pressure of these two industries. When he sees a patient, he will spend a lot of time explaining the reason to her and observe the emotional state of the patient so that the patient can face her own problems. In this way, patients can avoid emotional fluctuations caused by cancer, and can face cancer positively, which helps to relieve liver qi.
When treating patients, Kuo uses medicines for the liver meridian in the whole process of treatment, from immediately after the patients’ surgery for benign breast tumors and breast cancer, to chemotherapy, and then to follow-up treatment. At the same time, Kuo pays attention to the adjustment of the stomach meridian.
Kuo shared the story of a patient with us.
A grandmother in her 70s was found to have stage four breast cancer when she was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer cells had metastasized to the lymph nodes, and her shoulders and left arms were swollen and inflamed with pain. The grandmother did not undergo surgery, but she had undergone one or two chemotherapy treatments, but the chemotherapy made her miserable. So she paused the chemotherapy treatment and only relied on narcotic painkillers in the follow-up treatment.
Later, she came to Kuo’s clinic. Kuo used bupleurum, Chinese peony, prunella vulgaris, bombyx batryticatus, and other medicinal materials to disperse the stagnated liver qi for the patient, combined with the Universal Relief Toxin-Removing Beverage (Pu Ji Xiao Du Yin) to reduce swelling and inflammation.
After about one to two months, the swelling on her left hand disappeared. Kuo used an infrared thermal imager to check and found that her breast temperature had dropped. It was all red before, which is a sign of inflammation. This change greatly improved the grandmother’s mood, and she smiled every time when she returned to his clinic. She has survived with tumors and continued to follow up with traditional Chinese medical treatment. It has been five years now and she is in good health.
For cancer treatment, Kuo recommended integrated treatment of traditional Chinese and Western medicines. Traditional Chinese medicine is very helpful to the patient’s mood and liver qi regulation.
Using TCM to Treat COVID-19 and Long COVID
The COVID-19 pandemic broke out at the end of 2019. Traditional Chinese medicine has also cured COVID patients in the same way as it treats cancer patients. The emergence of COVID-19 is very recent, and the medical community is constantly researching and exploring treatment methods. Western medicine’s response is to find ways to kill the virus and prevent the virus from multiplying. Whereas TCM applies the methodology of external and internal factors to deal with the pandemic.COVID-19 belongs to the category of external factors, according to TCM theories. Dr. Jonathan Liu, a TCM professor at Georgian College, Canada, pointed out that the reaction of the virus on the human body is a combined pathogen of dampness and heat or a combined pathogen of cold and dampness. However, the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which causes COVID-19 infection) is a virus at the microscopic level.
For instance, some COVID patients have symptoms of diarrhea and abdominal distension, which is the manifestation of dampness. Observing the tongues of these patients, one can find a thick white and greasy tongue coating and obvious tooth marks around the tongue, which are the objective diagnostic criteria for heavy dampness in the body.
Professor Liu once treated a 65-year-old gentleman. The old gentleman was infected with COVID in 2021, and then developed long COVID symptoms. He experienced pain and a cold sensation in his knees and waist, and felt physically tired after taking a shower. In his daily life, he also felt tired and low in energy.
Professor Liu checked the patient’s tongue coating and found it white, thick, and greasy. Together with abdominal diagnosis and pulse diagnosis, Dr. Liu determined that the old man had problems with cold-dampness and liver qi stagnation.
“Qi can affect the metabolism of water and fluids, causing moisture retention and pain,” Professor Liu said. The patient’s qi stagnation explained his symptoms.
Therefore, Professor Liu used Chinese herbal medicines for the elderly patient to strengthen his vital qi and dispel dampness. A month later, the patient’s long COVID was cured.
Recently, Professor Liu also met a young man with long COVID. The young man had been fatigued and had diarrhea for six months, accompanied by hair loss, a greasy tongue coating, and tooth marks on his tongue. Based on all these symptoms, Professor Liu determined that the patient had cold and dampness caused by external factors.
Professor Liu prescribed a herbal formula “Xiaochaihutang,” also known as the “minor bupuleurum” formula. The formula is also called Soshihotang or Sho-Saiko-To.
After he used Xiaochaihutang combined with some Chinese herbal medicines with the functions of dispelling cold and removing dampness, the symptoms of the young patient improved in a short time.
Modern pharmacological studies have confirmed that Xiaochaihutang has immunomodulatory and antiviral properties, and it is also a frequently used traditional Chinese medicine prescription during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Wu Chien-tung, president of Taiwan-based Yong Sheng Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, has also treated many COVID patients.
Dr. Wu often uses Xiaochaihutang, together with different Chinese herbal medicines depending on the patient’s condition, and pairing them with Taiwan Chingguan Yihau, also called NRICM101, a traditional Chinese herbal formula developed by multiple Taiwan-based TCM physicians.
NRICM101 uses a variety of Chinese herbal medicines, such as indigowoad root and baikal skullcap root, which can clear heat; fishwort, which can clear and nourish the lungs; and fineleaf schizonepeta herb and divaricate saposhnikovia, which can eliminate external factors. They have also played a great role in curing patients during the pandemic.
“The concept of traditional Chinese medicine is not to treat the virus, but to treat the patient,” said Dr. Wu.
Treating patients with the same disease, traditional Chinese medicine physicians prescribe different formulae based on the symptoms of the patients. The purpose is to restore the patient’s constitution to the normal state and have a good immunity to fight the virus.
This principle also applies to the prevention of COVID-19.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that people who lack vitality in their body can be easily infected with the virus. There are many unbalanced elements in the physique of ordinary people. As long as these elements are adjusted, people will be more able to prevent the virus. The virus is still contagious when its amount is high, but even if infected, the body is more capable of expelling it, and shortening the course of the disease.
Last but not least, Dr. Wu shared a method to prevent COVID-19—Qigong.
Qigong stems from the wisdom of the ancient people. It can make qi and blood flow smoothly, replenish vitality, and help restore the deviated physique.
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