A Single Person Carries the Banner of Treating Colds in Beijing

Since the beginning of my career, I have always considered the treatment of colds and fevers to be my greatest specialty. In every professional introduction, this condition has always been listed first. Many years ago, quite a few people couldn’t understand this choice at all. Among all the renowned physicians in Beijing, not a single one included “treating colds” in their credentials. They felt: Does this kind of illness even need treatment? What kind of level can a doctor have if he puts “treating colds” on his resumé? I never bothered arguing with them, because this is the path of Chinese medicine that I have chosen to uphold.

In traditional medical understanding, wind is the chief of all diseases. The common cold is one of the most frequent illnesses in human history, and Chinese medicine’s understanding of it has developed over thousands of years into something remarkably systematic, comprehensive, and profound. Western medicine considers the cold a self-limiting disease that typically resolves within fourteen days; symptomatic treatment is available for discomfort, but there is no specific cure. I have always maintained that a practitioner of Chinese medicine who cannot treat the common cold is not a qualified one. The essence of the Taiyang disease section of Zhang Zhongjing’s Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage), written during the Eastern Han Dynasty, is precisely about treating colds. In our hands, the fever of an ordinary cold can generally be brought down within six hours, and most cold symptoms can be fully resolved within three days. Rather than enduring two weeks as Western medicine expects, why not drink some herbal medicine and return to normal in three days? This is the advantage of Chinese medicine.

Back in my school days, my teachers would often joke about this. They believed that no one used Mahuang Tang (Ephedra Decoction) to treat colds anymore. Indeed, similar prescriptions are rarely seen on the market today, for two main reasons:

First, when ordinary people catch a cold, Chinese medicine is rarely their first choice. The usual pattern is to take some over-the-counter cold medicine at home; if it doesn’t help or the condition worsens, they go to see a Western doctor. When Western medicine also fails to resolve it, they drag on for over a month, feeling utterly miserable, and only then turn to Chinese medicine for what they call “conditioning.” By that point, Mahuang Tang is clearly no longer appropriate — but the condition is still not difficult to treat.

The second situation is that some grassroots Chinese medicine practitioners genuinely struggle with treating colds. When they encounter a fever, they reflexively prescribe heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs — a major taboo in clinical practice. This directly causes the exterior pathogen to sink inward, giving rise to other complications. The patient gets worse with each treatment, and people conclude that Chinese medicine can’t handle colds — they’d be better off getting an IV drip.

So whether in the classroom, the consulting room, or at the dinner table, I have repeatedly emphasized the advantages of Chinese medicine in treating colds. As physicians, we shouldn’t always be fixated on treating the most difficult, complex, or prestigious diseases, nor should we constantly share stories of curing conditions that others could not. We should, instead, work steadily in service of the people, view our therapeutic outcomes objectively, and address the common ailments that the public urgently needs resolved — so that catching a cold is no longer a source of suffering.

自从业伊始，我始终把治疗感冒发热作为最擅长的疾病，在所有简介中这个病永远位列第一，多年前许多人都非常不能理解我的这个操作，整个京城名医中就没有把感冒写到介绍里的，他们觉得这种病还用治吗？一个把治感冒当作头衔的大夫能有什么水平？我向来不与之争论，因为这是我坚守的中医之道。

在传统医学认知中，风为百病之长，伤风感冒是人类历史上最常见的疾病之一，中医对感冒的认识千百年来已经发展的非常系统全面且深入。西医认为感冒属于自限性疾病，一般14天内自愈，出现症状可以对症治疗，没有特效药。个人一向认为，不会治感冒的中医不是一个合格的中医，东汉时期的伤寒论太阳病部分的精髓就是治感冒，在我们手里，一般的感冒的发热基本上都可以在6个小时内退烧，感冒症状大多可以在3天内完全解决，与其像西医认识的忍耐两周，不如喝点中药在3天内恢复正常，这就是中医的优势。

在我上学那会，老师们就经常调侃此事，他们认为现在没有人会用麻黄汤去治感冒了，确实市面上也很难见到类似的方子，原因主要有二：

一是老百姓感冒了一般不会首选去看中医，常规的套路是现在家里随便吃点感冒药，如果没啥用或者加重了再去看西医，西医往往也不太能搞定，拖拖拉拉弄到一个多月实在难受没法了才去找中医进行所谓的”调理”，这时候麻黄汤显然不合适，但是治疗起来难度也不大。

第二种情况是部分基层中医确实不太会治感冒，见到发热往往就用清热解毒药，此乃医家之大忌，这样直接导致表邪内陷，变生他疾，越治越坏，让老百姓觉得你不能治感冒，还不如去输液。

所以无论是在课堂间、诊室里、饭桌上，我都反复在强调中医治疗感冒的优势，我们做医生的不能总想着去看多难多复杂多高大上的病，也不要总去分享一些自己治好别人治不好的病的经验，应该踏踏实实为人民服务，客观看待自己的疗效，解决群众亟需救治的常见病症，让感冒不再成为身体不舒服的影响因素。