Q: Can I get sweating by the foot bath to release cold?

A:

Chinese people have a tradition to release cold by sweating with a foot bath in the hot water.  It can be helpful only when the cold is exterior wind-cold. If it is flu/covid, it is unsuitable and can cause risk. We don’t recommend any sweating by drinking warm water, foot bath or any herbal medicine to treat the wind-heat type of cold. Panadol is not suitable as well. It is not easy for ordinary people to distinguish between wind-heat or wind-cold. Wind-heat can cause symptoms like wind-cold such as a clear running nose. Especially in the current season in New Zealand, most cold(including flu/covid) is wind-heat type. Therefore, do not blindly self-medicate.