Cold is easy to catch when the temperature drops in winter. Once someone catches a cold, the comfort and concern they receive are usually the same. People often advise to drink hot water or ginger soup, claiming that a hot bowl of ginger soup can cure a severe cold! It's amazing! Ginger soup has become a panacea loved by ordinary people.
Four Types of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Colds
In traditional Chinese medicine, colds are classified into four types: wind-cold, wind-heat, summer-dampness, and epidemic colds. Based on the symptoms you experience, you can determine the type of cold you have.
1. Wind-cold:
This type of cold is often caused by the invasion of wind and cold, leading to the stagnation of lung qi. The main symptoms include severe chills, mild fever, no sweating, headache, general body aches, stuffy nose with clear runny nose, sneezing, itchy throat, cough, thin white phlegm, thin white tongue coating, and floating tight pulse. Treatment should focus on dispersing wind and releasing the exterior with warm and pungent herbs.
2. Wind-heat:
This type of cold is the opposite of wind-cold. It is caused by the invasion of wind-heat and the stagnation of lung qi. Wind-heat colds usually have a higher fever, mild aversion to wind and cold, as well as symptoms of headache, sore throat, stuffy nose, yellow runny nose, cough with yellow phlegm, and thirst. Treatment should focus on clearing heat and detoxification with cool and pungent herbs.
3. Summer-dampness:
This type of cold is more common in summer. It occurs when the patient already has dampness and then catches a cold, or it can be caused by overconsumption of cold drinks and melons and fruits. The main symptoms include chills and fever, headache, chest and abdominal fullness, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, loss of appetite, and a bland taste in the mouth. Treatment should focus on aromatizing dampness and harmonizing the middle.
4. Epidemic colds:
This refers to what we usually call the flu. It is similar to wind-heat colds but has a faster onset and more severe symptoms, often accompanied by high fever, chills, severe headache, body aches, fatigue, red tongue, yellow fur, and floating and rapid pulse. Treatment should focus on clearing heat and detoxification, as well as dispersing wind and releasing the exterior.
Ginger Soup is Only Suitable for Wind-Cold Colds
However, doctors say that ginger soup is not suitable for all types of colds. Drinking ginger soup indiscriminately not only does not cure the cold but may also cause more trouble.
For wind-cold colds, dispersing wind and cold is needed, and ginger happens to have this advantage. After catching a wind-cold cold, drinking a hot bowl of ginger soup can make the body feel warm and cause sweating, relieving nasal congestion. This is the warming and dispersing effect of ginger.
But what happens if you drink ginger soup without considering the type of cold you have? Terrible consequences! If you have wind-heat cold instead of wind-cold, that hot bowl of ginger soup will not be a good medicine but a "culprit" that exacerbates the condition and prolongs the recovery.
In addition, patients with a hot constitution should not drink ginger soup. It will not cure the illness but worsen the condition.
