TCM tea recipes to treat the common cold

These recipes are from one of my favorite books “The Tao of Nutrition” by Cathy McNease, Master Herbalist.  Cathy taught all of the herbal courses at the school I attended, the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine.

These  treatments are for your information but don’t forget it’s best to be advised by a Chinese herbalist/acupuncturist to know which type of cold you are presenting with.  Proper diagnosis leads to proper treatment and allows for the best/quickest recovery. 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are two basic types of common colds.  The colds can either be the “wind/cold type of cold or the wind/heat type.  Each has different symptoms associated with them and different treatments strategies.

Wind Cold Type

This type often occurs with a change in weather or when one is exposed to wind and cold.  With a weak immune function,  these pathogens enter through the skin.  The symptoms could include chills, fever (but no sweating), headache, body ache, stiff neck, and clear copious nasal discharge.  This is often the first stage of a cold.  When the pathogens are at this initial, superficial stage, we seek to sweat them out.  A hot bath or dry sauna could be of benefit to start the sweating process.

Recommendations: Ginger, garlic, mustard greens and seeds, grapefruit peel, cilantro, parsnips, scallions, cinnamon, basil, soupy rice porridge and eating as little as possible so as not to burden the system with a lot of digestion.

Remedies: 

1.  Lightly boil garlic, ginger, green onion, basil, mustard or cinnamon for 5 minutes.  Drink the tea, go to bed, and prepare to sweat.
2. Drink cilantro and ginger tea
3. Drink scallion and basil tea
4. Make tea from dried grapefruit peel
5. Make tea from parsnip and ginger
6. Avoid shellfish, heavy proteins and fats, meats, all vinegars.  Vinegar closes the pores and “traps the thief in the house”

Wind Heat Type

This type of common cold is characterized by high fever, some chills, sweating, sore throat, cough, headache, body ache and yellow nasal discharge or sputum.

Recommendations: Mint, cabbage, chrysanthemum flowers, burdock root, cilantro, dandelion, pears, apples, bitter melon, drink plenty of fluids and get plenty of rest.

Remedies:

1.  Drink cabbage broth freely
2. Drink cilantro and mint tea
3. Drink mint, chrysanthemum and dandelion tea
4. Drink mint, dandelion, and licorice tea.
5. Drink burdock tea.                                                                                                                                                    Avoid: Shellfish, meats, vinegars, drafts, hot foods