Health Brief

TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE ACHIEVES SUCCESS IN TREATMENT OF DREADED DISEASE

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One of the grimmest diagnoses to receive is that of ALS: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. It is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that leads to weakening and wasting of the muscles. Eventually all four limbs become involved, and there may be considerable cramping and stiffness that develops with the partial loss of nervous control over the muscles.

A normal course of disease progression is to reach the point that respiration is affected within 5 years after the initial symptoms and diagnosis, causing death. There is about a 5% rate of survival past 12 years, and some people live more than 20 years, while others have rapid disease progression within just 2 years.

Western medicine has little to offer the ALS sufferer other than medications to allay the pain and other symptoms.

In China, Dr. Chong Yongde has had good results treating a group of 27 males and 19 females diagnosed with ALS. The results of therapy were classified into four categories: (i) clinical remission, where atrophic muscles were largely restored, the patient then being able to manage daily activities and take place in social activities, or being able to survive with the disease more than ten years after diagnosis; (ii) markedly effective, where the ability of managing daily activities was enhanced somewhat, or being able to survive more than five years after diagnosis; (iii) fairly effective, muscular atrophy slows down, with survival over three years; (iv) ineffective, symptoms do not significantly improve with survival less than three years.

Of the 46 patients, 6 appeared to have clinical remission; for 11 the treatment was markedly effective; for 24 it was fairly effective, and for 5 it was ineffective (the patients died within a few months time).

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SOURCE: http://www.itmonline.org/arts/als.htm, originally published in the Shanghai Journal of
Acupuncture and Moxibustion