Damp heat, vaginal discharge/odor

So while I can’t really comment on your case without knowing more details I can say that as a general rule of thumb you can expect roughly one month of treatment per year of whatever condition you’re seeking treatment for. Acupuncture combined with herbs can absolutely help clear out damp heat in the lower and effectively remove odor and discharge. I would think three weeks is a pretty aggressive estimate for resolution of your symptoms but again without knowing all the details it could be a good estimate for your case. I would suggest speaking with your acupuncturist. So long as you are experiencing improvement -which to me would be the most important factor - I would stick with them even if their estimate of three weeks ends up being too short.

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If you’re not having any abdominal bloating or diarrhea or loose stools raw fruits and veggies should be fine. If you are having any of those just cook your veggies and scale back a little bit on the fruits. Apples are one of the better fruits if you are having any gastrointestinal issues.

For damp heat conditions avoid damp foods - dairy/soy/avocado/banana and hot -spicy foods, onions/garlic/ginger etc. Avoid alcohol especially beer. If you’re doing a vegan diet soy is the number one thing to eliminate and it’s in a ton of vegan products so check labels carefully. If you have a juicer I recommend doing a daily glass of watermelon juice. Use as much of the white part as possible.

Make sure you communicate the loose stools with your current practitioner as they may want to adjust the formula. While many of those damp-heat clearing formulas - are clearing, if you have underlying weaknesses that are part of this equation you could eventually strengthen the underlying imbalance. It’s very important for your practitioner to know all of the responses, good and bad. The good and bad about Chinese herbal medicine is that it can be infinitely tailored to the individual.

As far as general commentary, everything @Stephen_Sedita says about the time frame is about right. I would generally think more 3 cycles (i.e. roughly 3 months) rather than a few weeks. But I could see your practitioner meaning you would be on stronger damp-heat clearing herbs for a few weeks, where you should notice improvement, and then the work would proceed towards full resolution so that you, ideally, never have to deal with this again. And that would be longer.

Hi again,

I have a couple more questions. I’m wondering which herbs you would recommend for my damp-heat condition? I am a bit skeptical that my current practitioner does not have a lot of experience with my condition, so wanted to get your point of view. From what I read, the V-Statin seemed to make sense, but she only had me on it for a course of two bottles. I saw very minimal improvement and she had me take a break from it for a week before I go back in for another appointment tomorrow. I can provide more information on my condition if needed.

Additionally, is there a significant difference between seeing an LAC or MAO? Acupuncture/TCM is completely new to me, so it’s difficult to know who to search for to best make the switch.

Thank you.

Thanks for your reply. I am going to see things through and try and remain patient as best as possible. This info is really helpful and puts things in perspective a little more - thanks again!