A Cold Wave Meets the Pandemic — How to Warm Yourself Up? Doctor Luo Dalun: When You Catch a Chill, Don’t Panic — Everyday Physical Ways to Drive Out the Cold

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear friends, good morning, everyone. The epidemic has reached the point where many friends in the north say that almost everyone around them has already turned positive. In places like Beijing, Hebei, and Shijiazhuang, I think we are about to cross the finish line — the first wave should be almost over. But here is what worries us: in most of the country, the infection rate is still only a few percent, so this wave has not even started yet. At this rate of spread, in the end the whole country will probably go through it once.

Opening: The Epidemic Isn’t Over Yet, and the Herbs Are Already Running Out

Doctor Luo first talked about the current state of the epidemic: in some places, after going through it, life is slowly returning to normal and people are back at work; but the vast majority of regions still face the challenge ahead.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What is a pity? What is a pity is that under the impact of this wave, some herbs may be running short. So today let’s talk about other methods — physical therapies for a chill, and all the little household tricks and methods you can use to solve the problem of catching cold.

Why Talk About Cold? The Cold Wave Is the Plague’s “Stepping Stone”

This wave of the epidemic is closely tied to an invasion of cold. Doctor Luo said: look at the cold wave that keeps sweeping south — how far south? To Sanya, basically the southernmost city in China:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Right now, at this very moment, I’m wearing a jacket, and the low for the day is only about ten-odd degrees — around thirteen degrees, which is very cool, like deep autumn in the north. In the evening I have to switch on an electric heater for the elderly. Sanya is normally bathed in sunshine, and the sun is so hot it never gets like this — now even Sanya is this cool, which shows the cold wave is sweeping the whole country, from north to south.

In the hotels of Sanya, many people are lying there with fevers — they tested positive and are lying flat with fever. Why does cold matter so much? Because cold is a major factor in the plague’s rapid invasion.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The plague spreads extremely fast. It is different from an ordinary external contraction — the plague may spread whether your body runs hot or cold. But cold is definitely one factor. Many people have insufficient zheng qi (upright qi), and the circulation of the ying wei (nutritive and defensive) qi is not smooth. When cold arrives and the temperature drops, many people catch a chill from the cold wind — they feel cold all over, and then the headaches and joint pain begin. After the cold, the movement of qi and blood in the body immediately congeals and becomes even more abnormal.

When a healthy person catches cold, the qi and blood are vigorous and the circulation speeds up right away; but for people with yang deficiency or qi deficiency, that does not happen. So Doctor Luo says: cold is an important “stepping stone” that helps the plague spread — because the cold is in there causing trouble.

What Does It Feel Like When You Catch It? Aching Joints, Chills, Sore Throat

The symptoms this time are mostly aching joints all over and chills:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Many people feel cold for a very long time — including lots of friends in Guangdong and other southern regions; they all feel this way, cold for a long time. It starts with joint pain, then a sore throat, then fever, then problems begin — all of this is related to catching cold.

Early-Stage Cold: Which Medicines Can You Use?

If after catching cold you quickly feel a little deficient, a little sweaty, a little dizzy, and a little cold, Doctor Luo recommends the classic formula — Chai Hu Gui Zhi Tang (Bupleurum and Cinnamon Twig Decoction):

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: It combines Xiao Chai Hu Tang (Minor Bupleurum Decoction) and Gui Zhi Tang (Cinnamon Twig Decoction) — this warms the yang and harmonizes the nutritive and defensive qi. I see many friends commenting that Chai Hu Gui Zhi Tang resolved it very quickly — within a day. This formula is the classic one for an exterior deficiency pattern, used when the pathogen is also moving a little deeper, just entering the shaoyang but not yet fully inside — in other words, when your yang qi is insufficient and your resistance to external pathogens is weak, this helps rally you back up.

Besides that, Gan Mao Qing Re Granules will also work (most of its ingredients are warming, yang-supporting, cold-dispelling herbs), as will Jiu Wei Qiang Huo Granules and similar warming, wind-dispelling, cold-dispersing medicines.

And what if you cannot get hold of any medicine at all — even licorice is sold out?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We still have things from the kitchen — scallion and ginger. Yesterday I talked about Wu Hu Tang (Five Tiger Decoction): scallion and ginger with some walnut, an egg, and some brown sugar — that all works. Either way, get the body warm. The folk methods are very plain: just get the body warm.

Moxibustion: Dazhui (GV14), the Lower Back, and Zusanli (ST36) — Moxa Every Day

Apart from medicine, there are all kinds of physical methods. First, moxibustion:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Moxibustion — moxa the Dazhui (GV14) point, and moxa the lower back, which is on our Du channel (governing vessel). The body will warm up. On cold days, do this every day — moxa the legs too, points like Zusanli (ST36) and so on, and the body will warm up; it is especially beneficial. Drinking some ginger sugar paste works too.

Space Heaters: The “Back Treatment” for the Very First Moment You Catch a Chill

Doctor Luo urges every household to keep an electric heater or radiator on hand, especially for the elderly:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In the northeast and the north, winters have central heating. If you catch a chill, my method is this — press your back against the radiator. Lean on it for a while and the body warms up; let the qi and blood of the whole body get thoroughly moving. Once the body is moving, the defense system activates and can clear the pathogen — in the very earliest stage it can already be cleared. So the moment you feel you have caught a chill, press your back against the radiator immediately and warm up.

What if your home has no radiators (only underfloor heating)? Use the bathroom heat lamp:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Go into the bathroom, switch on the heat lamp, let it shine down from above, lower your head and stand there a while — the back warms up too, gets hot.

And what about friends in the south? Really, get yourself an electric heater:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: My experience is this — when you really catch a chill, shut yourself in a small room, switch on the electric heater, drink a bowl of hot congee, and sleep beautifully — sleep all warm and toasty. The room temperature is that kind of high warmth; after one sleep the cold is basically cleared. You can also sit beside the heater and roast — especially the elderly at home, let them sit beside it and roast their backs. In this kind of overcast, cold weather, rally the yang qi and get the qi and blood circulating — to a large extent that clears the external pathogen. Even in Sanya I keep electric heaters for the elderly — they really do work.

The Hair Dryer’s Three Great Uses: Drying the Quilt, Warming Dazhui (GV14), Warming the Navel

The hair dryer is the “magic tool” Doctor Luo keeps emphasizing, and it has three great uses. The first — drying the quilt — is an experience he summed up on business trips to the south:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When I travel to southern cities on business, the winters are damp and cold — it really is no joke. When a cold wave hits Shenzhen in winter it is freezing; people in Guangdong wear down jackets — and in five-star hotels the air conditioning basically only blows cold air, no warm air. That kind of damp cold is a feeling with nowhere to escape. Later I summed it up: plug in the hair dryer, spread the quilt out flat, tuck the nozzle inside the quilt, and be sure to keep the air intake outside the quilt. Switch it on and keep blowing warm air in — the quilt slowly balloons up; keep the channel clear. The dampness and cold-damp air inside the quilt get blown out; you can feel the quilt is clammy and your hand feels damp. Blow for a while, switch it off, then get into bed — the bed is warm and dry.

The second great use — warming Dazhui (GV14) through a towel:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When you feel cold all over after catching a chill, lay a towel over Dazhui (GV14) on the back, switch on the hair dryer, and blow through the towel onto Dazhui. Slowly the stream of heat warms our Du channel (governing vessel), the qi and blood gradually start moving, the yang qi is rallied, and the body slowly eases off.

The third great use — warming the navel through your underwear:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Some people feel cold — cold right around the belly. This calls for attention: the cold pathogen may indicate insufficient yang qi of the taiyin. Keeping your underwear on, blow the hair dryer at the navel — don’t blow directly on the skin. Slowly you will feel the belly gradually warm up; once the belly is warm, the movement of qi and blood in the body gradually returns to normal.

Heated Car Seats and Hot Salt Packs: Warm the Back First

Many cars have heated seats, and they are a ready-made cold-dispelling tool:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When you really catch a chill, roll up the windows, turn off the air conditioning, and switch the heated seat to maximum — it warms exactly the back; after a while the whole back begins to warm up. Drink some warm water or hot congee beforehand, and shortly you will be warm. For acute situations — for example, you went out underdressed and are freezing — you can use this method to regulate. The main purpose is to get the body warm again.

Hot compresses work too — heat a salt pack in the microwave and apply it to the body, press it against the back, press it on Dazhui (GV14). If you have an herb pack, even better:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Grind jing jie (schizonepeta), bai zhi (Angelica dahurica), du huo (pubescent angelica root), and qiang huo (notopterygium) into powder, wrap it in gauze, heat it, and press it against the back and on Dazhui (GV14). The medicinal force penetrates very quickly, and it will also warm you up. These are all methods for warming the body.

This Year’s Climate Is Special: After Three Pandemic Years, Learn to Move With the Times

Doctor Luo remarked that this year is very unusual — in all his years living in Sanya, this is the first time it has turned this cold this early:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The climate has been abnormal for years. Through the three years of the pandemic, the earth’s climate has hardly been normal at all — hot one moment, cold the next. People talk about global warming; I say what warming? Is the globe getting colder? Later a friend said it isn’t getting colder either — the globe is abnormal. Some friends talk about the five movements and six qi (wu yun liu qi). I feel that over these three pandemic years the luck of the movements is hard to talk about, because the changes have been too extreme. So everyone must learn to move with the times — right now the whole country, from north to south, is turning cold, and cold waves keep hitting. What we must learn are methods for driving out cold: the ability to dispel cold and dampness (in some places the dampness is heavy) is extremely practical. In places that are very dry, add a little moisturizing care — but either way, dispelling the cold, getting the cold out, is a good way to help the body recover.

Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Capsules: Thick Tongue Coating, an Upset Stomach, or Grey Foggy Weather — Use Them

In this wave of the epidemic, Doctor Luo especially reminds everyone about one patent medicine — Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Capsules:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In this wave of the epidemic, no matter what — as long as you have any slight discomfort in the stomach and intestines, a little diarrhea, a little nausea, any discomfort at all; as long as the tongue coating is a little thick; or you see the weather looks a little grey and foggy — as long as even one of these factors is present, from start to finish you should take Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Capsules, or the softgel capsules. Use them and you will see results.

He told a real case — a friend’s child with a fever and a thick tongue coating; the capsules worked better than the liquid:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Yesterday a friend’s child had a fever. He took medicine for several days and the fever never broke — it was nearly 40 degrees. He asked what to do. I said, take a photo of the tongue. Looking at it, the tongue coating was so thick. I said, put Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Capsules on him right away. He asked, can I use Huo Xiang Zheng Qi liquid instead? I said the liquid won’t do — the liquid’s strength is weaker. You need the capsules, the softgels. This morning he told me — the fever broke. The situation now is cold; if you add dampness on top — when cold-damp arrives, your body’s defense system and ying wei qi get trapped, and it becomes hard for you to resist the pathogen. So we have to help the body resist the pathogen.

How Chinese Medicine Works: It Doesn’t Kill the Virus — It Helps the Body Break the Fever Itself

At this point Doctor Luo explained a particularly important concept — how Chinese medicine treats disease:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Everyone must understand: no Chinese medicine kills the virus directly. Rather, Chinese medicine unblocks your channels, clears away the obstacles that block your ability to resist the pathogen, and lets you resist it yourself. So when we use Chinese medicine and your fever breaks, it is not the medicine that broke the fever — it is your own body that broke the fever. How? Because we helped your qi and blood circulate; the qi and blood began to move again, and we helped you restore that state.

So medicines, food therapy, physical therapies, even massage — all are means of helping the body recover:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In fact, the best thing at a time like this is hot ironing — take a heated herb pack and iron with it. It both massages and irons the channels, opening them up. Any of these methods is a favorable factor in expelling the external pathogen. Once you understand the principle, you can brainstorm and invent your own methods — use whatever works in your daily life. In the constant onslaught of cold waves, keeping warm and removing cold and dampness is a good way to help the body recover.

See You Tomorrow

Finally Doctor Luo urged everyone: many friends are still in the midst of illness, and in many places the wave has not yet arrived — everyone should be prepared:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Every day I chat a little about the topic of the plague, hoping to help everyone. Tomorrow we will continue the topic of the plague. Dear friends, see you tomorrow!

What to Take Away

Cold is the plague’s “stepping stone.” This wave traveled south hand in hand with a record cold wave (even Sanya dropped to about 13°C). People with insufficient zheng qi and sluggish ying wei circulation are the most vulnerable: a cold wind congeals the qi and blood, and the defense system cannot respond. Keeping warm is not comfort — it is prevention.
Recognize the symptoms. Aching joints all over, chills that linger for a long time, then a sore throat and fever — this wave is predominantly a cold pattern. When you feel it starting, act in the very first minutes.
Medicines for the early stage. Chai Hu Gui Zhi Tang (Bupleurum and Cinnamon Twig Decoction) for the exterior deficiency pattern with the pathogen just entering the shaoyang — warm the yang and harmonize the ying wei. Gan Mao Qing Re Granules and Jiu Wei Qiang Huo Granules also work. No medicine at hand? Use the kitchen’s Wu Hu Tang (Five Tiger Decoction): scallion, ginger, walnut, egg, brown sugar. The folk principle is plain and true: get the body hot.
Moxibustion daily. Dazhui (GV14), the Du channel (governing vessel) of the lower back, and Zusanli (ST36) — moxa every day in cold weather and the body stays warm.
The back is the first line of defense. The moment you feel a chill, press your back against a radiator, stand under the bathroom heat lamp, or sit by an electric heater (southern friends: really do buy one) — get the qi and blood of the whole body moving and the pathogen can be cleared in the earliest stage.
The hair dryer has three great uses. Blow hot air into the quilt to drive out damp cold (a lifesaver in the south’s damp winters); warm Dazhui (GV14) through a towel to warm the Du channel and rally the yang; warm the navel (shen que, CV8) through your underwear to warm the taiyin when the cold sits around the belly.
Warm the back anywhere. Heated car seats, microwave-heated salt packs, and herb packs (jing jie, bai zhi, du huo, qiang huo ground to powder, wrapped in gauze and heated) pressed on the back and Dazhui — all make the medicinal force penetrate quickly.
Watch for the Huo Xiang Zheng Qi signal. Thick tongue coating, any stomach-intestine discomfort or diarrhea, or grey foggy weather — use Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Capsules (the capsules are stronger than the liquid; one child with a nearly 40°C fever and a thick coating broke his fever overnight).
Remember the core principle. No Chinese medicine kills the virus — it unblocks the channels and helps your body fight the pathogen itself. The fever breaks because your body breaks it. After three abnormal pandemic years, learn to move with the times: dispel cold, remove dampness, keep warm — that is the best way to help the body recover.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s health lecture series (cold-wave cold-dispelling · physical therapy special).