There are five types of colds in Chinese medicine, which are wind-heat cold, summer-damp cold, wind-cold cold, qi deficiency and yin deficiency cold, in which there is no summer-heat cold, only wind-heat type, so it can be identified from the cause, symptoms and treatment.
1. Etiology: summer-dampness colds mostly occur in summer, usually for the feeling of summer-dampness and the onset of the evil, while wind-heat colds can occur in winter and spring, for the body of the body’s positive Qi guarding insufficient, resulting in the wind-heat of the evil attack on the body.
2. Symptoms: The symptoms of summer-dampness colds are usually dominated by dampness, so the clinical fever is not as serious as that of wind-heat colds, and there is no symptom of bad wind, while wind-heat colds have the symptom of bad wind, and the difference in pulse is that the pulse of wind-heat colds is floating, and that of summer-dampness colds is moistened, which is the difference between the surface and the inside in general.
3. Treatment: The treatment for summer-dampness cold is to clear away summer heat, dispel dampness and relieve the surface by applying Elsholtzia Plus, while wind-heat cold needs to promote the lungs, clear away heat and relieve the surface by using the formula of Onion, Black Bean and Platycodonopsis Soup or Yin Qiao San with additions and subtractions.
When symptoms of cold and flu require medication, one should go to the hospital and take medication only after a physician has identified the symptoms, and should not take medication on one’s own to avoid delaying the condition.