Cold Patterns & Symptoms

Question 1

Characteristics of cold

Answer 1

Cold is Yin and it injuries Yang. Spleen and kidneys first affected.
Cold congeals blood. Major cause of blood stasis, leads to intense pain.
Cold contracts. Muscles, sinews, blood vessels and skin. Pain and stiffness.
Cold causes clear discharges. Thin, watery and clear fluid discharges from the nose, very pale urine, watery loose stores and clear watery vaginal discharges.
Cold pertains to the kidneys. Injures kidney yang, also spleen, stomach, heart, intestines and uterus.

Question 2

Invasion of cold

Answer 2

Channels and joints: cold painful obstruction syndrome. Intense pain often in a single joint, aggravated by exposure to cold and alleviated by application of heat.

Muscles and sinews: local pain and stiffness, common in the muscles of the shoulders and neck.

External cold invading stomach: epigastric pain and vomiting.
Invading intestines: abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
Invading uterus: acute dysmenorrhoea.
Always chilliness and pain aggravated by cold and alleviated by heat

Question 3

Symptoms of full cold

Answer 3

Feeling of cold, cold limbs, thin clear discharges, severe pain, aggravation of pain from pressure, aggravation from cold and alleviation from application of heat, a desire for warm drinks, absence of thirst, bright white complexion, thick white tongue coating, slow full tight pulse.

Interior full cold can only last a short time. After prolonged retention interior cold consumes Yang orphan of the spleen first, giving rise to empty cold.

Question 4

Symptoms of empty cold

Answer 4

Feeling of cold, cold limbs, thin clear discharges, dull pain, a mediation of pain from pressure, aggravation from cold and alleviation from application of heat, a desire for warm drinks, absence of thirst, dull white complexion, thin white tongue coating, pale tongue body and a slow weak pulse.

Question 5

How does internal empty cold arise?

Answer 5

Deficiency of yang, usually of spleen, lungs or kidneys.
Transformation of full cold, retention of cold injuring yang.

Question 6

Deficiency of yang and interior cold in the heart, lungs, spleen, stomach and kidneys

Answer 6

Heart: stuffiness and pain in the chest, purple lips, knotted pulse.

Lungs: propensity to catch colds, and a cough with white mucus

Spleen: diarrhoea or loose stools with some abdominal pain

Kidneys: frequent pale and profuse urination, lower backache, cold feet and knees, impotence in men or white leucorrhea in women