(This is a continuation of a series where I chronicle my most recent experience using Chinese herbs for lymphedema. Please view the previous blog here.)
Due to travel, I had to stop taking the chinese herbs for awhile. Since you have to take a pretty large quantity, one downside is that they are not that portable. And if you’re travelling internationally, taking a bunch of powdered herbs might not be that fun if you get questions from customs officers! (Yikes!) So I stopped after taking them for about six weeks.
Now, almost two months after stopping the herbs, I have great news….my legs have not only maintained, but the swelling has continued to lessen. It is barely noticeable.   This is much less than I had three months ago.
According to the current Chinese medicine doctor I am working with, the herbs help get your body started on healing, but then your body continues. In this case, I believe it!
The only thing I’m doing now is staying active, mostly a lot of walking, including walking in the hills. Then some yoga every few days (I’m travelling so it’s a bit tough).   I use a fitbit to measure my activity so that means at least 10,000 steps most days and over 50 floors each day too.
No compression stockings, except when I get on a plane.
I continue to eat well, which for me means a primarily vegan, plant-based diet.
What is clear to me is that this whole lymphedema issue, especially primary lymphedema, is not well understood by the western medical community. It appears very clear to me that these herbs can produce long term changes. That’s good news for those of us dealing with it as this is a safe and inexpensive option to try.
Anyway, I will be getting back to the Chinese herbs for lymphedema in a couple months when I am back home.  My goal will be to see if I can get rid of it completely. Possible, maybe not, but I don’t see a downside in trying.
In the meantime I’m thrilled that the changes brought about by a short course of herbs are sticking and even improving. (Just a note, this is my second time using Chinese herbs for lymphedema. The first time I took them for a much longer time, but the results lasted for over two years.)
Do you have experience using Chinese herbs for lymphedema?  Let us know! The more experiences we can share with each other, the better informed we are.
Hi
Thanks for your encouragement and hope.
Apart from Ginger and siberian ginseng what other herbs would you recommend? I have had it for about 5 years… The doctors are very negative but I always believe in hope and alternative help… Cutting out dairy and animal fats as best as possible has helped me a bit.. Also drinking lots of raw ginger and lemon in hot water seems to have an effect on minimizing overall body swelling… If I don’t drink this for a few days I can feel and see the difference.
Kindest
Claire
Hi Claire,
Thanks for reading. I always found that taking individual herbs didn’t really do anything noticeable for me, but glad you see some results from the ginger! That’s great and that’s good that you’ve also gotten relief from moving more plant-based. The key to getting significant relief, I believe, is using a trained chinese medicine doctor who will give you a custom mixture of herbs in sufficient quantities so that it can make a long-lasting difference. Please see my blog about this. If its of interest, I would highly recommend you give that a try and see if it helps you minimize the swelling altogether. As far as your doctors being negative, most Western doctors have no experience with natural treatments; it’s not part of their training. Slowly it seems more are getting exposure to Eastern medicine and nutritional approaches but it’s certainly far from mainstream. Best of luck!
Great information, I would love to have seen photos in any of your posts! I have primary lymphodema and just am recovering from bypass surgery with some results but wanting to do everything I possibly can.
Hi Teri,
Thanks for reading and commenting. I’m not a public type person so I prefer not to share photos, but hope you find this helpful regardless. Would love to hear about any experience you have with any of this if you try it.
Hello,
I wanted to write to extend my deepest thanks. I was diagnosed with primary lymphedema in my lower left leg 8 years ago when it randomly began to swell. I was told by the medical community that I just needed to live with it, given some compressions stockings and sent on my way. I have tried everything I could find – had a lymph-bypass surgery, which was only able to do one connection instead of the three that were planned. I did Class 4 laser treatment, which helped, but was time-consuming and did not offer any lasting results, I tried taking herbs and supplements. I have a flexitouch pump. Every few months, I search online for a cure to lymphedema and that’s how I ended up on this blog a few weeks ago.
At this point in my life, I was willing to experiment to try to solve this condition. It is true that I was skeptical about this working, when I found a provider, I was surprised at how he looked at this as an easily correctable condition – one that would take time, but correctable nonetheless. I listened to him talk about qi and the way in which my body was out of balance. I continued to be skeptical. The things he was saying just went against so many things I know. “What do you mean that my body type doesn’t need 8 cups of water or more a day? What are you talking about that I shouldn’t be eating kale right now?” I had acupuncture, red light therapy, and he gave me about a month’s worth of premixed herb pouches to drink in the morning and at night. I got there two times a week.
After approximately one week of taking the herbs, there is a noticeable change in my leg. Before I started treatment with him, I stopped everything else I was doing, so that I could really assess – stopped the pump, stopped the laser, stopped taking my own supplements. Still, my leg is appearing BETTER than it was when I was doing those things. Reading this blog, I never expected to see results that fast. Additionally, it’s now hot outside when swelling is the worst!
He has also recommended drastic diet changes, which will be very different and difficult for me. However, I am working quickly to follow his instructions because I want this part of my life back. I am so thankful for this blog. I am elated and equally devastated that I lived with this condition for 8 years only to discover that someone (whose practices western medicine completely rejects) had the answer all along.
Hi Kim,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! That’s a fast response…sounds like you hit the jackpot on finding a great TCM doc. I hope that means you’ll get great results as you do this longer. I’m curious about the diet changes the TCM person is recommending. I just eat a clean, vegan diet with a lot of green veggies, but maybe I can be doing more? That is very intriguing. Yes, western medicine is frustrating. It seems that not much is really known about how all of the systems of the body interact, but you wish they would just admit that. What I do like about TCM is that it is truly about restoring health, not treating symptoms, although I find it frustrating at times since it is so abstract and communication can sometimes be a problem. Regardless, very happy to hear of your progress and hope you will share how it goes as you continue!
Hello,
I read about your experience with the Chinese herbs, where you stopped taking them for awhile and the effects lasted. How do you know its not the vegetarian diet that is keeping the swelling down? My right leg started swelling about 20 years ago, and the swelling has spread throughout my body. I am starting to wonder if I really have Lymphedema or if its something else. Most people seem to have problems with a leg or an arm.
Thanks.
Hi Anne, thanks for reading. Of course I cannot be 100% sure, but when my lymphedema started accelerating, which happened after a long flight, just doing vegan/plant based didn’t stop it, it continued and was very difficult to control. I even started trying other “subsets” of vegan diets….like doing vegan /plant based but also taking out all potentially allergic foods (like an elimination diet). I did that for 30 days and it did help just a bit but the swelling returned the same day I started eating normally (as a vegan) again. But the chinese herbs, after doing them for awhile did make the swelling drop and stay minimal. But the good news about chinese medicine is that they will treat whatever you have, even if its not strict “lymphedema”. That’s one thing I love about chinese medicine, the goal is just to get the body back into balance to eliminate any disorder. Really unique and very interesting. Give it a try! If you do please come back and post whatever results you get so we can continue collectively comparing notes.
Hi Anne! I saw your comment about your lymphedema and your story sounds eerily similar to my own (my oldest sister has lymphedema and her name is Anne also!) I’ve suffered from lymphedema now for just over 20 years and only in the past year or 2 has it begun to get progressively worse. It started out around my kneecap down to my foot on my left leg, then started in my right lower leg, then swelling in my left leg began progressing upwards to mid-thigh last year and I started getting a patch of the “grapefruit skin” on my lower left leg as well as weeping open sores which started about 6 months ago. I believe my swelling has moved into my abdomen now also. At one point I thought there was some other underlying issue causing the swelling but doctors here in North America seem not to care to learn anything new that may better help their patients so I’ve given up on them altogether. My focus now is finding anything that will remedy this issue and restore my quality of life independent of modern western medicine/science which I feel tries to make you worse rather than better.
Thank you so much, Jeanne, for this website and for encouraging those of us with lymphedema to keep searching for ways to overcome it. Your story has prompted me to schedule my first TCM visit and I’m very hopeful that treatment will be successful. So many other treatments (MLD, compression garments, sequential pumps, supplements, rebounding, laser, whole body vibration) have helped, but I’m looking for more — to minimize or eliminate the swelling. My lymphedema started in my arm after a mastectomy, then moved into trunk and legs following abdominal surgeries. I’m grateful to western medicine for what it has been able to do – reverse the swelling in my arm – and hopeful that TCM can do the same for the rest of my body.
Hi Mary, thanks for reading and commenting! I’m excited you are going to try it. I HAD to share it as TCM is the only thing that I felt gave me my old life back. Otherwise I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle with a giant to do list that was overwhelming my life! Please come back and post your experience with it, good or bad, so we can add to our knowledge here. And please remember to give it time. It took me four long months of chinese herbs to see ANY movement, then it started dropping significantly from there. I have my fingers crossed for you!!!!!
Hi , i m living in Delhi (India) i want to try these Chinese herbs for lymphedema cause by filariasis…. please post address of trained Chinese doctor near me
Hello Shashi, we have an article on this site that walks through suggestions to find someone near you. Unfortunately I don’t know of anyone in that area, but this should help you: https://fightlymphedema.com/how-to-get-chinese-herbs-to-treat-lymphedema/. Good luck!!!! And please come back and post your results, good or bad, so we can all add to our knowledge base here.
Hi Jeanne,wow this site feels like a light at the end of a long tunnel
My first week of chinese herbs ends tomorrow! I am excited to see what happens as the weeks progress.
Nothing else has made the slightest but of difference so far,but I have a v optimistic feeling about this latest effort to reduce my very swollen legs.
I love the TCM idea of getting the body into balance then it will heal itself X
Hi Stella,
Thanks for reading! I’m very happy you’re trying it too! Please come back and let us know your progress…good or bad, the more we all share our experience, the more we can learn about this process and what to expect.
Hi Jeanne,
Thank you for making this beautiful website and thank you for sharing your experiences. It helps us all.
I have a swollen leg for the past 17 years.
It took me about 12 years to realize i could actually do something to improve my condition.
My left leg was pretty swollen. The doctors didnt really have an answer… sounds familiar i guess to a lot of people.
Manual lymphdrainage took out a big part of the initial swelling. But after that they just recommended me a pressure sock.
But after walking around with the pressure sock for all the time after that i realized that the sock was not improving my condition. The back of my knees looked almost black, the sock was blocking the circulation in my case. So one day i decided to leave it of. And that is till today the case.
And my leg only improved. I also tried many different things. There are many things that helped me, like streching with yoga, clean diet, chinese herbs… But recently i have been going to a Qi gong master for accupuncture and he was able to take a lot of locked pain inside the leg out. Also because of this treatments i havent had an outbreak of fever for the past 1.5 years where it used to be every 6 months or so.
The leg is still more swollen than the other but so much more free than it felt ever before. I just felt that i needed to share my story after reading yours. So yes i also believe the chinese medicine has a better understanding of how it can be managed or treated.
Hi Cedric,
Thanks for reading and commenting. That’s really interesting about the qi gong approach to acupuncture. I will try to learn more about that. That’s also interesting about the compression stocking. I always wondered if those could make our bodies get dependent or lazy….hmmm. There are dermatologists who say that wearing moisturizer on your skin makes it get lazy and stop producing oil, maybe it could work the same way? Obviously we need to be extremely careful with that but once its under control maybe it’s best not to wear them constantly? But obviously we need to be careful with that as compression can be key with stopping things from progressing. If anyone else has any input on these things I’d love to hear it. Really interesting stuff!
Jeanne,
I have to thank you as well for creating this website, sharing your experiences and working diligently to get more information about lymphedema, using Chinese medicine and general information. I started using herbs in late August and have found it to be extremely helpful. Though I have ups/downs…for no reason I can determine sometimes. I’ll go days hardly wearing stockings except to work (I’m a chef) and then just when I think there’s been a huge break through some unexpected swelling occurs. I do acupuncture (about every 3 weeks now) and do find it to be really useful as I was having so much numbness/heaviness especially at night. It affects my right leg and after using Chinese medicine basically just from the calf down but mostly ankle. I’m holding out hope that with more time the swelling will lessen even more. Here are a few questions:
How much do you think caffeine/alcohol play a role? I pretty much gave up alcohol except for the occasional 1/2 drink…but I love my tea/coffee so most days I have 1-2 cups of tea or 1 of coffee.
I was surprised to hear how much walking helps you! I LOVE to walk. I’m a big cyclist and used to jog but gave that up b/c it made the swelling worse even with compression socks. I’d love to walk more but I’m nervous about it. I’m lean and a life long athlete so getting exercise isn’t a problem I’m just trying to find the right type/amount.
Food- I’d love to know what your diet was like before you went to mostly plant based. I eat very well save for the fact that I love sweets…I think by most American standards I don’t even eat too many of those lol. I don’t plan to go vegetarian but I will try anything of course.
I could go on but I’ll leave it at that for now! I have to apologize for asking questions when filling out my contact form before doing so here. Thank you for your help. I love reading everyone else’s comments too!
Hi Ashley, thanks for reading and sharing what is working for you! That is great to hear. I also find comparing notes really helpful too.
Let’s see if I can tell you some of my experience in response to your questions….as far as coffee/tea, I drink a ton of tea (mostly green but also herbal) and I don’t think it bothers my legs at all. Not sure about coffee though, I switched to green tea since it has more antioxidants but I know that coffee has antioxidants too. I also drink wine most days and don’t notice any bad response. Thankfully :). Giving up caffeine and alcohol would be a very very high price!. But from responses I’ve got, I know many of us are having the most luck controlling it with a plant-based diet. I’m about 99% vegan but wondering maybe even shifting to a bigger percent of plant foods might help? Like moving from eating a few plant based meals per week to eating one or two per day and see if it helps? Fortunately its getting easier.
Watch The Game Changers documentary on Netflix if you want some motivation. Alot of high profile athletes are switching to vegan these days.
Back to the legs, one thing that I believe (but can’t really know) has helped me is increasing the # of veggies I eat every day. I eat a ton of green veggies because I’ve read that they can actually help repair DNA damage. Figured it can’t hurt when are dealing with compromised lymphatic systems. So maybe try to just up the amount of healthy stuff and see if it helps? I just had to get in the habit and my husband is an awesome cook and eats the same way so we put kale/spinach/cabbage/broccoli and other veggies in most things we cook. If you’re a chef you’re the ideal person to switch or move toward plant based.
The other thing for me is activity. I’m sorry you had to give up workouts you love, but maybe you can get back to them later? I had problems initially with other more intense exercise like mountain biking and harder hikes, my legs would swell more which was scary, but now its not a problem anymore, but I do notice that alot of daily activity along with a workout helps. I even had issues a long time ago with yoga, my legs would swell so I had to cut it out. Fortunately that’s all gone. But I do now default to walking alot….for me its really important that I don’t sit too long or my legs will swell. I used to think walking was kind of a joke activity but I’ve gained alot of respect for it, from what I’ve read it helps your whole body with lymphatic flow. In fact, my legs swell less if I just split up and walk like three times per day. Even a few minute walk seems to really help. Rebounder too. I put that in front of the tv and do ten minutes at a time, pretty painless.
One thing that my legs don’t like it sitting at a desk. I notice that if I sit at a desk alot I will get some transient swelling…so alot of times I’ll work on the couch or something, but I know not everyone has portable work. I’m glad your work doesn’t involve sitting (I’m guessing) although maybe standing alot may stress things too. But from what I’ve learned we all need to keep moving because the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump and depends upon our activity to keep it moving.
Not sure if this is helpful, and probably not a particularly organized response, sorry! One last thing…my legs did start swelling again about six weeks ago. Not alot, but enough to scare me as the swelling was there in the morning and now I usually just get swelling that reverses itself overnight. But I went back on the herbs for about a month and tried to walk more and now it is back down again. This has happened a few times. I can’t find a cause for it, but maybe it is something we have to expect. I’m just very relieved it goes down each time. I have that on my list to write an update about that, just haven’t gotten to it yet.
I also have been thinking about that comment from Dr. Lee about not taking herbs continuously. My previous provider was the opposite but maybe as long as they vary the formulas it doesn’t matter? I took the herbs for a year and a half initially and when I did a liver test (fibroscan) it came back fine so thankfully there were no issues with that. So not sure….maybe I’ll Dr Lee if he can expand on that a bit. Ah….with this stuff, we always seem to get as many questions as answers. 🙂 But fortunately this helps to share what is working , or not, for each of us.
Good luck and please post any additional comments or questions as well as progress!
Jeanne,
Thank you! Love all you had to say, it really helps hearing your experience! Honestly as much as I hate it for you it does make me feel better to know that sometimes the swelling crops back up for you with no good explanation and that going back on the herbs works. I saw my doctor this week and we had a great discussion. I’m not taking any now but we’ll regroup in January and see how things are going. My swelling is so much less than it was 6 months ago I can’t even believe it. While I know the herbs and acupuncture are working wonders, I also think lifestyle changes and overall becoming less stressed/getting more sleep are big contributors. I always thought I was generally healthy but I’m taking care of myself better than I have in a long time which seems to be key.
Love what you said about walking and even if I’m just running around doing errands and general activities my leg seems to do much better than walking or standing while cooking all day. I think doing spurts rather than an extended walk is something to try again. Cycling and rowing seem to be great so I have that.
I don’t know about going vegan but I do eat a ton of veggies. We will see where all of this goes. Thank you again for your research and support. I’ll be checking in and hope to hear more from Dr. Lee when you get the info!