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Visit to the Chinese herbalist

Last Monday I wandered into the Chinese doctor’s in Oxford, who also specialise in acupuncture. I had been meaning to go for a while, after I had read that others had had success with Chinese medicine as part of their Lyme disease treatment, and I was still looking for that elusive cure. The fact is that Western medicine is of limited use for Lyme, but there are a variety of medicinal plants that help many people.

I started babbling about Lyme disease to the Chinese doctor, telling him all about my problems such as infection, carditis, insomnia, tingling, immunity, borrelia, chlamydia, ehrlichiosis. He took my details, and proceeded to examine me by feeling my pulse on both wrists. 

After a short while, his diagnosis was “damp”, and suggested acupuncture. I said I wasn’t sure, but did he have some medicines instead? I was given Taohong Si Wu Wan and Shenling Bai Zhu Wan, for a cost of £22. I was happy to take them - Lyme disease is an expensive process of trial and error.


The tablets were nothing short of a miracle. In only a few hours my heart started to flare strongly. Each time I would take the tablets, would elicit a strong reaction from my heart. After a few days I needed a break. Then I resumed and my spleen started to react strongly for a few days. These were both organs that I consider infected. Within a week, I had a stonking headache, which I normally associate with a strong bacterial die-off.

I later read that “dampness” was indeed a very good diagnosis. It must not be translated literally. It refers to ill water, which is basically infection and poor balance (immunity), and we would recognise many of the traditional treatments for damp, including a healthy sugar-free dairy-free diet.

Overall, I was extremely happy with the results. I am also on antibiotics, but the combination of Western and Chinese medicine is intriguing and very promising. Lyme patients are used to false hopes, and it’s too early to say what the long term effects will be.




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