What to do if you catch a cold?

In fact, there is no such thing as a quick recovery from a cold. Because whether you take medicine or not, it takes about a week to get better from a cold.

But why do we sometimes feel that the symptoms of a cold are relieved a lot within a few days? This is because after we take medicine, it can help us relieve symptoms and reduce the body’s stress response. The body that was originally suffering felt much more relaxed after taking the medicine, and many friends thought it was cured, but in fact the virus still exists in our bodies.

I will explain it in detail below.

First of all, why do we get colds?

1. A cold is a series of reactions that occur when the body encounters external interference

Many friends often feel this way. The weather has suddenly become cold recently, and people around them have caught a cold. It will suddenly increase. This is actually one of the situations where the outside world interferes with our bodies.

There are two reasons why people get colds: First, viruses or bacteria from the outside are aggressive and multiply too fast. After entering our bodies through the mouth and nose on the face, they cause colds. Another reason is that the body's immunity has been reduced due to cold wind blowing recently, or being too tired, staying up late for a long time, etc., and disrupting the balance of the body's operation. Viruses that the body can originally suppress multiply rapidly and cause colds.

2. What causes wind-cold and wind-heat in traditional Chinese medicine?

In fact, the wind-cold and wind-heat often mentioned in traditional Chinese medicine are just a summary of symptoms after a cold, and are not the cause of your illness. Traditional Chinese medicine only classifies your symptoms in a more detailed manner. Its function is to allow everyone to prescribe the right medicine according to their own symptoms.

For example:

After a person catches a cold, symptoms such as a runny nose, being particularly afraid of the cold, and coughing up white phlegm are very similar to the reaction of a person who catches a cold after blowing a cold wind. Therefore, at this time, you should dispel wind and cold, drink some ginger soup and other pungent and warm foods to dispel the cold. If you have a yellow nose, severe fever, and coughing up yellow phlegm, which seems to be a reaction to heat, you can drink some mint water appropriately. , green tea and other cooling foods to remove the heat.

After figuring out the reason, let’s talk about the question asked by the questioner: How to recover quickly if you have a cold?

1. Taking medicine cannot cure colds, it can only help us relieve symptoms

According to experimental statistics, 95% of people’s colds are viral colds, not bacterial colds. According to the current medical level, no matter whether it is traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine, there is no effective drug that can directly kill the virus. In other words, whether you take medicine or not, it actually takes about a week to get better.

Then taking medicine will have no effect on us? Neither. The role of drugs is to help us relieve symptoms and reduce the body's stress response.

Let me tell you what a stress response is. After catching a cold, each of us will feel a little uncomfortable in our body to some extent. It can range from sneezing and coughing to severe fever. This discomfort in the body is actually the stress response produced by the immune system after detecting the invasion of the virus. Its function is to further activate our immune system.

Because everyone’s physical condition is different, the degree of stress response is also different. Some friends only have mild symptoms: such as a runny nose, a little discomfort in the throat, a slight fever, etc.; some friends have a more severe stress response, such as a fever that suddenly reaches 38 or 39 degrees, or a sore throat. Speechless.

Friends who have severe stress reactions should not resist at this time. They must take some medicine to reduce the body's stress reaction and relieve symptoms. If you have a high fever, take some antipyretics. If you have a sore throat, take some painkillers, or go to the hospital and ask a doctor for help.

This is why some friends feel that their bodies quickly recover after taking medicine. After the medicine reduces the body's stress response, the body that was already suffering becomes much more relaxed after taking the medicine. Many friends think it is better, but in fact the virus still exists in our bodies