Traditional Chinese Medicine Approaches to Heat-Induced Cold Symptoms
“The flu is coming!”—this warning once caused great anxiety, but the municipal CDC reports that current overall incidence is roughly comparable to last year. What people face now is a disease characterized primarily by chills, fever, body pain, severe dry cough without phlegm, and sore throat. Western medicine calls it upper or lower respiratory tract infection (distinguished by the throat), 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 “seasonal epidemic cold” in TCM). Wind-cold, summer-heat, dampness, and dryness are known as the six evils in TCM.
Wang Shuchen, Deputy Director of the Respiratory Branch of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine and President of the West Park Hospital, Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, urged the media on December 31, 2001, to alert the public: many people currently suffering from this type of cold show prominent heat symptoms, with sudden onset and high risk of progressing 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.
Fluctuating temperatures and dry weather are ideal conditions for seasonal epidemic cold outbreaks. Wang stated that this current illness is not ordinary cold—it features sudden onset, high fever, sore throat, headache, severe systemic toxicity, joint pain, and sticky yellow sputum that is hard to expel, lasting up to about one week.
According to TCM diagnostic principles, treatment should focus on clearing heat and toxins, promoting lung function, and stopping cough. As part of the capital’s Traditional Chinese Medicine Development Fund-supported key specialty—West Park Hospital’s Respiratory Department—experts have developed a standardized formula tailored to these symptoms. Wang believes southern people’s habit of drinking herbal teas to nourish yin and moisten lungs is excellent. He recommends preparing simple health-promoting herbal tea easily at home.
Standardized Formula for Heat-Induced Cold
Chrysanthemum, honeysuckle, isatis root, raw gypsum, ophiopogon, artemisia, red peony root, processed ephedra, apricot kernel, and reed rhizome, with adjustments based on symptoms. Add bupleurum for high fever, qianghuo and chuanchuan for headache, ge gen for muscle and joint pain, xuan shen and jin lantern for sore throat. West Park Hospital offers pre-packaged herbal slices.
Self-Made Preventive Health Tea
Pear with dates boiled; pear with fritillary bulb boiled; pear with pinellia tuber boiled; reed rhizome boiled; cabbage heart boiled; vinegar fumigation.