07/09/2026
Most people expect medicine to work in a straightforward way. You get sick, you get treated. If you have asthma that gets worse in winter, you treat it in winter. That's the logic we're used to.
Chinese medicine has a different suggestion.
It says that some conditions – the ones that come back every cold season, year after year – are best treated in the middle of summer. Specifically, on three particular days when the weather is at its hottest. The idea has a name: d**g bing xia zhi, which translates roughly as "treat winter disease in summer." It's been practiced in China, Korea, and Taiwan for hundreds of years, and there's a specific therapy built around it.
It's called San Fu Tie — literally, "three fu patches."
What San Fu Tie is used for
The treatment was developed with respiratory illness in mind, and that's still what most people come in for. It's often used for:
• Asthma, particularly the kind that flares in cold air
• Chronic bronchitis and lingering coughs
• Allergic rhinitis and sinus problems
• Frequent colds — the pattern of catching every bug that goes around
Interested in learning more? https://cascadiachiropractic.ca/san-fu-tie-why-chinese-medicine-uses-the-hottest-days-of-summer-to-treat-winter-illness/
