When faced with things that are accustomed to, people will instinctively ignore them and take them lightly.

For example, a cold may occur 200 times in a person's life. Because of this commonness, many people will just grab a cold medicine and eat it. If you are lucky, the medicine you take is just right for the symptom, and the symptoms can be relieved quickly; on the contrary, the symptoms may not change or even worsen after taking the medicine for the symptom.

Because a cold is a self-limiting disease, it usually heals within a week, so the medicines you take are to help relieve symptoms, not speed up the recovery of a cold, so some people take it for granted that a cold can be fooled, anyway, even if they take the wrong food, they will eventually catch a cold. can also be good.

This kind of thinking is very wrong. The consequence of random medication may be to turn the common cold into a severe cold or pneumonia, which is expensive, time-consuming and laborious to treat. And it may also enhance bacterial resistance, which is not conducive to the normal functioning of the human immune system.

Therefore, even if it is a common cold, it needs to be treated based on syndrome differentiation.

3 different colds, the right medicine can relieve symptoms

Chinese medicine believes that wind pathogens and cold, heat, dampness, dryness, heat, and lack of righteousness are the main factors that cause colds, including empirical colds, such as common colds due to wind-cold, wind-heat colds, and colds due to physical deficiency, such as colds due to qi deficiency, Yin deficiency cold, Yang deficiency cold.

Identifying the symptoms and prescribing the right medicine can relieve the symptoms and benefit the condition. Today, let’s talk about how to differentiate the three common colds—wind-cold cold, wind-heat cold, and deficient cold from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, and how to use the medicine.

1. Cold and flu

Wind-cold cold is caused by the invasion of cold pathogens. It mostly occurs in autumn and winter. Common symptoms include aversion to cold, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore limbs, no sweat, thin white tongue coating, and itchy throat, fever, cough, headache, etc. disease.

Therapeutic principles - Xin Wen Xie, Xuanfei and cold .

Common ginger soup and cold are very symptomatic. Ginger is pungent and sweet and warm, which can dilate blood vessels, speed up blood circulation, and take away the cold in the body. The specific method is to take 2~3 slices of ginger, cut two pieces of green onion into small pieces, put them in a pot and boil water to drink.

For those who have no appetite, don't just know to drink white porridge, you can try parsnip porridge. As a traditional Chinese medicine, Fangfeng has the functions of dispersing and relieving the surface, eliminating dampness and relieving pain, dispelling wind and relieving spasm, and can also help expel cold in the body and relieve cold symptoms. The practice is: decoct the windproof and scallion white together, take the juice, pour it into the boiled japonica rice porridge, stir and wait for the porridge to boil.

In medicine, it is suitable for Ganmao Qingre Granules, Jing Fang Granules, etc.

2. Wind heat and cold

Contrary to the wind-cold cold, the wind-heat cold is caused by the pathogenic wind and heat invading the surface and the imbalance of lung qi, which can cause fever, sore throat, nasal congestion, runny nose, cough, headache, and red tongue.

Therapeutic principles - pungent cool to relieve the exterior, dispelling wind and clearing heat .

In terms of diet, you can eat more cool and fire-free foods, such as wax gourd, cucumber, white radish, yam, etc. Mung bean and bamboo leaf porridge is also suitable for clearing heat and detoxifying. The practice is: prepare an appropriate amount of japonica rice, mung bean, lotus leaf, water bamboo leaf, honeysuckle, and rock sugar. After washing the japonica rice, soak it in cold water, put it in a pot and boil it with high heat, then add honeysuckle, lotus leaf juice, and water bamboo leaf juice after boiling, add rock sugar after it is cooked and eat.

In addition to dietary conditioning, medication can help relieve symptoms faster. Bupleurum, pueraria, mint, forsythia and other traditional Chinese medicines are all symptomatic. In addition to these traditional Chinese medicines, Lunan Chaiyin Oral Liquid also adds honeysuckle, astragalus, bitter almond and other traditional Chinese medicines, which can clear away heat and detoxify, relieve throat and relieve cough. .

3. Deficiency and cold

Different from other colds, a cold due to physical deficiency is mainly caused by the deficiency of human body and the lack of external defense. Common in women, the elderly, chronic diseases, overwork and other frail, infirm.

• Qi deficiency and cold

Qi-deficiency cold is a common type of body-deficiency cold. Insufficient Qi is unable to exorcise pathogens. It is often manifested as fatigue, lack of energy, lazy speech, general weakness, weak expectoration, nasal congestion, runny nose, loss of appetite, and light tongue coating. White and so on.

Therapeutic principles - replenishing qi and resolving the exterior, reconciling the ying and wei .

In terms of diet, it is suitable to drink astragalus and crucian carp soup. The practice is: prepare crucian carp, astragalus, atractylodes, parsnip, onion, ginger, and salt in appropriate amounts, decoct the three traditional Chinese medicines of astragalus, atractylodes, and parsnip to extract juice, add water to boil together with the washed crucian carp, and then add seasoning to eat.

Such people are suitable for the selection of Chinese patent medicines, such as Shensu Granules and Yupingfeng Granules.

• yin deficiency cold

The main problem of patients with colds due to yin deficiency is the loss of yin fluid. The main symptoms are five upset heat, dry cough with little phlegm, dry and sore throat, thirst and excessive drinking, red tongue with little coating, etc.

Therapeutic principles - nourishing yin and promoting body fluid, dispersing external pathogens.

The diet should be light, avoid spicy stimulation, you can eat more food such as Tremella, sea cucumber, lily, Sydney; medicine is suitable for Liuwei Dihuang Pill, Zhibai Dihuang Pill, etc.

• Yang deficiency and cold

Patients with a cold due to yang deficiency can obviously feel aversion to cold, and will experience aversion to cold, shivering, worsening aversion to cold due to sweating, headache, sore and cold joints, numb limbs, pale tongue, and white coating.

Therapeutic principles - help yang and replenish qi, sweat and relieve the table.

Because of fear of cold and lack of yang energy, you should stay away from cold and cold things and eat more food that warms yang, such as longan, pigeon meat, longan, pork belly, walnuts, etc. In the selection of Chinese patent medicines, symptomatic treatment such as Guifu Dihuang Pill and Sishen Pill can be used.

On the basis of diet and medication, after suffering from a cold, some effective physical methods can also help relieve symptoms, such as bathing with warm water, cooling with ice packs, steaming the face, and washing the nose with salt water.

In short, when you catch a cold, you can't treat it with contempt. Only by taking medicine according to the symptoms can make you truly "comfortable".

> > References: >

> > 1. Li Jiansheng, Yu Xueqing. Guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of common cold in traditional Chinese medicine (2015 edition) [J]. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2016: 91-95. >

> > 2. Zhao Xingwen. A brief discussion on TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment of cold patients with physical deficiency [J]. Health Must Read, 2019: 128. >