Recovery from Idiopathic illnesses in particular women with Chronic Fatigue syndrome (CFS).  Long Covid, repeated infections, myalgia encephalomyelitis, fibromyalgia are on the rise and western medicine does not always have the solution. PASC or (Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2) aka Long covid sufferers can benefit from this article from Wilson Pitts and Amy Tseng-Ballon.

  Diet will be critical to healing the patient. In Chinese diet therapy we talk about the nature of the food. For example, salads and ice drinks are cold in nature, local fruit in north America like apples and berries can be considered cooling, steaming, soups, and stews, can be considered warming, and spicy, cooked with fire or deep fried would be considered hot or “fire” foods.

Wilson Pitts on Amy’s approach to handing CFS, Long Covid etc. [transcription from videos below]:

“Cold or Fire energy can go up a channel the wrong way and go deep where it is difficult if not impossible to get out”.

External pathogens can go in the wrong way. We know now that these pathogens are bacterial or viral in nature. To the ancient Chinese doctors, these had the characteristics of cold and fire.

Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and now long covid all are involved in this process in a similar way. These can move inside the channels described in acupuncture in a unpredictable way.

Paradoxes of the contradictions: exercising seems to make it worse, but the patient needs to sweat. Symptoms are not made better by activity or excess rest. PESE (post exertion symptom exacerbation) resembles over-training of athletes or chemotherapy fatigue in cancer patients. An exhausted immune system will lack efficiency in tackling a replicating virus.  This leads to symptoms like long covid. 60% of long covid patients test positive for viral infections. Movement training can make it seem like patient is getting worse.

Exercise for people who cannot exercise. Post covid infections can be viral reservoirs in the body where it hides and replicates. Inflammation stirs up this virus to come out of hiding into the circulatory system. Easiest way to reduce inflammation in the body is through diet. Have a look at Amy’s information on cold, cool, warm, and hot foods. A lot of sources of stress  are beyond our control, but what we eat is in our control. The Chinese say you are responsible for what goes into your mouth and for what comes out.  

If you’re not happy with your current state of health, adopt this dietary therapy for 3 months to reduce the inflammation. Amy says to eat no baked, grilled, or fried foods like potato chips, nuts, crackers, coffee, chocolate, and Barbecue foods as these have fire energy. No ice cream, no cold soda or juice, no raw fruits and vegetables, including salads, as these all have the cold energy. Stick to the warm foods, steamed or cooked in sauce. Chronic fatigue sufferers should go on this diet permanently.

The delusion that exercise can only cure the disease and not the cause, it is because of fat phobia and toxic weight-loss culture, not medicine. There are indications of altered muscular metabolism and autonomic nervous responses in people who had repeated covid infections. Overtraining weakens the immune system. Aerobic exercise can stimulate “fight or flight” mechanisms that shuts down the lymph system. It is the wrong kind of exercise for these patients.

While Tai Chi is the physical portion of the Chinese treatment, we need to take a step back with chronic fatigue patients cause they can’t get off the couch or out of bed. The longer they stay there, the longer the blood stasis and the worse they will get. We have to rethink how we use movement with this population. Drink a cup of very warm water first thing in the morning. Stay indoors, turn the heat up, and put on your winter coat, hat, and scarf and then “walk the circle” until you break a light sweat in about 10 to 15 minutes with very slow movement. As you get better there are more ways to make the practice more interesting. The basic goal is to break a light sweat with minimal effort. It can takes months to a year until chronic fatigue patients can start to work outside. They must not be subjected to the wind, cold, heat, damp, or dryness outside when they are in a weakened state.

The next piece of this recovery puzzle is breathing. Long covid and CFS patients should do match the inhale and exhale with tai chi movements. They should start with raise hands practice 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes in the afternoon, and 5 minutes before bedtime. This regime is paired with bone broth to reset the autonomic nervous system.

This can be very transformative for people with chronic illnesses.

Amy Tseng-ballons and Wilson say, the sick patient often has energy that is scared like a animal in a hole, the energy needs to be coaxed to come out and heal the patient. This has to be done with constant practice that is gentle. People need to sweat.

Amy often says people need to cut out what is not useful to them. Stop sitting around to much and get some movement. We need to help point the way for people in need. Try to change up your training every 3 weeks. Learn to do some small squats or learn the kung fu “Ma bu” or horse stance.

Qi/Chi energy: Pay attention to when Qi goes into reverse direction (rebellious), there will be signs and symptoms.

[End transcript]

Conclusion:

Rebellious qi flow examples:

Lung qi going up rather than down: cough and asthma.

Stomach Qi goes down, if it goes up there will be belching, hiccup, nausea, vomiting.

Spleen Qi goes up, but if it goes down there can be diarrhea or abdominal prolapse.

Kidney qi goes down, but if it goes up it can cause asthma.

Liver Qi moves in all directions, but if it moves up there can be headache, dizziness, it can offend the stomach and cause nausea, belching, or vomiting bitter taste, or if it offends the spleen there can be diarrhea, if it offends the large intestines there can be constipation, and if it offends the urinary bladder there can be a burning sensation in urination.

Just remember, stagnate Qi can turn to fire. Viruses like to go deep into the body, so you got to get it out using gentle movement and breaking a light sweat daily. Cold or fire can get into the channels making qi go the wrong way making it hard to fix and get out the pathogen.