2020/12/5

The medical care we choose reflects our understanding of disease and our attitude towards the body and life. In many aspects, Chinese medicine and Western medicine treat diseases in completely different ways. We should understand the nature of different diseases and choose medical treatments carefully.

Treatment of the Common Cold Using Western Medicine

Mainstream Western medical doctors deal with common colds as follows. If you have a runny nose, chills, or fever, the doctor takes your temperature. After a simple consultation, he prescribes some Western medicine. The purpose of these Western medicines is not to treat your illness, but to suppress the symptoms and make you feel more comfortable. This is because Western medicine has no drugs that are effective against all strains of quickly-mutating viruses, such as the common cold and influenza.

Imagine that there is a fire in your office, so the smoke detector is beeping loudly (uncomfortable symptoms such as headache, chills, runny nose, cough, etc.) and the sprinklers are activated to try and extinguish the fire. Western medicine's strategy is to turn off the smoke alarm and sprinklers, leaving the fire still there. This does not solve the source of the problem. It only suppresses the human body’s intelligent response. When the symptoms of a cold are suppressed, people feel that their health is better, but this is just an illusion.

Covering up disease symptoms is not an effective problem-solving method as it weakens the natural functioning of the immune system.

The common cold has a natural cycle of about 4-10 days, and it will go away naturally without any medicine. The use of Western medicine has nothing to do with its passing. In this case, the use of Western medicine is not to treat the disease. We should have a clear understanding of this before taking Western medicine.

Treatment of the Common Cold Using Chinese Medicine

In the six meridian system of Chinese medicine, the outermost layer is called the "tai yang" (太陽 tai4yang2), and is the place where the human body is attacked by external sensations. The symptoms shown include: chills, discomfort in the wind, headache, fever, sneezing, runny nose, retching, coughing, etc. Traditional Chinese medicine treats diseases at this layer mainly by providing body energy to open a pathway out. When the body sweats, the invader is sent out with the sweat. If you have a fever, you don't want to lower it. Stay warm so that your body has enough energy to sweat. Traditional Chinese medicine treatment supports the immune system's functioning rather than suppressing it. After the immune system overcomes the disease, the body lowers its temperature naturally. This indicates that the emergency has ceased. Chinese medicine practitioners do not turn off the body's alarm system artificially, but listen and observe it to know what kind of help the body needs.

The proper approach to Chinese medicine is not to reduce a fever when you see a fever, not to stop cough when you see a cough. It is important to know that symptoms such as fever, chills, runny nose, and cough convey information about the physical condition and are not the problem itself. Carefully interpret the subjective information given by the body and give the body support to solve the root problem. This kind of treatment is the correct medical choice.