Treatments in Conventional Medicine and Their Limitations
Conventional medicine focuses on 'extinguishing the fire' using immunosuppressants and cytotoxic drugs.
BM Korean Internal Medicine Clinic acknowledges the necessity of these emergency treatments under a Korean Medicine physician's diagnosis but performs a role in mitigating side effects and aiding recovery.
- Immune Suppression: Using high-dose steroids (Dexamethasone), immunoglobulins (IVIg), or Cyclosporine to suppress excessive immune responses.
- Cytotoxic Chemotherapy: Administering Etoposide to eliminate activated T cells and macrophages.
- Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT): For primary HLH with genetic defects, bone marrow transplant is the only curative method.
[Limitations]
Potent drugs like Etoposide are accompanied by serious side effects such as bone marrow suppression, increased infection risk, and secondary cancers.
Additionally, immunosuppression leaves patients vulnerable to opportunistic infections, and long-term immune imbalance can lead to recurrence or chronic sequelae (neurological damage, etc.).
BM's Integrative Solution: Clearing Heat and Protecting Organs
BM Korean Internal Medicine Clinic drains acute heat toxins and rebuilds the body devastated after treatment.
- Clearing Heat and Detoxifying (Cheongyeol-haedok, 淸熱解毒): Using formulas like Huanglian Jiedu Decoction (Hwangryunhaedok-tang) to rapidly cool heat toxins in the blood and calm inflammatory reactions. This helps mitigate the cytokine storm.
- Nourishing Yin and Regulating Immunity: We replenish depleted Yin fluids to cool the overheated immune system and restore homeostasis to prevent recurrence.
- Organ Protection: Using formulas like Yinchenhao Tang (Injinho-tang) to restore liver and kidney functions damaged by drug toxicity and inflammation.
- Health Freedom Camp (Life Care): We guide patients on a high-protein, easily digestible diet to recover severely depleted physical strength and educate on lifestyle rules for infection prevention.
Evidence-Based Korean Medicine (Scientific Evidence)
Research confirms that Korean Medicine treatments improve survival by suppressing cytokine storms and effectively control the major triggers of HLH (autoimmune diseases, EBV infection).
- Reduction of Mortality and Inflammation Control in Septic Shock: In patients with septic shock, which shares the cytokine storm pathology with HLH, the administration of Xuebijing injection, known for its blood-activating and stasis-resolving effects, significantly reduced 28-day mortality. It also effectively prevented multiple organ failure by simultaneously improving inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α) and coagulation disorders.
- Kang J, Hu D, Li Y, et al. Xuebijing injection reduces 28-day mortality in patients with septic shock. Critical Care. 2025;29(1):419. doi:10.1186/s13054-025-05666-3
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- Recovery and Steroid Sparing in Adult-onset Still's Disease (AOSD): For a patient with AOSD, a condition prone to causing Macrophage Activation Syndrome (MAS), integrative treatment with 'Boosting Qi and Generating Fluids (Yiqi Shengjin)' herbal medicine normalized inflammatory markers (CRP, Ferritin) and resolved clinical symptoms. Notably, it enhanced the patient's self-healing capacity, allowing for successful tapering of steroids.
- Yu X, Zhu Y, Xu J, Song X. Successful complementary therapy with traditional Chinese medicine in a patient with Qi and Jin deficiency symptoms from adult-onset Still’s disease: A case report. EXPLORE. 2023;20(2):256-260. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2023.08.006
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- Immune Restoration and Viral Suppression in EBV Infection: In pediatric patients with EBV infection, the most common cause of HLH, herbal treatment (Clearing Heat/Detoxifying) resulted in faster fever clearance and a higher EBV-DNA negative conversion rate compared to antiviral therapy. Furthermore, it effectively normalized T-cell immune imbalance (CD4+/CD8+), addressing the root cause of immune dysregulation.
