Fever and Chills

[Guest guest]

As Dr. Lui has said many times, fever does not equal heat, and chills

do not equal cold. This is an important point in understanding the

bing ji is tai yang or wei stage. One can have chills in wei level

wind heat, these are not caused by cold.

Modern sources describe the fever and chills in shang han being as

more severe than in zhong feng. However, in the Shang Han Lun shang

han does not always present with fever and can present with chills

only. Zhong feng, on the other hand, seems to always present with

fever, corresponding to the type of ying and wei disharmony in which

sweating occurs only with fever, i.e.: " strength in defense and

weakness in construction. "

Chills can occur in any type of tai yang disease since they

are caused by blockage of yang qi, especially wei qi, which warms the

body. Extra clothing cannot alleviate these chills since they are

caused not by a deficiency of, but by blockage of yang qi. Cold is

the most significant pathogen in shang han and is responsible for the

severer chills. Cold may also overwhelm or block the yang qi to such

an extent that fever is not initially produced.

Dr. Liu, in a private lesson, has said that he particularly liked one

scholar's idea to the effect that wind is yang and readily damages

the yang wei qi while cold is yin and readily damages the yin ying

qi. Thus when cold is the principal pathogen, ying and wei are both

depressed and stagnant. This results not only in lack of fever, but

is another reason for the characteristic lack of sweat in shang han,

i.e.: it is not only the closing of the pores that prevents sweating

but also the depression of both ying and wei. He thinks the tight

pulse in shang han indicates cold entering the vessels. He notes

that in children, who are generally more yang than adults, there is

almost always fever at the onset of shang han.

[Guest guest]

, " davidfrierman " <

davidfrierman@h...> wrote:

 

One can have chills in wei level

> wind heat, these are not caused by cold.

 

 

and the pathomechanism is the same according to Liu, but in

this case wind-heat blocks the flow of wei qi and thus chills

occur