The typical post-COVID symptoms include fatigue, difficulty falling asleep, waking up early, night sweats, anxiety, depression, emotional disturbances, arrhythmias, breathing difficulties, cough, chest stuffiness and pain, pulmonary fibrosis, acute kidney damages, reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate, stomachache, diarrhea, reproductive dysfunctions, changes in menstrual patterns, brain fog, forgetfulness, headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, pain in the ears, sore throat, loss of sense of smell and taste, skin rashes, hair loss, joint pain, PTSD, and so on.
People who suffer from such symptoms because the COVID viruses may not be causing devastating symptoms such as fever, chills, severe body ache, severe fatigue, and sore throat, the viral pathogens are continuously affecting multiple systems of our body.
Wherever there is weakness, the pathogens will go there and attack that area. Chinese medicine groups symptoms differently than Western biomedicine system. From a CM perspective, folks who have their Spleen system affected tend to suffer from fatigue, stomachache, diarrhea, brain fog, body aches; for those who have their Heart and Pericardium systems affected tend to develop difficulty falling asleep, anxiety, arrhythmias, chest stuffiness and pain. For people who experience night sweats, kidney damages, reproductive dysfunctions, reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate, forgetfulness, pain in the ears, tinnitus (low-pitched) and hair loss, their Kidney system is being attacked. Changes in menstrual patterns, anxiety, depression, emotional disturbances, infertility, tinnitus (high-pitched), vortex headaches, dizziness, sore throat, PTSD are symptoms of the Liver system. Lung system pathologies manifest as pulmonary fibrosis, shortness of breath, breathing difficulties, cough, coarse voice, phlegm, throat discomfort (sore throat, or a sensation of something is stuck in the throat), loss of sense of smell and taste, chest fullness and pain, skin rashes, and joint pain.
These symptoms are not debilitating, therefore are often undertreated, mistreated, or left untreated. In fact, there is a concept in Chinese medicine called “hidden pathogens,“ which means even if there is no obvious symptom, or the person is asymptomatic, the pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi) may be still in the body, only in a hibernating state. Symptoms reoccur according to the changes in environment, temperature, seasons, habits and lifestyles, mood and mental state, life events, etc.
When our immunity is sound, and balanced, the pathogens will be detected and eliminated quickly, and we only experience mild symptoms or no symptoms at all; when our immunity is too strong and going wild, it develops into a cytokine storm when it encounters pathogens — this can be life-threatening and cause death.
“Hidden pathogens“ can happen because our immunity has been chronically compromised. It is not strong enough to wipe out all of the pathogens at once and there is some residue evils who wait for opportunities to bounce back and beat us when we are at our weakest.
There are well-developed, matured CM methods to clear hidden pathogens, but it takes skills, careful assessments, consistent treatments, and faith in one’s health in order to chase those sneaky vicious spies out of the body’s system. For entertainment purposes, I depict treating hidden pathogens as an intricate detective game that the practitioner and the patient participate as partners. The enemy of course is the pathogens. The body gives the practitioner symptoms as clues how to capture the cunning enemy, and the practitioner has to accurately decipher the clues and lay out plans, and the patient’s body knows once the plan works.