Skin Infection Cured Using Acu Moxa, Notoginseng, & Pulsing Blue Light

7/22/202419 min read

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Recently I got what I think was bacterial folliculitis on one of my thighs. This vlog deals with the symptoms, how I treated it, the research explaining how the treatments work, and other details.

Let’s start with the cause - it’s purely speculation, but two days prior I had done some unusual things that might have contributed - I had biked 15 miles that day, sweating like mad in 90 degree weather, slathered in sunscreen, and then stood around for a good 6 hours in a dusty garage full of about 200 other people sweating and working out. This was for an EMS training session through the FDNY. I showered first thing when I got home, but whatever went down, something contributed to making the environment on my leg perfect for bacterial proliferation.

I first noticed the infection at 11am Monday morning. I knew it was an acute infection and not my regular low level presentation of a couple irritated follicles because the area was much larger than usual, and also redder. Also it was also itchy and it felt warm - it felt like there was some metabolic action happening there that my own body was not creating. As you will see, it progressed from flat red bumps, to raised, pimple-like bumps later that night - it was about 8 hours before I could get home and start treating it, so it went unchecked for that time and the change impressed me as fast and not to be ignored. I’m gonna start showing some pictures now, so if you feel uneasy seeing skin infections, this is the time to stop or look away.

a man in a white shirt and glasses is holding a microphonea man in a white shirt and glasses is holding a microphone
Red spots on thigh: picture left shows moderate amount 11am, pic right shows more severe 8pm
Red spots on thigh: picture left shows moderate amount 11am, pic right shows more severe 8pm

This first picture is from Monday at 11am - to my eye, the bumps look mostly flat and red, still rather calm, with a cluster in the center having poorly-defined borders that kind of fade into each other. If you look at the bottom of the picture - the medial aspect of my thigh - you’ll see no more than a half-dozen lesions that are starting to develop white heads.

This second picture is from about 8 pm that evening. You’ll notice at the bottom of the picture, the number of raised lesions with white heads has multiplied noticeably, and they’ve also started to appear more prominently in the center and the borders are a little clearer. This is change in the wrong direction for sure.

Now the whole thing cleared up, so don’t worry - but at this point I want to state very clearly that in treating this myself at home, I was taking a huge chance, and I do not want any of you to try to treat something like this at home yourselves. See a doctor! I had the right tools to heal this, but where extraordinary luck came into play was in the diagnosis - I really had no idea what I was dealing with or whether it was bacterial or viral or fungal...and that is a very dangerous game to play with your safety. Had the infection progressed to my muscle tissue, or to my blood, I might have lost a limb or died. It does happen to people. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TREAT AN INFECTION ON YOUR OWN, SEE A DOCTOR.

I gave myself three hours to feel improvement - the itching was constant, so I decided if that symptom did not start to feel better or got worse, I would go to urgent care and get on a treatment plan with a western medical doctor. It did feel better within that time, and no worse, so I gave it until the morning. The next morning it felt fine, no worse -I still hadn’t looked at it, I was leaving the bandage on. Also very dangerous. I should have taken the bandage off, washed it, looked at it, then reapplied the noto ginseng and the bandage. Anyway...

Bright red spot day 1, dull red spots day 2
Bright red spot day 1, dull red spots day 2

...at the end of that night (night number 2) the skin was clearly healing, with the redness somewhat more diffuse, the white heads starting to reduce in number, and my skin feeling overall calmer and less itchy.

Lucky for me everything lined up, and I’m fine.

Here are the points I want to make as a result of this experience - traditional medicines are meant to help us with this exact kind of thing (except, as I mentioned, having an accurate diagnosis...that can only be made by someone experienced in seeing, diagnosing, and treating skin infections). And second, I thought it would be interesting to explore what the research says about each of these therapies - notoginseng powder, Pulsing Blue LIght (PBL), acupuncture, and moxa (also called acu moxa).

I’m going to first get into a discussion on how each of these therapies works - what the science says each does to microbes and hence how they help us fight infections and heal. That’s going to be a little science heavy, so if you want to skip that, go to the section labeled “Treatment Protocol: How I Treated Myself” which tells you about how I used the therapies, how often, and some other details which might be interesting and will help you understand what to expect and how I thought about dosing each of these therapies. Lastly we’ll get into the Results, with pictures of my skin infection before and after.

How Notoginseng / Yunnan Paiyao Works on Infections

Yunnan Paiyao is the name of a traditional chinese formula which contains notoginseng and a couple other herbs. Notoginseng is the one I am really interested in here, and I’m using the formula name and the name of that single herb interchangeably, and for infection and wound healing that may be fine, but if you take the herbs internally, the effects and therefore the cautious and contraindications etc, will be different because Yunnan Paiyao contains both noto ginseng and 6 other herbs, and iron. But for my purposes of applying it externally, it’s all the same. In fact I’ve used powdered pure notoginseng for wound and infection healing, and so far I cannot discern a difference for those purposes between Yunnan Paiyao powder applied to the skin, and notoginseng powder applied to the skin. It is important that you understand what these names mean, however, for your application at home.

Also the spelling of “noto ginseng” can be two words, or one word, and I will use those interchangeably here.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE:  How Yunnan Paiyao / Notoginseng works on infectionsCLICK HERE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE:  How Yunnan Paiyao / Notoginseng works on infections

Specifically to stop bleeding or prevent or stop infections, using either is fine. You can get notoginseng on amazon, but you can’t get Yunnan Paiyao through Amazon. These are affiliate links through Amazon which means I will get a small commission although you pay nothing additional - thank you.

But, if you go to Chinatown or any Asian supermarket that also has a small herbal pharmacy in it, you will definitely find Yunnan Paiyao powder. You may or may not find notoginseng powder, however, because most people who need notoginseng to stop bleeding or prevent infection as a routine medicine-cabinet level supply item, are looking for Yunnan Paiyao, and not for powdered notoginseng - hence supply and demand will determine what you can find and where.

As of the recording of this video, I am looking for an affiliate program through a company that anyone can order Yunnan Paiyao through, please check the description or show notes for that, but as of now, if you want Yunnan Paiyao and you don’t have a Chinese or Asian herbal pharmacy close by, just order it online from wherever you can find it.

a person holding a bottle of notogingseng powder, with two other brands of same on windowsill
a person holding a bottle of notogingseng powder, with two other brands of same on windowsill

Yunnan Paiyao means "the white medicine from Yunnan Province," this medicine is famous. Its chief ingredient is notoginseng, which currently makes up a market of about 700 million USD per year across China, Korea, the US, Canada, and Vietnam. In fact, the last notoginseng powder I ordered through amazon came from Wisconsin, grown out there by a father and son - affiliate link available in the show notes.

Yunna Paiyao is traditionally known for its ability to stop bleeding, although in the last few decades it has been used and researched in a number of modern disease treatment settings including cancer, Parkinsons and Alzheimers, brain repair and longevity, infections, cardiovascular health, and athletic recovery to name just a few. If you read the reviews on Amazon for any notoginseng powder or capsule product, you will see people using it mostly to support their cardiovascular health or to support their athletic recovery.

Like all plants, noto ginseng has dozens of compounds that can be enhanced or weakened, depending on how it’s processed, or how it’s taken -ie dried and powdered, vs steamed then dried then powdered, decocted in water vs alcohol, and then swallowed and processed through the liver, vs applied topically to the skin to treat a wound or an infection or both. Its blood-moving properties make it highly sought after for injury healing, including cerebrovascular accidents, cardiovascular health, wound healing, and athletic recovery.

Applied topically, notoginseng stops bleeding and also quickens the blood circulation. Obviously, stopping bleeding is one function, but the blood moving aspect of noto ginseng is critical because it allows us to heal more rapidly from lacerations, cuts, scrapes, you get the idea. It also stops infections, which is always a concern when the skin is open.

Notoginseng is being studied for its ability to destroy certain kinds of cancerous tumors, and for its anti brain-aging properties in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s because it is neuroregenerative.

Its botanical and pharmaceutical name - Panax notoginseng- comes from the Greek words “pana” meaning “all,” and “axos,” meaning “cure.”

“Cures all.”

These are the same words that make up the name “Panacea,” originally one of the two daughters of the Greek father of medicine, Asclepius, from whom we get the word itself. The name of Asclepius’ second child was Hygenia. Together, they made an important and powerful pair who in working with their father served the newly created humans in both curing their ills, and in teaching them how to prevent disease. So, when Europeans began to explore and catalog the Chinese pharmacopeia, notoginseng was deemed to to be such a heavy hitter, that it was named after one of the daughters of the Greek father of medicine.

Botanical & Pharmaceutical Name: Panax Notoginseng
Botanical & Pharmaceutical Name: Panax Notoginseng
pana = all, axos = cure
pana = all, axos = cure

Notoginseng is incredibly effective at stopping infections. In research, it has been shown to stop MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), fungi, viruses, and many other nasties. Coming up we’ll get into what some of the research says about notoginseng, but before we get into the data, I want to mention that the ginseng family consists of 4 herbs species - and the studies I reference here often use the terms “ginseng” and “notoginseng” interchangeably. When they need to make distinctions, the authors do so in the beginning of the article. All my references are at the end of each section in this blog article, and summarized at the end of the whole article. If you’re watching on YouTube, please go to my blog to access the links to the articles. And while you’re there, if you’d like more content like this, please subscribe to my newsletter through my website, and subscribe to my channel on YouTube and give this video a thumbs up. Thank you!

types of ginseng include Panax ginseng, Panax notoginseng, Panax quinquefolius, Panax japonicus
types of ginseng include Panax ginseng, Panax notoginseng, Panax quinquefolius, Panax japonicus

Research on Notoginseng / Yunnan Paiyao

The research shows very clearly that notoginseng affects four or five aspects of bacteria as well as viruses - these are (1) quorum sensing ability, (2) biofilm, (3) cell membrane, and (4) the DNA of the bacteria. (5) It also fine-tunes or enhances our immunity to be more sensitive to the bacteria. We’re gonna get into each of these now:

* Quorum-sensing ability: is what allows the bacteria to communicate with each other. It goes hand in hand with something else notoginseng disrupts, which is called Microbial Motility: that is the bacteria’s ability to move around. Both motility and quorum sensing are essential for bacteria to coordinate, to protect the colony, and to spread. And it depends on our next gross out thing which is:

* Biofilm: Notoginseng destroys mature biofilm, and prevents new biofilm from being formed. This is big, because biofilm is like both a root system and a protective shield made of toxic bacterial slime - bacteria depend on biofilm to make their environment hospitable, so they can proliferate and destroy our healthy tissues... Biofilm is also one of the main defenses bacteria use to build and maintain resistance to antibiotics, which is why notoginseng is so effective against MRSA - either alone or in combination with antibiotics. It gets the biofilm defense out of the way so the bacteria can be more effectively killed by the herb or by antibiotics. If you search the web for biofilm, you will find it is a major focus of biohackers and those with the wherewithal to take their healing into their own hands.

* The bacterial cell membrane - also called the lipid bilayer - is lysed or split by notoginseng. This results in the formation of pores, or open leakage of the cell organelles and nutrients, and eventually cell death if not repaired in time. Basically it cuts open and eviscerates the bacteria.

* Immunity & Inflammation - Notoginseng strengthens the immune system, while reducing inflammation (when applied locally, it has a local anti-inflammatory effect, when taken internally, it increases the immune response systemically and reduces inflammation throughout the whole body). Research on combining notoginseng with antibiotics also shows an increase in effectiveness against resistant strains, and an increase in recovery and survival rates compared to those who receive antibiotics only. This last aspect makes notoginseng unique and valuable in breaking through the antibiotic-resistance of certain microbes, and making our immune response more targeted.

* Bacterial DNA - notoginseng damages bacterial DNA, and viral RNA and DNA, in many ways that are beyond my scope to discuss adequately, but the take-home-message is that notoginseng / Yunnan Paiyao makes it impossible for the pathogen to function or reproduce correctly. There’s no concern, evidence or reporting of interfering with our healthy DNA.

These actions are so well established in the scientific community that they are considered facts.

How Pulsing Blue Light Works on Infections

Pulsed or Pulsing Blue Light (PBL) has strong and well-documented antimicrobial properties. The “Pulsed” in PBL is just what it sounds like - it's when blue light is delivered with an on-off pulsing pattern rather than a steady delivery where the light stays on constantly. The pulsing enhances the effect, and in a minute we’ll get a few clues as to why.

Click here to watch on youtube: how Pulsing Blue Light works on infections & microbesClick here to watch on youtube: how Pulsing Blue Light works on infections & microbes

* Biofilm - In a 2001 study published in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, PBL was found to have some powerful effects on bacteria and viruses. I was surprised, and you may be too, to find out that just applying a blue light that pulses disrupts bacterial biofilm formation. Again, that’s the film microbes secrete to stick together so they can form colonies and resist the attack of antibiotics, which in turn facilitates communicating with each other and even sharing genetic material, all essential to bacterial proliferation, adaptation, and reproduction.

* PBL breaks down the cell membranes of bacteria and viruses - It does this by causing a rapid change in the polarity of the cell membrane - that's the charge of the cell membrane, which is basically fatty molecules surrounded by water, and as you can imagine, the integrity of the membrane depends on a delicate balance of positive and negative charges along the inside and outside of the cell which in turn hold the components of the membrane where they should be.. PBL depolarizes the membrane, making it go haywire and start to split open. This allows the insides of the bacteria to spill out. Obviously the microbes die if they can't repair the membrane quickly enough, which I think is why the pulsing may be important - I imagine the pulsing reintroduces the stimulus of the blue light over and over again, kind of like a relentless rapid fire attack rather than a missile.

There’s also a chemical thing that happens where the bacteria needs to discharge and recharge its receptivity to the blue light, so I imagine the pulsing allows the bacteria to do that cycle, which in turn makes it more susceptible to damage than if the light were steady. In viruses, PBL causes the same cell membrane depolarization as in bacteria, resulting in the disruption of the viral capsid.

* PBL also fragments viral nucleic acids, or damages the genes in the virus - Since nucleic acids make up all the genetic material viruses need to successfully replicate, PBL stops that process. Thus PBL is being used for a host of viruses including herpes, Covid, HIV, and others. I couldn’t find any statements that said PBL was being used to eliminate Covid-19, but the Photochemistry study does state “enveloped viruses like SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for COVID-19, have been shown to be more susceptible to photo-destruction than non-enveloped viruses.”

You’ll no doubt notice that PBL and notoginseng have a few important mechanisms in common, my thinking is that this leads to a summation effect, or an enhancing of the therapeutic effects that they share.

By the way, I’ve used blue light pens at home for years to kill the herpes virus in the form of cold or canker sores, and the healing time is noticeably shorter. (Affiliate link)

Two interesting sections from the Photochem article describing how PBL destroys microbes

an excerpt from a research article on the antiviral potential of blue light
an excerpt from a research article on the antiviral potential of blue light
an excerpt from a research article on the effects of blue light on microbial inactivation
an excerpt from a research article on the effects of blue light on microbial inactivation

How Moxa works for infections and immunity

If you are going to use moxa at home, please search the blog Index for my guide on how to use different forms of moxa, which will be published at a future date.

There are a ton of good quality studies out there on the effects of moxa on increasing immunity and lowering inflammation, but not so many on reducing infections. Moxa has been shown to increase white blood cell count, to increase dopamine, and in every significant study it has shown stellar ability to improve inflammatory markers. This is useful for patients recovering from cancer, Parkinson’s, and autoimmune diseases, to name only a few. And when trying to clear an infection, reducing inflammation is a necessary and powerful first step because it allows the immune system to overcome the infection, and that’s mainly what I used it for - to reduce inflammation, increase white blood cell count, and to thereby heighten immune response.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE: How Moxa works for infections & immunityCLICK HERE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE: How Moxa works for infections & immunity

One of the most well known studies on moxa and infectious diseases found that moxa was effective at shortening the duration of Tuberculosis infection, and in decreasing the infectivity (or how infectious a person is as decided by testing their lung sputum for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This was the famous Moxafrica study which followed 180 newly diagnosed TB patients in Uganda. ( www.moxafrica.com )

But for specific mechanisms such as biofilm disruption, or unraveling the pathogen’s cell membrane, I didn’t find any good research on that, for moxa. And I can see why - imagine trying to get a hospital admin to approve the use of a smoky herb around TB patients? And the nature of moxa itself prevents us from blinding practitioners or patients - I mean you can smell and see if it’s the real thing of not....and then there is the ethical or moral question of holding back life saving therapies, I mean if you know someone has TB or influenza and you don’t medicate them, if instead you give the meds to one group only and use moxa by itself on the other group, sure that would give you clear results but at what cost to the poor patient who needs to survive?

In Japan, moxa therapist was an actual occupation along side acupuncturist or herbalist or shiatsu therapist, and people will do moxa at home if instructed to do so, but outside of Japan the earning potential for moxa is miniscule, and the patient compliance for something foreign that looks esoteric is pretty low. Also, hospitals, cancer centers, and drug companies stand to make no money from moxa or moxa research, if anything they’re going to lose money as a result. So for these financial and cultural considerations, moxa just hasn’t caught on to the degree that herbal medicine or acupuncture has, which is why there is not as much research on it.

But of the studies we do have, the positive effects on the immune system and inflammation are clear. And moxa does some pretty incredible things in other body systems - it’s both neuroregenerative and neuro protective, it protects brain cells and helps them regrow and regenerate.

There was one study that found moxa used in combination with zinc oxide disrupted biofilm of pathogenic fungi, but zinc oxide is well documented as a biofilm disruptor, so I have trouble looking at those results and pointing to moxa as the key player because I just can’t tell from that specific study.

That having been said, the anecdotal evidence on which much of asian medicine has been built for thousands of years, is clear.

TB outbreaks in Japan,

plummeting white blood cell count in cancer patients,

prevention of recurrence of breast cancers,

shrinking of tumors,

shrinking of swollen organs like the liver, pancreas, thyroid, etc (seen it personally)

even the reduction of mild fevers -

moxa works,

and if you have the commitment to tolerate the inevitable burns that are necessary in learning the craft, you definitely should learn it for yourself.

Listen to me on that last part - you do moxa, you’re going to burn yourself or others, there’s no getting around that, and you have to accept that inevitability as a patient, practitioner, or as someone who provides care at home, until your skills are dope enough to prevent frequent burns, and even then you’re still going to have the occasional burn on your patient or yourself.

But I knew it was worth it in spite of the risk of burns, so I moxa’d (and continue to moxa) myself daily.

kim soo is pointing to a small mild burn on his leg from moxa. There is a green plant on the left
kim soo is pointing to a small mild burn on his leg from moxa. There is a green plant on the left

How Acu works for infections and immunity

Ah, now the queen - acupuncture!

Acupuncture is remarkably adaptogenic - it increases or decreases immune activity according to what the body needs at the time. It actually modulates immune activity. In research studies, acupuncture lowered the body's immune responses in auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, but acupuncture increased the immune responses in diseases such as cancer which rely on suppressing the body's immune response for the cancer cells to survive.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE: How Acu works for infections & immunityCLICK HERE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE: How Acu works for infections & immunity

Acupuncture also modulates blood flow - it increases blood flow and oxygen concentration in the body, even in areas where the needles are not inserted, which is wild. These specific effects are also found to happen not while the needles are in but within 40 minutes after needles are taken out, which is pretty cool and interesting to think that the body is reacting to instructions given by the needling process, which is one of the primary way traditionalists have understood how acupuncture works.

One study on acupuncture and acute pharyngitis, an infection of the throat that can be viral or bacterial, found acupuncture alone to be more effective than antibiotics. I need to really read this study closely to understand it beyond that result or conclusion the authors draw, but for now I want both to hold up acupuncture as a means of enhancing the immune system’s response to infections, and also to clearly recommend to you that you NEVER substitute acupuncture for western pharmaceuticals if you have an infection anywhere.

Thank you for hanging in there with me, through all the science. I know that it can be dry or boring for non-practitioners. Now on to the protocol: how I treated myself

Treatment Protocol: How I Treated Myself (SUMMARY)

Every night, for about half an hour, I would do PBL, and while that was doing its thing I would needle and moxa my ST-36. After those three therapies were finished, I’d apply the Yunnan Paiyao and leave it overnight. The next night, I’d remove the Yunnan Paiyao, wash with soap and water, air dry, and then for a round of PBL and acu moxa. And that was it. About an hour of work every night, and I was golden. Or lucky. Or dumb and lucky - don’t try this yourself.

Let’s look at the points I chose.

While the blue light was on, I inserted acupuncture needles into the ST-36 zusanli point, which is one of the most widely studied acu points for immune function, and my first choice whenever I want to modulate my immune system for anything.

a pic showing an acupuncture needle in the shin muscle of the author, point name Stomach 36
a pic showing an acupuncture needle in the shin muscle of the author, point name Stomach 36
pic shows acu needle in shin muscle, Stomach 36.  An american traditional tattoo reads "Heather"
pic shows acu needle in shin muscle, Stomach 36.  An american traditional tattoo reads "Heather"

For the moxa, I use these little moxa rolls over the handle of the needle, which come precut. I drilled a hole using an acupuncture needle or a finishing nail, but you could use a sewing needle, or a safety pin, or something similar.

I ignited 3-6 rounds of moxa on each needle, this took about 30 minutes or less. The number of moxa rolls I used was determined by practical factors, like how worried I was and how much stimulation I wanted to go for, how much time I had, how much energy and patience I had.

wooden skewer with moxa rolls threaded on it. this is needle moxa - aka "kyutoshin" in japanese
wooden skewer with moxa rolls threaded on it. this is needle moxa - aka "kyutoshin" in japanese
"kyutoshin" or needle moxa burning on top of the needle in Stomach 36. Red embers, white ash & smoke
"kyutoshin" or needle moxa burning on top of the needle in Stomach 36. Red embers, white ash & smoke

By the way, there are many forms of moxa, this one is called needle moxa, or kyutoshin in Japanese, and I chose it because it is one of the lower maintenance, warmer, and smokier forms of administering moxa. So, I don’t have to watch it constantly, it stays hot for a long time, although I’ve found the risk of burning to be pretty low, and there’s a ton of smoke, which I think is therapeutic because the smoke carries the oils and properties of the herb.

kim soo enjoys coffee while looking blue sky, while moxa smokes atop needles in both shin muscles
kim soo enjoys coffee while looking blue sky, while moxa smokes atop needles in both shin muscles