How Do You Treat Dry Cough in Your Practice?

In a general medicine practice combined with Oriental medicine, we perform a holistic evaluation of our patients. During a dry cough evaluation, we make a full general evaluation and a physical examination. The final diagnosis for the dry cough is done following the 8 Principles rule.

Cough causes could come from a Fire over Metal, Fire in the Lung meridian, or from a Lung deficit due to a Wood Excess, including a weak Earth component (Metal's Mother). These diseases could be caused by 5 reasons: (a) the motion in him or her self; (b) generation cycle; (c) control cycle excess; (d) counter generation; and/or (e) counter control motion excess.

Cough is not only a Lung disease. It could be the manifestation of other Zang Fu imbalances, the Lung organ, which manifests the disease.

I use a geometric symbol as a nemotechnical rule to remember cough principles:

OPEN IN VIEWER

At the time of treatment, it is necessary to know the reasons for the imbalance, the causes of Fire or Heat, and the time or season when symptoms appear, as well as the meridians or energy levels affected. Also, the disease will follow the 4 layers of expression or one of the 8 marvelous vessels.

Some points to be used are:

LU 7, San Jiao 1, LU 10, SI 4, LU 11, LI 11—disperse Heat

LV 4—refresh Liver who Heat Lungs

SI 2, LU 5, KI 6, SP 6—improve liquids in the body

LI 4 Yuan point—dispel Heat and regulate the Fu

Bl 13 Back Shu—dissipate Heat or Cold over Lung, depending on the Qigong maneuver used

LU 6, Xi—expel “devil” energies.