Syndrome of stomach cold refers to internal cold syndrome marked by epigastric and abdominal cold pain due to pathogenic cold attacking on the stomach, or due to weakness of the stomach yang and endogenous yin cold. This syndrome is mainly caused by cold attacking on the epigastrium and abdomen, or excessive intake of cold and uncooked food, or overstrain or asthenic cold of the gastric qi.
 
Clinical manifestations:
Cold pain in the epigastrium which is worsened with cold and alleviated with warmth; or sharp pain which is impressible or lingering or prefers pressure; nausea and vomiting, relief of pain after vomiting, bland taste in the mouth without thirst, whitish or bluish complexion; or epigastric and abdominal distending pain, gurgling of water in the stomach and regurgitation of clear fluid; or accompanied by dispiritedness and lassitude, cold limbs and preference for warmth and loose stool; light-colored tongue with Whitish slippery fur, sinking, tense or slow pulse. Such symptoms are usually seen in acute gastritis, chronic gastritis, duodenitis, duodenal bulbar ulcer, gastric ulcer, gastric spasm, pylorochesis, gastrointestinal dysfunction, stomach cancer and duodenal cancer, etc.
 
Analysis of the symptoms:
Cold, sharp and impalpable pain in the stomach is caused by retention of pathogenic cold in the stomach and stagnation of qi; alleviation of pain with warmth and aggravation with cold are due to the fact that cold is a pathogenic factor of yin nature and can only be resolved by yang; cold, lingering, palpable or impalpable pain in the epigastrium is caused by longer duration of disease, repeated occurrence of stomach, consumption of gastrosplenic yang, or overstrain, asthenic cold of gastric qi and loss of warmth in the stomach; nausea, vomiting and relief of pain after vomiting are due to stagnation of qi and improper descending of gastric qi.

Bland taste in the mouth without thirst is due to the fact that body fluid is not consumed because yin is exuberant and yang is asthenic; whitish or bluish complexion is due to stagnation of yin cold; epigastric and abdominal distension and fullness, gurgling of water in the stomach and regurgitation of clear fluid are due to impairment of gastric yang by cold and upward adverse rise of fluid retention with gastric qi; dispiritedness and lassitude, cold limbs and preference for warmth and loose stool; light-colored tongue with whitish slippery fur, sinking, tense or slow pulse are the signs of yang asthenia and internal exuberance of yin cold.

Key points for syndrome differentiation:
This syndrome is marked by cold pain in the epigastrium, which is alleviated with warmth and aggravated with cold and internal exuberance of yin cold.