Will sweating make you better if you have a cold?

Colds and fevers are very common diseases, but they are divided into two types of colds: wind-heat and wind-cold. The symptoms are relatively similar, usually with runny nose, cough or fever. Some may have tonsillitis, which requires immediate medication to relieve the symptoms. But some people don’t take medicine when they have a cold, but instead fight the symptoms of a cold by drinking more water and sweating. But will sweating make a cold better? It also depends on what kind of cold you have, but in general it is necessary to drink plenty of water.

Friends who are familiar with Chinese medicine will know that colds are divided into two types in Chinese medicine: wind-cold and wind-heat.

1. Colds caused by wind and cold will cause runny nose, easily blocked nose, cough, thin white sputum, itchy throat, fear of cold, and may be accompanied by headache, white tongue coating and other symptoms.

2. The type of cold caused by hot wind will cause nasal congestion, turbid nasal discharge, dry mouth and throat, a constant feeling of mucus that cannot be coughed out, and the mucus is thick, or there may be headache, fever, red tongue, and yellow tongue coating.

This is the type of cold mentioned in traditional Chinese medicine. Maybe you don’t quite understand it, but it’s not important. Please see the analysis below.

Okay, let’s talk about the commonly believed method of treating colds by sweating in bed.

For the cold caused by hot wind mentioned above, if you still take measures such as covering yourself with a blanket or drinking a bowl of ginger soup to make your body hot and sweat, it will only make things worse for yourself, add fuel to the fire, and make the internal heat in your body even greater.

For colds caused by hot wind, the correct approach is to clear away heat and detoxify. Drinking a cup of honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, or isatis root will have a good effect in treating colds.

Correcting two common misconceptions:

1. People with weak bodies should not use sweating methods after catching a cold, because weak people tend to sweat easily after catching a cold. If they sweat too much, it is easy to lose body semen, which is not good for health.

People with yang deficiency constitution already have insufficient yang energy, and if this energy is further dispersed, the symptoms of yang deficiency will be aggravated. People with yin deficiency are prone to night sweats in the afternoon, and sweating will aggravate the yin deficiency. Therefore, people with weak constitution should not use sweating to treat colds.

2 Some people take strenuous exercise to sweat after catching a cold, such as running, working out in the gym, or taking a warm bath. This approach is actually very unscientific. You should know that after a cold, the body temperature rises, and the metabolism is already active. After exercise, the body temperature will be even higher, and the metabolism will be more active, which may cause the body temperature to be too high. Moreover, the cardiopulmonary function is reduced after a cold, and strenuous exercise will increase the burden on the cardiopulmonary function and cause damage to the body's organ functions.

Is it okay to sweat in bed when you have a cold?