Catch a Cold? What Can You Do About It?

Traditional Chinese medicine releases colds, depending on the individual’s constitution.

In traditional Chinese medicine, a cold is a disease caused by wind attacking the human body. Symptoms include nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, sore throat, headache, chills, fever, general malaise, and floating pulse. It is one of the most common exopathic diseases. 

TCM treatment of colds must be based on the principle of syndrome differentiation and treatment. Different clinical manifestations will be classified into different syndrome types, and different syndrome types also have other treatment methods. The general treatment principle is to promote sweating to release the exterior. For example, if it is wind-cold, the should be released the exterior with pungent-warm. If it is wind-heat, it should be pungent and cool. It can be seen from the above that when looking at colds in traditional Chinese medicine: in addition to syndrome-based colds, the patient’s physical condition should also be considered when taking herbal medication so as not to cause fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and repeated illnesses after taking medicines.

How to eat when you have a cold?

During inflammation (or when you catch the flu)

Fruits: such as pears, watermelon, sugar cane, and a coconut juice (without ice). Green onion soup, Sishen soup.

Generally, when there are inflammatory reactions, such as sore throat, thick yellow nasal discharge or phlegm, and high fever. It is not advisable to use tonics, such as ginseng, angelica, astragalus, and sesame oil, so as not to add fuel to the flames and aggravate the condition.

Angelica duck, sesame oil chicken, ginger duck, or ginger soup (old ginger, dried ginger soup) for winter tonic will accelerate blood circulation, so don’t try it during inflammation.

During the inflammation period, you can add some fruits or juices to “turn off the fire,” such as colder fruits in Chinese medicine theory, such as watermelon and oranges.

Grinding fresh pear juice can promote body fluids, quench thirst, and relieve dry mouth; others, such as watermelon, sugar cane, lotus root juice, and coconut juice, all have antipyretic effects.

Research and References:

Han Z, Zhang Y, Wang P, Tang Q, Zhang K. Is acupuncture effective in the treatment of COVID-19 related symptoms? Based on bioinformatics/network topology strategy. Brief Bioinform. 2021 Sep 2;22(5):bbab110. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbab110. PMID: 33866350; PMCID: PMC8083275.

Cheng Y, Gao B, Jin Y, Xu N, Guo T. Acupuncture for common cold: A systematic review and meta-analyze protocol. Medicine (Baltimore). 2018 Mar;97(10):e0061. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000010061. PMID: 29517665; PMCID: PMC5882456.

Liu X, Fu J, Fan T, Liu W, Jiang H, Zhang R, Ding H, Yang H, Hu S, Huang Y, Li G, Lan Y, She B, Mao B. The Efficacy and Safety of Shen Guo Lao Nian Granule for Common Cold of Qi-Deficiency Syndrome: Study Protocol for a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Multicenter, Phase II Clinical Trial. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:1806461. doi: 10.1155/2017/1806461. Epub 2017 Sep 24. PMID: 29430253; PMCID: PMC5753015.

Heo JS, Yang SY, Lim SA, Lee JM, Kang JY, Sun SH, Kim HG, Kang W, Cho JH. A manual acupuncture treatment attenuates common cold and its symptoms: a case series report from South Korea. J Tradit Chin Med. 2016 Dec;36(6):724-9. doi: 10.1016/s0254-6272(17)30006-7. PMID: 29949334; PMCID: PMC7147216.