The weather in Singapore has recently become unpredictable. It can be pouring for days, followed by a spell of excruciating heat. As a result, the number of people seeing the doctor for cold, cough and headaches has increased. Ms Seah Ai Wei, Physician with the Raffles Chinese Medicine, shares on how you can consider using TCM to treat these common health problems.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) takes a holistic approach towards health. No two persons are alike thus there is no standard treatment for a particular condition. Instead, before every prescription, the Physician must first perform a differential diagnosis by looking at the tongue, feeling the pulse and inquiring about the signs and symptoms. He then analyses and interprets this data which forms the basis of treatment.

Common Cold

TCM believes that the common cold arises from exposure to environmental factors, such as wind, cold, heat, dampness or dryness. These pathogens invade our body when our immunity is low. Low immunity is the result of imbalances in our internal organ system. Thus in performing differential diagnosis, the Physician looks for a “pattern of disharmony” that is unique to each patient and treats it accordingly.

General treatment:
The general treatment for common cold is to release the pathogens from the exterior. The major types of common cold are wind-cold, wind-heat and dampness.

Cough

In TCM, cough can be classified as either exterior or interior cough. Exterior cough arises from external pathogens whereas interior cough arises from a combination of imbalance in the internal system and invasion of phlegm and/or fire. In making a diagnosis, the Physician takes into consideration the time of the day when cough is most frequent, characteristics of the cough, phlegm and coughing sound. Under exterior cough, the three major classifications are wind-cold, wind-heat and wind-dryness. Under interior cough, it can be classified as phlegm-dampness, phlegm-heat, deficiency in Lung Yin and Liver Fire invading lungs.

The treatment protocol:
Exterior cough: expel wind and relevant pathogen (such as cold, heat and dryness) + restoring lung movement of qi Interior cough: expel pathogen (such as phlegm and fire) + restoring internal organ balance

Headache

In determining the cause of headache, one must know how the headache arises, the duration, characteristics and location of the pain. A common form of interior headache is caused by the liver fire. Such headaches usually worsen in the afternoon, may be throbbing and/or accompanied by the appearance of blue veins on the forehead or temples.

General treatment:

• Exterior headache: expel pathogen through the exterior
• Interior headache: restore balance to internal organ system