How Chinese Medicine Nips Colds in the Bud

Herbalism

How Chinese Medicine Nips Colds in the Bud

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there is a pesky little thing called “wind.” In the American sense, wind is a good thing… breeze feels great, right? In TCM, it means something completely different. In fact, it’s the reason that grandma always told you to wear a HAT and a SCARF to protect your head, face, and neck in the winter. You were literally going to “catch a cold”, or in other words, if you didn’t bundle up you would let cold (deficiency) and WIND (external force such as a virus, aka a Western “cold”) right into your head.

In nature, wind always wants to go to the tallest point. Taller trees get more wind than lower trees – so wind likes to attack things at the top. Your head is at the top of your body, so it’s very susceptible to “wind”, which as I said is external force (could be pathogens, virus, “cold” etc). This is also why we get a lot of headaches when we’re experiencing imbalance.

“Wind” is considered the most evil of the 6 pernicious evils. The 6 are: wind (external force), cold (deficiency), heat (excess), damp (phlegm or could be infection), summer heat (acute excess) and dry (lack of body fluid).

When you feel a sickness/cold coming on, you are usually experiencing wind coming in.

In order to remove wind from the body and especially the head, you can press on 2 points of the back of the head (GB20). This is called acupressure. Press on these points at the napes of the neck for 1 minute on and off until relief and calm is felt. This helps a ton with both headaches and the very beginning stages of a cold. Enjoy this quick and easy trick!

 

Summary

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), “wind” refers not to a breeze, but to external pathogenic factors like viruses that often invade through the head and neck—the body’s highest, most exposed points. This is why covering your neck in cold weather is protective. Wind is one of the six “pernicious evils” (alongside cold, heat, damp, dry, and summer heat) and is often the first to breach the body, causing colds, chills, or headaches. To expel wind, TCM recommends acupressure on point GB20 at the base of the skull, which clears external invasion, eases headaches, and supports immune defense in early illness stages.

Read More on Traditional Herbalism
View all