Common cold
is common. Everyone definitely has had more or less times of
common cold during his/her life. Some people choose to stay at
home and just have a rest and others may have to take pain
killer, or aspirin-like medicine. Here we introduce some tips
used by ordinary Chinese when they have common cold.
(1). Carrot
soup
Material:
Yellow carrot (not the white color carrot).
Preparation: wash the carrot, chop into small pieces, cook in
water for 10 to 20 min.
How to use:
Drink the soup. It is useful for those who feel cold/chilly. It
is better to drink before going to bed. During night, you may
have mild sweat and feel much better next morning!
(2).
Chinese green onion
Material:
Chinese green onion (Allium).
Use its white stem. Fresh
ginger 15 g; rice 100g.
Preparation: Add rice into water to boil for 30 min or until the
rice is ready to eat. Add chopped Chinese green onion and the
fresh ginger into the rice soup for several min.
How to use:
Drink the soup. It is useful for those who feel cold.
(3).
Chinese green onion and garlic soup
Material:
Chinese green onion,
500g; garlic 250g.
Preparation: Chop the green onion into pieces; peer the garlic,
chop it too. Add into 2000ml water to boil for 10 to 20 min.
How to use:
Drink the soup. Three times a day. It is used also for
prevention of flu.
(4).
Chinese green onion and walnut kennel
Material:
Chinese green onion,
25g; walnut kennel, 25g; fresh ginger, 25g; green tea leaves,
15g.
Preparation: Grind the onion, kennel, and the ginger into mud,
mix with tea leaves and 500 ml water. Boil for 10 to 20 min.
How to use:
Drink the soup all once. Cover with tight and have a sleep.
Note: the
above formula is used for Cold-type common cold. People feel
cold, or chilly, with or without hot/fever, with or without
headache or little cough. It is not suitable if one feel only
fever but no cold at all. It is neither good for those who is
easy to have sweat before the common cold.
In
Traditional Chinese Medicine, this type of common cold belongs
to Cold type and need some sweating therapy (to expel the Cold
out of body with sweat). The commonly used herb formula is Ma-huang
tang. Tang means formula.
If one has
tight shoulders, pain in front head, stiff nose and sinus, or
source on the back of eye, we use Ge-geng tang.
If one has
fever and cold shift (sometimes cold and again fever, then cold
again), with bloating upper stomach, nausea, ache in the side of
neck, head or body, or with kind of annoyed feeling, we may use
Xiao-chai-hu tang.
If one
normally has sweat very easily, and this time with the common
cold, he/she feels cold, sweat, with or without fever, with or
without small joints pain, we may use Gui-zhi tang. People who
need such Gui-zhi tang is usually thin and weak, and has
frequent allergic reaction history.
If one is
very weak, or has had long time illness, or just had big surgery
stress, or normally has cold feet and/or hands, with or without
heavy pain in joints, we may use Ma-huang Fu-zi Xi-xin tang.
Prevention
of common cold/flu
You can add
vinegar in a pot (better with a clay, not a metal in material).
Heat the pot to cause the vapor of the vinegar and let it fill
into the room. For cold people, instead of using cold vaccine
injection, we recommend to drink Ma0huan Fu-zi Xi-xing tang. It
gives you energy (physically and mentally), warm you up, and
keep you alert (not drowsy during daytime, neither poor sleep at
night).
Treatment
of common cold in the Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) depends
on the clinic manifestation, people’s feeling, their body
constitution, the season and so on. We do not give you headache
herbs if you have headache; give you fever herbs, if you have
fever; give you cough herbs, if you have cough – TCM is not a
one-plus-one herb accumulation medical system. We do not use the
same herbs formula for everyone if they complain to have a
“common cold”.
If you
catch cold and need get rid of the common cold as soon as
possible – since you need to pass a job interview, to
participate a professional conference, participate a college
exam,…to meet your girl/boy friend… come to a TCM doctor. They
should be able to solve your common cold dramatically within one
hour!
Although
more and more people realize the importance and usefulness of
the Traditional Chinese Medicine – especially its acupuncture
and herbal therapy – some people still suspect and hesitate to
take herbs. For those people, it is recommended to try a suction
cupping therapy.
You can use
suction cupping for the treatment of common cold as well as flu.
The most common place to put the suction cups is on your upper
back (Fig. 1). Leave the cups for 10 to 20 min, or until you can
see the skin color within the cups turns dark.
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