Hi! So I have finally caught a mild cold from my school age children, and after tongue diagnosis and this week's diagnostics class, I am looking at my symptoms picture and visual presentation and trying to determine how to best select my remedies. But I'm coming up with some conflict in presentation. I feel generally chilly but not terrible, no fever, mild nasal congestion and have clear mucus, and its currently all in my head, but my tongue has a thin yellow moss. So while half of the symptoms would represent a cold invasion, but the tongue presentation would indicate heat. Right? So it's leaving me confused and leaning on my go-to folk medicine tradition basic kitchen remedies - fresh ginger tea, some echinacea angustifolia root and elderflower tinctures, and schisandra berry and Reishi (because I work with the last two every day anyway) - but I'd love to be able to get a clearer and more accurate picture so I can better select my herbs. Any input on this? Thanks so much!

Andrew said: Hi Kim, Tongue and symptom picture do not always match exactly. Remember that tongue diagnosis is a "confirmation" to what you already know based upon the intake. Sometimes things on the tongue can be a distractor. Also, the tongue could represent early signs of what may happen next if it goes to the next stage, sort of an early warning sign. Simply treat based upon the symptom picture. If you are not sure of energetics, it is always prudent to lean toward a formula that is closer to neutral in temperature.

Hi Andrew. Thank you for the wealth of information and client experiences information in your classes. Very very helpful. I have a question about recipes. YOu said goldenseal and honeysuckle and Coptic and goldenseal were poor man’s antibiotics. This is great but will you be mre specific on the ratio or a recipe you use. I may have missed this in lecture but do not have it written and now of course I need to use the Coptic and goldenseal remedy. Thank you. Nancy Hokenson

From Andrew: Hi Nancy. "Poor persons' penicillin is equal parts of honeysuckle/jin yin hua and Chinese coptis/huang lian. I will often substitute goldenseal root for the coptis depending upon what I have in stock. When you post a new question, please try to post as a new thread? Harder to find them when they're attached to another one....Thanks! Eileen