I have been honoring my need for rest, warmth and comfort as the weather is colder and days shorter. Winter is a time to nourish your dreams and imagination. Nerve-soothing oils such as sesame are rejuvenating. Apply it to your skin all over and inside the nose. Allow the rich proteins to soften your complexion and penetrate your senses with renewed vitality for 15 minutes. Then wash with warm water. If you have acne or a ruddy complexion, another fine oil to use is Argana, made from a Moroccan tree bark. It feels more cooling than sesame and is also rejuvenating. Increase warming spices such as ginger, pepper, clove, cinnamon and hing (asafoetida for bloating) unless you have an ulcer. The tastes to stress in winter, according to Ayurveda, are warming, salty and sweet, less bitter. Bitter (coffee and black tea) increase nervousness and pain.
I have been greatly enjoying adding Peruvian maca powder to my morning mild green tea or warm water. It tastes a bit like yam, a comforting root vegetable that grows high in the Andes. It stimulates the pituitary to enhance the functioning of the entire endocrine system–for enhanced energy, breath, adrenal strength, and libido. It is hormone-balancing for men and women. People in Peru eat the cooked root with meat and potatoes and also use it as an aphrodisiac. It is also said to reduce menopausal complaints. I find it comforting and mood-lifting.
Here is a detailed plan to help you stay warm, happy and healthy in winter. It also applies to the elderly who may feel chilled, weak and anxious. Much of this advice comes from Ayurveda. However, I do not agree to using vacha oil, as usually suggested by Ayurvedic physicians, inside the nose. Vacha (sweet flag) oil from India has been found to increase cancer. I prefer using plain, light sesame oil in the nose. Anything you put into the nose affects your sinus and brain: Soothe and rejuvenate, don’t irritate.
Winter Advice: Stay Warm and Cozy
As temperatures drop and light becomes scarce, certain health problems become troublesome. A drop in temperature can cause bronco-constriction in asthmatics, says Dr. Louis Jacques, a community medicine specialist at the Montreal Chest Institute in Quebec, Canada. “They may need to take a puff from their inhaler before going out, or prevent their exposure by staying inside.”
Weather also influences heart disease and diabetes. Peter Liu, a cardiologist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre in Toronto, Ontario Canada, cautions his patients, particularly weekend warriors who want to play hockey like teenagers, to reduce activity when temperatures drop. ” In colder weather, blood pressure goes up 3 or 4 millimeters of mercury because blood vessels constrict, making the heart work harder.” Blood viscosity also varies with the weather. In a cold front, viscosity goes up. In the long run, that means that people with diabetes could have more difficulty managing their blood sugar on certain days.
Traditional Eastern medical systems—Ayurveda and Chinese medicine—offer a natural defense against harsh winter weather and stress: Stay warm, enhance energy and immunity and promote longevity with correct foods, herbs, body treatments and activities. The great advantage is they offer practical methods and materials for staying well, for promoting health at home. How much better to avoid the clinic by supporting vitality!
Ayurveda warns that winter may increase Kapha—lowered energy and metabolism resulting in increased body weight and lethargy. Mucus congestion, sinus problems, indigestion and cough may result. Kapha can increase heart problems, swelling and pain from edema. Warming, cooked, spicy foods and beverages, sweating treatments, sesame oil massage, and rest are advised to tone vitality and reduce stress and pain. Vata—nervous irritation, anxiety and depression—are increased for many people in cold dry weather and windy days.
Ayurveda teaches how to stay warm, calm and comfortable daily:
TCM: Increase sexual fire, strength, immunity to illness, and avoid depression
Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that the winter season challenges kidney/adrenal energy, joints and bones, and defensive energy (the natural immunity in our energy field) with resulting aches, lethargy, weakness, and asthma, diarrhea, or sexual debility. Although Ayurveda and Chinese medicine may explain the origins of health problems prevalent in winter differently their recommendations are similar: Physical excesses, cold foods and iced drinks, cold showers, and excess chatter should be avoided. Conserve and enhance energy and promote wellness.
Qigong exercises in winter aid bone strength with “bone breathing” techniques and tapping the limbs with fine metal rods to increase deep tissue circulation. Massage and acupuncture ease pains, troubled circulation and quiet the mind. A primary emphasis is placed on warming, grounding, nourishing herbal tonics that tone vitality and defensive energy.
Some medicinal herbs, like ginsengs, astragalus, and mushrooms are added to daily soups for the entire family. Chinese ginseng (Korean red ginseng; Panax ginseng) is warming and stimulating to the endocrine system. Astragalus increases T cells and cures weakness and night sweats. Mushrooms such as shiitake, reishi reduce the risk of cancer and inflammatory arthritic pain.
Depending on a person’s symptoms, Chinese herbal combinations may contain precursors to testosterone to ease back and leg pains and correct low energy and sexual debility. For example: Panax ginseng, epimedium, cistanche, morinda, tang kuei, eucommia bark, rehmannia, cardamom and cinnamon. Warming, stimulating herbs (the first five) are balanced with moistening, nourishing rehmannia; digestive cardamom. Cinnamon enhances circulation, reducing chills and lethargy.
All in all the emphasis in traditional Asian medicine is to overcome harmful effects of inclement weather by creating a warm, healing balance within the body and mind.
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Nice posting. Do you know about these pranayama books?
http://www.YogaVidya.com/freepdfs.html
Thank you for the addition.
all best wishes, to YogaVidya
Hi Letha,
Wonderfully helpful advice as always. I’ll try some of the items you are suggesting, especially the sesame oil. The cold dries out my skin as well as my nose. I used to feel that many apartments are heated too much, but now what with the winds and the freezing cold, I envy people who live in overheated apartments. Am I right in thinking that severe cold can give one headaches and stomachache?
I am sure you’ve heard about hot, or Bikram yoga. Do you have any thoughts on this subject?
Keep warm.
Nola
Letha,
Thank you for sharing this information.
Would you be kind enough to tell me what kind of sesame oil to use. I’d never heard of it being used as you’ve suggested and would like to try it. I’m also interested in knowing where I can find the Vajradanti tooth paste you recommended. I live in New York City.
Thank you so much,
Jenny
Dear Dr. Hadady,
I enjoyed reading this article and several others on the site, but I have an unrelated question. Have you ever treated a cat? I am reading your excellent book, Asian Health Secrets, and it seems to me that my cat has many symptoms of internal heat. I would love for her to be healthier. If you could advise me, please contact me. Thanks for your consideration!
Hello Sandy
I have treated my cats with diet and fish oils squirting it into the mouth. If constipated a add a 1/2 tsp of canned pumpkin pie filling to their food. They like it. A female cat can develop hyperthyroid conditions. Males often develop stones. I do not trust my herbal knowledge enough, but also take them to the Vet for testing and advice. I have recommended a mushroom supplement made by Fungi Perfecti to help maintain energy, immunity and general health for pets. See fungi.com “other products.”
L.
Hi Letha,
Thank you for sharing these great info!
I have one question. Vacha oil really cause cancer? Can you tell me more about where you get the information? I searched on line about Vacha oil but all I could find was more about vacha being beneficial to cancer treatment….
Thank you!
Izumi
Izumi
A. calamus and products derived from A. calamus (such as its oil) were banned in 1968 as food additives and medicines by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This ban was the result of lab studies that involved supplementing the diets of lab animals over a prolonged period of time with massive doses of isolated chemicals (β-asarone) from the Indian Jammu strain of calamus. The animals developed tumors, and the plant was labeled procarcinogenic. However, it was later found that vacha itself had to undergo certain chemical changes before it was dangerous. So there are forms of safe vacha oil now sold for external use. There is some indication that it helps improve certain antibiotics.
Hi Letha,
Thank you very much for your answer!
Izumi