Medical Report and Video Interviews about the Treatment of ALS by Chinese Medicine in Huaihua Red Cross Hospital from Dr. Zhu Ming

(Revised on Feb. 22, 2009)

Hello, dear friend,

This is Dr. Zhu Ming, Vice President of Huaihua Red Cross Hospital, and the director of ALS Expert Team of this hospital. Our international department of traditional Chinese medicine focuses upon treating various chronic and difficult health problems. Even though our international service has only been in existence for three years, we had offered inpatient service to more than two hundred international patients from around the world. There is an obvious phenomenon that about one four of them suffer from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). This condition is included in the list of the World Top Six Most Difficult health problems. Western medicine has almost given up on treating such a difficult disease except for offering Rilutek tablet or operation of stem cell transplantation which are of no help to the root of the disease.

From the viewpoint of western medicine, the causes of ALS are unknown and might be infection, injury, immune factors, working environment, emotional problems, etc. The symptoms of ALS include loss and atrophy of muscles, weakness of the four limbs and body, muscle jumping (fasciculation), pains of the muscles or joints, stiff or flaccid legs, swallowing difficulty, tongue shrinking and inability to talk, much saliva in the mouth, difficulty of breathing, etc. The patient may lose the muscles and strength of the four limbs and body step by step. In common condition, during 3 to 5 years after that happens, gradually the patient can not walk, can not handle daily life, gets on the wheelchair and then dies of failure of the respiratory function or other severe weakness of the organs. What is worse that we have seen some cases that the patient survives only six months after the diagnosis is given.  

Our international TCM service team now has approximately sixty working staff, including medical professors, doctors, acupuncturists, translators, nurses, guards, office clerks, etc.

Frankly speaking, since our international service started from the end of 2005, in the first year, we had about ten ALS patients, most of them did not get improvement. However, our medical staff gathered precious experiences from the first year’s practice. We diligently work together to research into this most difficult health problem. Our team of ALS experts started to design a comprehensive treatment system for this problem in October, 2006, and we enrich and perfect this system incessantly during these three years. Our ALS team of experts and I came to the consent that from the viewpoints of Chinese medicine, ALS belongs to the categories of “dystrophy pattern (wei zheng), impediment pattern (bi zheng), or deficiency labor (xu lao) ” in Chinese medicine, there are following reasons to cause it, for example, attacking of external wind-cold-damp or wind-damp-heat, yin (fluids) deficiency and effulgent deficient fire, deficiency of the liver and kidneys, qi weakness of the spleen and lungs, lung heat to damage fluids, etc. Our team of experts also confirms that overworking, over-thinking, depression, too much sex, improper diet, vaccination, chemical toxin, etc., could cause this disease.

Therefore, based upon different individuals with different symptoms, corresponding treatment strategies are adopted, such as expelling external wind-cold-damp or wind-damp-heat, clearing damp heat, moistening yin fluids, lowering deficient fire, nourishing the liver and kidneys, strengthening qi of the spleen and lungs, fortifying spleen to transform phlegm, softening hardness to dissipate masses, eliminating wind to calm spasms, etc. The major treatment methods are drinking Chinese herbal tea, medical massage and acupuncture.

Even though these three treatment methods are different, the therapeutic strategy remains the same to make sure best cooperative role. Also it is important that since every ALS patient has different illness reasons, different features of cold, heat, deficiency and excess, different symptoms, therefore, for every patient, we will give different treatment strategies and different herbal prescriptions and acupuncture formulas so that the treatment is the most accurate and helpful. So, there are multiple treatment strategies and multiple herbs and acu-points to fit every patient, rather than a single chemical ingredient like Rilutek or half hour operation like stem cell transplantation to try to resolve such a big complex of various symptoms. This treatment way is called “syndrome identification and treatment determination” which is proved to be very scientific and efficient during thousands of years practice of TCM. When a patient stays here, we often adjust the formula every three or four days according to the response and progress of the patient.

From October 2006 to April 2007, our clinical statistics reveals that we had 14 patients from USA, Canada, Israel, Sweden, Algeria, Czech, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Yugoslavia, Portugal and China. Their ages range from 30 to 65 years old, their treatment periods range from one month to four months. The results indicated that 6 patients had very obvious improvement, 5 patients had some improvement, and 3 patients had no improvement.

With our treatment experiences for ALS became more and more mature and comprehensive. From April 2007 to December 2008, among 36 international ALS patients, 21 patients had very obvious improvement, 10 patients had some improvement, and only 5 patients had no improvement.

For example, Cidalia, a 61-year-old lady from Portugal who was diagnosed with ALS in October 2006, came to our hospital on March 2, 2007. She had more than 50 days of comprehensive treatment here. When she arrived, her grasping power of the left hand was 2.9 kilograms. She could not raise her left arm. She could only walk 500 meters with crippling gait of the left leg, some problems with swallowing and speaking ability. After more than 50 days treatment, her grasping power of the left hand increased to 11.6 kilograms. She could raise her left arm. She could walk 5 kilometers. The walking gait became almost normal and the crippling disappeared. The difficulty in swallowing and speaking is gone. This is an email from the daughter of  Cidalia and the video interview (1) with her daughter CiCi, please check here.

Felix, a 27-year-old male whose nationality is America, suffers from ALS. When he just came to Huaihua Red Cross Hospital on October 14, 2007, the muscles of the whole body were stiff. Weakness of four limbs lasted for two years, especially the left lower limb. It was difficult for him to speak. After receiving TCM treatment for more than two months, the hands and feet are more flexible. Four limbs have more power, so they work better than before. He can do the action of crouching now. His speech is clearer than before. This is the video interview, please check here. 

Peter, from Holland, suffering from ALS, stayed in our hospital for five months till April, 2008. His voice and swallowing ability are improved a lot. The ability of the legs and arms is stabilized. He was quite satisfied with our treatment result. This is the video interview, please check here.

Based upon our experience, we have some ideas to share with you regarding the treatment of ALS.

A. For the treatment of ALS, the earlier the treatment is done, the better the treatment result will be. That means we could offer good treatment result for the early and middle stage ALS patients, while for the late stage ALS patients, the treatment result is always not good.

B. The TCM historical records and our treatment experience confirm our ideas that the normal full treatment course for ALS should be 6 months to 12 months, since in many ancient TCM books, there are quite a lot ALS-similar case reports with full recovery after six months to twelve months treatment. The full treatment period will guarantee a much better even full recovery.

C. For the better recovery, we recommend you stay at our hospital for at least two to three months after the evaluation of our expert team about your case before your coming, while three to six months is a better choice if your financial ability and time schedule allow, (even though there were some patients who stayed here for only one month or so, after they got some improvement and then took home a few months of herbal tea to continue the treatment because of finance or time schedule limitation.)

D. The most encouraging fact is that during the first month of 2009, we are really surprised to see most ALS patients made fast and unexpected improvement here. Therefore, here we are very serious to advice that for the early and middle stage ALS patients, please come to our hospital right now, we will give you a very satisfactory treatment result here.

E. Another point of notice of coming here for hospitalization is the visa issue. Commonly, before you come, we will email you a scanned invitation letter so you can try to get a three month or six month visa. Please apply for an L type visa, this is the only type of visa that we can help you extend. If you get only a one month visa, or F type visa, or multiple entrance one month visa, all these kinds of visas will not guarantee visa extension here, so there will be many problems for your treatment. Therefore, we strongly suggest you get a three months or six months L type visa in the Chinese embassy from your country before you come.

Generally speaking, to tackle such a difficult health problem in the world, joint efforts between you and our faithful working staff are needed. It is our special honor that we are pushed forward to become the most reliable and confident medical team to fight against ALS in the current world for the early and middle stage ALS patients. We are proud of great TCM from the bottom of our hearts when we see patients recovered day by day! It is our responsibility to do a better job for the health recovery of ALS patients throughout the world. Thank you for taking the time to read my ALS report and thanks for your trust and cooperation.

Best wishes!

Dr. Zhu Ming

Vice President of Huaihua Red Cross Hospital

More ALS cases that we helped well:

Case-1  Case-2  Case-3  Case-4  Case-5  Case-6  Case-7  Case-8  Case-9

Case-10  Case-11   Case-12  Case-13  Case-14