The Cold and Flu Remedies, The Cold and Flu Remedies with Chinese Herbs offer a number of possibilities apart from the over the  counter medications found in your drug store. This is especially important for individuals who don’t tolerate conventional medication well and need a natural alternative.  So, how to find an appropriate formula for you is the question especially with all those funny sounding Asian names and pictures on the bottle. A person’s age, constitutional type  and particular symptoms can all influence what an appropriate formula for someone is. A good place to start is to first qualify what type of condition the person’s has, is it a cold condition or is there excessive heat. This is a question most herbalists can easily answer. However, you don’t need a degree in Chinese herbs to figure this out and some common sense will help to arrive at a correct decision. Cold conditions are characterized by chills, spontaneous cold sweat and lots of colorless urination. There is usually a pale coating on the tongue and the head is usually filled with copious quantities of thin mucous. Usually the person can’t blow their nose often enough. So here is a case where you want to warm the individual up. Such herbs as cinnamon, ginger and old fashion chicken soup do a nice job at this. Also the herb astralagus  is also helpful as it helps give the immune system a boast. Essentially since the body is exhibiting cold symptoms you want to keep them warm. By contrast the opposite is true when the person has a head cold with heat conditions. In this case the person is running too hot. The tongue is red with a heavy yellow coat to it and the sinuses are plugged with thick yellow mucous. Usually these patients could use some chrysanthemum, Burdock, Dandelion or onion stallions to help clear the heat. There are also specific formulas available in each case such  Gan Mao Ling for cold and Bi Yan Pian for heat conditions. Both of these are easily found in herb stores or can be ordered over the internet. To learn more or to find a good source of herbs you can contact Dr. Sadlon at www.drsadlon.com. Dr. Sadlon practices in Penfield and the greater Rochester area. He is licensed in both chiropractic and acupuncture and has a diplomat in Chinese Herbology.