Why shouldn’t you drink cold and heat-clearing granules when you have a wind-heat cold?

Xiao Li caught a cold recently, with a sore throat, coughing with yellow phlegm and fever. When his landlord, Aunt Zhang, saw him, she quickly advised him: "Don't bear it, you have a wind-heat cold, take some medicine quickly!" Xiao Li looked through the medicine box and found the "Ganmao Qingre Granules". As soon as he saw the word "clearing heat", he drank a pack without saying a word. But after drinking it for three days, his symptoms not only did not improve, but worsened.

Xiao Li took the medicine to the hospital's medication consultation window and asked: "I have a cold and a fever. Why hasn't this medicine cured me after several days?" The pharmacist asked Xiao Li about his symptoms in detail and said with a smile: "You have a wind-heat cold. This medicine is not suitable for you!" "What? Isn't this Qingre Granule? Isn't it right to use it to treat wind-heat colds?"

"Don't be fooled by its name 'Qingre Granules'. The heat it clears is not the heat of wind-heat cold. Ganmao Qingre Granules is a traditional Chinese medicine for treating wind-cold colds."

What is the difference between wind-cold and wind-heat?

From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the main symptoms of a cold caused by wind and cold are fear of cold, clear runny nose, dry and itchy throat and cough, but no pain; while the main symptoms of a cold caused by wind and heat are easy fever, hot face, runny yellow nose or coughing up yellow phlegm, often accompanied by sore throat.

Don't be fooled by the name of the drug.

Although Ganmao Qingre Granules may sound like a medicine for treating wind-heat colds at first glance, if we carefully study the instructions, we will easily find that its functions and indications are to dispel wind and cold, relieve exterior symptoms and clear away heat, and it is used for wind-cold colds.

The compatibility of Chinese medicine prescriptions emphasizes the monarch, minister, assistant and envoy, and naturally the monarch has the highest status. The monarch in Ganmao Qingre Granules is "Schizonepeta Spike", which is a "warm" medicine. Taking it for wind-heat cold is like adding fuel to the fire, so Xiao Li's symptoms became more severe the more he took it.

Although mint, bupleurum, kudzu root, and reed root in Ganmao Qingre Granules are all medicines with cooling effects, they are not the main ingredients in Ganmao Qingre Granules and can only be used as an auxiliary to treat fever caused by colds. They are usually only used when the fever just starts and cannot be used to reduce fever. Therefore, the [Precautions] in the Ganmao Qingre Granules instructions state: "Patients with a fever of more than 38.5℃ should go to the hospital for treatment."

In order to prevent Ganmao Qingre Granules from being misused for wind-heat colds, the National Medical Products Administration issued an announcement on July 7, 2021, requiring Ganmao Qingre Granules to revise its instructions and add the following in the [Precautions] column: "It is not suitable for people with wind-heat colds, which are characterized by high fever, slight aversion to wind, sweating, thirst, runny nose, red, swollen, hot and painful throat, and coughing up yellow sputum."

Here, Yaowa would like to remind you that you must not use the medicine blindly based on its name alone. You should read the drug instructions carefully, especially the indications of Western medicine, the functions and indications of Chinese patent medicine, and the precautions.

What Chinese patent medicine is suitable for treating wind-heat cold?

Isatis root granules, Qingreling granules, and Qingrejiedu oral liquid are all traditional Chinese medicines for wind-heat colds. If your cold symptoms meet the characteristics of wind-heat colds, you can try these.

However, no matter you have a cold caused by wind and cold or wind and heat, if your symptoms do not improve after taking Chinese patent medicine for three days or your high fever does not subside, you must go to the hospital immediately and let the doctor prescribe the right medicine to avoid delaying treatment.

Author: Zhou Boya, Chief Pharmacist, Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University

Review expert: Feng Xin, chief pharmacist of Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University

Yang Xiangguang, deputy director and associate researcher of the Pharmacy Department of Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences