Acupuncture for Colds and Flus

by Kelly Hamilton (TCM student)

As cold and flu season approaches it can be useful to start thinking about ways to protect yourself and your family and boost immunity! In the case that you do come down with something, consider looking to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for support.

Chinese medicine can be used as both a preventative and a treatment when it comes to colds and flus. If you are someone who tends to be susceptible to whatever happens to be going around at any given time, acupuncture may be able to strengthen your defenses (REF#1). If you have come down with something that doesn’t seem to be clearing up as quickly as it should, acupuncture may be able to help your body to fight off lingering symptoms (Jingyi & Xuemei, 1993).

Common Cold and Related Symptoms from a Traditional Chinese Medicine Perspective

Western Medicine views a cold or flu as a virus that has invaded that needs to run its course, offering not much more than symptom relieving medicines that may or may not provide short term relief while you wait for your body to get better. TCM views a cold or flu through a much more individualized lens that assesses what the subjective symptoms are, and what the circumstances were leading up to the illness (Jingyi & Xuemei, 1993).

TCM, which was around far before the modern science discovery and investigation into virology, views the symptoms we might call “common cold” or “influenza” as an invasion by some sort of “climatic factor”, rather than simplifying the culprit to a virus. The climatic factors involved can vary but are most often wind, heat, cold, dampness, or dryness. Assessing which symptoms somebody has come down with will help an acupuncturist to determine what the treatment will look like (Maciocia, 2019).

Wind Invasion

If you have ever heard the “old wives tale” about not going outside with wet hair or you might catch a cold – from a TCM perspective, this is really great advice! “Wind invasions” are a very common pathology that can cause colds and flus, and as crazy as it sounds from our western lens, the nape of our necks and our head are the main areas that allow for the invasion. Going outside with a scarf on, especially on particularly cold windy days, and ensuring your hair is dry, just might help reduce the chances you come down with the symptoms we will talk about here.

When you go see your acupuncturist and they determine you have a wind invasion type of cold or flu, they will ask you about your symptoms: Do you have a fever? Have you been sweating? What colour is your nasal discharge? Is your throat sore? The answers to these questions will be helpful to determining the nature of the wind invasion and allow for the proper treatment to help your body “expel the wind” (Jingyi & Xuemei, 1993; Maciocia, 2019).

Dampness

If you have ever had the flu you might recognize the following symptoms: Aversion to cold, fever, heaviness of the body, aversion to fluids or foods, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. TCM views these symptoms as an invasion of “dampness”. In the same way that wind invasions can be cleared out with the proper acupuncture treatment based on diagnosis, through acupuncture the body can be supported to help deal with this type of invader as well (Jingyi & Xuemei, 1993).

The Reason for Frequent Colds and Flus from a TCM Perspective

If you are constantly coming down with the latest “bug” going around, or perhaps feeling run down during seasonal changes or always on the verge of getting sick, consider acupuncture as a tool to help you strengthen your defenses!

Since acupuncture views the seasonal cold and flu to be “invaders”, it also views the immune system to be “defenses”. The climatic factors talked about above attack the body, and if our Qi (sort of the equivalent of the immune system in Western view) is strong enough, we are often able to fight them off and keep them out entirely. If we are qi deficient however, our body can succumb to the pressure of these invasions, and we experience cold or flu symptoms. When this happens repeatedly, our internal army of defenses becomes weaker and weaker, and the cycle continues (Maciocia, 2015).

How Acupuncture can Help Support

As stated, acupuncture can help to clear out invaders that might have gotten in and caused symptoms normally associated with colds or flus. The needles do this by helping to strengthen your body’s Qi and natural defenses so that you are better able to fight off the invaders. This can be helpful during the acute phase of being sick and can also be helpful in the aftermath as you recover, to prevent another invader from capitalizing. If you are looking to get ahead of the cold and flu season, acupuncture can also be a tool to utilize preventatively, to help strengthen and boost the Qi to hopefully keep you feeling your best (Jingyi & Xuemei, 1993).

References

Flynn, R. (2018, August 23). The facts about medication for colds and the flu. National Center for Health Research. https://www.center4research.org/facts-medication-colds-flu/

Jingyi, Z., & Xuemei, L. (1993). Acupuncture Patterns & Practice (pp. 57-82). Eastland Press.

Maciocia, G. (2015). The Foundations of Chinese Medicine: A Comprehensive Text (3rd ed.). Elsevier.

Maciacia, G. (2019). Diagnosis in Chinese Medicine: A Comprehensive Guide (2nd ed.). Elsevier.

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