Fight your cold with guasha

Treatment of common cold in Chinese medicine is based on pattern differentiation, and common cold is considered as an exterior syndrome, which can be further divided into the wind-cold type, the wind-heat type and the summer heat dampness type. It means you´ll get different treatments depending on your symptoms.

However, this article is not meant for you to use as a diagnostic tool. It´s meant for you to learn some simple techniques you can use on yourself to alleviate some of your cold symptoms.

Guasha

Gua Sha is an ancient scraping technique commonly used as a home therapy. It´s easy to learn and all you need is a tool and massage oil. The best tool is a specific guasha tool, but if you don’t have one you can use a soup spoon. Guasha is actually the name of the technique itself and not the tool, and it´s an effective way to treat symptoms of common cold, by scraping your skin to alleviate cough, headache and other symptoms telling you that your body is fighting an external invader.

The procedure

Scraping for common cold is often done on the back along the spine, in between the shoulder blades. Since that´s not possible to do on yourself, I´ll focus on techniques for your chest and neck. This means you´ll still be able to cover areas connected to your lungs and respiration.

Hold the tool in one hand and with a 45 degree angle as you stroke. Don’t forget to use some type of oil that works for your skin.

Scrape in one direction, with hand-width lengths.

Neck

Gently scrape down the trapezius muscle of your neck, starting from the base of your skull and down and outwards in the direction of your shoulder. You can gradually increase the pressure, but keep it gentle with pressure that feels good for your body. The trapezius muscle covers a large area of the back of your neck and out to your shoulder, and this is a common area for tension.

Chest

Now scrape down the front of your chest bone (sternum), the long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. Then stroke along the gaps of your rib cage outwards toward the side, above the breast tissue.

How long?

Around 5-15 minutes is common for guasha. Although, you might get tired in your arms, so maybe 5 minutes is enough. Make sure you use a tool that fits your hand and don’t make you tired.

If red spots arise on your skin, it’s a sign of Sha (toxin) and it means you can stop scraping the area. This is part of the treatment and you can read about Sha here.

If no Sha appears, and only warmth and redness, it means there’s not stagnation of blood, and you’ll only feel a nice circulation.