I. The Core Logic of Traditional Chinese Medicine Rehabilitation: Symptomatic Treatment and Root Cause Treatment

1. Scientific Division of Rehabilitation Stages

• Symptomatic Treatment Stage (1-3 months): Alleviating symptoms (such as pain relief, anti-inflammation)
  • Typical formula: Taohong Siwu Tang (promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis)
  • Modern medical validation: Time required for a 50% reduction in inflammatory factors
• Root Cause Treatment Stage (3-6 months): Repairing the function of internal organs (such as strengthening the spleen and nourishing the kidneys)
  • Typical formula: Guipi Tang (tonifies qi and blood) + Zuogui Wan (nourishes kidney yin)
  • Biological mechanism: Liver cell regeneration cycle approximately 120 days

2. Rehabilitation Scoring System

Score Range	Physical Condition	Focus of Adjustment
60 points	Symptoms disappear but are prone to recurrence	Strict dietary restrictions + consolidation treatment
70 points	Occasional discomfort but can self-resolve	Tonic paste for gradual supplementation + dynamic monitoring of tongue appearance
Above 80 points	Stable constitution with fewer illnesses	Seasonal health maintenance + emotional regulation

The body’s recovery is divided into two stages. As the saying goes, three parts treatment, seven parts nurturing. Treatment is also divided into symptomatic treatment and root cause treatment.

Generally, symptomatic treatment takes about 1 month, while root cause treatment may require 2-3 months, and nurturing might take about 6-12 months.

Some patients think that once symptoms disappear, they don’t need to revisit the doctor. This notion is incorrect. The absence of symptoms only means the symptoms are treated, but the root cause must also be addressed to prevent recurrence.

I often use scores to illustrate to patients: for example, if symptoms are gone and do not affect daily life, you can score 60 points. But just passing is not enough; you need to continue consolidating. At this stage, your body has not yet recovered to a good state. If you get angry, stay up late, or accidentally eat trigger foods, you might fail again, and symptoms could recur.

Some people do not understand this principle and wonder why they need to revisit the doctor after the disease is cured. They might even misinterpret the doctor’s good intentions, thinking it’s an excuse for the doctor to make more money. As a result, symptoms recur after some time, and they claim that Chinese medicine is ineffective and cannot cure diseases. Some even think that reaching 60 points means they can stop dietary restrictions.

As I mentioned earlier, 60 points is just barely passing. Not adhering to dietary restrictions can affect the spleen and stomach’s function, leading to the production of dampness, phlegm, heat, and cold, which may cause symptoms to recur. So, even at 60 points, strict dietary restrictions should be maintained.

Only when your body reaches above 70 points can you relax a bit. But you should still frequently observe your tongue coating and bodily reactions. For example, if you eat trigger foods and the next day your stool is not good, or your tongue coating becomes white and greasy, it’s a reminder that you ate too much the day before and it hasn’t been digested.

To cure a disease and improve your health, you must establish the right mindset. Recognize that the body’s recovery is a process of habit formation, not just the result of taking medication. Apart from colds and flu, most people’s diseases are what modern medicine calls chronic diseases.

Why can’t chronic diseases be cured? Because the constitution has weakened. It’s like if the foundation has a problem, building a second floor on top of the first will cause it to collapse. This is why you experience “allergies,” “recurrent inflammation,” and “chronic diseases.” All diseases result from a combination of internal and external factors.

Avoiding only external factors without addressing internal factors will not cure the disease.

Internal factors are inseparable from the insufficient function of your internal organs. To supplement this deficiency, there must be a process. Many people’s conditions are not severe; if they can persist with Chinese medicine for 3-6 months, they can see significant results. Unfortunately, they lack patience and cannot wait. Therefore, their constitution never recovers, and “chronic diseases” truly become “incurable diseases.” “Incurable chronic diseases” may eventually turn into “tumors” or “cancer.”

We often encounter people who go to the hospital for a check-up and find potential cancer. Before the cancer diagnosis, they usually have had chronic diseases for years. For example, breast hyperplasia gradually turns into nodules, then into category 3 or 4 nodules. The hospital says it cannot be reversed and only asks for regular check-ups. Eventually, when it worsens, a biopsy is done, followed by a diagnosis, surgery, and chemotherapy. If the constitution is poor, the prognosis is poor, and after recurrence and metastasis, the person is gone. To prevent cancer, simply put, it is to manage chronic diseases well. At the same time, maintain good health habits and a good lifestyle.

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II. Three Core Elements of Chronic Disease Management

I once met a patient with rheumatoid arthritis for many years, with swollen and painful finger joints. Although there was no significant deformity, it had troubled her for a long time. Initially, she thought this disease could be cured in about a month. After a month, there was no significant change, and she became anxious, asking if the disease was incurable and complaining about how difficult it was to treat.

Many patients have this mindset, thinking their condition should improve after taking one or two prescriptions. So, I keep photos of the patient’s tongue from each follow-up visit for reference and comparison. Based on the before-and-after comparison of her tongue photos, I told her about the changes over the past month of taking Chinese medicine. After another month, she gradually improved and stabilized at about 70-80% recovery. At this point, the patient was quite confident.

Then, the patient had a recurrence due to a cold. She became anxious again, wondering why it recurred and if it would keep recurring even after recovery. I examined her pulse and told her that although the symptoms had recurred, the medicine she had taken before was still effective.

Because diseases are caused by multiple factors, all factors must be addressed for true recovery. It’s like unlocking a door with three locks; you have to unlock them one by one. Unlocking one lock will loosen the door a bit, but it won’t open completely. I explained this to her, and she patiently continued taking the medicine for another month. After about 4 months of Chinese medicine, she happily told me that she no longer had recurrences even with changes in weather or fatigue.

I checked her pulse again and felt that the pathogenic factors were almost gone, but her vital energy was still weak. I reminded her not to get too excited too soon. She was just barely passing and could still easily relapse if not careful. Later, I prescribed a tonic paste to continue strengthening her spleen and kidneys, supporting and consolidating her health. Later, the patient introduced her friend to me, saying everyone was happy to see her improvement.

Modern Medicine Limitations and Traditional Chinese Medicine Advantages

Issue	Western Medicine Treatment	Traditional Chinese Medicine Strategy
Recurrent Inflammation	Antibiotics + Steroids	Bazheng San + Bloodletting (clears damp-heat)
Immune Disorder	Immunosuppressants	Yupingfeng San + Wuqinxi (strengthens the body and consolidates the foundation)

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III. Five Factors Affecting Rehabilitation Speed

1. Differences in Constitutional Foundation

• Innate Endowment: Genetic influence from parents affects recovery speed (studies show it accounts for 30%)
• Acquired Damage: Staying up late, prolonged sitting leads to insufficient blood and qi production

2. Compliance Management

• Medication Taboos: Dietary restrictions list ( cold/raw, spicy, trigger foods)
• Behavioral Standards: Daily morning practice of Baduanjin “Adjusting the Spleen and Stomach Requires Single Lifting”

3. Key to Emotional Regulation

• Anxiety Index: SAS score >50 points increases recurrence rate by 2.3 times
• Intervention Plan: Gancao Xiaomai Dazao Tang + Auricular Acupressure (Shenmen, Endocrine)

Summary:

Some patients think that taking Chinese medicine should work like a “1” line, effective immediately and continuously improving. But that’s an ideal scenario.

Only people with undamaged foundations, without significant deficiencies in the liver, spleen, and kidneys, can improve gradually like a “2” line when taking medicine, with minimal recurrence.

However, for most people with difficult and chronic diseases, recovery is like a “3” line, fluctuating up and down, often recurring, but overall, it will gradually improve.

This is the objective reality of disease recovery, so to cure a disease, both doctors and patients need to have enough patience and perseverance to take it seriously.

But this principle is not only hard for patients to understand; sometimes doctors can also fall into this trap.

Some patients show me prescriptions from previous doctors. I find that many Chinese medicine practitioners prescribe according to Western medicine’s diagnostic approach. For example, they prescribe many heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs for inflammation, and many blood-activating and pain-relieving herbs for pain.

This approach is not wrong, but it indeed abandons the core idea of Chinese medicine’s syndrome differentiation and treatment. In the pursuit of quick symptomatic relief, it may harm the root cause. At the same time, there is no timely follow-up with the patient, leading them to think they are cured when they feel better, completely ignoring follow-up visits and strict adherence to medical advice.

As a result, the condition worsens later, and in this cycle of recurrence, some patients, not knowing the reason, gradually suspect they have an incurable serious illness, even feeling hopeless.

This is very regrettable.

I wrote this article to affirm and encourage these patients, to strengthen their confidence in recovery, and not to be overly anxious and impatient.

Sometimes, when patients are anxious, it makes doctors anxious too, leading to prescriptions that are not well thought out, and the effect is even slower.

Sometimes, when I browse Douyin and see a doctor’s miraculous cure with a certain prescription, I believe these cases exist, but they are not necessarily common.

Because diagnosing and prescribing is not like solving a math problem where two minus one equals one.

If you have a good constitution, even severe diseases recover quickly.

If you have a poor constitution, even mild diseases recover slowly.

This is the common sense of the world.

So, returning to the previous article, if you usually pay attention to true health maintenance and protect your foundation, and also persist with one or two health maintenance exercises,

then you can also become someone who recovers quickly and stays healthy all the time.

Isn’t that wonderful?!