According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the human body has 12 main meridians. These meridians have long routes. For example, the foot Shaoyang meridian passes through the ears, the side of the chest and abdomen (rib side), the outer side of the legs, and all the way down to the feet. Therefore, when there is a problem with this meridian, people may get different symptoms. For example, some people will feel dizzy, some people will have swelling and pain in the ears (or tinnitus and deafness), some people will have abdominal pain, some people will have bitterness in the mouth. Others may cough, feel palpitations, vomit, or have trouble urinating. And itโs also possible that some people may have pain on the outside of the leg, or pain in the toes, etc. Although these symptoms do not appear together in one person, it is very common to have two or three at the same time. For example, there is a high probability of feeling bitterness in mouth in the morning, dizziness, and rib pain at the same time. At this time, one formula is enough to solve all three symptoms.
According to the theory of Huangdi Neijing and ShanhanLun, the following table lists several meridians most probably affected by COVID-19 and the corresponding symptoms (Note that there are many cases where the same symptoms appear in different rows, which is the reason of a phenomena discussed in part I—why different formula should be used for the same symptom):
Meridian & symptoms
- Taiyang Meridian: Palpitations, dizziness, fear of cold, fear of wind, headache, hot flash, difficulty urinating
- Shaoyang Meridian: Dizziness, tinnitus, abdominal pain, bitterness in mouth, cough, palpitations, vomiting, difficulty urinating, feel hot for a while then cold for a while, loss of appetite, headache
- Yangming Meridian: Afraid of heat, sweating a lot, drinking too much, chest pain, short-term memory loss, fatigue, constipation
- Taiyin Meridian: Cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, lost of smell, skin problems (itch, eczema, etc.), increased heart rate, diarrhea, constipation
It can be seen that these symptoms cover most of the sequelae of the COVID-19. From this perspective, these symptoms are not something new. Western medicine doesn’t know how to treat it, just because their history is too short and they look too closely between molecules and cells. In contrast, Chinese medicine has observed these phenomena more than a thousand years ago, and get usable treatments.
This leads to two interesting questions, how did the Chinese get these connections(between meridian and symptoms) more than a thousand years ago, and how did they find a cure. Little is known about the first question. But for the latter question, we may know part of the answer. A credible record shows that around 196 AD, a large-scale plague occurred in China. About 70% of the population died in the plague, and because of the different physiques of the patients, they also experienced various symptoms in the process of contracting the disease. In order to reduce deaths, doctors used various herbal (and combinations of them) to combat the plague. In the process, most of the patients died, but by analyzing the drugs used by the survivors, combined with the understanding of the meridians, doctors are finally able to find effective prescriptions. The experience was compiled and written on bamboo pieces and passed down. This is the Bible that is still used by traditional Chinese medicine doctors todayโShang Han Lun.