The autumn and winter season are seasons where the susceptibility of catching the common cold or flu are high. It can be hard to avoid these bugs at work, school or home, especially if you have a little one who brings home all sorts of fun bugs!
Growing up with a Chinese mother mainly raised in Hong Kong, we would have to drink her soups daily. Depending on the season, symptom, and time of month would depend on what the daily soup would entail. Taking my mom’s knowledge and combining it with the knowledge learned at TCM School, I am now able to whip up different soups and decoctions depending on the symptom. If I am at a stage within my illness where these home remedies are not strong enough to alleviate my cold symptoms, I will resort to a stronger concentrated granule powdered Chinese Medicine Herbal Formula. If some symptoms are more stubborn to fix meaning that symptoms last longer than 3 weeks, I will have to look at my stress load and how it is impacting my immune and adrenal system.
The first step is to explain the process of decocting soups at home. I will refer to this procedure throughout the entire blog.
How to decoct an herbal soup at home
Soup decoctions are typically done in a glass, clay or enamel-coated vessel. This is meant to keep the soup clean of any metals or minerals. You can also use your slow cooker and decoct over night if time (and smell) are an issue.
- Put the herbs in the vessel (I use a clay pot with a lid, you can find these at T&T or any Chinese kitchen stores in China town) and fill it with water. Give the herbs a rinse and drain.
- Next, add 5 cups of water to the herbs in the vessel and bring to a boil.
- Once you have a rolling boil, simmer the heat down to low-medium with the lid on (if it boils over, either turn the heat down or tilt the lid to allow for some steam to come out).
- Reduce the decoction down to roughly one cup of liquid and strain the liquid in to a wide-mouth jar (you may need to use a funnel and strainer). Careful not to burn the herbs as I’ve done this by forgetting that the clay pot was on the stove!
- With the herbs that are still in the vessel, add another 5 cups of water and repeat steps 2-4.
- This means that you will have mixed one cup of a very concentrated decoction with one cup of a less concentrated decoction.
- Put the lid on the jar and mix those two cups together.
- Drink one cup in the daytime; drink the other cup in the evening.
- Decoctions can be refrigerated up to 3 days
Where to buy Chinese herbs in the raw form
Just as the food that you put in your mouth, there are certain qualities of herbs that make a huge difference on its efficacy. You can buy most common Chinese herbs at T&T or any Chinese herbal pharmacy, albeit the quality of the raw herbs may be low. Living in Vancouver, I usually get my raw herbs from Beijing Trading Company on Pender Street.
Let’s start with how to treat the onset of the common cold signs & symptoms, shall we?
Copious sneezing fits and runny nose
Typically runny nose and constant sneezing are usually the beginning signs of a cold. For some, taking Echinacea, Cold FX, vitamin C, colloidal silver, and the old-fashion lemon-ginger hot tea are ways to strengthen the immune system.
A simple decoction that you can make at home is based on the Chinese herbal formula Yu Ping Feng San and include the following (this is a conservative daily dosage):
Huang Qi (astragalus root) 黄芪, 9g up to 15g
Bai Zhu (white atractylodes rhizome) 白术, 6g up to 15g
Fang Feng (saposhnikovia root) 防风, 4.5g up to 9g
Sore Throat and Cough
Depending on the type of cough will depend on the dosage of each herb. If the cough is in its initial stage, all of the following herbs can be taken. Usually a sore throat is the beginning stage of a cold / flu in which case the following herbs listed below can help.
Luo Han Guo (morordica or monk fruit) 罗汉果, 1 piece or 9-15g
Crack the exterior shell just a little bit to allow for the fruit inside to be a part of the decoction. This herb will turn your decoction in to a dark brown colour, don’t let this round fruit alarm you, it has a lovely sweet taste.
This herb also helps with clearing a sore throat, resolving yellow or green sputum, aids in the phlegm rattling in the chest (calms wheezing), helps with relieving constipation and quenches thirst.
Xing Ren (apricot seed) 杏仁, 5-10 pieces or 3-9g
In large amounts, this herb can be toxic. Like other seeds, this herb helps with relieving constipation. A great herb to pair with Luo Han Guo, it further aids in stopping cough and calming wheezing. If you have a cough with no phlegm present, such as a late stage cough, this herb will not be as helpful.
Yu Zhu (scented Solomon’s Seal rhizome) 玉竹, 3-10 pieces or 6-15g
This herb will help protect drying out the lungs too much when used with Luo Han Guo and Xing Ren, use only 3 pieces. Also used in late stage cough (such as if you have a lingering cough for 3 weeks that no longer has phlegm production but is more of a dry cough), you can add up to 10 pieces and decrease / omit the amount of Luo Han Guo and Xing Ren.
Bai He (lily bulb) 百合, 5-10 pieces or 9-30g
Similar to Yu Zhu, this herb helps with moistening the lungs particularly for a dry cough. It also helps with a low-grade fever, insomnia, restlessness and post-sickness irritability. A common food in Chinese cuisine, you can also throw these herbs in a stir-fry (you will need to soak them first as they usually are available in dried form).
Xi Yang Shen (American ginseng root) 西洋参, 1 root or 3-6g
The contents of Cold FX, American ginseng root is different from other ginseng roots in the fact that it’s the only ginseng root that can help with clearing a sore or dry throat. Xi Yang Shen can also help with long-term wheezing and coughing (especially if sputum is blood-streaked) and loss of voice. This herb can be decocted on it’s own.
Ju Hua (chrysanthemum flower) 菊花, 5-15 pieces or 4.5-15g
This pretty, bitter-sweet flower is a great herb to take at the beginnings of a cold, particularly when you start getting a sore throat, red / teary / dry eyes, fever, headache and dizziness. Add Ju Hua at the last 5 minutes of your simmering decoction.
Gou Qi Zi (Chinese wolfberry aka goji berry) 枸杞子, 10 pieces or 6-12g
When pairing Ju Hua with Gou Qi Zi, together these two herbs goes up to the eyes to help with eye dryness, red eyes, brightens eyes, blurred vision.
Productive Cough with Phlegm (especially yellow-green sputum)
Daily dosage (follow the “How to decoct an herbal soup at home” instructions at top of blog):
Luo Han Guo, 1-2 pieces
Xing Ren, 10 pieces
Yu Zhu, 2-3 pieces
Ju Hua, 10 pieces
1 fig or half an apple for flavour
Dry lingering Cough
Daily dosage (follow the “How to decoct an herbal soup at home” instructions at top of blog):
Xing Ren, 5 pieces
Yu Zhu, 10 pieces
Bai He, 10 pieces
Xi Yang Shen, 1 root (especially if there is blood-streaked sputum)
Home remedies
Another home remedy for dry cough is to steam a halved Asian pear (flesh side up) with drizzled manuka honey on top for 5 minutes and eat. If you can find Chuan Bei Mu (Sichuan fritillaria bulb) 川贝母, you can sprinkle just a tiny bit on top of the pear and honey as it is an expensive herb!
Chuan Bei Mu
Fever & Chills
One thing I always tell my patients when they experience the beginnings of a flu bug with symptoms including chills & fever, body aches and sweats is to take a really hot bath or sit in a sauna to induce sweating, then cover up for 20 minutes. There is an old Chinese technique, based on the formula Gui Zhi Tang, where you take this formula, then eat a bowl of hot congee and cover up in a blanket to keep the sweat contained for 20 minutes. This technique helps expel the pathogen quicker so that it doesn’t have a chance to invade deeper within the body.
Acupuncture, Cupping and Gua Sha
Acupuncture, cupping and gua sha are great modalities in kicking a virus quickly. For acupressure points, visit my blog, Acupressure points for Colds & Flus.
Of course there are so many herbs to choose from to help with the symptoms of the common cold and flu. Most Chinese herbs are super foods that not only can help at the symptom level but can also help build immunity. If you are unclear or need more guidance on how to self-decoct and / or have more symptoms than the ones discussed above, I offer Chinese Herbal Consultation appointments at the clinic. Online booking is available!
