TCM Basics 101: What is Wind

Wind is one of the six external pathogenic factors of disease according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. These pathogenic factors can attack the body, enter the meridians, and cause diseases.

Read about What is Dampness for another pathological factor here.

Pathogenic Wind is the leading pathogen causing all diseases. Wind has the most influence among the six external pathogenic factors. This is because other pathogenic factors such as coldness, heatiness, dampness mostly attach themselves to Wind to invade the human body, resulting in complication of diseases such as headaches, nasal obstructions, sore throats, facial swelling and edema.

Here are some of the diseases that can be related to and caused by Wind due to their presentations being similar to the characteristics of Wind.

Diseases involving excess movement of the body: Epilepsy (rare convulsions) and Parkinson’s disease
Diseases involving symptoms appearing in various parts of the body at different times: Rheumatism involving differing joints or skin rashes that appear in multiple places.
Various kinds of pain and numbness: headache, toothache, limb numbness, tendon spasms, arthritis, and deep bone pain.
Diseases that are acute: common cold, influenza, a sinus infection, a skin eruption, a sore throat, a cough, and eye disorders.
Diseases that affect the skin surface: chronic eczema, leprosy, hair loss.

Treatment of Wind

Food therapy, acupuncture and herbs are the three main ways to clear excessive Wind from the body. But depending on the Wind combination with other pathogenic factors, we will have different acupoints and techniques for acupuncture and different concoctions of herbs to clear the Wind out which I will not elaborate here but would recommend you to seek out the professional help.

Food therapy

Taking the right kind of food can help to manage the Wind but it is not a full fledge solution. Always remember to seek out the professional help to get fully treated.

Here are some suggestions for food to take for Wind clearance.

Cinnamon, mulberry

Acupuncture

Feng men (风门, BL-12), Feng Chi (风池, GB-20) are some of the common acupuncture points that can help dispel wind.

Herbal Medicine

Siler root, Acanthopanax are common herbs that are used to remove Heat and Dampness.

Read about the Difference between Dampness and Phlegm here.

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Further Reading:

Everything you need to know about Dampness

Weight Gain from Digestion Induced Dampness

What is Phlegm