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By Martha Benedict, O.M.D.

Most of us get colds or the flu every now and then. Traditional Chinese medicine tells us these ailments may be related to imbalances in our bodies rather than to a sluggish immune system.

Got the sniffles? Think you might be catching another cold? While you're lying in bed blowing your nose, sipping liquids and watching the clock tick, you might spend some time reading about the traditional Chinese medicine viewpoint on why we get colds and the flu. Western medicine tells us that colds and influenza result from exposure to a virus. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) says that colds and flu and all other ailments result from imbalances in our bodies. According to the principles of TCM, we're composed of opposing forces including cold and heat, dark and light, damp and dry, and blood and qi (pronounced "chi"), our vital energy. These forces must function in a balanced relationship to one another for us to maintain health. When imbalance occurs, health can be impaired.

    Wind is the pathogen thought by TCM practitioners to be among the causes of cold and flu. Just as the wind is active, changeable and wanders wildly, cold and flu symptoms can include fevers and chills, headache, migratory muscle and joint ache, and runny nose. These symptoms, like the wind, can appear and disappear suddenly without apparent pattern. Wind enters the body mainly through the neck, the back and sides of the head, and the front of the chest. To help prevent colds and flu, wear a scarf around your neck and over your chest as well as a hat or scarf on your head.

    Colds and flu can be caused by either hot or cold wind. Cold wind tends to affect tired, weak, energy-depleted people whose body temperature is low. Common symptoms of cold wind may include headache, stiff neck, runny nose, and muscle and joint pain.

    How do you treat the invasion of cold wind? According to TCM, the most important approach is diaphoresis; that is, inducing mild perspiration, a process that drives the invading cold wind out of the body. You might take a hot bath or shower, then hop into bed and cover your entire body with blankets, sip hot mint tea until you "burst" into sweat, then go to sleep. Ginger tea also helps ward off cold wind because ginger is a warming herb that speeds circulation and promotes sweating.

    Nourishment should be provided mainly through hot liquids, which again enhance perspiration. Chicken soup steeped with lots of garlic and green onions, especially the white part of the green onion or scallion, helps open the pores to allow perspiration. Miso (fermented soybean paste) soup made with green onions also helps release body heat through the process of perspiration.

    If the invading wind is especially strong_in other words, if your symptoms are especially virulent_you may need the help of TCM herbal remedies. The two most prescribed formulas for early stages of cold wind invasion are ephedra tea (ma huang tang) and cinnamon twig tea (guizhi tang), which promote sweating. Ephedra is often recommended for people with strong constitutions who aren't perspiring during their colds; cinnamon is generally for those with a weaker constitution who are perspiring.

    There are many versions of these classical tea formulas whose modifications are best suited to regional climatic variations as well as to individual patient symptoms. For example, when a person's symptoms are predominantly in the head (headache and runny nose), chuan xiong cha tiao wan is one of the finest formulas to use. This formula contains many herbs including peppermint, ligusticum and licorice and is designed to release pain or head congestion when these symptoms are due to cold wind.

    Hot wind, too, can cause you to catch colds or the flu. Hot winds tend to affect strong, energetic people. Symptoms include sore throat, fever, headache, cough, runny nose and itchy eyes. Hot wind has more energy and goes deeper into the skin than does cold wind, so you want to treat it with strong herbs including one of the versions of the yin chiao formula—lonicera and forsythia tea. This formula helps clear toxins and heat because it fosters perspiration to drive out hot wind. A formula of mulberry and chrysanthemum tea is used to clear heat and wind if the hot wind invasion is mild.

    When using Chinese herbs, remember that in China there are more than 7,000 formulas used to treat most imbalances; yet, in the United States, we have only a handful. Therefore, although you can address a basic bodily imbalance with herbs, lifestyle changes such as appropriate dress; a balanced, nutritious diet; and vitamin C supplementation should become a part of your preventive therapy. Supplementing with probiotics, better known as beneficial bacteria, helps reestablish the balance between useful and pathogenic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.

Driving Away Dampness

Frequently, when you have a cold or the flu, wind is accompanied by the internal climate called dampness. Dampness is characterized by abnormal buildup of fluids or excess secretions. It manifests as swelling and a sense of fullness and heaviness. Dampness gives rise to dry mouth with no wish to drink; thick, greasy, white and yellow coating on the tongue; chest constriction; abdominal distention; constipation; diarrhea and scant urination. It's often accompanied by depression.

    The herbal formula appropriate for damp invasion includes agastache, magnolia, pinellia and poria, which helps drive the damp out of the body by circulating accumulated fluids and opening the breathing passages. Broths of barley or kuzu with ginger, parsley and green onions may also help. Barley, parsley and kuzu remove dampness by encouraging urination; onions make you sweat. Parsley is especially beneficial because it helps remineralize your body after sweating and urination.

    So, while you should support your immune system by eating right, taking your vitamin and mineral supplements, and exercising, you might find further relief from seasonal ailments with TCM, a healing modality that's been around for more than 5,000 cold and flu seasons.

Martha Benedict is an Oriental medicine doctor who practices in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Reprinted with permission from the December 1997 issue of Delicious! Magazine, a publication of New Hope Communications, Boulder, CO.