Covid-19 and Acupuncture: Can Acupuncture Boost Your Immune System To Help Fight Off The Coronavirus?

Let’s start off with this question: What is the Coronavirus?

The coronavirus is a form of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Being infected by this respiratory disease, in this case the coronavirus, you will present with symptoms such as a dry cough, shortness of breath, and fever. Those tend to be the main symptoms of this disease, but other symptoms (ie. joint pain or cold and flu symptoms which can include headache, muscle aches, chills, diarrhea, sore throat, runny nose) can accompany the 3 main symptoms as well. This infectious disease can progress into pneumonia and respiratory failure.

When it comes to the coronavirus, it begins its attack via the upper respiratory tract. An example starting point is around the throat area. As discussed earlier, some people will begin to develop a sore throat, fever, and dry cough. The interesting part about the coronavirus is that it can have an incubation period as long as 20 days or more. Once it attacks the upper respiratory tract, it tends to migrate to the lungs and begins attacking certain cells with the alveoli of the lungs. This attack tends to precipitate an inflammatory response within the alveoli. The body's immune response to the actions of the virus tends to compound the damage to the healthy cells of the alveoli. For those who are not familiar with what alveoli are: alveoli are many tiny air sacs of the lungs which allow for rapid gaseous exchange. This exchange is the release of carbon dioxide from the body, and the intake of oxygen into the body. It is this damage to the alveoli that tends to compromise an individual's ability to breath. The damage from the coronavirus inside of the body, in this case the lungs, the lungs tend to lose their elasticity and become very rigid which makes it difficult for a person to inhale.

Now, from an acupuncture point of view, there are several meridians that are affected as a result of this virus. Those being the San Jiao meridian, the lung meridian, the kidney meridian, and the spleen and heart meridian. These meridians are the main meridians, although other meridians can be affected as well due to father-son, mother-son relationships. In my next few writings, on Acupuncture and the coronavirus I will be discussing in detail the impact the coronavirus affects these meridians and why Acupuncture is important for keeping the body balanced to have a strong immune system to face such viruses.

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