中医治疗感冒

Treatment of Common Cold or Flue

By Chinese Medicine

在中医看来，感冒有多种。 一种最常见的感冒属于普通感冒，分为风寒感冒和风热感冒.

In the view of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the common cold or flue can be separated into two main groups, e.g. the Wind-Cold common cold and Wind-fire common cold.

普通感冒多是由于季节天气变化，人体不适应气候的变化而出现的症状。

Common cold or flu is usually caused by weather change, or because people stay in a cold environment for a longer time, during which the body condition cannot match the environment change. 

如果病人感冒后身上发冷畏寒，基本上属于普通感冒。这种病人也许发热也许不发热，但必定有畏寒喜暖。另外会有头痛，项痛，背痛或关节痛。一般口不渴。

Upon getting sick, if the patient feels chilly or cold in the body, with or without fever, it belongs to common cold.   

如果畏寒的感觉比发热的感觉重， 就属于风寒感冒。如果发热重，畏寒轻，就属于风热感冒。

If the feeling of chilly is more than fever (or the hot feeling in the body), the common cold belongs to Wind-cold common cold. If the fever (or the hot feeling in the body) is more than the chilly, it belongs to Wind-hot common cold. Patient with Wind-cold common cold usually has pain in head, on neck, back or joint. Patient with Wind-hot common cold usually has pain in throat. 

风寒感冒中，如果病人平素身体结实，很少有病，得病后身体不出汗，我们称之为风寒表实感冒，多用麻黄汤，或荆防败毒散。如果咳嗽但是痰不多，用三坳汤；如果痰多而痰容易咯出，用小青龙汤；如果病人身热，烦躁不安，用大青龙汤；如果伴有气喘，哮喘，用麻杏石甘汤。

For the Wind-cold common cold, if the patient is usually strong in the body constitution and usually does not get sick, he/she may have no sweat on the body during the common cold. Such common cold is called body surface strong Wind-cold common cold. We use herbal formula Mahuang Tang (The Tang means herb decoction, or Jing Fang Bai Du San (San here means herbal powder) for the treatment. If the patient has cough but has less phlegm, we use San Ao Tang. If the couch is with lots of clear-thin phlegm, we use Xiao Qinglong Tang. If the patient feels hot in the body, has anxiety inside, we use Da Qinglong Tang for the treatment. If there is short of breath, or asthma, we use Ma Xing Shi Gang Tang.

风寒感冒中，病人平素体弱，感冒后身上有汗，我们称之为风寒表虚感冒，多用桂枝汤治疗。如果病后有恶心欲呕，或有两肋下不适或痛，用柴胡桂枝汤；如果伴有腹痛，用桂枝加芍药汤；伴有便秘，用桂枝加大黄汤；伴有腹泻，用桂枝人参汤。

For the Wind-cold common cold, if the patient is usually weak in the body constitution, and has sweat on the body after getting the cold, we call it body surface-weak common cold. We usually use Guizhi Tang for the treatment. If the patient has nausea and has desire to vomit, or has discomfort in the upper side of the belly, we use Chaihu Guizhi Tang. If the patient is with pain in stomach, herb Guizhi plus Shaoyao Tang is used. If there is constipation, use Guizhi plus Dahuang tang. If there is diarrhea, use Guizhi Renshen Tang for the treatment.

风寒感冒，病人除了上面的身冷，头痛，关节痛，更突出的表现是后项紧而痛，腰部紧而痛，我们多用葛根汤。这类病人如果有腹泻 （这种腹泻多不伴有明显的里急后重），我们用葛根芩连汤； 如果伴有恶心，用葛根加半夏汤。

For the Wind-cold common cold, if the patient feel more tight and pain on the neck and on between the shoulder bladder, and tight and pain on the lower back, we use Gegen Tang. If such patient is with diarrhea, we use Gegen plus Gegen Qing Lian Tang. If such patient has nausea, Gegen plus Banxia would be used.

风寒感冒，伴有咳嗽，咯痰，痰粘难出，胸闷气短，喜欢冷饮，用麻杏石甘汤，或越婢加术汤。

For the Wind-cold common cold, if the patient has cough, more phlegm that is hard to spill out, has tight feeling on the chest and short of breath, dry mouth and willing to drink cold water, herb formula Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang, or Ye Bi plus Baizhu Tang would be used.

另外一类普通感冒属于风热感冒。这类病人也有畏寒，但是畏寒轻而发热重， 多有咽喉疼痛。我们多用银翘散，黄连上清丸等治疗。 风热感冒多见与小孩和青少年。

For the Wind-hot kind of common cold, patient has more fever than chilly and tend to have pain in the through too. The commonly used herbal formula is Yin Qiao San, Huanglian Shang Qing Wan (Wan here means pill). Such Wind-hot common cold is more seen in younger kid or teenagers. 

如果感冒是由于暴食饮冷，病人出现外有畏寒身热，全身肌肉酸痛不适，颈项强紧，内有腹胀泛酸嗳气腹泻，我们用五积散治疗。

If the common cold is caused by eating too much or drink too much ice water or eat cold food, and the patient feels chilly and fever, pain all over the body, tightness on the neck, and also stomach bloating, burping, nausea, diarrhea, herbal Wu Ji Sang is commonly used. 

如果病人平素饮酒多，或者平素内热，喜欢冰饮，那么感冒后多有寒包火的感冒，就是说外有畏寒身痛，内有喜冷饮冷便秘，我们多考虑越婢加术汤加减治疗。

If the patient usually drink lots of alcohol, or has “fire” inside the body – has desire to drink cold-ice water, and after getting the cold, there would tend to have a “Cold-fold-fire” phenomena in the body. This means that the patient feels chilly but also wants to drink cold water and has constipation. In such condition, we use Yu Bi plus Baishu Tang for the treatment.

可见，当面对同样的气候环境变化，不同的人体状况，其感冒后的表现会很不同，中医治疗的方剂也就会很不同。 这样对症治疗，因人下方，才会达到药证丝丝入扣，药到病除，避免药轻病重或药重病轻所致的变证。就是说，中医不仅要考虑感冒是由于什么原因造成的，如伤风， 伤冷，伤食等，更重要的还要考虑病人平素的体质和现在的机体反应。而不是说一群人同时感冒了，就该都用同样的药物治疗。

 Apparently, upon faces the same environment changes, different person would have different body reaction and have different symptoms of common cold. Therefore, the herbal formula used by TCM for the treatment would also be very different. TCM doctor would have to not only consider what is the reason to cause the sick, but also pay much more attention to the difference of the body reaction by different people. This means that the TCM doctor must use different herbal formula to different patient, so that the herbal formula would match the disease exactly and get much faster improvement for their sickness. This is a principle for TCM doctor for their clinic work.

以上的感冒表现尚在体表层次。如果病情进一步发展，病人出现肋下不适或痛，恶心或呕吐，时而发热，时而畏寒，口苦咽干，有眩晕感，或者病人眼睛发红，两耳有堵塞感，听力下降， 当改用小柴胡汤。

The clinic phenomenon above means that the disease is still on the body surface layer. If the common cold develops further, the patient may feel discomfort on the upper side of the belly, nausea or vomit, may have fever (or hot feeling on the body) and chilly feeling shift, has bitter taste in mouth, or dryness in throat, has dizziness, or has red color in eyes, and blocking feeling in ears (or reduced hearing). In such case, herbal formula Xiao Chaihu Tang should be used. 

感冒进一步发展也可能发展为阳明阶段。进入这个阶段，病人不再有畏寒的感觉，反而身热汗出不欲盖被子，而且口渴喜欢喝大量冷水以解渴。这个阶段就必须用白虎汤清热。西医碰到这类病人会用解热镇痛剂， 冰敷，甚至激素等来降温。而中医白虎汤解热的作用比激素都要好。

The common cold can also further more develop into another layer of the body: the patient feels fever, heavy sweat, dry mouth and has desire to drink a lot of cold/ice water. In this case, herbal formula Bai Hu Tang should be used. For such patients, western medicine would use antibiotics, ice-bath, or even steroid to reduce the fever. They never know that Chinese herbal  formula as this one works much better than the ice bath or steroid.

普通感冒中还有一类感冒，就是感冒后病人头痛，身痛，畏寒身冷，发热 （热度并不很高），极度疲乏嗜睡，病人脉沉而弱，这类病情很危险，说明病人机体的抗病能力已经很差，连普通感冒都抵抗不了。这种危急性感冒常常见于体弱老年人。因为感冒而死亡的老年人多属于这类感冒。这种感冒需要用麻黄附子细辛汤，或四逆汤治疗。如果这种病人同时有频繁的腹泻，当赶快用四逆汤，或白通汤急救。

There is a special kind of common cold, in which the patient feels headache, pain in the body, chilly, and fever (not very high body temperature), and very tired, and has desire to lie down to have a sleep. The pulse of the patient is felt deep and weak. This is a very dangerous kind of clinic condition, since it means that the body defense system is so weak as not be able to against the common cold stress. Such common cold is more seen in elderly patient. This is the condition in which cold people die.  Once we see such patients, we should think to use Mahuang Fuzi Xixing Tang, or Mahuang Fuzi  Gancao Tang, or even Si Ni Tang for the treatment. If such patient has also frequent diarrhea, use Bai Tong Tang as soon as possible to save life. 

需要知道的是许多严重疾病的早期阶段， 比如说急性肺炎，急性脑膜炎，急性肾炎，急性肝炎等等，几乎和普通感冒的表现完全一样。所以，对于感冒不可掉以轻心。 将感冒症状尽早消除对于将许多严重疾病消除在早期阶段有十分重要的意义。将病情阻止在早期阶段，是中医的强项，也是考验中医医生水平的时候。很难说一个中医医生看不好感冒而能解决其他疾病。

It should be known that, the early stage of many acute diseases, such as acute pneumonia, acute meningitis, acute nephritis, or acute hepatitis, is much similar to the common cold. We have to be very careful in the diagnosis of the common cold and the early stage of such acute diseases. It is very important to solve the acute diseases in their early stages, rather than to spend a lot time and money on the treatment of their later chronic stages. It is the advantage of TCM to solve the diseases in their early stages, and it is also a challenge to our TCM doctors. It is hard to believe that a TCM doctor who cannot solve common cold can solve any other diseases.

另外，我们必须知道，常见的急性传染病的早期也和普通感冒类似。一般人不知道其区别，而我们中医医生就必须时时留心区别。急性传染病在中医多称之为温病或瘟疫。这些急性传染病，比如说H1N1， SARS， 发展变化快，病情也重，会在短期内导致死亡。需要特别注意。如果已经知道当地正在流行传染病，或接诊的病人发病后几乎没有畏寒，数小时内就出现体温升高或高热，汗出，口渴，喜欢冷饮，就需要特别注意 这不是普通感冒。对这种急性传染病的早期和急性期， 病人身热，高热大汗，口渴欲饮冷水， 不畏寒，需要立刻用白虎汤，栀子豉汤等治疗。如果高热而不出汗，白虎汤加薄荷和佩兰。

In addition, we also know that, the early stage of acute infectious diseases is also similar to the common cold. Though ordinary people cannot distinguish between them, we as TCM doctor must be able to separate them, since the acute infectious disease develops much faster and is much dangerous to the patient and to the whole society.  This is true especially when we know that there is a spread of an acute infectious disease in the local. In terms of Chinese medicine, if a patient has following symptoms, the TCM doctor should be very careful if the patient has an infectious disease (the TCM Wen disease): sudden fever with heavy sweat but no chilly feeling, thirsty with strong desire to drink cold/ice water. To treat such early stage of infectious disease, we use Bai Hu Tang or Zhizi Chi Tang. If the patient has high fever but no sweat, add herb Bohe and Pailan in the formula above.

将病情阻断在早期，将发病病人早期治愈，对于阻断传染病的传播有着及其重要的作用，而中医在这方面已经积累了大量的临床经验。特别是当传染病已经开始传播，而西医因为尚不知道病原体而难以开始有正对性的治疗 （常常是知道了病原体也没有针对性的治疗药物）的时候是如此。

From history, Chinese medicine has accumulated lots of experience in the treatment of common cold, flue and the early stage of infectious disease. We recommend that, to start TCM treatment for any kind of new infectious disease, especially if the reason for the disease is unknown, or if the western medicine has no sufficient drug to solve this disease, such as in SARS. Try not to suppress the disease by the use of steroid: the patients would have much pain in the bones (osteoporosis) in their later life, which have no way to improve by western medicine. Survivors from such steroid treatment express that they would rather not to survive!

对于普通风寒风热感冒，我们不建议多喝水。如果病人口渴想喝，就喝，如果没有口渴，就不要强迫喝水。如果病人因为发热和汗出而出现体内缺水，病人自然或有口渴的感觉。如果没有，就是说体内并不缺水。过多饮水反而会导致体内水液分布不均，导致更多病症。 这是因为感冒后人体能量集中在体表抗邪，体内处理水液分布的能量不足，会导致水液储流。水停胃中为胃脘胀满，水在肺为咳喘；在膀胱为小便不利；在肠为腹泻；在头为眩晕耳鸣。

Once getting common cold, we do not recommend patient to over-drink water. If you feel thirsty, you drink, if not, do not drink. If your body lost water due to fever and sweat, the body will give you a signal to let you feel thirsty. If you do not feel thirsty, it means that your body is not short of water. In this case, if you drink more water, your body may have no extra energy to handle this excess water – the body now focus its energy to fight again the disease. The extra water may not be properly expelled out of the body but accumulated inside of the body. If the water accumulated in the stomach, you feel bloating, nausea or pain in the stomach area. If it is in the lung, you may have cough and phlegm. If it is in the intestine, you may have diarrhea and if it is in the ear, you fell dizziness and tinnitus. 

要想感冒好得快，需要休息，减少体力和脑力劳动强度，减少饮食饮水之量。 如果感冒症状在第三天好多了，就可以靠人体自身抗病能力康复。如果三天后病情不见好转，或更加重，就需要看医生了。及时治疗感冒，阻断感冒发展病程，对于预防许多疾病都十分重要，比如说预防感冒发展为扁桃体炎，喉炎，肺炎，过敏性鼻炎鼻窦炎，关节炎， 多发性肌炎等等。

If you want to get recovered from the common cold sooner, you need to have a break from your heavy work (physically and mentally). Reduce the amount of meal and water to drink. If your common cold gets better after the third day, you may depend on your own body defense system to recover. If not yet after the third day, it is better to see a TCM doctor, so as to solve the common cold sooner.  

针灸也能治疗感冒。常用的穴位是曲池，合谷，列缺，大椎，风池，迎香等等。草药疗法结合针灸，感冒会好的很快。

Acupuncture also works for the common cold, of course. The common acupuncture spots used is Quchi, Hegu, Lieque, Dazhui, Fengchi  and Yinrxiang, etc. Acupuncture works to boost body energy to expel the invading cold out of body. 

普通人在没有条件看医生的时候，也会用拔罐的方法治疗感冒。比如说在背部或前额拔罐。在背部拔罐需要别人操作，而在前额拔罐自己就可以造作，弊端是拔完罐后会在前额留下黑红色的颜色。这种色素沉着会在数天后可消退，但毕竟影响美观，现代人一般接受不了。

In China, ordinary people may also use cupping therapy to solve the common cold, if they have no way to see a doctor, or if they know how to do it. Cupping means to put a cup like container onto the skin, the container holds to the skin due to a vacuum inside, which is created by previous fire before putting it onto the skin, or by pulling out are using a manual air-pump gun. The cupping cups are usually put on to the back of the body, or to the front head. To put it on the body back needs other’s help, but to the front head, the person can perform it by himself. The weakness to put on to the front head is that it may leave a dark mark on the front head that affects your beauty for several days, while it is the most effective way to reduce headache due to common cold.  

 有些情况下我们也会用刺血疗法治疗感冒。比如说有高热，咽痛的时候，我们会在太阳穴处，印堂穴，手指甲之甲根侧，或指甲尖上放出数滴血，以清血热，治疗发热，头痛，咽痛。

Sometimes, we may also use bleeding therapy. It is to release several drops of blood from skin. We may use this therapy when the patients have headache, fever, or sour throat, etc. The points for the bleeding could be on the temple, or in between the eyebrow, on the sides of nail root, or on the finger tips of patients. This is to release the Fire and toxic from the body through the blood. It works very well and very fast even compared with acupuncture or herbal therapy.