ARE YOU A COVID LONG-HAULER?
If so, you could take part in the ‘100 Day Moxa Programme’ for Long COVID
We recognise that Long COVID is a huge unaddressed global issue, which is why we have developed a remote treatment programme which we now know could significantly help a lot of people. What's more, we welcome participation from anywhere in the world.
Our goal is to share a simple, accessible pathway to potential recovery - one which we put to the test last year, which we found helped improve recovery rates when compared to a ‘control’ group. (click for link)
You can download all the information you need to take part in this programme for free. In other words you can join the programme from anywhere in the world (that is as long as you have access to a functional postal service so we can send you the high quality moxa if you can't get any locally). Our intention is to work together and see if moxa helps you recover faster and so help others too. And it's all completely free.
-So what is moxa or moxibustion therapy? -
‘Small cone moxa’ is a powerful natural therapy that uses smouldered moxa ‘floss’ (super-refined dried Japanese Mugwort leaves) on specific points on the skin. It is a traditional East Asian immune-enhancing heat therapy which has been used to help the body rid itself of certain lingering pathogens. It is both simple and safe to use having been used in East Asia for at least 2,000 years (much like acupuncture).
//What is MOXA? | moxafrica//. (This link will take you to the Moxafrica website which will tell you more)
-Why do we think this may help you? -
We ran a ‘100 Day Moxa Challenge for Long COVID’ last year to try and find out three things:
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Could moxa generally improve recovery rates for long-haulers over 100 days? (And we found that it did by comparing questionnaire responses at the start and at the end of the 100 days – all four of the protocols that we tested did much better than our ‘control’ group that didn’t use any moxa over the same period of 100 days).
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Could we identify the best possible simple moxa protocol that long-haulers might want to use? (And we found one that outperformed the other three – and by good fortune it was also the easiest to administer).
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Could we reasonably manage a remote treatment programme, supplying moxa and appropriate support to literally anyone anywhere who might be struggling with the post-viral effects of infection by this nasty coronavirus, particularly those who have no other appropriate access to support or therapy? (While we recognised that moxa isn’t for everyone, we found that most of those who stuck with it for their 100 days reported significant improvements in their symptoms without evidence of harmful side effects).
While in more prosperous nations the effects of Long COVID are now slowly being addressed, in the majority of the rest of the world, there is still little recognition of the condition at all. Astonishingly, we cannot find one estimate anywhere that puts any sort of estimated number of prevalent Long COVID cases that may be out there globally. Given that this condition has been recognised as being perniciuous for nearly three years we find this staggering. But for a family that relies on the income of a wage earner who can no longer earn a regular income due to debilitation because of Long COVID, this condition will in many cases be simply devastating – and we expect this is to most seriously true in lower-income countries where financial and societal support isn’t readily available. In other words we see this to be a significant and (so-far) neglected problem that really needs a practical, cheap and effective solution to help long-haulers in lower in come countries get back on their feet.
-How does the programme work? -
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We first want you to carefully consider whether you want to give this a try. (We are only a very small charity so the truth is that we can’t afford to send out moxa to anyone who isn’t really motivated to make full use of it, or who can afford to buy some moxa and can get hold of it themselves). We also recognise that most cases resolve in three months so we only want to send you moxa if your symptoms have persisted for longer than this period. Please don't get in touch with us unless this is the case!
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You also need to assess your personal eligibility. There are a few conditions that can sometimes be aggravated by moxa, so if you have any of them we do not want you to try this therapy. (Link to contraindicated conditions).
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If you are unfamiliar with small cone direct moxa we suggest that you spend a few minutes looking at this video which shows the basic technique that is involved with this therapy. how to prepare and apply the moxa
If you then still find this of interest, then you should download these two instruction documents and read them through a couple of times.
The upper pdf link on the right is a general introductory document.
You can print it off, or download it.
The second pdf link is the instruction document for the protocol itself.
We suggest you download it as a pdf document on adobe
and then ;print it off as a 'booklet' (which is how it is designed).
- Still interested? -
At this point, you should have a good idea what is involved. And you should also now be able to start your own programme to help you recover if you want to. All you need is some good quality moxa and a few minutes each day!
If you can’t get hold of any quality moxa (and we must stress that we have only tested this therapy using high quality Japanese moxa, so we don’t recommend using any other type for reasons of both efficacy and safety) then you can drop us an email at 100daymoxachallenge@gmail.com, giving us your postal address and we will then send you 10g of moxa in the post. Depending on where you live, we may instead choose to recommend a local supplier who will be able to supply you with moxa of the appropriate quality. Ten grams will give you enough moxa for at least three months (and a bit longer if you are careful with it). And it's not prohibitively expensive.
Whether or not you can obtain your own moxa, you will also need to watch these protocol specific videos as carefully as you can (several times over!):
https://youtu.be/p6zeOyve8kw - how to prepare and apply the moxa
https://youtu.be/SF8-0dWQJj4 - how to extinguish (close up)
https://youtu.be/GTrTIZR3Oy8 = applying moxa to St36
https://youtu.be/-V0ZWXoN__o - detail of protocol 3
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If you write to us with the request for the moxa, it is very important that you confirm the following (we won't send you any moxa unless you do so):
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that you have read through the instructions and are intending to apply the moxa as shown, and
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that you will advise us if you experience any problems which you think may have developed due to this therapy (safety is very important for us).
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that you haven’t got any of the conditions listed here (click link)
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We won’t send you any moxa unless you do this! We are committing to do our best to help you recover faster, and in return we need to make sure that you will also commit to the treatment program in a responsible way.
Once you have the moxa, you can start the daily treatment. It would be really great, at this point, if you could drop us an email just letting us know that you’ve started. There are several reasons for this, the most important of which is so that we know who you are so that we can be in touch if we need to advise you of any important developments (whether they be emerging safety issues, or revisions to the protocol based on positive feedback).
You will thus be potentially provided with ongoing appropriate support by email. You can, of course, also contact us directly via email and text with any questions before, during or after your moxa programme. (Please don’t be tempted to increase the recommended daily dosage, though – it won’t accelerate your recovery, and in fact may do the opposite!
Over the following 100 days, we may ask you for updates about both your treatment and your recovery to ensure all is going well.
- For your own safety -
Please understand that we have to make it very clear that, if you do go ahead with trying out this programme, you do so at your own risk. Nevertheless we want to assure you of two things.
One is that this sort of moxa therapy has been used as a home therapy in Japan for several centuries for treating a wide variety of conditions, so it has a self-evident significant safety record.
And secondly, that we have used this therapy to research its efficacy not just for Long COVID but also for a much longer period for tuberculosis – and we were asking patients to do exactly what we are suggesting here (to self-administer their moxa themselves on a daily basis) and it was proved to be helpful in a clinical trial.
As such we can offer reasonable assurance that, as long as the principles we show are adhered to and that the contra-indications are observed, this therapy is very safe and can be very effective.
- Who or what is Moxafrica (the charity running this programme)? -
The Moxafrica Charity( Home | moxafrica ) is managing all aspects of this program.
(UK Charity Commission registered no. 1128408).
Since 2008, this not-for-profit organization has not just operated in the UK, but also in several countries in Africa, and also in both Japan and North Korea. Up until the coronavirus pandemic, however, it was exclusively focused on investigating how moxa can help patients with drug-resistant TB (tuberculosis) where health infrastructures are deficient, and we harvested some very exciting results from three clinical trials along the way. Results of Research | moxafrica. (click link)
A key aspect of this research was exposing the cumulative strength of daily self-application of this moxa therapy which we believe can slowly and safely strengthen a broad-based 'host' immune response, thus promoting a slow-growing measurable recovery from a debilitating chronic disease one that (in the case of MDR-TB) is frequently lethal.
You may also be interested in what some of the challengers in the original study had to say about their progress in emails which they sent us at various points during their individual 100 days. Testimonials (click link)
-Why Long COVID?-
Because of our interest in global public health issues we have been closely following the coronavirus pandemic since its outbreak, increasingly focusing on the poorly addressed challenges of Long COVID.
Although the coronavirus and tuberculosis are very different pathogens, we noticed some possible similarities in the way Long COVID affects the body’s immune system and so stalls recovery in a proportion of cases. It was this realisation that helped us to decide to explore moxa as a treatment option for this very challenging condition (along with the fact that very little seems to be on offer for the vast majority of long-haulers around the world). Nevertheless, we recognise that Long COVID is a complex condition that appears to progress through several mechanisms and also may become more serious because of certain predisposing factors.
- Does moxa help long-haulers in a similar way to how it appears to help TB cases? -
We now have strong anecdotal evidence that suggests it can help with Long COVID. COVID-19 itself is not just a new disease that is still inadequately understood, but it is also accompanied by this complex post-infectious phenomenon called Long COVID (or more technically ‘PASC’ or ‘post-acute sequelae to SARS-CoV-2 infection’).
Nearly one in five of people who have had COVID-19 have symptoms that persist a month or longer after the infection, but a significant proportion of these have enduring debilitating symptoms that linger much longer than this. Global authorities haven’t even begun to figure out how many long-haulers with persistent symptoms lasting six months, a year or even two years may now be out there, but it is possible that there are already tens of millions worldwide (though we really hope that this isn’t the case). In other words, this may be a huge problem that is as yet still unaddressed in most of the world.
With wide-ranging symptoms affecting so many systems of the body, we also realised that any treatment (like moxa) needs to be carefully considered in light of this – hence we launched the '100 Day Moxa Challenge for Long COVID' to find out more. A year on, and we are now confident that moxa can help in many cases and, furthermore, we now have a simple protocol that we think is the most likely to be the most helpful. We should add, though, that we do not believe it’s a magic bullet, not least because Long COVID is a very complex condition that seems to have three or more mechanisms working behind it either separately or together. But we do think that moxa can in many cases be realistically used to help push your condition back and hasten recovery.
-How can I get started? -
We are inviting applications from anywhere in the world. Just email 100daymoxachallenge@gmail.com to find out more if you have any specific questions after reading to the end of this website.
If not, just order some moxa from any of the listed suppliers (this needs to be high quality Japanese moxa specifically for use with 'direct moxa'), watch the videos, download the training material, and get started once the moxa has arrived.
If you can't get any moxa, then please write to us with your name and address with a little detail about your Long COVID and we will send some moxa and tapers to you free of charge, though of course we can't guarantee that you will receive it! That will depend on your postal service.
(Please note that we only want to send you moxa if you genuinely can't get hold of any in the country in which you live.)
-What else is there out there that might help you? -
We are also happy to share ideas that have been developed by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) and have dedicated a separate page for this purpose. Th FLCC was founded by a group of leading critical care specialists in March 2020; it was initially dedicated to helping prevent and treat COVID-19 itself, but has since also focused on helping recoveries from Long COVID and from adverse effects of the vaccines.