Why Do Well-Nurtured People Get Through the Pandemic Fine While Others End Up in the ICU? — Doctor Luo Dalun: Nourish Your Body to Live Better, Not to Brace for the Next Wave

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear friends, happy New Year to all of you. In the new year, let us continue our lectures. Yesterday we talked about external evil — whether this pandemic plague is cold-dampness or dry-heat and questions like that. You read the comments; everyone felt the question was right, made sense, and was clear — I think that is wonderful, because it shows you are all getting clearer and clearer about Chinese medicine. So what are we talking about today? Today: when the pandemic arrives, has your body made its preparations?

Opening: same infection — why do some people recover in a day or two, while others are severe the moment they reach the hospital?

Doctor Luo sees a huge number of patients in his clinic every day, and everyone keeps asking questions: what about my illness? what about the fever? Having seen so many, he noticed one especially clear pattern: some people’s illness is very mild — it passes in a day or two; other people’s is very severe — especially some elderly people in the north, who are already seriously ill the moment they arrive at the hospital; even with aggressive treatment, some could not be saved.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Where exactly does the difference lie? I have actually talked with you about this before. Some people with very mild cases — why do they get through it in a day or two, and some basically have no symptoms at all? I also heard of one old man, over ninety years old, who got through it in a day or two. Why? Roughly there is a pattern — these people are prepared in ordinary times. In daily life they eat somewhat nourishing things, for example a bit of shan yao powder, something to tonify upright qi, and their whole body is in relatively good shape.

The principle of Chinese medicine: wherever evil qi gathers, upright qi must be deficient; when upright qi dwells within, evil qi cannot interfere

Why are people who nourish themselves in ordinary times not afraid? Doctor Luo quotes two classic lines of Chinese medicine and explains the principle thoroughly:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Chinese medicine says “xie zhi suo cou, qi qi bi xu” — wherever evil qi gathers, its qi must be deficient. Why does evil qi come to you? Your qi must be deficient, there must be something wrong, like a room with a leak. Conversely, “zheng qi cun nei, xie bu ke gan” — when upright qi dwells within your body, evil qi’s influence on you is very light; it cannot defeat you.

This pandemic, many Chinese medicine practitioners discussed it together, and one big problem was exposed: many people are in very poor health — especially some of the middle-aged and young.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Take the elderly — many elderly people really are fine. Why? The elderly eat health products every day, nothing happens; they have health awareness; they also rest well — you never hear of an elderly person going out clubbing; elderly people go to bed early. Like today, I was chatting with a friend whose mother is over ninety — ninety-something — she got infected, and it was just a cough, very mild, and she got through it. Why? She rests fully, sleeps a lot every day, and her body’s upright qi is relatively sufficient.

The most dangerous group: the middle-aged and young — “as long as the cart doesn’t tip over, just keep pushing it forward”

So what state are the middle-aged and young in? Doctor Luo says it very plainly — many middle-aged and young people’s bodies have reached the point where “even expelling evil is beyond them”:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: But there are also some elderly people with no preparation — in ordinary times they don’t believe in Chinese medicine, don’t understand it, so quite a lot of people have no preparation at all, especially middle-aged and young people. To what degree? One Chinese medicine doctor said: in the end, expelling evil — expel what evil? With the slightest expelling, the body can’t take it, so finally they just tonify upright qi in a big way — ren shen (ginseng) used in dozens of grams before the body has any reaction. That person’s foundation is already extremely thin; to get them to fight is exhausting. What are such people like? Most of them work in companies, work and grind every day, grab whatever food they can, stay up late every night, all kinds of consumption — basically severely overdrawn. In ordinary times, “as long as the cart doesn’t tip over, just keep pushing it forward” — you may not see any problem. Then the pandemic comes and suddenly you see it — the foundation is too poor, it is exposed.

Looking at the pandemic from another angle: the lion eats the deer, keeping the herd healthy

At this point Doctor Luo raises a very interesting viewpoint — don’t see the pandemic as entirely a bad thing:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why does the internet have hackers? It constantly needs to verify whether your internet is healthy or not. Viruses are like a deer herd — the lion always comes to eat some; if you kill all the lions and let the deer grow unchecked, is that right? No, it isn’t. The lion wants to eat the deer that can’t run, the weak ones, to keep the herd healthy. Viruses do the same to the whole of humanity — they constantly train your defense system in real time. So this time, in one clean sweep, if your body’s foundation is thin in ordinary times, many problems are exposed. It makes people realize whether their body is in good shape — from this angle, it also has positive meaning. I think this is a warning heaven has given people.

The deepest feeling: treating the illness is simple for Chinese medicine — what’s hard is that too many people lack upright qi

After this pandemic, Doctor Luo says his deepest feeling is not about the process of treatment:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Having come into contact with so many patients, my deepest feeling is not how satisfying the treatment process is — expelling the external evil, the fever breaking, the body recovering — that process is very simple for Chinese medicine; just follow routine procedure. What I most lament is: too many people are in a state of loss, deficient in upright qi. Some people really had nothing at all — it is because they truly took good care of themselves.

The most important sentence: nourishing the body is not for the sake of preparing for the pandemic

Then Doctor Luo repeatedly stresses a core idea, the one he most wants everyone to remember today:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Many friends’ current state is — I eat these things in order to welcome the pandemic; after I get infected and recover in a few days, nothing’s wrong, so I can stop eating these things. I think everything you do is absolutely NOT to prepare for the pandemic! Everyone must remember: it is not to prepare for the pandemic, but to make ordinary life better. The pandemic may come in wave after wave — according to reports, over in the United States they’ve spread word of a new virus coming, spreading even faster — it is wave after wave of testing. But we are not preparing for it; we are nourishing ourselves to live better, to bring the body into a better state.

Doctor Luo’s daily regimen: shan yao powder, huang qi, gou qi zi, long yan rou…

So how do you nourish yourself in ordinary times? Doctor Luo keeps nothing back and lays out the methods he himself has maintained for years, one by one:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why do some people just sneeze a few times, have a slightly sore throat, and get through it in a day or two? Why do some people never turn positive at all — the whole family is positive and they’re fine? Why? Because they eat shan yao (Chinese yam) powder every day — one spoonful, brewed in hot water and drunk. Take ten people: five eat shan yao powder daily, the other five don’t. Would you say there’s a difference? Of course there is — this is my experience of many years, it truly is so. If you keep eating it every day, over time the nourished state gradually appears — a very good complexion, abundant energy.

Besides shan yao powder, Doctor Luo also shares his “daily lessons”:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What do I do every day? Shan yao powder is always kept at home, and I eat it often; a handful of huang qi (astragalus) daily — before I used to say a few grains, ten grains; now I use thirty — a handful of huang qi and a handful of gou qi zi (wolfberry) steeped in water and drunk every day. When you reach middle age, do you supplement or not? Of course you supplement — what’s wrong with supplementing a little of these things? And every night I also drink a bowl of long yan rou soup — made from more than twenty pieces of longan pulp. Is that good? Of course it is.

And for different constitutions, “match the remedy to the person”:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Thick tongue coating? Get some chen pi (aged tangerine peel) and drink it every day — that will surely help. Kidney essence insufficient, overconsumed? No problem — shu di huang (prepared rehmannia) stewed in soup; sheng di huang, shu di huang, long gu (dragon bone) — would drinking that be good for the body? Of course it would. A bit of blood stasis? Eat san qi (notoginseng) powder every day — some people say I’ve eaten it for a long time with no sensation; that may mean the stasis was already very severe, but eating it and seeing no change is still good; other people gradually dissolve it — the complexion lightens, even blood pressure normalizes. Many friends eat it slowly year-round and their bodies are very good.

The passing of those academicians — what a pity

Toward the end, Doctor Luo’s tone grows heavy — he especially grieves for those elderly people who worked hard in ordinary times and whose nourishing couldn’t keep up:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Especially elderly people with relatively weak bodies — I find it especially regrettable. These elderly people really are already severe the moment they reach the hospital, and then it’s ICU rescue. Looking at the country’s losses in this area, they are enormous — the Academy of Engineering lost so many academicians, each the top figure in their field; the loss is truly huge. They worked too hard in ordinary times, and their nourishing didn’t keep up. So I tell everyone: having your hands hurt for a few days, having a fever for a few days — I don’t think that counts as great suffering; but when such elderly people truly pass away, I find it extremely painful.

Collapse like a toppling wall: for those who never regulate, when the true storm arrives it is already too late

The contrast is stark. Doctor Luo says, looking at the big data and many images, you find a pattern:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Those who are well prepared in ordinary times, familiar with Chinese medicine, and know how to nourish themselves face things with much more composure — even if there is a problem, they pair a little Chinese patent medicine, a bit of Xiao Chai Hu (Minor Bupleurum Decoction) or Huo Xiang Zheng Qi (Patchouli Qi-Correcting), and it’s over, they get through it without much suffering. But those who are unfamiliar with Chinese medicine and pay no attention to their own bodies — their body state has been functionally low, upright qi insufficient — in the end it really is “a toppling wall,” utterly out of control. If you do no regulating in ordinary times, your foundation is extremely thin, and when the true storm arrives, you go to the doctor — the emergency rooms are insane. I heard that at 301 Hospital in Beijing and the emergency department in Sanya, Hainan, you wait in line for 8 hours to be seen — Sanya is fine, the weather is warm, waiting in line is just tiring; Beijing is worse — wearing a down jacket, hat wrapped tight, lying in a wheelchair waiting. And in the end, how much money does it cost? Once you’re in the ICU, how much money can bring a life back? Whatever the cost, whatever the price, you pay it. But if in ordinary times you had truly regulated yourself a little, and the quality of your body were a bit better, you would never have reached that point.

The pandemic is a great examination: it tests the foundation of the body — how much upright qi remains

Through this pandemic, everyone discussed it together and reached a consensus — the pandemic tests the foundation of the body, how many tenths of upright qi remain:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: People who truly nourish themselves fully in ordinary times, with qi, blood, yin and yang all regulated abundantly — they pass through very easily, they may not even need us doctors. A friend came back and reported: in our family, only my dad nourishes himself — look at me, nothing’s wrong, I still haven’t turned positive; the others all turned positive, please take a look at him. Many people turned positive and were fine — mild, and they got through. The gap is enormous. Especially when I see some of the severe cases, the ones treated in the end, I feel it even more deeply — we put in enormous effort there: will the fever break or not, will this person make it, is the breathing and oxygen saturation improving. And when you learn about their ordinary lives — they really never persisted in doing anything good for their bodies, know nothing about Chinese medicine; when sick it’s IV drips, when sick it’s hospital rescue — this truly is not a good way of life.

Don’t only stare at the pandemic: chronic diseases like cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease are far more serious than the pandemic

Doctor Luo reminds everyone that the meaning of nourishing the body goes far beyond dealing with one pandemic:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Live better — when the pandemic comes you are not afraid either; in ordinary life the quality of life is higher, and many diseases would long ago have been eliminated by you. Otherwise, never mind the pandemic, your other problems slowly surface — many, many times more serious than the pandemic. How many did this pandemic take in China? Look at cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and the other problems — how enormous is their harm? So this is what today’s talk is about, because it really stirs my feelings. At the moment of rescue, the doctor prescribes, and sometimes even while sleeping at night he is waiting — how is this person doing, will tomorrow be all right? This is a mindset doctors don’t want to have.

Three final suggestions: nourish, exercise, regulate your emotions

At the close, Doctor Luo gives three most down-to-earth suggestions:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear friends, I hope everyone treats their bodies better: first, nourish actively; second, exercise — move when you should move, be active when you should be active; third, regulate your emotions — don’t live so tense. If you do these three things well, your life will certainly be much happier. I hope we can all do it! Tomorrow, let’s continue talking about the pandemic. Dear friends, see you tomorrow.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture series (special topic: the pandemic and nourishing your foundation).

What to take away: The pandemic is an examination of your body’s foundation — some people recover in a day or two because they were prepared in ordinary times (daily shan yao powder, tonifying upright qi), while those who have been overdrawing their bodies have foundations so thin that dozens of grams of ren shen barely produce a reaction. Chinese medicine’s principle: “wherever evil qi gathers, upright qi must be deficient; when upright qi dwells within, evil qi cannot interfere.” And the essential attitude: nourish your body to live better — NOT to prepare for the next wave. Doctor Luo’s own daily regimen: one spoonful of shan yao powder in hot water every day, a handful of huang qi and gou qi zi steeped in water, a bowl of long yan rou soup at night (about twenty pieces of longan), chen pi water for a thick tongue coating, shu di huang in soups for kidney essence deficiency, and san qi powder daily for blood stasis. Those who regulate themselves face the storm with composure; those who don’t collapse when it truly arrives. Three suggestions: nourish actively, exercise, and regulate your emotions — don’t live so tense.