Degenerative and progressive diseases can be
treated with Chinese medicine
Along an old frontage road to Las Vegas lies a nondescript, drive-by town with run-down strip malls and gas stations. Here, Rosie Beauregard and her mother, Brenda, share a trailer in a shadeless and neglected trailer park. The first impression of Rosie is startling. A platinum blond with surprisingly clear green eyes, at forty-three her face is childlike and innocent. However, Rosie is terminally ill.
Rosie is completely dependent on her mother, who helps her out of bed on the mornings she is able to rise. Rosie is suffering from hepatitis C, cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, an enlarged spleen and an inflamed gall bladder. She endures chronic and acute abdominal pain, gastric reflux, a constant upset stomach, nausea, inability to keep food down, frequent nosebleeds, hypoglycemic attacks and chronic constipation. She is carrying twenty pounds of fluid in her abdominal cavity. Her torso is covered with an inflamed rash.
In 1991, at thirty-five years of age, Rosie was diagnosed with hepatitis C. Until that time, she had been symptom free. Viral hepatitis is a systemic illness that causes liver inflammation and liver cell necrosis (cell death). To date, seven different types of viruses have been identified. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 500 million people worldwide are infected by hepatitis viruses. In the United States, an estimated 4 to 4.5 million Americans carry the hepatitis C virus, with 150,000 to 180,000 new cases occurring each year.
In the West, hepatitis C is the single most prevalent cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. About 20 to 30 percent of hepatitis C patients will develop liver cirrhosis. Hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplantation in the United States, and liver transplantation is the only and final solution for cirrhosis and liver failure. A vaccine is not anticipated in the near future. Moreover, a vaccine cannot help those individuals who are already afflicted with the disease.
What makes hepatitis C particularly dangerous is its insidious nature. A high rate of individuals infected with the virus do not experience symptoms when they are first infected—or the symptoms are mistaken for the flu. HCV can evolve without symptoms for many years, while it causes permanent liver damage and ultimately liver failure or liver cancer.
Meanwhile, since many infected individuals do not engage in or expose themselves to known risk factors for infection, these individuals have no reason to suspect they are infected and the virus remains undetected and untreated. These individuals form an insidious pool of infection spreading the virus unaware.
Risk factors for hepatitis C include exposure to infected blood and blood products, intravenous drug abuse, unprotected sex with partners who have the virus and travel to endemic areas of hepatitis such as Africa, Asia, India, Mexico, Central and South America and the Middle East, where blood and water supplies are not properly monitored or maintained.
Rosie is not sure how she contracted hepatitis C, but her history reveals high-risk behaviors. “I married at fourteen,” Rosie said. “I started drinkin' and doin' the stuff I was not supposed to do. We was livin' in North Carolina and my husband's business was over in the Bahamas. He was bringin' in tons of illegal cargo—coke and heroin.” Rosie's husband served two seven-year terms for smuggling narcotics. After his first prison term, Rosie divorced him and remarried. That marriage ended in tragedy. “They blew my husband's brains out,” Rosie said. She is not sure who “they” were; her first husband may have played a role. “After my second husband's death, I started drinking real heavily. It was constant, just drink, drink, drink. Then I started using heroin.”
Among all reported acute hepatitis cases, about 43 percent are the result of intravenous drug use, including the practice of sharing needles. The risk of infection from a needle stick is approximately 10 percent. Since 1990, when screening for HCV in blood donors began, transfusion-related HCV infection has dropped. About 5 to 6 percent of HCV cases result from transmission from mother to fetus. Infection through sexual contact also occurs at a low rate.
Symptoms of HCV include enlarged and tender liver, jaundice, swollen lymph nodes, anorexia, fatigue, chronic headaches, neuralgic pain in a joint or joints, nausea and vomiting. Other diagnostic clues are clay-colored stools, dark or tea-colored urine, skin lesions and a marked aversion to tobacco smoke.
By March 1996, at age thirty-nine, Rosie was too sick to fend for herself. Her mother flew her from North Carolina and moved her into her trailer in Las Vegas. They began rounds to various doctors searching for a treatment plan that would help Rosie.
Western medicine has developed interferon therapy, which has been shown to be effective in treating 25 to 50 percent of HCV cases. Interferon is a naturally occurring substance that is produced by the immune system against infections. Interferon is synthesized from human cell cultures and administered in a dose that is much higher than naturally occurs in the human body. When synthesized interferon was first developed there were high hopes within the medical community. Recently, interferon has been altered molecularly to enhance the therapeutic effects. Despite the fact that interferon was initially hailed as a miracle drug, the side effects often are severe, including fever, muscle aches, rigors, depression, anxiety, insomnia, hypothyroidism, decrease in white blood cells and platelet count, hair loss, visual disturbances, headaches and weight loss. A significant number of patients relapse after completing the course of treatment. Many individuals cannot tolerate the side effects of interferon therapy and therefore cannot complete a course of treatment. These individuals often find that the cure is worse than the disease. In addition, there are also some individuals who complete a course of interferon therapy and whose blood work shows marked improvement but who continue to feel poorly.
There are a number of factors that exclude a person from interferon therapy, such as ongoing drug or alcohol use, the onset of cirrhosis of the liver or a history of psychiatric problems, particularly depression and suicide attempts. Rosie was excluded because of cirrhosis of the liver. She inquired about a liver transplant but was turned down. Because of the shortage of organs, those who have a history of drug or alcohol abuse or are currently on opiate-based pain killers are not eligible for liver transplants.
Her doctor did prescribe other drugs to treat her symptoms, including morphine in pill form. The drugs did little to alleviate Rosie's suffering or pain. Eight months after she moved in with her mother, upon the recommendation of a friend, Brenda packed Rosie into a car and drove to Santa Barbara to see Dr. Han. At that point, Rosie had been told by her Western doctors that she had only a few months to live.
Hepatitis involves multiple Energy systems. In the acute phase the primary Cause is Dampness. Causes can also involve Heat, some Blood stagnation and an External Toxin. As hepatitis evolves into a more chronic condition, the nature of the imbalance tends to shift from Dampness to Blood stagnation. As the general condition worsens and the immune system is weakened, deficiencies will inevitably set in.
A big part of Rosie's misery was her constant nausea and inability to keep anything down. Imbalanced Liver Energy compromises the liver's ability to regulate the Energetic movement of the digestive system. Rosie's Stomach Energy was backing up, causing her nausea, vomiting and constipation. (See the chart “The Interaction of Stomach, Spleen and Liver Energy to Regulate Digestion” on page 95.) In the meantime, her Spleen Energy was deficient, causing her bloating. Both of these factors interacted to prevent her from absorbing adequate nutrition and depleted her body's immune system's ability to fight her illness. Moreover, Rosie's constipation was so severe that the toxins that were supposed to be discharged from her body were accumulating in her system, putting even more stress on her liver.
Rosie's herbal formula was designed to counteract (suppress or cleanse) the virus and support her immune system, which was near depletion. In Chinese medicine this depleted immune state is often equivalent to Spleen, Liver or Kidney deficiency or a combination. The herbal formula was also designed to reduce the ascites (fluid accumulation in her abdominal cavity) and edema (the swelling in her legs), counteract the progression of the liver cirrhosis and soften her liver. The process of cirrhosis or scarring of the liver is a process of progressive Blood stagnation. Over the next several weeks, Rosie's liver enzymes normalized, her jaundice cleared, most of the fluid accumulation in her abdominal cavity cleared and her energy improved.
A standard prescription for one week consists of one bag of herbs per day. However, Rosie could not afford to continue to consume a bag of tea every day; instead, she stretched out a week's supply over one month. This diluted approach was not giving her the benefits she needed. Brenda and Rosie made several attempts to file claims with Medicare. “Whenever we filed a claim to get some help for the herbs it was denied, so I don't even bother to call our social worker anymore,” Rosie said. Without continual, routine use of herbs, Rosie's health began to deteriorate. Her life was reduced to sleeping and watching church programs on TV. “When I die there'll be no more pain,” Rosie said. “No more heartache. I'll be able to eat, eat, eat. But I'm scared. I don't want to die.”
In the past those who were terminally ill were faced with accepting death as inevitable when they were told by their doctors that there was nothing more they could do. Chinese medicine has much to offer those afflicted with incurable and potentially fatal, chronic, degenerative and progressive diseases. The first step is to support and strengthen a person's innate restorative power so that the body can begin to heal itself.
Rosie was able to obtain financial assistance from a charitable source to resume Chinese herbal therapy. This time, Dr. Han formulated a concentrated herbal enema so that her body could have a better opportunity to absorb some of the herbs. Again she showed marked improvement in a very short period of time.
Rosie and her mother are devout Christians. They believe that Chinese medicine is the answer to their prayers. Throughout her illness, Rosie has remained faithful. “He is always with me, and I put myself in His hands. No matter how sick I get, I will never turn away from God. Chinese herbs were the answer to my prayers.”
In the next ten to twenty years, the hepatitis C epidemic is likely to overwhelm the health care system of this country. Chinese herbal therapy can play a major role in the management of hepatitis C as well as other types of hepatitis. The effective rate of hepatitis C treatment by Chinese medicine herbal remedy has been shown in clinical trials to be 67 to 89 percent, with significantly fewer side effects than interferon therapy. Furthermore, it is important to note that Chinese herbal treatment can, to some extent, reverse cirrhotic change, which is considered irreversible by Western medicine.
Art Jamison is like a seasoned fisherman who stoically recounts a story of a storm he once experienced. In a routine physical in September 1996, his lab report showed that his liver enzymes were elevated. A series of tests followed—an ultrasound, a CAT scan and finally a liver biopsy performed under anesthesia. Art, then forty-nine, and his devoted wife, Sally, celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary under a dark cloud waiting for the results. Art was diagnosed with liver cancer. There were three tumors.
The complexity of the liver's functions is second only to that of the brain's. Almost the entire blood supply from the lower body flows through the liver to get to the heart. The liver is a large organ with a remarkable regenerative ability. As much as 75 percent of a liver can be removed and it will regenerate up to 95 percent within a few weeks. The most common course of action in liver cancer is to surgically remove the cancerous tissue. But Art's tumors were spread too diffusely throughout his liver to attempt surgery.
Art's only hope was a liver transplant. In October 1996, his doctor arranged for him to go through a three-day evaluation program at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Art and Sally were relieved when he was accepted and placed on the liver transplant list. But this news came with an additional blow—Art had hepatitis C. The Jamisons tried to take comfort in the fact that Art would soon have a liver transplant. For the next eighteen months, Sally and Art were tethered to their beeper and remained within a two-hour travel distance to UCLA. While waiting for a liver, Art went through a rigorous course of chemotherapy. In June 1997, after nine months of weekly chemotherapy treatments, the Jamisons heard more brutal news. Despite the chemotherapy, Art's tumors had actually increased in size.
The next course of action was chemotherapy embolization. A needle or a long, narrow tube called a catheter is inserted into a major artery leading to the tumor. A large dose of a chemotherapy agent is delivered directly to the tumorsite. The procedure is designed to minimize the overall impact on the patient's body. As the chemotherapy agent enters the vessels that feed the tumors, it creates a blockage or causes surrounding tissue to wither and die. The blood supply to the tumor will be diminished by the resulting scarring, effectively starving the tumor into regression. Under local anesthesia and sedation, a catheter was threaded up through Art's groin to reach the tumor sites in his liver. But two chemotherapy embolization treatments, one month apart, had no effect on the size of Art's tumors.
During eleven months of chemotherapy, Art had been called three times by the transplant coordinator alerting him to the pending arrival of a viable liver. All three calls turned out to be false alarms.
Art is a tall and lanky man who at six foot two had kept to a steady 175 pounds his entire adult life. He was now suffering from acute ascites—twenty pounds of accumulated fluid in his abdominal cavity. “It was an uncomfortable, hot feeling, having a belly like a tight drum,” he said.
The liver, if sliced open, would look like a sponge full of blood vessels. These blood vessels, patterned like fishnets, can contract and relax to allow blood to flow. If the scarring of cirrhosis or a tumor is blocking the main blood vessels, it is like a blocked plumbing system. Blood leaks into the abdominal cavity, where there is room to expand, thereby causing ascites (fluid retention).
In August 1997 it had been one year since Art had gone in for a routine exam and had subsequently undergone chemotherapy. “I had absolutely no energy. I'd get up in the morning, barely make it downstairs to eat breakfast and then slowly climb the stairs and go back to bed to sleep another two hours.” Chemotherapy and modern surgical skills had kept Art alive, and he was grateful. On the other hand, staying alive had come at a great cost. When their nutritionist suggested that Art see Dr. Han, the Jamisons did not hesitate.
Art's condition resulted from exposure to the External Cause hepatitis C virus. The medical conditions that resulted from this exposure had clearly affected his internal Energetic systems. Art was suffering from severe Kidney and Spleen deficiency. He also had significant Liver, Qi, Blood and Toxic stagnation. Moreover, Art had a glazed look that indicated that his Shen had been all but worn out.
Within two weeks of taking Chinese herbs, Art began to feel a flow of energy.
“I got a good sixty to seventy percent of my energy back within a month,” he said. Three weeks after he began taking herbs, Art was on the beach, throwing a Frisbee. The herbs also resolved his fluid retention, and his weight normalized within two months. Repeated imaging studies demonstrated that his tumors were shrinking.
In March 1998, eighteen months after Art's initial diagnosis, the phone call came from the hospital that a viable liver was available. Art felt conflicted, knowing that the tumors were shrinking from the herbal medicine. He had been called three times before with the possibility of an available liver, but each time there was a problem and he could not have the liver transplant. It was like throwing a drowning person a lifeline and then pulling it away. Art just did not want to go through that again. To accept the liver transplant was a psychological insurance policy.
The liver transplant ward on the sixth floor of UCLA looks like a maternity ward. Both men and women have distended bellies from fluid retention. Art was the exception. “I was in such great shape at that point,” he said. “My weight was normal, and I had very little water retention. During the operation the surgeons were able to forgo some of the procedures that they normally do during a transplant.” After Art's surgery, the pathology report of the liver that was removed from his body showed that two of the three tumors had calcified and died.
Figure 22 The reduction in size of Art's tumors during the six months he used Chinese herbs (measurements in centimeters)
As Art's story demonstrates, organ transplants are fraught with complex life-and-death decisions, emotional pressure and physical challenges. The development and advancement of antirejection drugs is the key for the success of transplants. At the same time, it is the best Western medicine can do, and every year thousands of people die waiting for liver transplants—there are simply not enough organs available.
Because of the integration of Chinese and Western medicines, at age fifty-four—five years after being diagnosed with liver cancer, three years after a liver transplant and beginning Chinese herbs—Art feels healthy and is living a normal life. He appears physically normal and strong and radiates strong Shen. “When we go to see Dr. Han, energy and quality of life are so important,” Sally said. “Western doctors have only given us drugs to boost our energy. And you know it is only a temporary fix. Chinese herbs made the difference between life and death, and I really do believe that in my heart. Our experience has shown us that Chinese and Western medicine works effectively together. We'll use Chi-nese herbs for the rest of our lives.”
Art will be on immunosuppressants for the rest of his life. Immunosuppressant drugs have certain problems associated with them. No matter how perfect the match, differences will exist between the donor of an organ and the recipient. It is therefore necessary to suppress the recipient's immune response in order to prevent it from recognizing and attacking the donor organ as a foreign invader. Without effective immunosuppression in the recipient, organ rejection is extremely likely. However, immunosuppressive therapy suppresses all immune responses, including those to virus, bacteria, fungi and even malignant tumors. Individuals who undergo significant immunosuppression are much more vulnerable to infection by pathogenic organisms that normally reside within our bodies. These organisms normally are kept well in check by our immune system and cause no particular problems. Suppressing the immune system can lead to significant medical problems, often requiring intensive intervention. This intensity of intervention can in itself further challenge the already weakened and highly stressed body.
Chinese herbs do not suppress the immune system but rather support the Energetic systems so that your body can find balance. In fact, there are a group of Chinese herbs that have immune-modulating and -regulating properties. These herbs do not simply enhance or suppress the immune system; they balance it depending upon the direction in which the immune system is out of balance. If the immune system is hyperactive, these herbs will down-regulate it back to a normal range. If it is weakened, these herbs will strengthen and support it back to this same normal range. For example, Cordyceps, an exotic mushroom, has traditionally been considered to be a strong Kidney tonic and has been successfully and widely used in China to treat post-kidney-transplant patients without the need for immunosuppressants.
Western medicine often takes a silver bullet approach by targeting the clearly defined cause of the illness. Using hepatitis as an example, Western med icine will note the symptoms of fever, jaundice, elevated liver enzymes, nausea and vomiting and sometimes take a liver biopsy to make the appropriate diag nosis of hepatitis. When it comes to the treatment, the silver bullet would be interferon to target the virus, which is considered to be the root cause of hepatitis. If this silver bullet (interferon) hits a bull's-eye—in that it is completely effective in treating the underlying hepatitis C virus—then the signs and symptoms may go away. If, however, it misses the bull's-eye just a little, then the patient continues to suffer symptoms.
When you know the exact cause of a disease and have the effective means to target it, then the silver bullet approach can be highly effective. If the cause of a disease is not clearly defined—such as the later stages of hepatitis C, when the nature of the disease has somewhat changed—then the silver bullet approach may be futile. Toward the later stages of hepatitis C there is not just inflammation of liver cells, there is also extensive scarring of the liver, and the patient's immune system is imbalanced. In other words, the target has expanded to such a large degree that a shotgun is necessary to try to cover all the various areas of the disease. Chinese medicine takes an enlightened shotgun approach by targeting many factors that are involved in the various stages and aspects of the disease.
Chinese medicine's approach to treatment does not require the same levels of accuracy as Western medicine. The enlightened shotgun approach will often effectively defuse the disease by interrupting its negative impact on a number of systems. What is diagnosed and treated by Chinese medicine is often not the disease itself, but rather a disease state, which reflects the interactions of the disease and the human body in its entirety. Chinese medicine's treatment is designed to correct, or reharmonize, this imbalanced state. By effectively rebalancing the body, one is able to effectively treat the disease state without necessarily having to focus on eradicating the exact causative factor itself. For example, liver cancer, hepatitis, chronic fatigue, migraine headaches and other conditions can all produce a particular pattern of Energetic disharmony such as Liver Yin deficiency. Thousands of years ago, Chinese medicine developed methods to effectively correct Liver Yin deficiency and rebalance the system. Chinese medicine is able to treat this disorder without needing to exactly identify the underlying causative factor(s).
By focusing on the specific cause/infection/disease, Western medicine will often be able to eradicate a disorder, but will often produce side effects. Hepatitis C can demonstrate many patterns of disharmony such as Dampness disharmony, Blood stagnation, Toxic stagnation, Spleen, Kidney or Liver Energy deficiency, or Qi, Blood or Yin deficiency, or a combination of any of these. By differentiating these various types of disharmonies and addressing each of them specifically, Chinese medicine is able to tune in the finer points of the disease state and often achieve a better and more comprehensive therapeutic result with minimal or no side effects.
Focus on your spiritual connection
“During everything I went through I realized that I could die,” Art said. “I had to ask myself if my life was in order. Aside from making sure that my family was taken care of, I wanted to make sure that I was at peace and that I had done everything that was necessary without feeling regrets. I read the Tibetan Book of the Dead and I realized that there is life after death and that there was nothing to be afraid of. After my surgery I practiced visualization. If you have fear going into a disease like this, you can't conquer it. I had to embrace it and work with it. I did a lot of visualization. I imagined I had a quilt, and every square was a picture of a friend or family member. This gave me the higher power to let the transplant take hold.”
“While we were going through this, we would meet other people in trying situations and increasingly we realized that we are all interconnected,” Sally said. “It was such a life-altering experience. We now go to comfort people who are dying and feel no hesitation. We can embrace and give comfort to people in such a different way. We are all interconnected and there for each other.”
Stress reduction and addressing unresolved emotional issues are crucial. Consider seeing a therapist or finding an instructor who specializes in relaxation and visualization. Regular moderate exercise such as restorative yoga, gentle walking and activities that result in a calm, relaxed state are beneficial and can help you explore your spiritual path.
Make a practice of listening to relaxation tapes, especially before rest times and bedtime. See chapter 16 for more on your spiritual connection.
Make rest a priority
Proper rest is an absolute necessity for chronic hepatitis C patients in order to assist the restorative process of healing. According to Chinese medicine, R overexertion or lack of rest can tax Liver Energy.
Protect yourself from further chemical exposure
Follow the guidelines for environmental illnesses starting on page 166.
Modify your diet
Follow the guidelines for environmental illnesses starting on page 166. Avoid coffee, greasy foods, alcohol, sugar, refined white flour and processed foods. Toxic residues in foods are damaging to your liver, so eating organic foods is especially important. Avoid trans fatty acids (margarine, fried foods, fast foods). Include essential fatty acid supplements in your diet, or eat foods high in essential fatty acids such as fatty fish (tuna, salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines), leafy greens and whole grains.
Quit caffeine, nicotine or other stimulants
Follow the guidelines for raising serotonin levels to quit addictions on pages 151–155.
Practice detoxification under the guidance of a health care practitioner
Detoxification can be hard on the body. Under the supervision of a medical professional, you may follow the guidelines for detoxification for environmental illnesses on pages 291–296. Increase water intake to eight to ten eight-ounce glasses of water per day.
Chinese herbs and Western supplements
The hepatitis A virus is contracted through fecal contamination of food or water. Roughly 200,000 people in the United States are infected each year. Hepatitis A infection usually resolves in time and, according to Western medicine, needs no treatment. Taking Chinese herbs can shorten recovery time and increase your sense of well-being during your recovery.
The hepatitis B virus is transmitted by exposure to infected blood (via transfusions or needle sticks) or through intimate contact with an infected partner. In the United States about 250,000 new cases occur annually, and 0.2 to 0.4 percent of the population is chronically infected. The hepatitis B virus is the leading cause of hepatitis worldwide. A substantial number of cases of hepatitis B become chronic. The prognosis for this form is generally better than for hepatitis C. In addition, there has been a vaccination in use for hepatitis B for over ten years. Chinese medicine is generally effective in treating hepatitis B by reducing liver cell inflammation and suppressing the viral activities.
You can use Chinese medicinal herbs in recipes to boost your immune system. See chapter 21 for recipes. You can also take Chinese herbal formulas and Western supplements specifically formulated to treat hepatitis A, B and C. Formulas can be purchased online at ancientherbsmodernmedicine.com.