Eight Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Preservation Methods in Winter

In winter, the weather is cold and the ground is frozen. Most animals and plants are in hibernation, so people should also follow the law of "hibernation" in nature and adopt health care methods based on hibernation. During the three months of winter, the human body is dominated by yin energy, so the basic principle of health preservation should be to "storage heat". In winter, all things are "hidden". Health preservation should follow the trend of nature's hiding, store yin essence, restrain essence and energy to moisten the five internal organs. Otherwise, if you go against the natural trend, you will damage your kidney qi. Therefore, you need to nourish your kidneys and prevent cold in winter.

1. Exercise appropriately and sweat less

Winter is the season of Yin, and the focus is on consolidating Yin essence, so it is advisable to lose less body fluids. Therefore, in winter, we should “get rid of the cold and keep warm” and it is necessary to prevent cold invasion. But it should not be too warm, especially avoid wearing thick clothes or heavy furs, drinking alcohol near the fire, baking the stomach and back, and sweating profusely. In this way, the "warmth" is achieved, but if it is too warm, it can easily cause illness. In winter, it is advisable to exercise the muscles and bones appropriately and insist on outdoor exercise, which can increase the excitability of the cerebral cortex, enhance the central nervous system and body temperature regulation function, enable the body to achieve a balance with the cold climate environment, adapt to the cold stimulation, and effectively improve the body's ability to resist cold. As the saying goes, "If you move in the winter, you will get sick less often; if you are lazy in the winter, you will have to drink more medicine." Physical exercise should be a combination of movement and stillness, and you should sweat slightly, not profusely. Profuse sweating causes loss of energy, which goes against the principle of storing yang energy in winter. Elderly people who take baths too frequently in winter do not conform to the health-preserving principle of keeping Yang Qi within themselves. Due to the heat from the water, they sweat profusely and are easily susceptible to colds and illnesses.

2. Keep your feet healthy in winter. Keep your feet healthy

You should always keep your feet clean and dry, and wash and change your socks frequently. Walk for more than half an hour every day to exercise your feet. Rub the soles of your feet every morning and evening to promote blood circulation. It is very important to keep your feet warm in winter. The foot is the foundation of the human body. It is the beginning of the three yin meridians and the end of the three yang meridians. It is connected with the twelve meridians, internal organs, qi and blood of the human body. As the saying goes, "Cold starts from the feet." Because the feet are far away from the heart, they have insufficient blood supply, less heat, and poor thermal insulation, so it is very important to keep the feet warm. In addition to keeping your feet warm during the day, washing your feet with hot water every night can also promote blood circulation throughout the body. Massaging and stimulating the acupoints on the feet can enhance the body's defense capabilities, eliminate fatigue, and improve sleep. In addition, it is also very important to choose a pair of shoes that are comfortable, warm, lightweight and have good moisture absorption performance. If you take good care of your feet, you can achieve twice the result with half the effort in winter health care.

3. Keep warm to prevent illness

The cold winter climate can easily induce recurrence or aggravation of chronic diseases. The cold also stimulates the occurrence of myocardial infarction and stroke, increases blood pressure and aggravates the symptoms of diseases such as ulcers, rheumatism, and glaucoma. Therefore, we should pay attention to keeping warm in winter, and the parts of the human body that should be paid special attention to are the neck, back and feet. First, pay attention to keeping your neck warm. Some people have persistent coughs in winter and are difficult to cure. In fact, it is because wearing open-necked clothes exposes the neck and is stimulated by cold air. The symptoms will improve after changing to high-necked clothes and adding a scarf. Second, pay attention to keeping your back warm. Because the back is the yang among the yang in the human body, evil spirits such as cold can easily invade through the back and cause exogenous diseases, respiratory diseases, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

4. Drink plenty of water

Some people may think that in winter, people are less active and generally don’t feel thirsty, so they don’t need to drink as much water. This understanding is actually wrong. Although sweating and urination decrease in winter, water is still needed to maintain the normal functioning of cells in the brain and various organs of the body, so as to ensure the normal metabolism of the human body. In winter, it is generally necessary to drink at least 2000 to 3000 ml of water every day.

5. Take care of your spirit

The "Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic" mentioned that "one should keep one's mind as if hidden, as if having private intentions, as if having gained something", which means that in winter one should avoid the interference and stimulation of various negative emotions, keep one's mood in a state of indifference and tranquility at all times, keep things to oneself without revealing them, keep a secret without announcing them, keep one's mind calm and at ease, and fill one's inner world with optimism and joy. According to your own health condition, you can choose some sports activities of varying intensity, such as jogging, dancing, skating, and playing ball. These are good remedies to eliminate winter boredom and regulate your spirit.

The winter air is harsh, especially at night, so the ancients advocated "going to bed early and getting up late." Sun Simiao, a famous medical scientist in the Tang Dynasty, said: "In winter, it is not suitable to go out early in the morning or return late at night to avoid the cold." Go to bed early to nourish the yang energy and get up late to consolidate the yin essence. Therefore, in order to nourish the spirit in winter, you must ensure adequate sleep, which is conducive to the hiding of Yang Qi and the accumulation of Yin essence.

6. Ventilation is recommended

In winter, you should also pay attention to keeping the indoor air fresh. It is cold in winter, and some people like to close doors and windows or cover their heads when sleeping, which is a very bad habit. Indoor air pollution in winter is dozens of times more serious than outdoor air pollution, which affects health. Therefore, while adjusting the indoor temperature in winter, you should also pay attention to indoor air circulation and humidity regulation. You should get into the habit of opening doors and windows frequently for ventilation. During the day, you should open doors and windows to allow air to flow out. At night, you should also open small windows for ventilation to clean the air, invigorate your brain and refresh your mind.

7. It is advisable to drink tea and porridge. Avoid sticky, hard, raw and cold food in winter.

Porridge has the effect of increasing calories and nutrition. Nutrition experts recommend eating more hot porridge to maintain health in winter. Drink hot porridge in the morning and eat a light diet for dinner to nourish the stomach. In addition to white rice porridge, you can often cook glutinous rice and red date porridge, eight-treasure porridge, and millet porridge. In addition, you can also eat longan porridge for calming the mind and nourishing the heart, sesame porridge for nourishing essence and yin, radish porridge for digesting food and reducing phlegm, walnut porridge for nourishing yin and consolidating essence, Poria porridge for strengthening the spleen and nourishing the stomach, jujube porridge for nourishing qi and nourishing yin, white fungus porridge for moistening the lungs and promoting fluid production, chrysanthemum porridge for clearing heat and improving eyesight, and crucian carp porridge for harmonizing the stomach and regulating the intestines.

Tea is one of the best beverages for humans, containing multiple vitamins and trace elements needed by the human body. In particular, green tea can prevent and fight cancer, and has a good health-care effect on the human body. People who work on computers for a long time should drink tea more often. However, patients with stomach problems or those taking medication for anemia should not drink tea, especially strong tea.

8. Take supplements at the right time

There is a proverb circulating in many places in my country: "Eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer, and you won't need a doctor to prescribe medicine." This shows that dietary therapy is very important. To maintain your health in winter, you need to take scientific supplements under the guidance of a doctor. There are two types of tonic: food tonic and medicine tonic. The method of dietary supplement varies from person to person and from place to place. Generally, people with weak yang energy can choose mutton, chicken, dog meat, etc.; people with both qi and blood deficiency can use goose meat, duck meat, black chicken, etc. For those who should not eat raw or cold food or dry and hot food, you can choose wolfberry, red dates, walnut meat, black sesame, fungus, etc. When taking supplements, you must follow the doctor's instructions, and each person has a different method. Don't take supplements for the whole family without considering the actual situation. If you often feel weak in your limbs, mental fatigue, low voice, and sweating when you move, this is mostly due to Qi deficiency. You can choose to take Qi-invigorating medicines such as ginseng, Codonopsis pilosula, Schisandra chinensis, Astragalus membranaceus, and Atractylodes macrocephala.

When taking supplements in winter, in order to allow the stomach and intestines to adapt, it is best to do an introductory supplement first, which means laying the foundation. Generally speaking, you can choose to stew beef with red dates, peanuts and brown sugar, or you can cook some ginger, jujube and beef soup to regulate the spleen and stomach function.