Auto-Immune Diseases

That is far too broad of a question to really provide an answer as the range of both auto immune conditions themselves but symptomatic presentation is far too varied. That said, that is largely what makes proper Chinese Medicine useful in their treatment (i.e. the systemic nature of Chinese Medicine both in the diagnostic approaches and in the treatment effects). MS, Rheumatoid, Lupus, etc. all on average respond well to Chinese Medicine but treatment has to be very properly tailored to the individual and their individual signs and symptoms (as does any Chinese Medicine treatment). Treatment can vary from a few months to ongoing on some frequency for years, but in cases may very well lead to a seemingly permanent remission to their issues.

Course of treatment and frequency are nearly impossible to comment on under a generic set of conditions. What I can say on the subject is more often isn’t necessarily better and can, in my opinion, be counterproductive in some cases. We rarely, if ever, treat more than once a week and rarely treat weekly for more than 4-15 visits, after which treatments are spaced out.

When treating these conditions you often have to rely deeply on Chinese medicine diagnostic tools as they will show that you are on the right track long before these conditions may alter course. There are very often positive symptomatic changes along the way of course, but many of these conditions have waxing and waning symptoms anyhow, so a seeming improvement may not be what it seems unless you can verify it with other improvements in diagnostic signs (tongue, pulse, palpatory diagnosis, etc.). Our article on “acupuncture treatment prognosis guidelines” has some very basic ideas of how to approach this.