TCM Treatment Evaluation for Hepatitis B
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a rich history in treating chronic hepatitis, which can be traced back to thousands of years ago. Studies have shown that herbal formulas can strengthen the immune system, reduce viral loads, prevent chronic viral hepatitis from developing into even more serious conditions, like fibrosis, cirrhosis, or cancer, and protect liver from further degeneration. In a summary of Chinese language publications, (1) it was reported that an open trial of 2,000 hepatitis (B or C) patients using various TCM methods showed improvement of symptoms in 83% and normalization of serum ALT in 82%. In a controlled study of 107 patients with hepatitis-B related diseases, before and after liver biopsies showed that the fibrosis reversal rate following 6 months treatment with Compound 861 (a formula of ten herbs including salvia as a main ingredient) was 78% in stage 2, 82% in stage 3 (precirrhotic stage) and
75% in Stage 4 (early cirrhosis).

Patients with hepatitis B or hepatitis C usually approach practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine with the hope of finding an alternative to the standard medical treatments. In addition, they usually hope to cure the disease. Anecdotal reports from one of the largest Western medicine hepatology practices in San Francisco suggest that at least 20-30% of patients report use of Chinese herbal medicine for hepatitis. (2) Also, Ninety percent of chronic hepatitis sufferers in Japan are taking herbal preparation, some 1.5 million people.

Just like mosquitoes, instead of making water stop flowing, only find themselves a  smooth surface of water to stay, bacteria only try to find a place suits them to grow - some morbid tissue, rather than cause such a place, though they could make this place worse. It is the same with virus. Conventional medicine solely focuses on eradicating virus itself, ignorant of the fact that it is a complicated problem affects different systems. On the contrary, Chinese herbal medicine does not kill virus directly, in stead, it treats our body as a whole. It aims on adjusting inner system, boosting immunity, making inside an unsuitable for virus to exist.