What cough remedies are there in ancient Chinese medicine books?

People often sigh: "How can you eat whole grains without suffering?" After all, we are all mortals, not immortals, so it is inevitable that we will be troubled by diseases. There are many diseases, which actually seem to be small problems, but if we don't pay attention to them, it will often lead to big problems, such as cough. On the surface, isn't coughing simple? In fact, coughing can affect the internal organs of the body. As early as Huangdi Neijing, there was a saying that "it is not just the lungs that make people cough, but the internal organs".

As for the principle of cough, the Medical Three-Character Classic once said that "choking on qi leads to cough", which leads to unfavorable factors of lung qi. Chen Xiuyuan, a famous doctor in Qing Dynasty, thought that cough could be divided into two types: wind-cold invading the lungs from the outside and causing cough. Therefore, many doctors will not ignore the wind-cold factor when treating cough. Because cough caused by wind-cold is very common in clinic, there are many prescriptions to regulate cough caused by wind-cold.

There is a classic prescription for treating cough due to wind-cold in ancient and modern Fang Yaozhong, which comes from "Jin Fei Cao San" in The Analects of Confucius, a famous doctor in Song Dynasty, Zhu Jun. What traditional Chinese medicine ingredients are there in Jin Fei Cao San? The whole prescription consists of eight traditional Chinese medicines, namely, Radix Peucedani, Herba Schizonepetae, Jiang Banxia, Radix Paeoniae Rubra, Li Liang, Asari, Radix Glycyrrhizae Preparata, Radix Inulae and Herba Ephedrae. The usage is to grind the eight herbs into fine powder, take the last two parts each time, wrap them in cloth, add appropriate amount of ginger and jujube, and decoct them in water.

Jin Fei Cao San is a classic prescription for dispelling wind-cold, warming and resolving phlegm, which is mainly suitable for wind-cold syndrome. All diseases such as colds and coughs caused by wind-cold can be treated with Jin Fei grass powder. The main clinical symptoms are aversion to cold and fever, headache and stuffy nose, cough with phlegm. Tongue pulse is mainly characterized by red tongue, white tongue coating and floating pulse. Modern medicine can also be used for cold, cough, cough variant asthma, laryngeal cough in children, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other diseases. As long as the syndrome differentiation belongs to cold, it can be used.

Why does Jin Fei grass powder have such a good effect? In fact, the core lies in compatibility. Inula and Ephedra are the monarch drugs in the whole prescription, in which Inula mainly plays the role of warming the middle warmer and dispelling cold, reducing qi and resolving phlegm, while Ephedra mainly plays the role of dispersing lung and dispelling cold and relieving cough. Previously, Hu and Pinellia were ministers, mainly assisting Inula to reduce phlegm and qi. Schizonepeta tenuifolia and Asari are adjuvant drugs, which mainly play the role of dispelling cold, while Radix Paeoniae Rubra and Radix Glycyrrhizae are emissaries, which mainly play the role of purging liver, astringing yin and harmonizing other drugs.

There are two unique Chinese medicines in the whole prescription. The first kind is Inula, also known as golden boiling grass. In ancient times, there was a saying that "a hundred flowers blossom and a single flower falls". It plays a unique role in "eliminating phlegm and benefiting water, benefiting qi and descending" Because cough is an upwelling of lung qi, the breath drops rapidly, and Inula plays a very strange role here. The second taste is Paeonia lactiflora, which can cool the serum heat, not only prevent excessive sweating of Herba Asari and Herba Ephedrae, but also relieve the heat evil caused by wind-cold stagnation in meridians, which can be described as "killing many birds with one stone".

Generally speaking, Jin Fei Cao San is not only symptomatic, but also effective in treating cough due to wind-cold. But there are often some clinical symptoms, so we should add and subtract the clinical symptoms. For example, if phlegm is yellow and thick, Herba Schizonepetae and Herba Ephedrae can be removed, and Scutellariae Radix, Fritillaria thunbergii and Fructus Trichosanthis can be added. If the phlegm is thin, Erchen decoction can be added; If the cough is dry and there is no phlegm or less phlegm, accompanied by dry throat, Herba Schizonepetae, Herba Ephedrae, Rhizoma Pinelliae and Radix Peucedani can be removed, and traditional Chinese medicines such as Radix Adenophorae, Folium Eriobotryae, Radix Asteris and Radix Stemonae can be added.

However, it should be noted that this prescription is mild, and it is not recommended to use it if there is hemoptysis when coughing. In addition, the golden boiling grass in the square should be wrapped in cloth before frying, so as to avoid severe cough after the fine hair of the golden boiling grass enters the throat.

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