In this video, I’ll discuss the symptoms of long Covid and talk about the top 12 acupuncture points & points combo, including ST 36, that can help in providing relief to patients suffering from long Covid.

Are you looking to make a real difference in the lives of those suffering from long Covid? Well, I have a study based acupuncture solution that can provide relief and improve the quality of life for your patients!

As acupuncturists, we have the potential to make a meaningful difference in the lives of long COVID patients. By understanding the condition, collaborating with other healthcare professionals, and applying TCM principles, we can offer valuable support and relief.

Be sure to take notes, as you watch this video, it will sure be a game changer for your patients!
Keep rocking using TCM,
Clara
TCM Geek

PS: If you want more, watch this video on the 15 top acupuncture points to Clear Heat, and make sure you have these 5 Tools Every Acupuncturist Should Have to elevate your practice. And if you haven’t invested in my book AcuPoints Made Easy, get your copy here! 🙏

Top 12 Acupuncture Points for Long Covid Relief 

Study on Acupuncture for Long Covid Symptoms

Share this study on your social media or website so potential patients suffering from these symptoms, know they are able to find some relief: https://www.evidencebasedacupuncture.org/eba-forum-acupuncture-long-covid/


Symptoms of Long Covid and its impact on people’s lives

Long COVID, refers to a condition where individuals continue to experience symptoms long after recovering from the acute phase of COVID-19. These symptoms can range from:

Chinese medicine view

Making a TCM diagnosis is always preferable to get a better outcome with each patient.

It’s important to remember that acupuncture should complement other medical treatments. Collaboration with other healthcare providers is key when dealing with long COVID patients. Effective communication and teamwork between acupuncturists, doctors, and specialists can lead to better patient outcomes.

The cause of Covid 19 is external pathogen invasion, mostly due to Wind-heat at the beginning of the acute stage. But when patients experience long-standing symptoms, we now have a chronic TCM pattern. Pathogen invasion can lead to Qi deficiency (SP, LU, but also HT & KD), Yin deficiency, Blood Stasis, and/or Phlegm.

Stomach 36 is the BEST acupuncture point for fatigue & supporting the immune system

Stomach 36 acupuncture point


Lung 7 is the BEST acupuncture point to protect the Lung for shortness of breath

Lung 7 acupuncture point

The 12 Best Acupuncture for LONG COVID Relief Video Transcript

Are you looking to make a real difference in the lives of those suffering from Long COVID symptoms? Well, I’ve got a study-based acupuncture solution that can provide relief and improve the lives of those suffering from long COVID.

I’ve been asked for weeks now and probably months, “Clara what do I do with my patients when they come in and they have long COVID symptoms residues?”

Today is your lucky day because we’re finally going to dive into it. I’m going to discuss the Long COVID symptoms, what are they, and how we can help our patients.

Using 12 acupuncture points, the top five plus seven that we can combine with the top five in order to get relief for those common long COVID symptoms.

Welcome back to my channel. If it’s your first time here I’m Clara from AcuPro Academy, and I create Chinese medicine and acupuncture content for students and practitioners making it easy to grasp and fun to learn. Let’s do this!

What happens when the body encounters a virus

One of the things we have to do before we start discussing how to treat, is figure out what exactly happened in the TCM perspective when someone was affected by the virus.

In general, a reminder is we have the Wei Qi the defensive Qi or our immune system in Chinese medicine and we have pathogens. Those two are going to battle it out. The pathogens have to have a strength and the immune system has to have strength.

Which one is stronger will win the battle.

When people contract COVID, if their immune system was very strong, very powerful, they experienced some symptoms. Some people not many symptoms and recovered quickly. Other people, obviously their immune system was not very strong and the symptoms lasted a long time. They were very powerful and obviously, as we know for some people, it led to losing their lives.

Now what happens later on for those people that experience Long COVID?

Well, the pathogen penetrated through the body and went through different layers and different levels. In Chinese medicine we have the six stages and the four levels. I think with covid because it was so much heat. It was wind and heat–that penetrated in the body because it was mostly a lot of fever with this virus. So it was more going through levels.

The Four Levels in Chinese Medicine

The four levels in Chinese medicine start with the Wei Qi, the defensive Qi. Then it can go to the next level which is the Qi level and this is why people that have Long COVID will probably end up with Lung Qi deficiency, Spleen, Kidney and Heart qi deficiency. As well depending on their age, their lifestyle, the amount of stress and all the other factors that can affect patients.

Now what happen is after the Qi level? The next level is going to be the Ying level, which is the nutritive level.

The next one after that is the Blood level.

Now when it gets deeper and deeper and deeper we get more symptoms and it becomes harder to expel to push the pathogen out of the body, right?

Yin Deficiency

For patients when that’s going to happen we’re going to have not only Qi deficiency, but for some people Yin deficiency. Because at the nutritive level the heat is going to start drying the fluid. Our Yin, the body cooling system cannot fight it for too long and eventually we become Yin deficient. Which means our cooling system is not able to perform anymore. So that’s going to happen for a lot of patients.

Blood Stasis & Phlegm

Two other patterns that may show up is blood stasis and phlegm as well for a lot of patients.

Now those are the most common pattern we’re going to see, but no matter what we always have to make a TCM diagnosis for each of the patient that come through our door.

The points I’m going to discuss today are really good to help our patients; however, always adapt and make sure the protocol is specific and unique to that patient.

Long COVID Symptoms

What are those symptoms that long covid patients experience? They range from fatigue, insomnia, chest pain, joint pain, palpitations. Anxiety, depression, fatigue, brain fog, loss of memory, and the one that we obviously have heard so many times is the loss of sense of smell or sense of taste. Those are the commons one we see in clinical practice, but they’re not exclusive.

Women have experienced a lot of reproductive system issues as well.

Best STUDIED Acupuncture points for Long COVID

Now, let’s talk about the best acupuncture points based on a study. Check it out and share with your patients and are really useful to make a difference in the lives of our patients. By the way, if you haven’t checked out evidencebasedacupuncture.org this is powered by acupuncturists. It’s a fabulous website where you and I can share all those studies with patients, and show the world that yes acupuncture is evidence based.

The Top 5 acupuncture points

We’re going to start with the top five acupuncture points. Then we’re going to add up seven more to combine with those top five, in order to get the relief that we need for our patients and long covid symptoms

Stomach 36

Number one you knew it, obviously: Stomach 36. Located 3 cun below Stomach 35, on the lateral side of the knee. It is one finger breath from the shin or the tibia crest.

Now stomach 36 is probably one of the most common acupuncture point used in clinical practice, because it is the commander point of the immune system and the digestive system. So of course we have to use Stomach 36 to boost the immune system.

However Stomach 36 is also the only point that tonify qi and blood together so this is very useful for Qi and Blood deficiency patients. This is why when there is a lot of fatigue we have to use Stomach 36 because it’ll boost the Qi.

How to combine Stomach 36

Now to combine with Stomach 36, we’re gonna have to add up DU 20 to lift the energy, REN 6 to lift more energy and Spleen 6. This is a great combo: Stomach 36, Spleen 6, REN 6 and DU 20. Lots of sixes. Best combo when there is fatigue.

Lung 7

Number two: Lung 7. We knew that was going to come. Lung 7 is located behind or superior to the styloid process of the radius on the wrist area. One and a half cun above Large Intestine 5, Lung 7 is a perfect point to combine with stomach 36 to boost the immune system. It also helps with chest pain, coughing, and shortness of breath.

How to combine Lung 7

It’s the perfect point to combine with REN 17. REN 17 is in the chest and opens the chest to relax the chest for palpitation, for chest pain, for coughing.

Spleen 6

Number three: Spleen 6. Spleen 6 because it is the crossing point of the Liver, Kidney and Spleen. It’s really good for digestive system issues, reproductive system issues and mental health. Using spleen 6 specifically for the anxiety, the insomnia, and for regulating hormones because many women who contracted covid-19 have had residues of issues with the menstruation cycle.

How to combine Spleen 6

This is a really good point to combine Spleen 6 specifically with Spleen 4, Pericardium 6, Lung 6 and Kidney 6. Really great to rebalance hormones. That’s a perfect combo. Those Five Points Spleen 6, Lung 7 and Kidney 6, Spleen 4 and PC 6 or Pericardium 6.

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Large Intestine 4

Number four: Large Intestine 4. The commander point of the face and the best point to relieve pain. So for joint pain, for chest pain, for headaches, this is the point. We have to really utilize for our patients who are suffering from Long COVD because I’ve seen headaches as a really long lasting issue for patients with Long COVID symptoms.

How to combine Large Intestine 4

LI 4 is great also to be combined with Lung 6 and Stomach 36 to make sure that we keep the pathogens, external pathogen out of the body so we don’t get sick again. So it really helps with the immune system as well.

Heart 7

Number five: Heart 7. A lot of long covid patients have insomnia, anxiety, palpitations and this is the best point to add to your protocol in order to calm the mind. Also, it’s really good for poor memory which a lot of patients with Long COVID symptoms are experiencing as well.

The 7 Extra points to combine with the top 5 points

First Study

Now let’s combine those five top points with seven more in order to get a little bit more specific when it comes to fatigue. According to three studies, Stomach 36, Spleen 6 and Large Intestine 10 are the best combo. Personally, I would add DU 20 and REN 6 to that when it comes to coagulation issues like blood clots.

Large intestine 4 and Liver 3: the four gates open the the flow. We have to do those plus Spleen 10. This is the best combo.

Second Study

According to another study when it comes to brain fog, Stomach 40 is probably the best point. We want to combine it with Stomach 36, Spleen 6 because usually this all fatigue. As well DU 20 to be able to lift that energy and clear the mind. I would add up Yin Tang because there’s a lot of stress for the patients that are experiencing Long COVID. They feel like it’s never going to go away. That’s a great combo.

Large Intestine 4, Liver 3, Gallbladder 34. I would also look at where the headache is located and allow myself to pick this two points that are going to affect the area. Temple headache we want to use Gallbladder 40, but if it was frontal headache: Stomach 44. If it’s occipital Bladder 60, right?

We want to see where the headaches are and we want to combine the right point.

Third Study

According to another study, when patients experience elevated liver enzymes. The best points that were really useful in lowering those liver enzymes: Large Intestine 4, Liver 3, Gallbladder 34 and REN 12. Best combo according to a study to decrease the elevated liver enzymes.

When it comes to inflammation, the best combo again according to a study is: Large Intestine 4 and Large Intestine 11. Why? Because Large Intestine 11 clears heat. So it’s great for inflammation and Stomach 36 that is the best combo.

As you can see, there’s a lot we can do for patients suffering from Long COVID.

The top five we have to do are: Stomach 36, Lung 7, Spleen 6, Large Intestine 4 and Heart 7. Then we can add up other points combining with those in order to get a great outcome for patients. No matter what it’s really important to make a TCM diagnosis and to collaborate with other practitioners in order to help patients.

I truly hope this information makes a true difference in the lives of your patients; and no matter what keep rocking it using TCM!