Long Covid: how traditional Chinese medicine can help with symptoms from fatigue and persistent cough to erectile dysfunction

It had been a month since Hongkonger Sonia Cheng had tested positive for Covid-19, but her energy levels were still depleted. She was plagued by fatigue, a persistent cough and shortness of breath.

It wasn’t until the 28-year-old struggled to sing while washing dishes that she realised she needed to take action.

“I couldn’t sing, I was gasping for air. I felt like I could do with some extra help to recover, but I didn’t want to try harsh medicine or anything invasive,” she says.

As a child, Cheng had tried Chinese medicine, but disliked the bitter taste. However, in the past year she’d tried Chinese medicine for a urinary tract infection (UTI) and discovered that it now came in a more palatable powder form, so she decided to give it another go.

“I felt I’d been forever damaged by Covid. I thought my throat would never recover,” she says. “Going to a Chinese doctor made me feel I could borrow help from nature to bring myself back to health.”

Cheng is one of many seeking relief from lingering Covid-19 symptoms through the use of Chinese medicine.

Jasmine Cheung, a former public healthcare worker who now operates her own practice in Prince Edward, in Hong Kong’s Kowloon area, has observed a marked rise in interest in Chinese medicine, with her patient demographic trending younger.

“The demand for herbal medicine has increased so much that it’s now difficult for me to order the herbs from Taiwan,” she says. “They are shipping a lot to Hong Kong, but it’s not enough to meet the demand.”

Cheung reports that patients suffering from long Covid typically present with complaints of fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, changes in their menstrual cycle, or erectile dysfunction.

Many are unaware that their symptoms may be indicative of long Covid. In some cases, individuals were asymptomatic when they initially contracted the virus, and it is only weeks or months later that the symptoms began to manifest.

There is no specific herb to treat long Covid because each patient is assessed according to their unique presentation. However, there are some broad parameters.

“We call Covid a ‘hot disease’ because it causes your body temperature to rise – the balance of your body will shift to a warmer side,” Cheung says. “After the disease, we give some herbal medicine to help [patients] return to balance.”

I feel the herbal formula helped to flush whatever bad stuff was in my body. The flow within my body is good again
Sonia Cheng, long Covid sufferer

In the world of traditional Chinese medicine, there is a concept known as the “five elements theory”. This is a framework that describes five elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water – as the basic substances of the material world, and that a life force, or qi, flows through them.

Each individual is a blend of these five elements, and to achieve optimal health they need to be balanced.

“Covid attacks the lungs, which is metal energy, and spleen – earth energy. We use herbal medicine to focus on those two energies and bring that back to balance with the five energies,” Cheung says.

For Cheng, the journey to recovery involved visiting Cheung five times over the course of a couple of months.

At first, she was taking powdered herbs mixed in water three times a day. Gradually, the dosage was reduced to twice a day and then once. After just two visits, Cheng noticed that her tongue, which before had turned a greenish hue, had returned to a healthy pink colour.

Her menstrual cycle, which had stopped after Covid, also returned to normal. And after two months, her singing voice was 80 per cent back to normal.

“I feel the herbal formula helped to flush whatever bad stuff was in my body. The flow within my body is good again,” she says.

For 27-year-old Sunny (who only gives his first name), Covid took a toll on his energy levels and digestion. Despite being a regular gym-goer and leading an active lifestyle, the Lululemon employee found it difficult to regain his energy after contracting the virus.

“No matter how long I slept, I always felt tired. And I felt like I had a lot of gas in my stomach, which made me not want to eat – and usually I have a big appetite,” he says.

On the recommendation of a friend, he decided to give Chinese medicine a try. Just two weeks into the treatment, he’s already feeling the benefits.

“My stomach feels better and I can eat more, and I feel I have more energy. I still feel a little tired, but not as much as before,” he says.

I think that Western medicine just fixes the symptoms, but Chinese medicine tries to wake up your body
Sunny, long Covid sufferer

In the wake of the first wave of Covid-19 in 2020, Cheung began noticing a troubling trend among her patients. Once they tested negative for the virus, almost 90 per cent of them were affected in some way.

In her search for answers, she turned to her notes from her studies in Chinese medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She quickly realised that the patients she was seeing with long Covid were markedly different from patients who had contracted Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003.

Determined to understand this new phenomenon, she began collecting data on her long Covid patients, enlisting the help of her data-analyst husband to help her collate her findings in a table.

Cheung’s informal study of 120 patients yielded some interesting insights. Among her findings were that half of the women with long Covid experienced disruptions to their menstrual cycles, while men reported issues with erectile dysfunction.

More than half of her patients reported needing to urinate more frequently at night.

Cheung also discovered that the earlier she began treating someone with long Covid, the quicker their recovery.

In fact, most patients reported significant improvement in their symptoms after just three or four visits. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, Cheung found that younger patients tended to recover more quickly than older ones.

Our understanding of long Covid is still in its infancy. Cheung believes that if we define long Covid as a person not being as healthy after Covid as they were before, then as many as 90 per cent of people may be affected, even if only for a matter of days or weeks.

“I hardly see any patients who say they feel totally the same after Covid,” she says.

According to Cheung, the standard building blocks of good health apply to recovering post-Covid. This includes maintaining a healthy diet, getting plenty of rest and drinking lots of water.

However, she advises patients to go easy on exercise until they are fully recovered.

“After taking Chinese medicine, my body and energy levels are back on track,” Sunny says. “I think that Western medicine just fixes the symptoms, but Chinese medicine tries to wake up your body.”