Traditional Chinese Medicine Approaches to Heat-Induced Cold Symptoms
“The flu is coming!”—this warning once caused widespread anxiety. However, according to the city’s disease control center, current overall incidence levels are roughly comparable to last year’s. What people now face is a condition causing widespread discomfort, primarily characterized by chills, fever, body pain, severe dry cough without phlegm, and sore throat. Western medicine calls this upper or lower respiratory tract infection (distinguished by the pharynx), while Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) terms it an external contraction cold, caused by external wind pathogen (TCM does not recognize “flu”; Western flu is called “epidemic cold” in TCM). Wind-cold, summer-heat, dampness, dryness, and fire are known as the Six Pathogenic Factors in TCM.
Wang Shuchen, Deputy Director of the Respiratory Branch of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine and President of Xiyuan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, urged the press on December 31, 2001, to alert citizens to pay high attention: many people currently suffering from this type of cold exhibit pronounced heat symptoms, onset is sudden, and it easily progresses deeply into bronchitis. Patients endure significant discomfort and substantial physical depletion, posing life-threatening risks to those with chronic respiratory diseases, heart conditions, elderly individuals, and infants.
Unstable, alternating cold and hot, dry weather most favors outbreaks of epidemic cold. Wang stated that this current illness is not ordinary cold; it features sudden onset, high fever, sore throat, headache, severe toxicity, joint pain, white-yellow sticky sputum difficult to expectorate, and lasts up to about one week.
For patients with this condition, TCM diagnostic treatment principles recommend clearing heat and toxins, promoting lung function, and stopping cough. It is reported that as a key TCM specialty supported by the Capital TCM Development Fund—Xiyuan Hospital’s Respiratory Department—experts have collectively developed a standardized formula tailored to symptoms. Wang believes southern people’s habit of drinking herbal teas to nourish yin and moisten the lungs is excellent. He suggests everyone can easily prepare health-promoting herbal tea at home.
Standardized Formula for Heat-Induced Cold
Chrysanthemum, honeysuckle, Isatis root, raw gypsum, Ophiopogon tuber, rhubarb, red peony root, processed ephedra, apricot kernel, and reed rhizome, adjusted per symptoms. Add bupleurum for severe fever, qianghuo and chuanxiong for headache, ge gen for muscle and joint pain, xuan shen and jin lantern for sore throat. Xiyuan Hospital provides pre-packaged herbal slices.
Self-Made Preventive Health Tea
Pear with jujube decocted; pear with fritillary bulb decocted; pear with Sichuan Fritillary decocted; reed rhizome decocted; cabbage heart decocted; vinegar fumigation.