Wind-Heat - Acupuncture Points https://www.acupuncture-points.org/wind-heat.

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Wind-Heat
Jonathan Clogstoun-Willmott
April 27, 2021

Photo by Arwin Neil Baichoo on Unsplash

Wind-Heat and Wind-Cold are names for  syndromes (https://www.acupuncture-points.org

/syndrome.html ) your body often produces when you get ill with an acute disease.

These responses are your inherited  genetic know-how at work , evolved through the millennia.
They are your body’s best response.

Suppressing (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/suppression.html ) these symptoms, which

OTC (over-the-counter) medicines can often do, stops these evolutionary  winning hands  from
working successfully.

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Typical symptoms
(https://www.acupuncture-
points.org )
If the body’s reaction is stronger than it was with  Wind-Cold (https://www.acupuncture-
points.org/wind-cold.html ), it becomes Wind-Heat. Here are its typical symptoms:

• Fever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fever ) will be higher but whether or not there is an

actual fever, the patient feels hotter to the touch and may complain of feeling hot

• In�ammation

• Dry cough

• Sore throat

• Tonsils swollen

• Strong aversion to cold or 

• Sudden heat then coldness

• Mild thirst

• Shivering

• Sneezing

• Body aches

• Headache

• Yellow nasal catarrh

• Tongue (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/tongue-diagnosis.html ): at the front or

sides, red: thin white coating

• Pulse (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/pulse-diagnosis.html ): �oats, rapid

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(https://www.acupuncture-
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Sweating from fever

The body is able to moderate the fever by sweating which is absent in wind-cold conditions.

The level and intensity of the fever is important because not only does fever speed up the
body’s immune reaction, but it helps eliminate bacteria and viruses faster.

Fever also stimulates the body to remove toxins.

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By the Way!
(https://www.acupuncture-
You could have other symptoms,points.org )
depending on the bug you’ve caught and on your underlying
susceptibility. For example, you might also

• get tinnitus (noises, like hissing, in your ears)

• get ear pain

• become irritable and hard to put up with

• hallucinate a bit, though this is more common in children

• become very anxious

• feel very tired as your body throws everything at the bug, leaving you exhausted for a
while

If the immune system is unable to expel it, either because

• it lacks the strength or 

• its reaction is  suppressed (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/suppression.html ),

(perhaps by  medication) 

… then the symptoms will cease to be acute and will become chronic, with tiredness – even
exhaustion, low levels of  phlegm (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/phlegm.html ), catarrh or
sinus involvement, poor appetite, impaired digestion and increased susceptibility to further
invasion.

Wind-Heat shows that your body is responding vigorously to the invader. Usually this is good
and to your advantage. The invader is vanquished by the force of your body’s reaction, and
your body learns quickly how to deal all the better with future invasions.

The downside is that although short, the symptoms are unpleasant! But at least those
symptoms are more e�ective than those of Wind-Cold.

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(https://www.acupuncture-
points.org )

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Why(https://www.acupuncture-
is it called WIND-HEAT?
points.org )
Chinese medicine often uses analogies to describe conditions.
 
If you think of the Wind, you probably think of movement.
 
(https://www.acupuncture-
Depending on its strength you may hear leaves �uttering in the breeze, or you may see cars
overturned.
 
Wind, in Chinese medicine, is the same.
points.org/video-consultation.html )
Book  here
(https://www.acupuncture-points.org/video-consultation.html
Shivering and trembling are signs of Wind, and so is rushing around and noise and)sudden change.
 
The Wind a�ects the upper parts of our body more than other parts, just as winds on mountain-tops
are much stronger. So with Wind-heat, the  wind makes us alternately hot and cold, sneezing, restless

You can get Wind-Heat from

 
Cold! and disruptive.

The Heat  of Wind-Heat supplies the tendency to feel hot. This makes you thirsty, dry, possibly feverish,
The symptoms of Wind-Heat might make you think that to get it you must have been exposed
desiring cool conditions and drinks.
to windy, hot conditions.
 
Because Wind and Heat combine , neither gets it all its own way, and conditions can be changeable.
Not so! The words Wind and Heat describe not the cause but your body’s reaction to the
 
cause. Often one or the other predominates, and this can point to the right treatment.

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(https://www.acupuncture-
points.org )

You and a friend might catch the same cold virus at the same time on the same day. You might
produce Wind-Heat and he might produce Wind-Cold.

What can YOU do to hasten success?

If you decide that you don’t want to take medication or to suppress your body’s natural Wind-
Heat reaction to the invader, then ideally this is what you might do:

• Prepare to assist your body to get hot, to employ its full fever treatment on the bug!

• – make sure you have a warm bed to go to

• – possibly even with a warm partner or a hot water bottle (though perhaps not your
partner if he or she did not give you the bug in the �rst place and doesn’t want to get it
and its fever, aching, shivering and cough from you either!)

• – towels to absorb your perspiration

• – water supplies to quench your thirst

• – possibly ice-cream or yogurt or honey if you have a very sore dry throat

• Make sure you have fresh air circulating in your room. It need not be a huge draft, but air
should �ow through it.

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(https://www.acupuncture-
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Photo by Arwin Neil Baichoo on Unsplash

With Wind-Heat Should You Go to Work? NO!

• Face the fact that you probably won’t be very hungry and in any case, you should not eat
much. Eating diverts energy from the battle and food might not pass through you
smoothly anyway at this time. However, you may need  some food, and complex
carbohydrates are good. Brown rice, anyone: well-cooked, and soft? But clogstoun
congee (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/clogstoun-congee.html ) might be better!

• Or grapes? They’re moisturising and slip down easily giving you some energy too. But not
too many, because they are cooling as well. You want to moisturise, but not put out your
�re!

• If your throat is very sore, honey has a long history of success – but you don’t need much.
Dissolve it in water.

• Don’t bother with vitamins and minerals. This is an acute situation, and your body
probably can’t absorb any more food, let alone concentrated  supplements
(https://www.acupuncture-points.org/supplements.html ). (Yes, yes: I know all about
Vitamin C, Zinc and so on!)  If your body is able to produce strong Wind-Heat symptoms it
certainly doesn’t need supplements: it already has what it needs, except for water.

• Ideally your fever produces a temperature above normal, if possible several degrees
above. However, strictly speaking this is not necessary:  the main thing  is that you feel
really hot .

• During this acute phase, you should probably curtail work. For one thing you may be
infectious. For another you will de�nitely not be able to work e�ciently. Better to stay at
home and return to work a new (wo-)man after a few days.

• During the acute phase, short walks outside in cooler air are �ne, if you are dressed up
well, and not shivering. But make sure that you don’t suddenly get cold while out: you

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want to come back warmer and perspiring (- if you have the energy for it, of course) and
then clamber into a warm bed.
(https://www.acupuncture-
points.org )
• But above all, relax if you can! All these symptoms like sneezing, fever, sudden headache,
dry cough, shivering and general aching (sometime called ‘malaise’) show your body is in
full frontal assault on the bug. It’s an acute infection – don’t prevent your body from doing
its stu�!

• Put up with it and your body will produce lots of antibodies very fast, and will remember
more clearly for next time how to deal with the invader.

What does your acupuncturist do?

Your acupuncturist aims to help your body throw the invader out.

Acupuncture to help you get better faster.

In a perfect world, this means getting you to sweat properly, such sweat being an indication
that you’ve beaten the bug and need to cool down, and that presupposes that your body
achieves a healthy fever.

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However, there’s a huge theory (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/four-levels.html ) to do

with the invasion of disease into your body, and what your acupuncturist does depends on
(https://www.acupuncture-
points.org
which bit of  the theory you display )
symptoms of.

In general, (s)he wants to get your Lungs working properly again.

She may use cupping (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/cupping.html ) on your back or

chest, and acupuncture points chosen carefully on channels that seem most a�ected.
With herbs (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/chinese-herbs.html ) she may choose a recipe
that ‘releases the exterior’. Depending on her training and preference she may use Tuina or
Guasha, the former being a form of Chinese massage and the latter a kind of scraping.

I have found cupping and acupuncture often very e�ective.

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Book here
(https://www.acupuncture-points.org/video-consultation.html )

Check my collection of books: (https://www.acupuncture-

points.org/books.html )

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/books.html ) (https://www.acupuncture-points.org
/books.html )

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Tags: Infection (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/tag/infection ), Pain

(https://www.acupuncture-points.org/tag/pain ), Self-Help (https://www.acupuncture-
points.org/tag/self-help )

Categories: Causes of disease (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/category/causes-of-

disease), Hazards (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/category/theory/hazards ),
Syndromes (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/category/theory/syndromes ), Theory
(https://www.acupuncture-points.org/category/theory )

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2 Responses
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2 Responses
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5 ELEMENTS OR PHASES
points.org )
February 16, 2022 at 1:33 pm (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/wind-heat.html#comment-17241 )
Robert says:

This appears to be a mixture of TCM and Allopathy. Is there some substantiated evidence of “attack”
from without by “pathogens”? The germ theory is called a theory since it has not been proved. The
drawing of multi-colored viral particles is fantasy, since such things cannot even be seen with electron
microscopes. That also goes for all the so-called photos of Covid in 3D and with colors. Electron
microscopes ONLY return �at images of low resolution and ONLY in grayscale!

Why is it necessary to invoke “invaders”, when the issue is the state of the body due to lifestyle?

Reply

February 17, 2022 at 5:25 pm (https://www.acupuncture-points.org/wind-

↪ Jonathan Clogstoun- heat.html#comment-17262 )
Willmott says:
Spicy Taste in Chinese medicine (https://www.acupuncture-
points.org/spicy-taste-in-chinese-medicine.html
Well, Robert, this is a good question but it misses the point. )
This site tries to explain Chinese medicine in English and Chinese medicine talks about Wind-Heat
The spicy taste in Chinese medicine adds lightness and energy to your diet, helping your lungs
(the subject of this page) so that’s what I try to explain.
work better. You need some, but not too much!

Chinese medicine’s way of explaining what the body does is to treat it like something ‘attacking’
READ MORE » (HTTPS://WWW.ACUPUNCTURE-POINTS.ORG/SPICY-TASTE-IN-CHINESE-MEDICINE.HTML )
from outside even though we know perfectly well that it is the body producing the symptoms. But
this ancient method of explaining it does allow one to use yin/yang theory and from that lead on
to speci�c actions that may assist the body to improve. (I’m thinking of acupuncture points, but
there are many ways of doing this.)

If we were to take you literally for everything, then we wouldn’t be able to talk about sunrise and
sunset. Obviously, the sun doesn’t rise or set! Its apparent motions are explained by the turning of
the earth but calling them sunrise and sunset is a convenience for everyone. (By the way, I don’t
know whether the ancient Chinese knew that the earth circles the sun, any more than we did until
Copernicus et al. You sound as if you have the kind of button-down mind that could ascertain this
kind of fact, so please, when you do, let me know.)

I’m not going to go into the question of the germ theory! That leads us down many rabbit holes.

Thanks again for your question. Jonathan

Reply

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Foods classi�ed as having a sweet taste in Chinese medicine are vital for health. But too little or
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