Can I do scraping when I have a cold

Colds are something that each of us has experienced. There are many medicines available to prevent colds. If you feel symptoms of a cold, you can take medicine in time to prevent it in the early stages. For mild colds we can simply take medicine, but for severe colds we still need to go to the hospital for IV drips and medication. If you don't want to take medicine, you can also try traditional Chinese medicine. So can I use Chinese medicine scraping to treat a cold?

Colds can be divided into wind-heat colds and wind-cold colds. So, can you do scraping when you have a cold? In addition to helping the body relax muscles and tendons, promote qi and blood circulation, scraping is very beneficial for relieving cold symptoms. It especially helps in the treatment of colds caused by wind and cold. Below, I will introduce to you how scraping can treat colds.

Can I do scraping when I have a cold?

Colds can be treated with scraping, and it is more suitable for colds caused by wind and cold. Gua Sha mainly plays the role of dredging meridians and dispersing wind and cold. It is more effective for wind-cold colds, but may have the opposite effect for wind-heat colds. Especially for those with weak constitution, scraping may easily cause the qi to escape, causing symptoms such as sweating, palpitations, shortness of breath, weakness, and bleeding.

The clinical symptoms of a cold are nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, headache, chills, fever, and general malaise. This disease includes various infectious diseases of the upper respiratory tract in modern medicine, such as the common cold, influenza, and acute inflammation of the upper respiratory tract caused by viral and bacterial infections.

1). Scraping order:

(1) Back and shoulder blades (2) Chest (3) Upper limbs

2). Main acupoints:

Fengchi (gallbladder meridian); Dazhui (Du meridian); Fengmen (bladder meridian); Zhongwan (Ren meridian); Kongzui (lung meridian); Hegu (large intestine meridian); Zusanli (stomach meridian).

3). Description:

When you have a cold, you should first scrape the Du channel, because this channel governs all the yang meridians in the body. Scraping the Du channel first will help unclog other meridians. The Dazhui point on the Du meridian is an important acupoint where the three yang meridians of the hands and feet meet the Du meridian, which is beneficial for dredging the yang meridians throughout the body.

Gua Sha is effective for treating colds, especially for improving symptoms such as fever, nasal congestion, sore throat and headache.

During the cold epidemic period, you can use the method of equal tonification and equal purgation to scrape the Zusanli point once a day, which can have a better preventive effect.

After scraping, you should drink more hot water to help sweat and reduce fever.

The advantages and disadvantages of scraping

Benefits of Gua Sha:

Scraping is one of the methods of health preservation in traditional Chinese medicine. In our daily life, many people use scraping to eliminate evil spirits, dispel wind and cold, enhance immunity, etc. It is a very good health preservation method. Experts point out that scraping achieves health-preserving effects through benign stimulation of the body surface, and its benefits are very obvious. The common benefits of scraping are:

1. Scraping your hands and feet can help promote the flow of qi and unblock the meridians. Women often experience cold hands and feet. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that this is mainly related to insufficient yang in the body or poor circulation of qi and blood. You can first scrape your palms with the surface of the scraping board. After your palms become warm, use the grooves on the scraping board to scrape all sides of your fingers, from the base to the fingertips, scraping 5 to 10 times in each direction. This can effectively promote qi and unblock the meridians.

2. Scraping the abdomen can help with bowel movements. Long-term constipation not only affects the digestion and absorption function, but also causes the body to absorb a large amount of toxins. The patient can use the scraping board to scrape the abdomen from top to bottom and from left to right. It should be noted that if there is sagging of internal organs, it should be scraped from bottom to top.

3. Scraping the area around the eyes can improve eyesight. Many people do eye exercises and are very familiar with several of the acupoints. Using scraping instead of finger massage can better stimulate the acupoints. You should first use a scraping comb to press the Jingming point (on both sides of the nose bridge, about half a centimeter away from the inner corner of the eye), and then use the Jingming point as the starting point and the outer corner of the eye as the end point, and scrape from the upper and lower eye sockets respectively. This can effectively improve the circulation of qi and blood in the meridians around the eyes and relieve visual fatigue.

4. Scraping the neck can relax muscles and promote blood circulation. Neck and shoulder discomfort is an occupational disease for desk workers. Gua Sha can relax muscles and promote blood circulation, and improve local blood stasis.