they found Hepatitis B in my girlfriend (luckily not from me cause I got vaccinated). The diffrent bloodtests were made by a “western” doctor.
Now, instead of taking any western medicine against it she decided to go the traditional chinese medicin way. Every day, she eats four spoons of “powder”. I call it this way since there is nothing indicated on the yellow box she got (she doesn’t even know herself). She also got a acupuncture needle into her little finger, which she removed herself and there was a little inflammation until yesterday. Sunday morning, after I woke I noticed that her entire lower half of head was red from some kind of pump she and her sister attached to their heads. Apparently its for better skin, there is a diffrent more neanderthal version which uses some kind of cone shaped glasses and fire (so they said). Well it looks like she had a scooter accident.
Questions:
What can acupuncture do against a virus (all I find on the internet about acupuncture and the yin and yang involved and so on confuses me)?
What could the powder be?
How is that stuff with the pump called?
Oh, I’m trying not to get mad of course, this is Taiwan after all
Just curious, what can medicine do for Hepatitus B? I’m talking about either Western or Chinese medicine. Unless her liver is now in chronic condition, is there any need for medication? How long is she planning on taking the medicine for Hep B, for the rest of her life?
As for your questions, I think most people will tell you what you already know.
Looks encouraging, thank you. My scepsism against herbal medicine is that here people just seem to take it but don’t know whats inside. I asked my girlfriend these questions. And here are the responses:
What is it?
I dont know.
When does it expire?
I dont know.
What are the side effects?
I dont know.
I would trust chinese medicine more if they would be more clear and standartized. Just because its old doesn’t mean they can’t develop a standard and use computers and print proper boxes right? I’m more willing to trust a chinese doctor here than in europe though.
Cupping. In Chinese - ba huoguan 拔火罐. In Beijing I had a few sessions by the traditional fire method - for backache, and it seemed to have some beneficial effect.
looked into it too and western treatment seems to be based on “better than nothing” type anti-viral medication. in this context chinese medicine may not be a bad choice.
chinese medicine is simply not standardized or the end result of any scientific process of research. however herbs, accupuncture etc. certainly can have medicinal properties and I for one am not comfortable scoffing at something that has been being used and refined for thousands of years and which has helped and continues to help many people. if you want to use it you have to take it for what it is, it can’t be judged on a western scientific basis. i would keep in mind that it can be hard on the kidneys/liver if used too much/too long, which is my understanding.
One of the major problems with Chinese herbal remedies; be it bulk herbs or patent medicines, is the fact that given the business/legal/moral climate in China I strongly suspect 99% of the herbs/patent medicines are not what they claim they are. They have either been treated with chemicals, cut with other ingredients (i.e. “stepped on” to put it in doper talk; think, cutting speed with clorox and you have a good idea of what a lot of chinese herbal medicines are.) and, as an added bonus, frequently contain chemicals that are toxic to some degree or another.
And this danger is not mitigated by saying “oh I trust the nice wizened old herbalist down at the corner store” because Herbal Master X has no way of telling what treatment the herbs underwent before his cousin back on the mainland bought them.
I am somewhat interested in this because I used to talk at length with my dear ex-wife about it back when we were still married and she was sitting for her California “oriental medicine doctors” license.
There is only one herb that is safe to use and it ain’t a Chinese herb, mon.
