Often as we approach flu season we do so with a quiet apprehension, or subtle fear. We know we could be potentially heading into another drawn out period of seemingly incessant bouts with annoying little colds and the occasional flu that devastates our life and forces us into sick day reprieve. For some people, the seasonal wrestling matches for immunity are a given and as we succumb to whatever “bug” is doing the rounds, we throw our arms up helpless and give ourselves over to pharmaceutical medicines that sedate our symptoms but generally don’t help us get it out of our system fast and thoroughly. This season is even more striking given the fears of the H1N1 pandemic. Now I won’t get into that whole issue as I have my own, well-informed opinions about why the Swine Flu is really not the terrifying virus that the media and certain health officials would have us believe but I will provide some great ways we can boost our immunity and stay well and vital throughout the cold and flu season using natural-based medicines.
The cold and flu season runs from November to April in Canada according to Health Canada, which breaks down to when it starts to get cold and windy. As a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), I can state that much of the problem of colds and flus has to do with the fact that we of commercial-industrial societies are divorced from the wisdom of Mother Nature. The ancient Chinese regarded the achievement of health and longevity as a lifelong exercise of harmonizing with the way of nature. Called the “Dao” by the mystical Taoists (an ancient philosophical-spiritual tradition of the Orient), the way of nature was deemed to follow, among other things, a recurring cycle of seasonal shifts that human beings were to attune with in all facets of their lives. Each season was imbued with its own spirit and rhythm and the people would orient their lives accordingly so they were not left vulnerable to imbalances in their bodies, minds or spirits that left them prone to ill health. Going against the ways of nature was seen as welcoming doom into one’s life. Clearly, the mystical wisdom of the Taoists is profoundly significant in our modern era of human destruction of nature and the subsequent plethora of issues blighting us.
When summer begins to wane and the cooler, windy days of Autumn begin to swirl about, you can hear most people exuding defeatist sighs and cynical comments such as “Here comes the cold! Great: miss summer already” or “Geez, these Canadian winters are rough”. True is it not that we rarely have welcoming words for Fall and its subsequent friend Winter following close behind! Perhaps much of it has to do with the fact that we no longer celebrate the harvest as we live in a land now of convenient supermarket choices where even in the darkest and coldest winter days we can feast on tropical fruits. The harvest was seen in former times as one of the highlights of the year, when we consider what we’ve grown in the toiling heat of summer to see us through the hard days of winter. However, in our modern society of uber-convenience and debauchery, we seem to be always longing for the warm days of summer when we could just drink away days on patio and party with friends. Ultimately, we’re not in favor of a slower, quieter and more introverted pace to life. And yet, this is precisely the rhythm of fall and winter.
So foremost, we must come to terms with the seasons to prepare ourselves in the appropriate fashion. For one, be sure when that first cool, autumn breeze shows up to keep your neck covered, especially the back of your neck. In TCM, these areas were seen as the most vulnerable areas of the body to what are called cold/wind attacks. Dressing warmly altogether is essential, if we want to stay strong against the nasty colds and flues. However, we also want to warm up the interior of our bodies too. That’s why fresh ginger tea is an absolute autumn-winter staple. It’s very warming for the body, invigorates the circulation system and in cases of catching a cold, it opens the pores of the skin to generate the sweating reflex, a very important action to rid toxins and viruses through the exterior. Most people don’t understand that the skin (known as the Third Lung) is one of our most potent defense and detoxifying organs.
In TCM, the first medicine prescribed is always food as it’s seen as the one medicine we take every day of our lives, multiple times a day. Nutrition is wholly essential if we want to stay healthy in cold and flu season and we need to pay optimum attention to it. To build immunity year round, eating a mostly whole food diet, staying away from excessive sweet and salty food (sugar depresses the immune function), greasy food and intoxicants like alcohol and stimulants such as coffee is the foundation we set for building and maintaining a clean body that is more about creating strength and vitality than destroying and abusing it. Perhaps this is why people have such an aversion to winter. In TCM theory, winter when all of our attention is placed on the building and sustaining of our reserves. Often people do not like to discuss these things because they believe they’re invincible and running on an always renewable resource of energy for their life that can be supplemented with stimulants such as coffee and Red Bull when levels get dire. This could not be any further from the case and is at the core of why degenerative diseases and so many other imbalances are plaguing the populace at present. Intelligent use and maintenance of reserves is essential to a long life of exuberant health.
If we do end up getting sick, here’s some simple nutritional tips we can follow:
· Eat much less, and eat a simple, liquid based diet of vegetable or grain soup if chills predominate. If fever is the bigger issue, fruit or vegetable juices and fresh fruit are better
· Sweating Therapy (diaphoresis): (sweating therapy is contraindicated with severe weakness and emaciation). Drink a cup or more of hot diaphoretic herbal tea. Then take a hot bath or shower, drink more of the tea and then cover yourself with blankets and sweat it out. Be cautious not to sweat to the point of extreme exhaustion and be sure to change your damp bedding. Sweating can be repeated twice daily until the condition is gone. One can also simply drink a coup of tea every half-an-hour to bring on perspiration. If diaphoresis does not prove successful, a deeper condition is usually present that should be attended to. Most people don’t realize that a fever is probably one of the most powerful mechanisms of defense that our body has! By subtly raising the body’s temperature, the interior environment literally becomes unlivable for most viruses. Thus, ingesting and imbibing warming herbs to help facilitate a fever and stimulating the sweating function merely goes with the natural flow of defense.
· Diaphoretic Herbal Teas: Yarrow (standard for any fever) chamomile, peppermint, fresh ginger root, angelica. Adding lemon and raw honey is also beneficial.
· Food Helpers: Bioflavonoid-rich foods such as cabbage with hearts, green peppers with their insides. Other good ones are carrot, broccoli, turnips, kuzu, parsnips, garlic, lemon juice, cayenne red pepper (one of the highest botanic sources of Vitamin C), grapefruit and most fruits
· Once the acute stage of the illness has been dealt with, one can re-introduce normal foods again to build oneself up. If colds and flus and other acute illnesses are frequent, there’s probably too much sweet, salty, excess dairy, eggs or other mucus- and acid-forming foods in the diet.
· Fall and Winter requires us to flow with the season and change our diet appropriately. Thus, when healthy, we begin eating more and more warming foods, staying away from raw food choices that are too cooling, especially for the winter months. Longer cooking methods are ideal, including soups, stews and con gees (break out the slow cooker!).
Fall and Winter mark the time on the seasonal cycle when the spirit of nature goes inward, shedding its splendorous leaves to leave the exterior barren so that the interior world within can be fully attended to. In these cold, dark months, it’s a time to do just that: go within, spend more time in reflection and even meditation, with dear loved ones in long conversation over warm beverages and soothing, gentle companionship. By going within and tending to our reserves, we build them up and fortify them after the frenetic and ecstatic activities of Spring and Summer, as we go around the wheel again, building our deepest energies for the coming of another growing season when our dreams and aspirations shall be given another opportunity to unfurl and blossom.
Remember, health is foremost an activity of nurturance and love for your self. I was told once by a wise healer that when we come down with an acute illness such as a cold or flu that one of the energetic rhythms at work is simply our deeper being trying to get us to slow down and face an issue that our other wise busy life was not allowing us to. By coming down with something, we’re forced to spend a couple days usually in intimate company with ourselves, giving us a golden opportunity to really see what’s beneath our layers perhaps lamenting for attention. I’ll always remember curing myself of a flu in mere hours while my roommate’s lingered for days and all it took was laying in my bed with beatific classical music playing, doing qi gong (a type of Chinese body meditation) while filling my body with deep, loving thoughts of the highest vibration I could manifest and resolving any block I could with powerful, positive thoughts and forgiveness.
In this way, we can see that illness is sometimes for our benefit: not only is it perhaps part of some deeper rhythm at work, but it’s also good to give our immune system a workout from time to time and help us consider healthier options so that we’re better defended next season. All adversity is an opportunity ultimately. Work with the spirit of nature, not against it!
Darren Austin Hall is a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner living and practicing in Toronto, Ontario. He helps people find harmony in their lives and overcome imbalances with acupuncture, sound healing, nutritional guidance sagely advice, Qi Gong and meditation. He can be visited virtually at his website www.innertraditionshealing.com.
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