Treating Common Cold & Flu with Acupuncture.

The common cold and flu are both caused by the category of virus called rhinoviruses. Unfortunately, Western medicine has no treatment for this type of infection. Taking antibiotics will do nothing for a disease caused by a virus. However, practitioners of Chinese medicine have been treating the common cold effectively with both acupuncture and herbs for 2,000 years.

In Chinese medicine there are two types of colds: wind cold and wind heat, the symptoms of which are both different. In a wind cold pattern, the main symptoms are fever, aversion to cold, lack of perspiration, and bodily aches along with nasal congestion, headache, and cough. In a wind heat pattern, the main symptoms are fever, less aversion to chill, sore throat, nasal congestion, and cough with no body aches. Depending on which of these two types of cold you manifest, practitioners of Chinese medicine will recommend different Chinese herbs and treat different acupuncture points.

Acupuncture refers to the insertion of very thin, sterile needles into certain points on the surface of the body known to relieve certain symptoms. When you have cold, acupuncture can stimulate your body’s innate healing energy in order to more effectively combat the viral infection. In addition, certain points can relieve stuffy nose, cough, headache, body aches, sore throat, fever, and reduce the production of phlegm. For example, a point at the base of the thumbnail, can markedly reduce sore throat literally in a matter of minutes.

It is good to know, that the longer you allow a cold to develop prior to treatment, the longer it will take to get over it. There is no reason why you should have to suffer for 4-5 days, loose time from work, play, family, and be miserable with sore throat, headache, fever, and cough. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine work for the common cold.