The first LD cases in China were
reported in 1986, and now LD has been
reported in more than 18 provinces.
There is no record of this disease in
the literature of TCM, but effective TCM
treatments exist for five other known
spirochetal diseases: syphilis, yaws,
relapsing fever, rat-bite-fever, and
leptospirosis. The treatments that have
been developed for these spirochetal
infections can be borrowed to use for
treating LD. Over the last forty years,
Chinese medical scientists have sought
to integrate TCM with modern western
medicine by comparing the
pharmacological effects of the TCM
remedies with the physiological actions
of western medicine. This integration of
TCM and western medicine created a new
medicine -- modern Chinese Medicine (MCM).
Based on western medicine’s
understanding of the etiology and
pathology of these diseases, certain MCM
herbal remedies, which have anti-spirochetal
and anti-inflammatory effects, have been
studied to treat these diseases. I have
researched these MCM treatments and
adapted them to my protocols for LD.
Anti-spirochetal Chinese herbs have been
successfully used for treating syphilis
and leptospirosis in China. Syphilis was
badly epidemical in the old days and
affected millions of families in China.
As a result, many effective TCM herbal
therapies were developed for it.
Smilax glabrae Rhizoma (SG),
as a major ingredient of the herbal
formulas, is used
to treat syphilis and achieves a greater
than 90 percent sero-convert rate back
to negative. Even for the late stages of
syphilis, the cure rate is above 50
percent.
Leptospirosis is transmitted through
contaminated water in the rice paddies
in China. In the poor rural areas,
farmers work in the rice fields
bare-footed and epidemics of this
spirochete disease affected millions of
farmers in China. Smilax glabrae
Rhizoma has been studied as a
preventive treatment for leptospirosis.
Out of 2,000 people tested, the
incidence rate of a pre-treated group
compared with a control group was 1:5.58
-- a statistically significant result,
demonstrating that taking SG can
successfully prevent leptospirosis.
In recent years, the below-listed active
ingredients in herbs have been
identified and studied pharmacologically
and clinically. They have been tested
and found to kill the spirochetes of
leptospirosis, and have been used
clinically to treat leptospirosis in
China: Allicin, an active ingredient of
garlic; Decanoylacetaldehyde, an active
ingredient of Houttuyniae Herba (HH);
Coptin, an active ingredient of
Coptis chinensis Radix, Smilax
glabrae Rhizoma, and Scutellariae
Radix, etc. From this research, I
formulated my herbal protocols for
treating LD.
