As many of us around the office are getting our vaccinations for the SARS-COV-2 virus, we’ve been discussing how traditional East Asian medicine regards vaccines and some of the sequela (or “Side-Effects”) of the vaccine process.

Most Traditional East Asian Medical systems have a foundation in Taoist philosophy, most easily represented with the Yin Yang symbol. This graphically represents the opposing yet complementary forces at play in the universe. When looking at diseases, physicians followed this practice and divided disease causation into two main camps: Internal and External. External diseases caused by environmental pathogens were said to be caused by Wind invading past the body’s weakened Wei Qi (or what we would call by biomedical terms the “Immune System”). Not having the sophisticated diagnostic tools that Allopathic Medicine has today, traditional practitioners had to rely on the patient's presentation of symptoms to determine the correct course of treatment. Today is no different, whether we are talking about the common cold, flu, pneumonia, or a COVID-19 infection, different symptoms will indicate the need for specific treatments.

The theory on vaccinations is fairly simple (even if the process of creating them is not.) A vaccine spurs the body’s immune system to produce cells that will recognize and destroy invading pathogens that will make us sick. This practice of inoculation may have been used in China as early 2000 years ago to address smallpox epidemics. Although advances in technology have changed how this process of immune response is achieved, its observed results tend to be similar, if mercifully less severe.

This does not mean that some people won’t have a robust immune response to vaccinations against COV-19. People have reported headaches, body aches, fever, and muscle swelling and soreness at the injection site. I hesitate to call these all “side-effects” because many of these symptoms are simply signs of an immune response; but that doesn’t mean that we can’t reduce or mitigate the severity of those symptoms with acupuncture, herbs, and moxibustion.

If you knew you were having a scheduled one-sided knife fight (AKA surgery), you would plan accordingly: stop eating severals hours ahead, make sure you had a ride home, have your pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation planned in advance. Why should a vaccination be any different? You are having, from a Traditional East Asian Medical perspective, a planned Wind Invasion, possibly with the very same symptoms (albeit not the same intensity) had you contracted the disease in the organic way. Treatments can be done before and after scheduled vaccinations to specifically address the symptoms you having. Since we know ahead of time, we can plan in advance.

Traditional Chinese Medicine typically prescribes an herbal formula called Yu Ping Feng San, or Jade WindScreen Powder, for patients who have a weakened immune system or frequently get common colds. Its main ingredient is Zhi Huang Qi (honey fried astragalus root). Astragalus has been shown to increase macrophage activity and reduce inflammation. Moxibustion on acupuncture point Zu San Li (Stomach 36) also increases the body’s immune response. Acupuncture, Cupping, and Gua Sha (scraping) are great tools to address headaches and stiffness associated with Wind Invasions. I’ve also used low level Electro-Acupuncture to release muscle tension caused by the vaccine injection itself. Treatments can be done before and after scheduled vaccinations to specifically address the symptoms you having. The goal of these treatments is the same as the overall goal of this vaccination process: to get you and the community at large rebalanced and moving forward as quickly and peacefully as possible.

Reach out to our Brunswick or Portland office to set up an appointment today!