What to Take for Covid Headache and Other Symptoms

What to take for Covid headache and other symptoms. Natural remedies work best and have been proven effective to help you feel better faster. More importantly, natural remedies work with your body to heal the root of the damage caused by Covid, instead of masking symptoms and causing more problems.

Reading time: 11 minutes

Important note: If you choose to follow this protocol, please make sure to consult with your health care practitioner in advance. We make no claim that this method will work the same in your situation. We are sharing the details because of the powerful effect it had for my family members and the research out of Asia supporting these methods.

Early symptoms

Okay, let’s start by looking at what happens when people contract the virus. Not everyone, but many people experience the same onset of symptoms.

These are some of the common early symptoms:

• High fever
• Yellow phlegm
• Headache
  
• Tight cough that feels constricted and painful
• Frequent coughing and inability to breathe that keeps you up at night and hurts

Knowing these symptoms is important, because Chinese medicine doctors don’t distinguish between strains when helping people learn how to treat Covid naturally.

They look at the effect on the body through externally observable symptoms. What to take for Covid headache and other symptoms is guided by this foundation.

You can learn more about how Chinese medicine doctors look at the body and health in our article about The Difference Between Western and Chinese Medicine.

Let’s break down these early symptoms from a Chinese medicine perspective.

How to treat a fever and yellow phlegm - in addition to what to take for Covid headache

According to Chinese medicine, both high fever and phlegm result from too much heat in the body.

While having a fever is a good sign that the body’s defense system is working and white blood cells are doing their job, in Chinese medicine releasing heat is essential to return to health. Having a fever will often cause a Covid headache, so foods that treat your fever are a great recommendation for what to take for Covid headache.

Releasing heat naturally without chemicals is even more important because all of the organs are working hard to remove the invasive germs from the system. If they also have to fight toxic chemicals, they will be overburdened.

The remedy to remove heat, thereby breaking the fever and getting rid of the yellow phlegm, is cabbage and radish broth. These foods have cooling and heat removing properties that allow the immune system to continue doing its work while releasing excess heat.

What to take for Covid headache and other symptoms caused by fever: Daikon radish and Napa (Chinese) cabbage broth

Indication: Fever; yellow phlegm when coughing or blowing your nose; Covid headache from fever

Ingredients

• 2 cups sliced Napa (Chinese) Cabbage
• 1 cup ¼’ cubes of peeled and sliced Daikon radish
• 4-6 cups water

Method

• Place 4 cups of water in saucepan along with radish and cabbage
• Bring to a boil
• Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes
• Fill mug with one cup of liquid and 1/3 of cabbage and radish
• Drink and eat when still warm
• Cover with lid and keep on stove top
• Reheat and drink/eat two more times during the day

Napa cabbage and daikon radish are ideal, but you can also use green or purple cabbage and red radishes if they are not available. These back-up options have a positive effect on reducing fever. However, yellow phlegm may still persist and finally clear when you can drink a Napa cabbage and daikon radish broth.

Take an Epsom salt bath to reduce fever

In addition to the cabbage and radish broth, you can add another remedy, followed both in China and the west: a salt bath, in particular Epsom salts.

The salts draw the toxins out of the body, allowing organs to do their job more efficiently. There are many other benefits to Epsom salt baths, but in this case, soaking works effectively with the cabbage and radish broth to clear fevers quickly.

Method

• Fill the bath with warm, not hot, water
• Add 4 cups of Epsom salts
• Soak for 20 minutes
• Completely rinse off, either in the bath or in the shower, with fresh water (removes toxins from your skin)

What to take for Covid headache caused by coughing and treating coughing symptoms

At the same time as the Cabbage and Radish recipe, you may also need to prepare and drink Asian pear and rock sugar broth.

The pear and rock sugar broth opens up a restrictive cough and allows air to flow through the lungs. Sufficient intake of air is essential to heal, and for healthy living generally.

Pear and rock sugar broth is a good remedy for what to take for Covid headache, because many headaches are caused from the pressure of coughing. Additionally, headaches result from the internal damage to the lungs caused by Covid, which can also cause headaches.

Asian pear and rock sugar broth

As you’re learning how to treat Covid naturally, you need to know that the remedy to get rid of a tight, constricted cough and to open up the lungs is to drink pear with rock sugar broth.

According to Dr. Zhang Yifang a Radiant Shenti consultant, TCM doctor in Shanghai, and author of Your Guide to Health with Foods and Herbs: Using the Wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine, drinking pear and rock sugar broth should ease your cough and help you breath more easily.

You may use regular pears and pure cane sugar. While you may experience a positive change, your symptoms may improve more rapidly when you are able to use Asian pear and rock sugar.

Indication: Dry cough or cough with phlegm (if you have yellow phlegm, please also use the Cabbage and Radish recipe below)

Ingredients

• 1 large Asian pear
• 2-3 ¼” pieces of Rock Sugar
• 3-4 cups of water

Method

• Peel one large Asian pear
• Slice into 1” chunks; keep the core
• Place 3 cups of water into a saucepan
• Place the pear chunks, core, and rock sugar into the pot of water
• Bring to a boil
• Simmer for 20 minutes
• Fill mug with one cup of liquid and 1/3 of the pear chunks
• Drink and eat when still warm
• Cover with lid and keep on stove top
• Reheat and drink/eat two more times during the day

Massage acupressure points

Another step is to open up meridian points through acupressure massage. By massaging key points, you allow qi and blood to flow to your lungs, spleen, heart, and head to help them clear phlegm, improve circulation, enable deeper breathing, and clear headaches.

You can follow along with video below that shows you how to locate acupressure points to strengthen your lungs prescribed by Dr. Dayong Hou.

A licensed TCM doctor can prescribe what to take for Covid headache and other symptoms

Many people can recover from Covid and other  viruses without additional herbs. Others need extra support, so a licensed Chinese medicine doctor and acupuncturist may need to prescribe the following combination of herbs:

• Xiao Chai Hu Tang
• Jinyin Hua and Lianqiao
• Huo Xiang Zheng Qi San

These are made to drink as a tea, initially three and then two times per day. The effect of the herbal formula is to:

• Stop and clear heat
• Build up the immune system
• Open elimination systems to help the body clear out the virus

Furthermore, your TCM practitioner might have other recommendations for herbs. Each symptom is unique, and your Covid headache might have a source not treated with the above listed herbal formula.

Finding a Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Practitioner

• American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
• National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
• American Academy of Medical Acupuncture

Treating later symptoms of Covid naturally

As you start to recover, you will notice that your symptoms shift. While some symptoms go away, others change and linger. You may still need to know what to take for a Covid headache, but you might also need to know how to treat new symptoms.

Later symptoms of Covid often include:

• Loose, barky cough
• Clear to white phlegm

How to treat a loose cough

If you have followed the early Covid symptom treatment recommendations, you should notice improvements. After about four days, your cough should loosen up, you should be able to breathe more deeply, and you should start feeling more energized.

It’s important to note that you may still have a cough five days into the treatment, or even longer. The cough should change from tight and restrictive to a looser, barky cough.

At this stage, the lungs are still recovering from the virus and need support to continue to heal.

What to take for Covid headache - Jujube broth

Dr. Zhang recommends jujube (Chinese date) broth  to nourish and moisten your lungs.

• 5 jujubes (Chinese dates)
• 4 cups water
• Optional: ½ cup mung beans

Method

• Add the jujubes and water to a medium saucepan (mung beans as well, if using)
• Bring to a boil
• Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, if no mung beans; 1 hour with mung beans (adding water as needed)
• Drink the liquid as a tea; if you added mung beans, eat in a bowl with a spoon as a soup
• Drink or eat 1/3 of the mixture three times per day. Keep on the stove covered with a lid and simply reheat as needed.

Indication: Trouble breathing; coughing with NO fever; headache

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of peeled and sliced ginger
• 3 slices of lemon
• 2 Tbsp of honey
• 2-4 cups water

Method

• Add the sliced ginger and water to a saucepan
• Bring to a boil
• Add the lemon slices and turn off the burner
• When the mixture has cooled down, add the honey and mix well
• Drink throughout the day, making a fresh batch each day
• You may increase the amounts to make a larger batch for more people

Contraindications: Do not make ginger tea if you have a fever or yellow phlegm, are constantly flushed, or have hot flashes.

Summary

Knowing what to take for Covid headache and other symptoms will help you feel better faster. These natural remedies heal your body at the root of the probelm.

Medications can often make symptoms worse because they further stress the liver and kidneys.

Here is a quick summary of the symptoms and remedies for your convenience. All are appropriate with or without headache:

• Fever and yellow phlegm : Napa cabbage and daikon radish broth
• Fever: Epsom salt baths
• Tight and constricted cough: Asian pear with rock sugar
• Loose, barky cough, weak lungs: Jujube broth (possibly with mung beans)
• Clear to white phlegm: Fresh ginger, lemon and honey broth

Reminder: If you choose to follow this protocol, please make sure to consult with your health care practitioner in advance. I make no claim that this method will work the same in your situation. I am sharing the details because of the powerful effect it had for my family members and thousands of people in Asia.