East Asian Medicine - Patient Stories

I started seeing Volker about seven years ago suffering from a number of medical conditions, ranging from severe allergic asthma to glaucoma, hypertension and thinning of the bones. In addition, I also suffered from chronic headaches, made worse by the regular use of paracetemol. Over time, Volker was able to help me to cut out the use of painkillers for my headaches. He has helped me to control my asthma, particularly after a recent attack. I have suffered from thinning of my bones because of the use of steroids. At my last bone density scan, the condition of my bones had improved. I would recommend the use of a skilled acupuncture practitioner as part of the management of chronic conditions like mine.

Jane McCarten, 50, London (August 2008)

Having been severely ill with cancer that was treated with several operations and chemotherapy I became interested in Chinese medicine because of ist holistic approach to treatment. I wanted to find out for myself how this different medical system would evaluate my state of health. Through a referral of a friend I first consulted Dr. Scheid in April 2004. My intention at the time was to try out Chinese medicine treatment for a period of 6-12 months. I was particularly curious to find out what kind of changes I might be able to observe in the blood and other tests my GP carried out every three months. In particular, my liver function and blood lipid levels were not very good at the time.

Today, after over four years, I am still seeing Dr. Scheid. Not only do I feel subjectively much better, but all objective parameters of my illness have markedly improved as well. My blood tests today show optimal results. I am sure that I would not have achieved this by means of conventional medical treatment alone.

Jürgen Heyser (Krumbach, Juli 2008)

I was mis-prescribed a strong combination of antibiotics, which caused a number of long-lasting side effects. Although these were primarily gut and liver-related (severe dysbiosis, constant nausea, extreme digestive upset and malabsorption) I also developed what seemed to be unrelated symptoms, such as hormonal problems, skin rashes, eye inflammation and joint pain. My GP ordered a series of tests and sent me to several consultants of differing specialisations but none of them were able to offer a solution and all my symptoms continued without improvement.

Almost two years after these problems had started and with no discernible improvement, I consulted Volker and despite the fact that the situation was complicated by the length of time that the various symptoms had essentially remained unaddressed (I arrived at my first appointment with a list of symptoms almost three pages long) thanks to his holistic and professional approach my health started to improve. Sometimes the improvement in a particular symptom took some perseverance and at other times it was remarkably fast. At one point he also referred me for osteopathic treatment, which I found to be very beneficial and which complemented his own treatment very well. I am now fully recovered and symptom-free.

During this entire process, I found Volker to be an extraordinarily skilful physician of the highest level of professionalism and integrity, with a real understanding of illness and its causes and how to deal effectively with often complex and shifting symptom patterns. Not only is his approach truly holistic and his treatments effective but I found his genuine concern for my well-being and his understanding and treatment of the emotional stress caused by the physical symptoms I was experiencing to be an important part of my recovery. Having responded to Volker's approach so successfully, I have since continued to consult him as my primary practitioner whenever the need has arisen.

D. K. Brighton

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2004. It was a multifocal cancer, that is there were four different tumors in my breast ranging from 1.5-5cm in size. To prepare for a mastectomy I received chemotherapy four times in three-weekly intervals. This had side-effects such as severe nausea, constipation, increasingly severe fatigue, and depression. At this point I began taking Chinese herbs, which helped the side-effects significantly within 10-14 days.

In March 2005, my left breast was removed. During the operation it was discovered that of the 19 lymph nodes that had been removed 17 already had metastases. It was therefore decided to carry out further hormone and chemotherapy as well as radiotherapy. After the second course of chemotherapy I began to experience nerve pains throughout the entire body with increasing numbness in both the tips of my fingers and toes. I was told that I might need to accept a permanent loss of sensitivity but that there was no alternative.

At this point, I decided that I was stuck with the wrong kind of treatment. Not only did I had to deal with the side-effect but I felt that I was becoming too weak to fight the cancer and that it would in due course eat me up. I had continued to take Chinese herbal medicine during this time. Following a trip to my home in Korea that allowed me to think about everything from a distance I decided to change course and just use Chinese herbs.

From this point onward I have only used the herbs I have been prescribed and my general state of well-being has consistently improved. I now have energy, enjoy my life, and have so far remained free avoided any relapse. 

Ki-Joeng Beller (Stuttgart, August 2008)