TCM Herb Tips and Recipes to Prevent Covid

Immunity boost is one the top priorities of most of us today. As it says, the best gift that we can give to our family and ourselves nowadays is good health. The question now is how do we gear up ourselves and boost our immunity to fight off diseases and infections such as the covid-19. This is where Traditional Chinese Medicine comes in.

With a broad range of alternative, effective and non-invasive practices, TCM offers various methods to strengthen our immunity against covid and at the same time educate us on how to prevent covid. With reference to the vast experience of healing covid in China, Chinese herbal prescription is found to be effective in preventing and healing the Covid cases with mild to normal symptoms. It can also help with post covid rehabilitation.

Following is an English translated excerpt from a special presentation prepared by the Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Sector Anti-epidemic Alliance to introduce some preventive measures for coronavirus disease with Chinese herbal decoctions, and medicated soup.

Food plays a very important role in Chinese culture. For thousands of years, Chinese have made the most out of their food and cooking techniques. It’s also very common for Chinese to integrate herbal medicine into their daily diet so as to optimize the therapeutic effect of their regular meal.

It was mentioned in “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine,” when the 5 flavors of food enter our stomach, they will enter into their preferred visceral systems, e.g. the sour taste will enter the liver, and the bitter taste will enter the heart. By utilizing this unique corresponding feature, food of different taste could work together with herbal medicine and unique ways of cooking to create delectable medicated dishes or soups with high therapeutic value.

During the current epidemic, patients can use medicated soup to rebalance their body condition and boost their immunity while healthy people can use them to maintain health. This will help us effectively learn how to prevent covid.

SOUP 1

Astragalus Yuzhu Longan Soup黃芪玉竹桂圓湯

Ingredients: (for 2 person) Astragalus 黃芪 15g Yuzhu 玉竹 15g Dried longan 桂圓 15g

Above ingredients could be cooked with or without pork and conch.

Cooking time: 2 hours

Function: Nourish and strengthen the body, tonify the lung system, moisten dryness-syndrome and calm the mind

Soup 2 Qingbuliang spleen tonifying soup

Ingredients: (for 4 person)

Chinese yam	淮山	30g
Dried lotus seed	蓮子	30g
Euryale ferox	肇實	30g
Dried Lily bulb	百合	30g
Coix seed	薏苡仁	15g
Dried longan	桂圓	15g
Tangerine peel	陳皮	2 pieces

Above ingredients could be cooked with or without pork shank or pork rib

Cooking time: 2 hours

Function: tonify and nourish, remove dampness from the spleen system, nourish the heart system, moisten the lung and prevent catching a cold

Living in a pandemic, Chinese herbal medicine could help us to prevent contracting disease, but not everyone needs to take Chinese medicine. In general, we may divide the population into 3 segments:

The first segment is low-risk people: Citizens from this segment do not have any close contact with patients who suffered from covid, they have low risk of being infected. They can follow their usual health maintenance regimen, eating healthily and resting properly.

The second segment is high-risk asymptomatic people: They have had close contact with the diagnosed, but have no symptoms, they can take preventive treatments according to their body constitution. Following are two prescriptions formulated by the Hong Kong Registered Chinese Medicine Practitioner Association which may suit the need of this segment.

How to Prevent Covid-19

Coronavirus Disease Prevention Prescription No. 1

This prescription can help detoxify the lungs and remove dampness and turbidity. This formula is suitable for those who have normal digestive function and, ordinary or relatively strong body constitution.

Ingredients include:

Honeysuckle	金銀花	10g
Forsythia	連翹	10g
Banlangen (Isatis root)	板藍根	10g
Reed root	蘆根	10g
Mulberry bark	桑白皮	10g
Largehead Atractylodes	白朮	10g
Agaricus	藿香	8g
Raw licorice	生甘草	3g

Coronavirus Disease Prevention Prescription No. 2

This prescription can invigorate Qi to protect a person from contracting external pathogens, reduce the dampness in the body, and detoxify. Suitable for those people who have qi or yang deficiency body constitution and those who normally suffer from coldness, poor digestive function , poor appetite and loose stools.

Ingredients:

Astragalus	黃芪	15g
Largehead Atractylodes	白朮	10g
Swordlike Atractylodes	蒼朮	10g
Fangfeng	防風	10g
Agaricus	藿香	10g
Banlangen (Isatis root)	板藍根	10g
Honeysuckle	金銀花	10g
Forsythia	連翹	10g

The above prescriptions are for adults, one dose per day.

Cooking method：Soak the herbs in three bowls of water for half an hour, bring it to boil with high heat, then turn to medium heat and cook for 20 minutes, remove the residue, and leave one and a half bowls of medicine, take it once in the morning and once in the evening separately.

The above Chinese medicine prescriptions contain Chinese medicines with significant therapeutic function. It is recommended to take them under the guidance of registered Chinese medicine practitioners.

As for high-risk people, including those who have been closely contacted with covid patients and have symptoms such as fever at the same time, they are in the medical observation period and should seek medical attention immediately.