You don’t need a pandemic to start thinking about how to have a stronger immune system, but being in the middle of one (or near the end if you’re optimistic) definitely gives the idea a little more oomph. If by the time COVID is finally and firmly in the rearview mirror, you have a heightened respect for your immune system, then you will have gained quite a bit through this trying experience. COVID is temporary; the tools to create a strong, robust immune system will benefit you for life.
Chinese Medicine has a long tradition of boosting immunity. From the barefoot doctors of dynastic China protecting against “evil qi” to today’s modern clinics, people have been getting acupuncture and taking herbs to pre-empt disease for millennia. In the following paragraphs, I will share how this feat is accomplished by the traditional theories at the heart of Chinese medicine, and the mechanisms for it that have been found by modern western research.
To simplify thousands of years of scholarship and practice into two paragraphs is not an easy task, but here we go. Please imagine that every sentence of the following is preceded by the word “generally,” or some similar modifier.
Diseases like COVID-19, and any viral or bacterial ailment for that matter, are considered “evil qi.” To combat this evil qi, humans have both “defensive qi” and “upright qi.” Taken together, these are analogous to the immune system. East-Asian doctors found long ago that the quality of the food, drink, and air that we ingest have a great effect on our defensive and upright qi. That is why Chinese medicine has such a long history of complex herbal and dietary medicine. Herbal formulas like Jade Wind Screen (Yu Ping Feng San), which has been used for at least 700 years, are used to guard against evil qi. The primary herb in the formula, astragalus, is widely regarded as an immune tonic by both modern/scientific and traditional health systems throughout the world.
The meridian system that forms the basis of acupuncture, in which channels of energy flow through the body and affect various bodily organs and functions, has also been used to optimize our defensive qi. Even without the help of dietary changes and herbs, acupuncture can do a lot for the immune system. Points on the lung channel, which runs from the thumb up the arm to the chest, can strengthen the exterior of the body to act as a barrier from external pathogens. Points on the spleen channel (from the big toe up the leg to the abdomen and into the chest) help regulate our digestion. This helps extract the most benefit out of the food we eat and creates an internal environment strong enough to fight off viruses that get past our external defenses.
In modern terms, the strength of the “evil qi” is the “viral load,” and the “defensive and upright qi” is our physical, chemical, and biological barriers to external pathogens.
Recent scientific research on acupuncture and herbs has found many mechanisms as to how they boost immunity. Since most blog-writing/marketing tutorials suggest brevity as a way of maintaining interest, I will choose two of these mechanisms so as not to sully that tenant any more than I already have.
1- Reducing Inflammation – Inflammation has become a health and wellness buzzword of late, and for good reason. While it is in many cases a natural and healthy healing response to a myriad of problems, it can also have negative effects in both the long and short term. Pro-inflammatory cytokines (cellular messengers that up-regulate inflammation) are implicated in “fever, inflammation, tissue destruction, and in extreme cases, shock and death” (from National Institute of Health). Over the long term, they can weaken the immune response and leave us more susceptible to disease. They also have ominous names like “tumor necrosis factor”. Multiple studies on mice (humans are too expensive I guess) have shown that regular acupuncture significantly decreases these pro-inflammatory cytokines. A recent study by the Harvard Medical School has shown that acupuncture can have a beneficial effect on one of the more serious complications of Covid, the dreaded “cytokine storm”. More info linked at the bottom of this post.
2- Building White Blood Cells – White blood cells are the soldiers of our immune system. They perform many of the functions required to fight off and rid the body of viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. Lymphocytes create antibodies that identify and fight off these invaders. Neutrophils kill and digest kill and digest bacteria and fungi. Basophils sound the alarm when a pathogen enters the body and send messengers to prepare for the fight. Studies have shown that acupuncture has a positive effect on the white blood cell count of people suffering from immune-compromised conditions. However, you do not need to be immune-deficient to see this benefit from regular acupuncture treatments.
I hope this is a helpful overview of how and why acupuncture can be of great benefit to the immune system at any time, but especially during a pandemic. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine do not have a monopoly on positive immune effects, so I urge anyone interested to do further research on how to help themselves stay healthy. Below I have linked some of the research that informed this post. Thanks for reading!
https://nypost.com/2020/08/17/how-acupuncture-could-help-coronavirus-patients-study-says/