Treasure House of Secrets - (Treasured Edition)

Author: Wang Wei / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features:
The common cold includes two types of conditions: the common cold (upper respiratory infection) and influenza. Most colds are caused by viral infections, while a few are caused by a mixed infection of viruses and bacteria in the nose and throat, leading to upper respiratory tract inflammation. Influenza, often shortened to flu, is caused by influenza viruses. The main symptoms of a cold are fever, chills, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, headache, and sore throat. The common cold is the most common infectious disease with a very high incidence rate, and almost everyone has had a cold. The common cold generally has mild symptoms, a short duration, and a good prognosis. Severe colds can lead to complications such as acute bronchitis, otitis media, myocarditis, nephritis, and rheumatic fever. Influenza has a sudden onset, often breaks out in outbreaks, spreads rapidly, and presents with severe symptoms, including high fever (body temperature often reaching 39–40°C), chills, and severe aches in the joints. It can even be life-threatening for children, the elderly, and the weak. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), this condition is called "common cold," sometimes referred to as "wind cold." Influenza is equivalent to "episodic cold" in TCM. TCM believes that the common cold is caused by exposure to wind pathogens or epidemic viruses, where the pathogen invades the body's surface and attacks the lung defense system, leading to impaired lung Qi and impaired dissemination, resulting in a cold. TCM generally classifies the common cold into two patterns: wind-cold and wind-heat. The characteristics of wind-cold cold include body pain, no sweating, chills with fever, nasal congestion, clear nasal discharge, coughing with thin, white foamy sputum, clear and long urination, thin white tongue coating, and floating or tense floating pulse. The characteristics of wind-heat cold include fever, slight aversion to wind, coughing with yellow or white sticky sputum, red and swollen sore throat, dry mouth with thirst, yellow and dark urination, thin yellow tongue coating, and floating rapid pulse. P1