The outbreak of bird flu in Asia and Europe is triggering concerns that the virus can mutate and set off a pandemic with human to human infections, especially with the winter bird migratory season now in full swing.

Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine or TCM, have also sounded alarm bells saying that people will be continuously exposed to flu risks this winter and next spring.

They argue that the best protection against a possible flu pandemic is a proper diet and living habits.

Holistic perspective

In Western medicine, flu is seen as the result of a viral infection.

But TCM, using a more holistic approach, sees flu as the result of unfavourable influences during a change of seasons which are defined as exogenous "evil" qi, according to Fan Zhenglun, a veteran TCM doctor in Beijing.

When these "evil" qi invade the human body and disturb its original balance, the result is a fever.

The most harmful of such qi is considered to be wind that often causes one to suffer colds. But it seldom attacks alone and is usually accompanied by some other adverse qi, such as heat and cold.

TCM doctors classify flu into two main types, wind-heat type and wind-cold type.

Based on calculation mentioned in the "Huang Di Nei Jing"(Medical Classic of the Yellow Emperor), the oldest TCM book, Fan predicts that people are at a high risk of contacting the wind-heat type of flu this winter and next spring.

The reason is that there has been a continuous warm spell and the weather is characterized, in Fan's words, by a warm property. This kind of weather is dominated by the bad qi of wind and heat. Those suffering from the wind-heat type of flu will experience a dry mouth, sore throat and vomiting.

More effective

Modern medicine that emphasizes the killing of the invading virus has never been able to come up with an effective remedy against the flu. The flu virus is known to mutate rapidly, rendering the many different anti-viral agents and vaccines useless.

By comparison, TCM treatments for cold and flu do not focus on killing the virus. Instead, they strive to restore the internal harmony of the human body.

This can be explained as modifying the internal environment of the human body, so that the virus no longer has a base in which to thrive.

"No matter how different an epidemic virus might become, the foremost strategy of prevention and treatment of the disease should be the same all the time," Fan said.

The internal environment in the human body can be made unfavourable for the virus with the use of proper herbs and diet, he said. "By recovering the internal balance, the symptoms of flu will gradually disappear," said Fan.

According to TCM doctors, bird flu is also characterized by wind and heat and can be categorised as the wind-heat type of flu.

Fan said as per TCM, children and young people are more vulnerable to this type of flu because there is more heat in their bodies creating a more favourable environment for the virus to survive and multiply.

TCM has a long history of battling infectious diseases.

"TCM originated from Chinese people's fight with many different epidemic diseases," said Fu Youfeng, a TCM doctor with the Beijing TCM Hospital affiliated with the Beijing Capital University of Medical Sciences.

Infectious diseases from animals have long accompanied the development of human society.

The most frequent epidemics recorded in ancient Chinese classics were pestis. This disease is much more virulent and infectious than bird flu, with a shorter course of disease and a much higher death rate.

Fu said TCM had a long tradition of battling pestis and preventing an epidemic.

(China Daily 11/09/2005 page13)