In clinical practice, I often encounter such inquiries: "Xu Dada, how long does it take for my thyroid nodules to get rid of after taking Chinese medicine?"
I would generally answer something like this:
"If you don't care about anything else and just want to be fast, then the surgery is the fastest, click down, take a break and recovery time, a week at most. However, there is a high probability of recurrence after surgery, because thyroid nodule tumors seem to only grow in the neck, but in fact they are related to the whole body, and local treatment is only temporary, which cannot solve the root problem, and treat the symptoms but not the root cause.
As for traditional Chinese medicine treatment, compared with the surgery with a knife and a knife, it is relatively "slow".
This often depends on the severity of the symptoms and the individual's constitution - if the symptoms are mild, the patient can absorb the drug ingredients better, and the effect can be seen in about two months. If the symptoms are more severe, the individual's constitution is poor, and the absorption capacity is weak, then the treatment time will be extended, and it will take about four or five months or half a year to see the effect.
It's normal for patients to be cured as soon as possible. But if you are obsessed with the superficial "fast" and pursue a quick solution, it is actually a cover-up and a thief.
Let's take a cold and fever as an example, and you say, "Doctor, I think the fever will go away after a dose of medicine." The doctor said, "Okay, as long as you're not afraid of hurting your lungs, I'll prescribe you that quick-acting prescription."
Isn't this what Western medicine does, hanging water to reduce fever, immediate results, but then coughing for a long time, which is the same as using a large number of bitter cold medicine in Chinese medicine to reduce fever hard, and finally the cold evil attacks the lungs.
Therefore, the treatment of diseases in traditional Chinese medicine is slow, because traditional Chinese medicine is not to treat "diseases", but to treat "people", it is to adjust the whole physique of people, and human physique is a small ecological environment, intricate, and it takes patience and time to recuperate, so it naturally seems "slow", but this is the only way to cure the root cause.
Therefore, I would like to remind all patients and friends that there is no need to rush to work, as long as the medicine is symptomatic, it will naturally come to fruition, and the result is "proper cure and stable happiness".
Mr. Cai from Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, his treatment experience is quite dramatic, which fully confirms the "fast and slow debate" of Chinese and Western medicine - just when he complained that the Chinese medicine treatment was too slow, gradually lost confidence and patience, and was about to give up and go for surgery, there was a reversal, and his nodules miraculously shrunk.
Here's the thing.
In April 2018, Mr. Cai, who had just entered the year of knowing the destiny of heaven, found a lump in his neck during a physical examination. Color ultrasound showed that the left nodular thyroid gland was 31*26mm, class III.
He found me online and started the video consultation in June of this year, two months after the nodule was found.
Mr. Cai, who appears in the video, is slightly obese, with a pale red tongue and thin moss. According to these four diagnosis information, combined with my decades of clinical experience, it is easy to distinguish his syndrome as: Shaoyang meridian qi is unfavorable, phlegm, heat and depression.
After the syndrome differentiation is determined, the treatment is about to come out: add or subtract with Xiao Chai Hu Tang, relieve less yang, and dissolve phlegm and disperse knots.
Prescription: Bupleurum chinensis, Scutellaria baicalensis, Fritillaria, Codonopsis, Gourd, Calcined Clam Shell, Prunella vulgaris, Fritillary, Calcined Corrugated Seed, White Peony, Licorice, Ginger Magnolia, Cat's Claw, Ginger Banxia, Tulip, Coptis chinensis, Shoot Dry, Cicada Moult, Fried Burdock, Cimicifuga, etc. One month's supply. Decoction method: 1 dose per day, decoction, twice a day.
At the time of the follow-up consultation, Mr. Cai's face was a little anxious, and he complained of loose stools and poor sleep, so I reassured him that he should be patient, and that the illness was like a thread, and it would take time for the medicine to be completely effective. At the same time, according to the existing symptoms, it is planned to add spleen and dampness medicines, and add a number of barley and poria cocos on top, one is to stop diarrhea, and the other is to treat the source of phlegm. A total of 14 doses.
In this way, until February of the following year, the size of the nodule was only slightly reduced, and the color ultrasound showed that it was 29*24mm.
After seven or eight months of treatment, it was only a little bit smaller, and such a slow reduction rate made Mr. Cai worry and anxious, and asked me several times if I wanted surgery.
I said, don't worry, trust me, take medicine for another month.
In this way, Mr. Cai was patient and took medicine until mid-March. The hard work paid off, and the critical point of quantitative change to qualitative change finally appeared, he finished color ultrasound in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, and the nodule was only 7×6mm, and the shape was normal, the boundary was clear, and the possibility of a hideous resurgence was completely lost.
He was pleasantly surprised—at this point, there was no need to think about surgery at all.
Five years have passed since the follow-up, and Mr. Cai has not relapsed.
Through Mr. Cai's case, we can see that although the effect of TCM in the treatment of thyroid nodules in the short term is not as rapid as that of Western medicine, the ability of TCM to treat both the symptoms and the root causes is difficult to match with Western medicine.
Therefore, for patients with thyroid nodules, choosing TCM treatment is tantamount to a wiser choice, which means that you have chosen a treatment path that pays more attention to individual differences and overall health, a path that is once and for all.