Preventing the Common Cold

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT


Everyone it seems has their own ideas on how to prevent the common cold. I’d like to share with you my strategy, which works for me. In fact, I haven’t had a cold in years.

In Chinese medicine, avoiding colds revolves around keeping the wei qi strong and happy. The wei qi is your defensive energy – your immune system. The wei qi are your soldiers and guards.

The wei qi seeks out or chases down pathogenic invaders, kills them, and if possible, eats them. The wei qi guards all entry points into the interior of your body. This includes the mouth and throat, nose and sinuses, lungs and stomach, lower body orifices, especially the vagina and uterus, and the pores of the skin.

A strong and happy wei qi can only be overcome by the repeated or overwhelming attacks of a virulent pestilential invader such as cholera or bubonic plague.

Here’s my recipe for strengthening the wei qi.

Get calm

Mental and physical calmness allows the machinery of the body to produce plenty of high quality wei qi. It also permits the wei qi to detect problems and to congregate en masse at the problem site.

Many scientific studies have conclusively linked chronic high anxiety to the common cold and many lost work days. Chronic anxiety diverts resources from the construction of new wei qi. It also tightens muscles for fight-or-flight, thus restricting the movement of the wei qi.

Sufficient sleep and rest is a critical requirement for calmness. When muscles and brain are relaxing is when most digestive products are manufactured, including the wei qi.


Natural mental calmness will also prevent the regular reliance on pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco, and whatever else to establish calm. Substance abuse will add an extra burden on the system, diverting immune resources away from the exterior and toward the elimination of poisons. Statistics connect substance abuse with a high incidence of common colds.

In addition, smoking will irritate the throat. A raw throat is an invitation for the cold virus and its bacterial friends to congregate in large numbers and gang up on the wei qi.


Get lean

A lean body is a streamlined, efficient body. This means that the digestive system is probably strong enough to produce high quality wei qi in sufficient quantity to fight invaders. Leanness also means that there will be less obstacles to get in the way of the wei qi as it rushes to the battlefield.

Obesity is a cause and a result of a weak digestion that underlies a weakened wei qi. In addition, the larger the fat cells, the greater the obstructions in the way of the emergency teams. The biological purpose of obesity is to facilitate hibernation during a long cold winter. Hibernation requires very little wei qi.

Get strong

Studies have shown that people who exercise vigorously have fewer colds.

Strong muscles, bones, and connective tissue are both a cause and a result of a strong digestion. A strong digestive system creates strong immune factors, which were necessary during the spring, summer, and fall months when our Stone Age ancestors were foraging and hunting daily and being exposed to exterior pathogens.

Trust thyself

The body usually knows when it’s about to be invaded by a cold pathogen, and will tell you. If you are outdoors and feel a chill, that is your body telling you to cover up or get inside right away. Shivering is your wei qi rushing to the surface to do battle.

Cold wind on the back of the neck feels bad. This pathogen is known as wind cold, and it enters from behind. On the other hand, warmth on the neck feels good.

Hot wind in the face also feels bad. This is where wind heat tries to enter the body. If it feels bad, avoid it. Conversely, the face seems to be quite resistant to cold temperature.

Chinese herbs

Once the pathogen has entered the exterior of the body – the pores and other orifices - the wei qi sets up barricades and concentrates forces at these barricade sites. At that point, our plan of action is to support our wei qi by helping it to neutralize the cold virus and its allies, and then helping the wei qi to expel the invaders.

One very famous and effective formula for defeating wind heat is known as yin qiao pian. This combination was developed several hundred years ago and is nowadays commonly used all over southern China. It successfully treats the kind of common cold encountered in warm climates, like Southern California.

As wind heat enters through the front, it will cause such unpleasantness as a sore throat, sinus swelling with sneezing, eye discomfort, and the beginning of a cough with yellow phlegm. There will be an aversion to wind and probably a slight fever or feverish feeling that predominates over chills.

When I feel the radial pulse on the wrist, I’m likely to encounter a rapid superficial pulse. The rapidity (over 72 beats per minute) indicates that heat is a factor, since heat speeds up movement. The superficial quality means that the wei qi has come to the surface of the body to do battle with the wind heat enemy.

Our herbal strategy for defeating this wind heat is to cool the heat and to help the wei qi expel the wind through diaphoresis. A diaphoretic is a substance that causes sweating. If we can neutralize the pathogenic heat while helping the wei qi sweat out the viruses, then the disease will not enter the lungs or stomach and will not cause any more problems. In other words, a successful herbal intervention will mean that the common cold will be completely prevented!

However, yin qiao must be taken at the first sign of wind heat, during the first few days. Once the wind has reached deep into the lungs or stomach, it is no longer on the surface. At this point, the herbs in the formula, whose pungent flavor will push the wind up and out, will merely spread the pathogen around, likely making the cough worse. Treating an internal disorder like lung heat requires a completely different herbal strategy, one of draining the pathogen down and out through the urine.

Because yin qiao causes sweating, it must not be taken before venturing outside, because sweating opens pores. Open pores invite in more wind. Therefore, it is recommended that it be taken before bedtime. If a person with a normal, uncompromised immune system takes this formula before sleep and sweats during the night, the problem will be gone by morning.

The classic yin qiao formula contains nine Chinese herbs, most of which are not recognizable to Westerners. Chinese formulas come in many different forms. The form I use is a tablet form, easily purchased in Chinatown and simple to take. Some brands are sugar-coated pills for children to take. I recommend the tablet form (pian) which is not coated. Four tablets before bedtime will usually do the trick. If you wake up in the middle of the night, take four more and go back to sleep.