Brown sugar ginger water and boiled scallion water are "holy grails" for treating colds, especially at the onset when one feels a chill and coldness. Drinking a hot cup of brown sugar ginger water or boiled scallion water can drive away the illness. However, the same remedy may be ineffective for spring colds, and could even make them worse.

We are currently in a transition period between a long holiday and a busy work schedule, which is also when people's lives are most irregular and their immunity is weakest. Coupled with the sudden shift to hot weather, people can easily catch a cold from being careless with their clothing and bedding. In this situation, the effective remedy—brown sugar ginger water and boiled scallion water—will not have a therapeutic effect. Han Yun, director of the Respiratory Medicine Department at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, explains that in TCM, colds are classified into three types based on symptoms: "wind-heat syndrome," "wind-cold syndrome," and "summer-heat dampness syndrome." Spring is a common time for "wind-heat colds," which fall under the category of "heat syndromes." Drinking hot ginger water at this time is "adding heat to heat," which is very detrimental to the illness.

For heat colds, use "cool medicine"; for cold colds, use "hot medicine."

As the name implies, "wind-cold" colds have the characteristic of "being affected by cold," so symptoms include a strong aversion to cold, a stuffy nose with clear nasal discharge, a cough with thin, white sputum, and a mild fever. At this time, drinking a hot cup of brown sugar ginger water or boiled scallion water is an excellent treatment. TCM believes that ginger and scallions have pungent and warm properties and a "warming the middle" effect, which can expel wind and cold. Modern pharmacological research also proves that these ingredients have antiviral and antibacterial effects, thus achieving the purpose of treating colds.

But it's a different story with wind-heat colds. Patients present with more severe fever, a mild aversion to cold, a cough with yellow sputum, a dry mouth and red throat, yellowish and turbid nasal discharge, and a red tongue. This obvious "heat syndrome" certainly cannot be treated with "warming medicine" to "add heat to heat," which would worsen the disease. Han Yun says that for heat colds, "cool medicine" should be used instead. Chinese herbs with pungent and cool ingredients, such as mulberry leaves, chrysanthemums, and mint, can achieve the effect of "extinguishing heat."

"Summer-heat dampness colds" are even more straightforward to understand. Patients have symptoms similar to heatstroke, such as a heavy, dizzy head with a feeling of distension and pain. Patients should choose drugs that clear summer-heat and expel dampness, such as Agastache rugosa, Artemisia annua, and Mosla chinensis.

Spring heat, summer dampness, winter cold—symptoms vary

The reason a simple cold can have three different manifestations is mainly due to the influence of seasonal and climatic characteristics. Therefore, these three types of colds have a certain seasonality. Han Yun says that wind-heat colds are more common in the current season, during the warm spring and early summer; wind-cold colds are more common in the cold autumn and winter; and summer-heat dampness colds occur during the summer when heat and dampness are prevalent. This can serve as a basis for judging which type of cold one has.

However, despite this characteristic, Han Yun reminds us that the symptoms a patient exhibits are the most accurate basis for determining the type of cold. For example, the act of "catching a cold after getting sweaty from exercise and then removing clothes" cannot be simply classified as a wind-cold or wind-heat cold. It depends on whether the patient's symptoms are an aversion to cold and chills, or fever and a dry throat. The season, climate, temperature, and individual constitution at the time can all affect the symptoms of a cold. Therefore, the person who "caught a cold after getting sweaty from exercise and then removing clothes" could have a wind-heat cold, a wind-cold cold, or a summer-heat dampness cold.