Xiaofen is an employee at a foreign-funded company, and her work is quite busy. Her son, Yuanyuan, is in her care. Yesterday when she got home from work, Xiaofen noticed that Yuanyuan's speech was stuffy. Could he be catching a cold? He was perfectly fine when she left for work this morning. After asking, she learned that during his nap, the elderly person saw the grandson was sweating profusely, so they turned off the electric fan and turned on the air conditioner. By dinnertime, Yuanyuan started to have a clear, watery runny nose. How could he catch a cold on such a hot day?
In traditional terms, what Yuanyuan is experiencing is called "summer cold" or "heat-induced cold." In the hot summer, the elderly, children, and office workers who stay in air-conditioned environments all day are among the vulnerable groups who frequently "fall victim" to it. Many people think that a summer cold is just from catching a chill, not the flu, and that it doesn't require medicine; drinking some ginger tea and sweating it out will cure it.
In the summer heat, people are accustomed to turning on the air conditioner and fan as soon as they enter a room. Unbeknownst to them, while enjoying the cool, they are also constantly at risk of catching a summer cold. How can one stay healthy and avoid colds during the summer? With these questions in mind, a reporter visited Dr. Fu Qian, a respiratory physician from the Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Excessive indulgence in cool air can lead to a "summer cold"
In the past, when living conditions were not as good, air conditioners were a luxury. On summer evenings, in courtyards or under big trees, groups of people would gather to enjoy the cool, fanning themselves with large palm-leaf fans and chatting about interesting things around them. Children would chase and play, creating a lively scene. However, such scenes are now rarely seen in cities. After dinner, most people choose to "soak in the air conditioner," enjoying the comfort of not sweating and feeling cool.
Not only do people stay in air-conditioned rooms at night, but many families also keep their children and the elderly from going out during the day, reasoning that it's cooler at home. The same goes for office workers: the car has air conditioning, the office has air conditioning, and so does home. Humans are meant to adapt to the four seasons' climate. Suddenly moving from a high-temperature environment to a low-temperature one, or being in an enclosed space with a temperature lower than the outdoors for a long time, can make the body unable to adapt to environmental changes, leading to a weakened immune system and allowing "pathogenic factors" to invade.
"When the outside temperature is high, the pores on the skin open to release heat. If you then enter a cooler room, the pores suddenly close, preventing the body's heat and sweat from dissipating. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this is called 'defensive Qi stagnation and depression,' which can easily lead to cold symptoms. This is a summer风寒 cold (wind-cold cold). There is also a wind-heat cold, where pathogenic wind-heat directly invades the respiratory tract. Indulging in excessive cold foods can lead to internal dampness, which, combined with external pathogenic factors, results in a dampness-associated cold. So, a 'summer cold' is essentially just a cold. Although the symptoms are relatively mild, it is still important to distinguish between the common types: wind-heat, wind-cold, and dampness-associated."