How to Treat Colds & Flu at Home with Chinese Medicine
In China, it is well known that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can “cure” the common cold and respiratory flu, and there are TCM therapies you can do at home to accomplish this. Here in the US, we medical practitioners prefer to avoid the term “cure” but those of us who practice TCM professionally know that no one ever has to endure a cold or flu because TCM can naturally relieve symptoms and completely eradicate the virus from your body. This is common knowledge in China and, hopefully, it will someday be common knowledge in the US. (You can help spread the word by telling your friends and family!) Although acupuncture can resolve a cold or flu but it is best to avoid coming into a community acupuncture clinic when your symptoms are severe or when you have a cough or fever. Good news is that there are 2 things you can do at home to stop a cold or flu in its tracks!
As soon as you begin noticing symptoms — which may include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, nasal or sinus congestion, fatigue, bodyaches, headache, and/or plugged ears– do one or both of the following TCM therapies at home. The sooner you begin these therapies once a cold or flu sets in, the greater the benefits. Note that TCM therapies, including acupuncture, do not mask cold/flu symptoms as do pharmaceutical drugs. Instead, TCM resolves your symptoms and strengthens your immune system to overcome the virus to make you well. How soon can TCM resolve your virus? In as little as an hour or by the end of the first day. (Download instructions at bottom of this page.)
Gua Sha (“scrape away disease”)
This is easy and very effective but it may sound a bit strange. It consists of scraping key places on your skin with the thin edge of a spoon (or any thin edge you have handy such as a credit card or shaft of a comb). There is an energetic field called Wei Qi (“way chee”) at the surface of the skin all over your body. Disrupting the Wei Qi at specific acupoints and along specific acupuncture meridians allows the cold or flu virus to escape the body, thus relieving or resolving your cold or flu and its symptoms. Scraping the skin until it becomes red at these areas disrupts the Wei Qi just enough to “kick out” the virus.
Yin Qiao San a.k.a. Yin Chiao San (“Honeysuckle and Forsythia tablets”)
Yin Qiao (“yin chow”) tablets are an over-the-counter blend of Chinese herbs that can reduce or resolve these common cold and flu symptoms:Sore throat, fever, cough, congestion, headache, thirst, and “plugged” ears.
CLICK HERE for printable instruction sheet for using Gua Sha and Yin Qiao to relieve cold/flu at home.
