How To Stay Healthy During Cold Season

Fall is a beautiful season with colorful leaves, deep blue sky and crispy cool air. With all the good things, there is also dramatic temperature change from day to night. Our body will find it hard to adjust to the change. If we happen to have stressful life and low immunity at this time (also called low defensive Qi in Chinese medicine), we start to catch a cold: sneezing, runny nose, body ache, chills and fever, and headache.

This is the first stage of catching cold. In Chinese medicine we regard cold, wind, heat, dampness, dryness as external pathogens. When we catch a cold, we think these external pathogens are affecting our immune system. If we are able to expel the wind and cold before they invade further into our body, then we can dramatically relieve the symptoms and reduce the length of sickness. Use ginger, scallion, and Perilya (Asian basil) leaves tea at the first sign of cold to promote energy circulation on the surface of the body and open the pores. While drinking the tea, or right after the tea, we can also soak our feet in the tea (with the same formula) in order for our body to warm up and sweat out the cold pathogen.

The first stage usually last very short. If we didn’t give any proper intervention by using the method introduced above then the coldness will go deeper into our body and turn into toxic heat and cause inflammation. At this time, we need to use herbs like dandelion, honeysuckle for detoxifying. Most of the time we combine with herbs like Perilya leaves to boost defensive energy.

In cold season we would like to keep us as healthy as possible.  Prevention should be the best solution. We certainly can use an ancient Chinese formula called Jade Screen to help boost our immune system. Children tend to be easier to be affected by the change of the weather. Boost their immune system by having regular sleeping schedule and nutritious food. If a child is easily agitated and screaming a lot, it is a sign that he is possibly having some pain (ear pain or sore throat) and that he is possibly getting sick. Please take action by giving a cup of tea. Children can also greatly benefit from ear seeds. For adults, you can certainly use acupuncture to keep your stress under control and maintain your immune system.

. Here is the tea recipe:

•         Grated fresh ginger (warm pungent)

•         Hibiscus (sour) peppermint (cool pungent) tea bag (HEB)

•         Lemon (sour and rich in Vitamin C)

•         Regular local honey

•         Tangerine peel (fresh or dry)

Wish everybody a healthy and giving winter season. Keep warm!

Trisha Han