I write these words with a heavy heart.

Being a Chinese medicine practitioner in the heart of NYC working during the worst pandemic in a century is not something I had ever hoped to be. But here we are.

Can Chinese herbs help with the corona virus?

The answer is both yes and no.

The one sure thing that will protect you from the virus is a good immune system which is impacted by genetics, chromosomes, diet, lifestyle, geography, and pre-exisiting conditions. COVID-19 is a virus that our collective immune systems have never seen before. Some people will do better than others. That’s what makes this so unfair and frustrating. The knowledge is ahead of the technology here; we know what the virus looks like, we know what it does, we just can't figure out how to stop it quickly enough before it wreaks havoc.

Herbs won’t get you out of COVID-19. But they may help you get through it.

You need to breath, even when it hurts.

I know, I know, I know - it will feel like you’re breathing through silly putty. With COVID, the air sacs in your lungs will start to fill with fluid and phlegm which inhibits oxygen getting to the blood. It will feel like an anvil was dropped on your chest, you’re going to feel fatigue all the way to your bones due to the lack of oxygen, the muscles between your lungs are going to tighten, and it’s going to hurt like hell.

But you need to move the muscles around the lungs to open the chest so that you can clear some of the fluid build up. You need to do anything and everything to get air.

Below are two Qi Gong videos specifically to help with the respiratory system. Often when we don’t want to do something is when we need it most. You can do these either prophylactically to help keep the lungs strong or start these exercises at the first sign of symptoms.

Breathe Easy Qi Gong is easy to follow and designed support both the lungs and the heart. These two organs work in tandem to deliver the oxygen-rich blood to the entire body. You can choose to do it with slower breathing if you have more time.

Note that coughing will help clear extra mucus from your airways, so it’s a great sign if air starts moving enough to cough. If you feel like it’s too much, rest and try again.

Master Teresa Yeung is an internationally recognized Master of Chi Gong, speaker, healer and three times #1 international bestselling award winning author who speaks on how find our happiness through the practicing Chi Gong. She is the founder of Pureland International Qi Gong, a certified private institution. She is successor of Grandmaster Wu’s lineage, educator and creator of the highly successful Wu’s Eye Qi Gong helped millions of people.

Peter Deadman has lectured internationally on Chinese medicine for the last thirty years and has practiced Qi Gong for the last seventeen.

In view of the lung-targeting coronavirus, Peter made this 20-minute video of three Qi Gong practices to help strengthen the lung. In includes (a) deep, slow, lower abdominal breathing; (2) two qigong movements to benefit the lung, and (3) slapping / massaging the lung channel/meridian in the arms and chest the chest.