Flu with Sore Throat, Fever, Yellow Phlegm and Yellow Runny Nose? Missed the First Window — Use Lianhua Qingwen

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear friends, good morning everyone. Today we continue our series on preventing and treating the flu. The flu is extremely severe right now — I wrote an article yesterday, and everyone paid close attention. What was it about? It’s about the moment when you just start to feel flu symptoms — sneezing, feeling a little chilled all over. My friends, that first moment is absolutely critical.

Opening: the flu’s worst enemy is missing the “first window” — one bowl of yam paste can stop it

Doctor Luo says the instant flu symptoms first appear is the most crucial moment. If you use huai shan yao (Chinese yam) water right away — stirring the yam powder into a paste and drinking it — essentially everyone around him recovers immediately.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Only you know when that first moment arrives. The moment you feel chilled all over, feel something isn’t right, quickly drink some yam paste. It’s just food, right? So just to be safe, your body will basically return to its original state immediately, and the external pathogen won’t get a chance to develop deeper.

Why do some people “get a sore throat right away”? — You missed that instant

But many people don’t catch the first window. Once the external pathogen moves inward, the sore throat begins.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Some people ask: why did my throat hurt right from the start? My friends, you didn’t notice the earlier stage — there was definitely that instant, feeling chilled, suddenly sneezing twice. Sometimes that phase is very short and passes in a flash, then the throat starts to hurt, and you only paid attention to the sore throat. So when people say “my throat hurt right away,” most of them missed the first window.

So what does it mean if your throat really does hurt immediately? Doctor Luo points out the key: it means your body fluids (jin ye) are insufficient — jin as in Tianjin, ye as in liquid — and you have latent stagnant fire, fire that may have been sitting inside all along. The moment an external pathogen touches you, your internal fire flares up first.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What should such people drink on a regular basis? Drink San Dou Wu Mei Bai Tang Tang (Three-Bean Dark-Plum Sugar Decoction), plenty of it, to replenish the body’s fluids and gradually clear that internal fire — then you won’t suddenly turn into a blazing heat state.

Keep San Dou Wu Mei Bai Tang Tang on hand — replenish your fluids

This San Dou Wu Mei Bai Tang Tang — Doctor Luo has explained it many times, and today he reviews the method once more: mung beans, soybeans and black beans, plus five or six dark plums (wu mei) and two spoonfuls of sugar, simmered gently over low heat for more than two hours, drunk as a beverage.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Drinking this replenishes the body’s fluids — we talk about the body needing jin ye (fluids). When fluids are sufficient, upright qi can circulate, and then heat clears more easily. So you can drink it alongside your treatment — I think it’s especially helpful for your flu recovery.

Missed the first window — sore throat and fever now? One patent medicine: Lianhua Qingwen

What if the first stage wasn’t handled well — the chilled-and-sneezing window was missed or ignored, and it turned into a sore throat, then coughing, yellow phlegm, yellow runny nose, and fever? Today Doctor Luo introduces a patent medicine: Lianhua Qingwen Granules (Lianhua Qingwen Capsules).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: People always assume the “lianhua” is the lotus flower that blooms in the pond — it’s not. The “lian” comes from lian qiao (forsythia), the “hua” from jin yin hua (honeysuckle, literally “gold-silver flower,” also called double flower), plus the other ingredients — put them together and you have Lianhua Qingwen. Where is it mainly made? Yiling Pharmaceutical in Hebei. Yiling built an excellent reputation making medicines for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, and Lianhua Qingwen is one of their most important products — designed specifically for the flu pattern of wind-heat attacking the lungs.

What classic formula is this built on? — Zhang Zhongjing’s Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang

What formula is Lianhua Qingwen built on? A classic of Chinese medicine — Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang (Ephedra, Apricot Kernel, Gypsum and Licorice Decoction). As the name suggests, it contains just these ingredients: ma huang (ephedra), xing ren (apricot kernels), sheng shi gao (raw gypsum) and gan cao (licorice).

Ma huang (ephedra): disperses external cold; it opens and releases the lungs. The formula uses honey-fried ephedra (zhi ma huang) — milder in action;
Ku xing ren (bitter apricot kernels, stir-fried): diffuse lung qi, stop cough, and also send lung qi downward;
Sheng shi gao (raw gypsum): clears heat — extremely strong at bringing down fever;
Gan cao (licorice): harmonizes the middle.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Apricot kernels come in bitter and sweet types — sweet apricot kernels are ordinary food, while bitter apricot kernels are what we use in medicine. Bitter apricot kernels carry a slight toxicity, so in medicine we always use stir-fried ones, which destroys the toxicity; and after decocting in water, the toxicity is basically destroyed. So are bitter apricot kernels poisonous? Slightly, but it doesn’t matter — in the formula the dose is so small there’s no problem. The ancients already thought about its safety long ago. You wouldn’t snack on them while watching TV — that’s different. We only use them in medicine, and after decoction the toxicity is destroyed; stir-frying also destroys it, so it’s quite safe.

What does Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang treat? Specifically, external cold with internal heat. When we suffer external contraction, we very easily enter the external-cold-internal-heat state — people cough and wheeze, run a fever, sometimes a high fever, and Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang is the formula made exactly for this condition.

Add lian qiao and jin yin hua, then ban lan gen, guan zhong and yu xing cao — full-power heat clearing and toxin resolution

Lianhua Qingwen takes Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang as its base and adds lian qiao and jin yin hua, one character from each name, forming “Lianhua.” What are these two herbs for? Both clear heat and resolve toxin.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: At this point the external pathogen has very likely already triggered heat signs in your body — in Western medical terms, you already have inflammation. So how do we use lian qiao and jin yin hua to disperse this heat toxin? That benefits your recovery.

It also adds ban lan gen (isatis root), guan zhong (rhizoma cyrtomii) and yu xing cao (houttuynia) — all heat-clearing and toxin-resolving herbs as well. The whole formula’s heat-clearing and toxin-resolving power is extremely strong, which is very good for this kind of heat-pattern flu.

Huo xiang, da huang, hong jing tian — aromatic dispelling of foulness, purging heat through the stool, supporting upright qi

The formula finally adds guang huo xiang (patchouli). Why? To move qi. The ancients had a saying called xiang fang qu hui — “aromatic herbs dispel foulness” — meaning aromatic qi can remove turbid, filthy qi.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Flu of this kind always involves turbid filthy qi. So we typically add huo xiang (patchouli), pei lan (eupatorium), bai zhi (angelica dahurica) and so on; guan zhong and the others all share this ability to dispel foul turbidity.

The formula also adds da huang (rhubarb). Why? Because heat stagnating internally often causes dry stools. If we give a gentle purge here, the heat pathogen can leave through the intestines and clear more easily. So this formula works even better for people with constipation, headache, dry and sore throat, swollen throat, a tongue body on the red side, and a yellow or yellow-greasy tongue coating.

It also includes a little hong jing tian (rhodiola) — what’s that for? Supporting upright qi. So the whole formula: mainly heat-clearing and toxin-resolving, with a little cold-dispersing and a little qi-supporting — a well-balanced composition.

When should you use it? — Remember the key point: when heat signs are present

When choosing, you must understand when this formula applies — only when heat signs are present.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For example, heat inside the body — you’re already running a fever, muscles ache, the runny nose has turned yellow, the phlegm is yellow; the throat is sore and dry, the tongue body is red or on the red side, and in severe cases the coating turns yellow. Actually, these days very few people turn yellow the moment they catch a cold, so you don’t need to agonize over that — if the tongue body is red, we can already judge. At that point you can choose a heat-clearing medicine, and I think this formula is a good fit.

If you want a patent medicine — which one should you pick at the pharmacy? Doctor Luo says you can pick a medicine like this. And if you combine it with San Dou Wu Mei Bai Tang Tang, the results are even better.

Doctor Luo’s summary: disperse external cold, clear internal heat

Finally, Doctor Luo lays out the consistent logic behind this patent medicine:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What’s the consistent logic of this patent medicine? Disperse external cold and clear internal heat — its cold-dispersing action is modest, while its internal-heat-clearing action is substantial. So when you meet the heat pattern of flu and you’re choosing among patent medicines, you can appropriately choose this one. That’s all for today, thank you. Next time we’ll continue discussing what to do about this flu — because countless people have been hit, how should we prevent and treat it? Thank you, see you next time.

What to take away

The first window is everything. The instant you feel chilled and sneeze, drink huai shan yao paste — it’s food, it’s harmless, and it usually stops the external pathogen from developing any further.
“Sore throat right away” means you missed that flash of chills — and it also hints your body fluids were already low with latent heat. Drink San Dou Wu Mei Bai Tang Tang (mung + soybean + black bean, five or six wu mei, two spoonfuls of sugar, simmered over two hours) to replenish fluids and clear hidden fire.
Missed the window and now it’s fever, sore throat, yellow phlegm, yellow nose? Lianhua Qingwen Granules/Capsules is a reasonable patent-medicine choice — the name is lian qiao + jin yin hua, not the lotus flower.
Know what’s inside. It’s built on Zhang Zhongjing’s Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang (ephedra, apricot kernel, gypsum, licorice — treating external cold with internal heat), then adds heat-clearing, toxin-resolving herbs (lian qiao, jin yin hua, ban lan gen, guan zhong, yu xing cao), huo xiang for foulness, da huang to purge heat through the stool, and hong jing tian to support upright qi.
Use it only with heat signs: fever, muscle aches, yellow discharge, sore dry throat, red tongue body — the red tongue body alone is enough to judge. Combined with San Dou Wu Mei Bai Tang Tang, the effect is even better. The strategy: disperse a little external cold, clear a lot of internal heat.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s health lecture (flu prevention and treatment series: the “missed the first window” installment).