Treating the Cold and Flu with Traditional Chinese Medicine

The treatment of external pathogenic influences (EPI) is one of the first things traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) professionals learn.  EPIs include pathogens like the common cold and flu and are most commonly caught in the autumn and spring.  Symptoms usually start as neck pain for no apparent reason which then progresses to an itchy or sore throat, general malaise, respiratory symptoms like a cough and runny nose, and alternating chills and fever.

People who consider themselves at risk of becoming ill should make sure they stay warm on cool days, get enough exercise, and seek the advice of a TCM professional.  As a common courtesy, people in China who cough or sneeze, wear a surgical mask to help prevent others from becoming sick.  These masks come in all sorts of colours and designs as you can see in the picture above.  So another way that you can help prevent the spread of infection is to wear a clean surgical mask if you have a cold or the flu.

TCM professionals often suggest drinking fresh ginger tea and taking an herbal formula which is prescribed for your unique situation.  Also, if you notice yourself just starting to come down with something, you can make a soup out of green onion and prepared soybeans (dan dou chi), or miso, to help boost your immune system.  However, if you do become ill it is important to seek the advice of a TCM professional because each person reacts to the cold or flu in a different way and the TCM professional will know which treatment method and herbal medicine will work best for you.

Specific treatments and herbal formulas for EPIs have been passed down and continuously developed since at least 4 500 BCE.  It wasn't until around 150-219CE that Zhang Zhong Jing, a famous TCM doctor, finally compiled herbal medical knowledge into a book called the Shang Han Za Bing Lun.  It was lost due to wars then found and made into two books.  One book is the Shang Han Lun and is a discourse on how to treat cold induced epidemic diseases.  The other, called the Jin Gui Yao Lue, is a compendium of prescriptions and clinical experience.  Another school of thought arose around 1758-1836CE when Wu Jutong wrote the Wen Bing.  The Wen Bing describes how to treat epidemic febrile diseases.  These texts are studied by TCM professionals and are clinically useful for treating any external pathogenic influence.  People in North America are finally becoming aware of the existence and efficacy of these ancient Chinese medicines and I have recently seen an increase in demand for alternatives to the flu shot. Most of this increased demand is because the H1N1 swine flu has received so much media attention and not every one can get or wants to have the flu shot.

Conventional western medicine considers both the cold and flu as viral infections and offers flu shots, anti-viral drugs, and drugs which can offer symptomatic relief by suppressing certain normal immunological responses.  Tamiflu, a popular seasonal flu shot, is derived from limited knowledge of TCM. It comes from the herb Star Anise (Ba Jiao Hui Xiang 八角茴香) which is listed in the ancient Chinese pharmacopoeia. So, if you want a medicine that has been shown to be effective for thousands of years that even conventional western medicine uses, you may want to consider TCM.

For a list of licenced TCM professionals in British Columbia, Canada please refer to the CTCMA website: http://www.ctcma.bc.ca/public.asp?cat=search