Everyone gets a cold, some occasionally, some often. Some people don’t catch a cold in winter, but they catch a cold easily in summer. Are there any effective measures to prevent colds?
The answer is: yes! It is also very simple!
First of all, let’s analyze why colds happen from the perspective of Chinese medicine. Please see the following chart (the box is the human body, the dotted line is the human skin couples).
1, the external evil: cold is due to external wind evil (wind with cold called wind chill, wind with heat called wind heat, not with cold heat called typhoid) caused by the disease. Wind cold, wind fever or typhoid invade the body from the body surface, collectively commonly known as cold, which is one of the necessary conditions for a cold.
2, positive energy: this is the body’s resistance and ability to recover from disease. It refers to the body’s yang and yin fluids. Among them, Yang Qi is the main resistance of the body. Only when Yang Qi is deficient and cannot resist external evil, it can cause a cold. This is the second necessary condition for a cold.
Yang qi, the most active substance in the human body, runs on the surface of the body and within the body.
When a person is awake, Yang Qi is distributed to the skin couples on the body surface, just like the guards guarding the city gates, making the skin couples dense to resist external evil.
When a person sleeps, the yang energy on the surface of the body will enter the body to rest (and be nourished by the yin liquid in the body so that it can be energetic after waking up. That is to say, to nourish the essence), the skin couples on the surface of the body will be loose and empty, just like the guards go to rest, the city gate is not guarded by guards (this is a normal phenomenon).
Only when the right qi (especially yang qi) is insufficient and the evil qi (wind-heat, wind-cold, wind-evil) is hyperactive, people will catch a cold. However, external evil is always in the air and inevitable. Then insufficient yang energy becomes a decisive factor in causing colds.
When awake: It is generally not easy to catch a cold. This is because Yang Qi is in the coupons of the body when awake. As long as the physique is not very poor, the yang energy on the surface of the body will be sufficient when waking up, so it can resist external evil and is not easy to get sick. (People who are afraid of the wind when they wake up and catch a cold when the wind blows are caused by a deficiency of yang energy on the surface of the body, so they should dress well to avoid catching a cold. This kind is not in the scope of our discussion today.)
Sleep: As a result of sleep (whether sitting, lying, napping, snoozing), the body surface of Yang Qi into the body to nurture the essence to go, the skin couples are empty, no Yang Qi protection, like the city gate without guards. External evil (wind-cold, wind-heat, wind evil) will take advantage of the weakness to enter, easy to cause colds.
Therefore, the most critical time to prevent colds is when the body is sleeping. When the human body sleeps, Yang Qi normally enters the body and Yang Qi on the body surface is normally insufficient. How to defend against external evil at this time without catching a cold?
The answer is: whether you are strong or weak, adult or child, the most simple and effective way to prevent colds is: always cover up when you sleep (see the illustration below). Whether you are lying down, sitting down, taking a nap or napping, be sure to cover more or less with a quilt or blanket of moderate thickness. Especially in summer, never be naked (deficiency of positive energy) and blowing on the air conditioner and electric fan (hyperactivity of external evil), which is the most likely to catch a cold.
P.S. Most colds in children are caused by kicking the blanket while sleeping. So young mothers and fathers, make or buy a “sleeping bag” that can protect your child’s chest, abdomen and waist and back, so that your child can stay away from colds.
The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine said: “Wind, the beginning of a hundred diseases, clear and quiet, the flesh coup closed and refused, although there is a big wind harsh poison, the Buddha can harm.” This tells us: as long as the human body maintains the principles of mental stability and moderate work and rest, then the muscle couples will be closed and have the ability to resist external evil, although there is a big wind harsh poison dip, can not hurt.