With the cold snap of Winter and daylight saving, the cold and dark season is well and truly upon us and with it, the fun of trying to run the gauntlet of colds and flus.
If you’re lucky, you might just get away with a few hacking coughs and sniffles here and there, but if you’re especially lucky, a series of unfortunate events may lead to you becoming bedridden for the better part of a week, with a bonus lingering cough that lasts well into Spring!
Luckily, there are a few easy tips on how to stay on top throughout this flu season!
7) Sleep
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care…sweet life’s second course, indeed.
Yes, it’s that obvious and so essential but too many people never allow themselves the recommended 7-8 hours sleep each night and that accumulation of sleep debt starts to take its toll on the immune system. Too many late nights be it from partying, gaming, or just because a book is too damn good to put down, frequently leads to a sleep deprived state that makes one susceptible to disease.
Sleep after all, is when the body detoxes, heals itself and in Chinese medicine, replenishes its Yin energy.
Small wonder Macbeth was so distraught at having ‘murdered sleep’ and never knowing the future prospect of a good night’s sleep!
6) Diet
Committing to a well balanced diet is absolutely essential to a healthy life.
Over the cold seasons, this naturally means a diet rich in vitamin C and Vitamin D but traditional Chinese medicine would also recommend a diet commensurate with your own constitution with balance being key.
If for example, you’re a skinny vegan, there’s little point in advising you to consume more greens and fruits; rather, it’d be more appropriate to recommend a diet that supplements areas where you might be deficient. Balance after all, is key to a healthy life.
5) Exercise
That’s right, even when all one wants to do is sleep and eat all throughout Winter, it’s important to remember that exercise invigorates your energy levels, regulates your metabolism and most importantly, it feels great. Even moderate exercise can do wonders for enhancing immune function but there comes a point where over exertion can lead you to becoming more susceptible to colds and flus. Naturally, it’s up to you to find that upper limit.
Now of course these three aforementioned points should already be familiar with everyone; eat healthy, sleep regularly, and exercise consistently to maintain a healthy lifestyle- and it follows that a healthy lifestyle makes all the difference between beating the flu or succumbing to it.
Yet, i hear some of you say, i do all of that, and i still get sick.
Sometimes, the seasonal sickness is inescapable as recent scientific research shows that your immune system takes on a more depressed state in winter:
Genes that promoted inflammation were more active in the European winter months of December, January and February were less active in the same months in Australia, but more highly expressed in the southern hemisphere winter months of June, July and August. Meanwhile, genes that suppressed inflammation were more active in the summer months of each hemisphere.
Seasonality also affects the make-up of blood and fat tissue.
But there’s no reason why we should be held hostage by circumstance; in anticipation for the seasonal nature of our genes, i’d recommend the follow:
4) Break out the Onesie
or the sheepskin jumper if you don’t want to re-enact ‘Where The Wild Things Are’; anything to stay toasty, especially if you’re the kind of person who’s constantly freezing with ice cold hands.
Keeping your core body temperature warm enables your body to circulate that warmth to your extremities, and even a heightened body temperature makes it extremely difficult for the common cold virus to replicate and get up to all sorts of mischief inside your body.
In fact, a Yale study reported earlier this year that it’s not just because the virus has relative difficulty replicating at higher core body temperatures, but also that the body’s own immune system functions optimally at higher temperatures.
In particular, ensure that the back of your head and nape are covered because this area is associated with a lot of acupuncture points corresponding to pathogenic factors such as wind and cold, and this leads us to…
3) Cupping and Guasha
A tried and tested traditional remedy for combating the common cold; guasha and cupping’s guasha effect has been traditionally recognised for its anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective properties which makes it ideal for patients presenting with initial cold and flu symptoms (sinus issues, hay fever type allergies, fever, coughing and sneezing).
Commonly, cupping and guasha will be applied upon a patient’s wind points located on the upper back and nape, because in traditional Chinese medical theory, pathogenic factors such as wind and cold enter the body via these points and channels and can subsequently be expelled via stimulation of these selfsame points and channels. A traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner can also apply ginger moxibustion to these points for additional therapeutic effect.
2) Take Your Herbs
Prevention is better than cure and nowhere is this most stressed than in traditional Chinese medicine which stresses a balanced lifestyle which involves maintenance of the balance of one’s yin and yang via qigong or herbal therapy.
Much like people today who take their vitamin supplements, the ancient Chinese would take their herbal supplements prescribed by their doctors, to maintain a balanced and healthy state which would enhance their immune system during the winter months. When people became sick from the common cold (or shang han ‘wind attack’ as it was translated), these herbal supplements would be altered to become herbal treatments.
Indeed, one of the cornerstones of traditional Chinese medicine is the Treatise on Cold Disease (Shang Han Lun) by Han Dynasty physician, Zhang Zhong Jing. The herbal prescriptions and techniques therein are still studied and practiced by physicians throughout Asia and the rest of the world.
1) Keep Yourself Hydrated
Drink water-unfortunately this is commonly overlooked by people who unknowingly dehydrate themselves via copious amounts of caffeine or just plain forgetting to drink water throughout the day.
Water, as we all know is essential for life, but just to be clear, when i say drink water in this seasonal concept, i don’t mean a jug of iced or cool water. Drinking ice cold water in winter introduces cold into your core which as we noted in point 4, lowers your core body temperature and leaves your immune system at a disadvantage.
In some cases, the introduction of cold water into the body would compel your body to correct the imbalance of yin-yang, and heat up via inflammation or detection of active viruses from the lowered temperature.
In either case, i’d advise keeping yourself hydrated via hot teas, or lukewarm or room temperature water.
What sort of tea you ask?
Ah, where do I start? We’ll cover that particular topic another day, but in the meantime, stay warm and toasty, friends!
Know anyone who’ll benefit from this post? Feel free to share it!