Herbs for Common & Uncommon Colds

Have you ever noticed that two people can catch a cold and yet have somewhat different symptoms? It's because there are at least two aspects to your cold.  There's the virus attacking you, and then, there is you, fielding the event while trying to fend off the attack. 

Over-the-counter (OTC) cold medicines, neither disrupt the pathogen (virus), nor do they help your immune system to defend against the attack. OTC drugs dry up your nose, lower your fever, and usually come with unpleasant side effects.  My reaction to these drugs is to feel tired and removed from life, as if I were incased in a bubble.

Interesting to me is that the chief chemicals used in most OTC cold medicines are ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine, both derived from MA HUANG, a popular Chinese herb used in many herbal cold remedies.  Since MA HUANG can also be used to make amphetamines, the FDA has banned it.  This has forced herbalists to substitute less effective or less appropriate herbs.

Most herbs used to treat common colds come from two categories, Spicy Warm Herbs That Release the Exterior and Spicy Cool Herbs to Release the Exterior. The common cold is seen as a pathogen invading the body from the exterior.  Pathogens, such as these, are capable of penetrating deep into the body when defensive qi (energy) is low, or if the virus is very strong. The nature of this pathogen can be determined by the way the body reacts to it.

When the body reacts with mild symptoms such as an aversion to cold, a scratchy sore throat, slight fever, stuffy nose, etc., the invader is said to have a cold nature.  These symptoms indicate the use of spicy warm herbs such as MA HUANG (ephedra), GUI ZHI (cinnamon twigs), SU YE (perilla leaf), JING JIE (schizonepeta), SHENG JIANG (ginger root), and CONG BAI (scallion). 

These, and many others in this category, relieve the surface because they make you sweat, encouraging the invader to leave via the skin (surface). Note that the TCM Lung also consists of the nose, sinuses, and windpipe, and controls the opening and closing of skin pores. The Lung is sometimes called the umbrella organ, because it protects the other organs lying deeper within the body.

Spicy cool herbs are used when we react with strong symptoms, like a severe sore throat, a high fever, and an aversion to heat.  Spicy cool herbs also open the pores and encourage sweating.  They can also break a fever by encouraging a rash to surface, as in measles, mumps, chickenpox, etc,  Some of the better known spicy cool herbs are: BO HE (mint), XIN YE HUA (magnolia bud), SANG YE (mulberry leaf), JU HUA (chrysanthemum flower), and DAN DOU CHI (fermented soybean).

Though none of these herbs actually kill viruses, several have been shown, in studies, to slow the rate of reproduction of viruses and other micro-organisms.

Taken alone, most of these herbs, in both of these categories, have only a mild effect.  Taken in combinations, called formulas (FANG) they can be remarkably powerful.  Some formulas use both Spicy Warm herbs and Spicy Cool herbs together.  Most formulas also contain other herbs, which may have specific uses such as crippling a pathogen, or relieving a particular symptom, or countering unwanted side effects of a particular herb.

 I'll discuss more about cold formulas, cold products, and the flu in my next blog.   Be well.