Prevention and Treatment of the Common Cold
The common cold, popularly called shang feng ("wind-strike"), is the most ordinary of illnesses; it can come at any season but is especially common in winter and spring. When the climate veers warm and cold and the body's resistance drops with chill or rain-soaking, the cold most easily strikes.
How to prevent the cold?
The most effective is to train the body and strengthen the constitution. With weather change, add or shed clothes — guard against chill and against overheat. After rain-soaking, drink a ginger–brown-sugar broth. After sweating from work or exercise, do not strip off suddenly, nor take a cold bath at once.
The cold spreads by the airways, so open windows regularly and keep air moving. For those of weak constitution who sweat readily and fear wind, suffering colds again and again: take huangqi 120 g, baizhu 60 g, fangfeng 20 g, ground to powder, 5 g morning and evening in brown-sugar water, for a stretch.
When the cold strikes, there is usually chill and fever, headache, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, and the like. Our medicine divides cold into two classes, treated differently.
Wind-cold cold — chill heavy, fever light; headache, body ache; clear runny nose; mouth not dry; thin white tongue-coating; pulse floating. Treat with the warm-pungent method that releases the surface and disperses wind-cold; choose the following.
1. Generally, zisu leaf 10 g, fresh ginger 3 slices, cong-bai (scallion white) 10 stalks, decocted, with brown sugar 30 g added — drink hot in two doses.
2. For more severe cases, Jingfang Baidu Heji. If unavailable, use jingjie, fangfeng, duhuo, qianghuo, chaihu, qianhu, chuanxiong, jiegeng, zhiqiao, fuling, 10 g each, gancao 6 g — decocted, three doses.
3. For lighter cases, Wushi Cha dissolved in water.
4. For those weak in body, with cough and thin phlegm, Shensu Wan is also fit.
Wind-heat cold — fever heavy, chill light; headache, sore throat; thick runny nose; dry mouth; thin yellow tongue-coating; pulse floating and rapid. Treat with the cool-pungent method that releases the surface and disperses wind-heat; choose the following.
1. Generally, mulberry leaf, juhua, mint, lianqiao, zhuye, 10 g each, decocted, two doses; or Ganmao Tuire Chongji in water.
2. For heavier fever and clear sore throat, take Yinqiao Jiedu Wan.
3. For lighter fever with clear cough, Sangju Ganmao Chongji is fit.
In addition, for cold patients with clear gastrointestinal signs — nausea, vomiting, diarrhea — Huoxiang Zhengqi Wan is best, with shenqu 10 g steeped as tea.