Wind-Heat

You can get Wind-Heat from Cold!

The symptoms of Wind-Heat might make you think that to get it you must have been exposed to windy, hot conditions.

Not so! The words Wind and Heat describe not the cause but your body’s reaction to the cause.

You and a friend might catch the same cold virus at the same time on the same day. You might produce Wind-Heat and he might produce Wind-Cold.

What can YOU do to hasten success?

If you decide that you don’t want to take medication or to suppress your body’s natural Wind-Heat reaction to the invader, then ideally this is what you might do:

• Prepare to assist your body to get hot, to employ its full fever treatment on the bug!
• – make sure you have a warm bed to go to
• – possibly even with a warm partner or a hot water bottle (though perhaps not your partner if he or she did not give you the bug in the first place and doesn’t want to get it and its fever, aching, shivering and cough from you either!)
• – towels to absorb your perspiration
• – water supplies to quench your thirst
• – possibly ice-cream or yogurt or honey if you have a very sore dry throat
• Make sure you have fresh air circulating in your room. It need not be a huge draft, but air should flow through it.

 

With Wind-Heat Should You Go to Work? NO!

• Face the fact that you probably won’t be very hungry and in any case, you should not eat much. Eating diverts energy from the battle and food might not pass through you smoothly anyway at this time. However, you may need some food, and complex carbohydrates are good. Brown rice, anyone: well-cooked, and soft? But clogstoun congee might be better!
• Or grapes? They’re moisturising and slip down easily giving you some energy too. But not too many, because they are cooling as well. You want to moisturise, but not put out your fire!
• If your throat is very sore, honey has a long history of success – but you don’t need much. Dissolve it in water.
• Don’t bother with vitamins and minerals. This is an acute situation, and your body probably can’t absorb any more food, let alone concentrated supplements. (Yes, yes: I know all about Vitamin C, Zinc and so on!) If your body is able to produce strong Wind-Heat symptoms it certainly doesn’t need supplements: it already has what it needs, except for water.
• Ideally your fever produces a temperature above normal, if possible several degrees above. However, strictly speaking this is not necessary: the main thing is that you feel really hot.
• During this acute phase, you should probably curtail work. For one thing you may be infectious. For another you will definitely not be able to work efficiently. Better to stay at home and return to work a new (wo-)man after a few days.
• During the acute phase, short walks outside in cooler air are fine, if you are dressed up well, and not shivering. But make sure that you don’t suddenly get cold while out: you want to come back warmer and perspiring (- if you have the energy for it, of course) and then clamber into a warm bed.
• But above all, relax if you can! All these symptoms like sneezing, fever, sudden headache, dry cough, shivering and general aching (sometime called ‘malaise’) show your body is in full frontal assault on the bug. It’s an acute infection – don’t prevent your body from doing its stuff!
• Put up with it and your body will produce lots of antibodies very fast, and will remember more clearly for next time how to deal with the invader.

What does your acupuncturist do?

Your acupuncturist aims to help your body throw the invader out.

In a perfect world, this means getting you to sweat properly, such sweat being an indication that you’ve beaten the bug and need to cool down, and that presupposes that your body achieves a healthy fever.

However, there’s a huge theory to do with the invasion of disease into your body, and what your acupuncturist does depends on which bit of  the theory you display symptoms of.

In general, (s)he wants to get your Lungs working properly again.

She may use cupping on your back or chest, and acupuncture points chosen carefully on channels that seem most affected. With herbs she may choose a recipe that ‘releases the exterior’. Depending on her training and preference she may use Tuina or Guasha, the former being a form of Chinese massage and the latter a kind of scraping.

I have found cupping and acupuncture often very effective.