Understanding and Managing Microbial Resistance: A Chinese medicine perspective

 In recent years we are seeing a sharp increase in pathogens that do not respond to pharmaceutical treatment. Conditions such as reproductive infections that were once relatively easy to treat are becoming resistant to all known pharmaceuticals and even to herbal medicines.  

Historically Chinese medicine has presented a sophisticated description of pathogens and their interactions with the body, yet a solid understanding of the presented concepts was confusing and often elusive.    

In this lecture, Brandon Horn reviews the  Chinese medicine concepts of latent pathogens and how these pathogens are able to evade both the body’s defenses and treatments; leading to chronic degenerative diseases and infertility. He will further review relatively new concepts in microbiology* that explain the Chinese medicine descriptions of microbial pathogenesis. This information provides highly useful insights into traditional formula composition as well as ways in which we can modify and improve upon traditional formulations to address evolved pathogens.  

Part I reviews the concept of latent pathogens from both a Chinese medicine and microbiological perspective: discussing the pathogenesis of latency and the role of microbial phenotypes.  

Part II introduces biofilms and discusses how we can understand and approach the various stages of development and destruction of biofilms within a Chinese medicine paradigm.  

Part III introduces the various ways in which organisms have evolved to resist antimicrobials (both pharmaceuticals and botanical medicines) and how we can use Chinese medicine to counteract this resistance.  

* Please note, most of the microbiology slides were peer-reviewed by clinical microbiologist Dr. Susan Wu, PhD. The presentation is also well cited. ** Also note, the focus of this lecture is microbial resistance. It is extremely important in the treatment of infertility, but the discussion is primarily geared toward understanding and blocking the mechanisms microbes have of resisting treatment. It is not a catalogue of reproductive infections and the treatment of each one. These are constantly changing and this lecture should give you tools to work on any resistant organisms.