Acupuncture, Coronavirus, and Flu
There are cases today where people are concerned because although they got over the virus; they are feeling subtle pain and discomfort in their heart, kidney, liver, intestines, and so on. If you find yourself feeling as if something's wrong long after having been infected with this virus, please consult your primary care physician to discuss matters further. Now many people are confused as to the difference as well as similarities that this novel virus has compared to the flu. For starters, both diseases have a similar presentation, they're both respiratory diseases and both have similar mechanisms of transmission, although it appears that COVID-19 is more transmissible than the flu. The speed of transmission is slightly different between the two whereby the flu has a shorter time before symptoms present itself (ie. a shorter incubation period) as opposed to the coronavirus, which can take up to 14 days before symptoms actually present. During this time, you can still transmit the virus to others. It appears that children present and transmit the flu virus more so than they do COVID-19.
The coronavirus is often asymptomatic and appears to be more deadly in comparison. I've been asked: How does an acupuncturist diagnose and treat influenza? In traditional Chinese medicine, influenza is viewed under the scope of epidemic cold disease because of its severity and transmissibility, as well as the severity of its systemic symptoms, organ involvement, and overall complications. Acupuncturists view the flu virus as being caused by an exterior wind attacking a person with inadequate resistance to exterior pathogens, whereby pathogenic wind lodges in the interstitial layer between the skin and muscle. The primary symptom of the flu is Fever: as being caused by epidemic toxicity. Secondary symptoms include Productive cough, congested chest, and dyspnea which is viewed as being caused by pathogenic heat accumulating in the lungs leading to failure of lung qi to descend and disperse. Now I hope this answers some questions individuals may have regarding acupuncture, the coronavirus, and influenza.
Until next time... Acupuncture Is My Life, what's yours?