Difficulty Breathing due to Wind-Cold

Symptoms: dislike of cold, shivering, fever, cough, feeling of oppresion in the chest, thin-white mucus, headache, absence of sweating, pulses floating and tight

Treatment involves inducing sweating, restoring the function of the respiratory system, and eradicating the pathogen. This can be done by "reducing" acupuncture points lieque, kongzui, fengmen, feishu, and dingchuan, burning moxa cones at fengmen after needling, and/or utilizing an herbal remedy.

The most effective herbal remedy for this particular condition was called Ma Huang Tang (Ephedra Decoction). It contained ma huang (ephedra), gui zhi (cinnamon), xing ren (apricot kernel), and zhi gan cao (honey-fried licorice). Ephedra, when used in small dosages and properly combined with licorice and cinnamon, is a safe herb for alleviating acute cases of wheezing and tighness in the chest. It has never been used in Chinese Medicine as a long-term stimulant or as a weight loss herb. It was used in the way one would use an inhaler for acute asthma attacks. However, in the United States, makers of diet drugs realized that ephedra alkaloids extracted from the ephedra herb provide stimulatory and sympathomimetic effects (like Sudafed), and began putting the concentrated extracts in pills for weight loss. A few years ago, a baseball player overdosed on some diet pills containing ephedrine, had a heatstroke during a workout, and diet at the age of 23. The use of ephedra was banned, even among health practitioners for the traditional usage of treatment for asthma. For this particular condition, most herbalists either increase the dosage of apricot kernel in the formula, or add the herb ting li zi (tansy mustard seed). These herbs do not have stimulatory or sympathomimetic properties.

How do the herbs within this formula work? Tansy mustard seed is an expectorant that alleviates excess wheezing with a gurgling sound in the throat. It is not used for chronic wheezing due to a deficiency condition. Tansy mustard seed also reduces water retention and puffy face due to the onset of "common cold." Cinnamon inhibits some strains of flu virus and bacterial organisms, lowers fever, regulates blood sugar, and is a diuretic. Apricot kernel treats coughing and wheezing, and may loosen the bowels. Licorice moderates the properties of the other herbs in the formula, effectively preventing side effects and