Cold
These days we are bombarded by cold in many forms.
Restaurants almost always present water in ice as a matter of course. Asking for drinks without it is seen as being somewhat odd.
Cold seems to make its way into the body as though this is a good thing – and when added in intentionally/ therapeutically it is often way over the top – how can anything get better when partially frozen? Healing is not all about feeling numb. Pain often is instructive and actually telling us to NOT carry on as usual – we are damaged . . .
I have written an ebook which is an introduction to what you can do to help yourself – and live very differently as a result.
So many people come into see me – often YEARS after the cold was used – and the cold has quietly wrecked their bodies’ ability to work well – resulting in myriad complaints – none of which are satisfactorily addressed through usual means.
Putting it all down to ‘aging’ is just not good enough . . .
Using MORE cold is ALSO an insult to the body.
Allowing ice or cold ANYWHERE near a birthing or breastfeeding mother is plain stupidity – learn why and how to sort yourself out . . .
Chinese medicine gives a template for wellness and self empowerment. Most of what the ‘old wives’/inherited wisdom spoke of was based on lifetimes of observation – and although there may be no ‘science’ involved – following what has worked through all different cultures and over time will also help you to help yourself.
As with all my series of eBooks, the concepts of metabolism and regeneration are explained from a very different and body respectful position.
Yang Qi
YANG QI roughly corresponds to the Western concept of ‘metabolism’.
Yang allows us to transform food and fluids,
Yang qi circulates everything,
Yang qi keeps us warm,
Yang qi keeps tissues, organs, blood and babies in place, and
Yang qi protects us from all aspects of harm.
When We become Relatively Depleted in Yang Qi
- We feel the cold easily
- We ‘catch’ everything that is going around
- We can’t digest/assimilate food well
- Have fluid accumulations
- We can’t get motivated, lose oomph
(Sounds like a hypoactive thyroid . . . . .) - We become colder, and it is as though our furnace has forgotten how to do the job. We have less energy – as more is used up trying to keeps warm.
- We are less nourished – We are less able to keep ourselves, as our ‘oven’ temperature is set too low. We reach for warm and often sweet things to try to warm us up. Our digestive system creates damp, phlegm even – we become addicted to that which we are allergic to – we start having hypoglycemic attacks, and we need to keep topping ourselves up, or we get very irritable and we ‘lose the plot’.
- We dry out. We no longer circulate fluids as we could. Everything slows up. Constipation and general fluid build up everywhere starts happening, as our entire system slows down.
- Becoming yang depleted is a vicious cycle, as we need to be able to maintain ourselves in the face of change – temperature, food requirements and thus we become YIN DEPLETED.
How Do We Get Cold? (and hence Yang depleted)
Have a weakened protective Wei Qi level, and have cold energy (draughts, fans overhead, too cold air conditioning) penetrate into our skin in situations where we may not notice – small amounts of this and over time, eventually building up to a sizeable reservoir of cold that needs protective yang qi having to be side-lined to neutralize it.
Get cold, and don’t have the pores expel it out of the skin level later. (see above)
When very hot, getting cold and staying that way, usually with a breeze, to enhance the cooling effect.
Breathe in too cold air, which is insufficiently warmed by the nose, before arriving into the lungs, thus weakening the Wei Qi, as it must expend itself to ward off the cold invasion.
Having cold feet, especially absorbing cold, possibly damp energy through the soles, where the first kidney meridian point is located, will ensure that the cold gets straight into the abdomen and uterus, where it will do the most harm. It may lurk there for decades, quietly slowing circulation, causing menstrual and digestive complaints that eventually will become solid masses that can be found diagnostically, rather than just internally experienced.
Ingest too cold food/fluids, often over a long time. but specifically when very young, and tender, when the still forming yang qi is not strong enough to repel the damage. (major cause of children’s mucous/glue ear ailments)
Cold through the acupuncture ‘wind’ points at the back of the head, through often constant troublesome exposure to occupational air conditioning, or through sleeping in a draught, under fans/air conditioning.
Cold packs deliberately placed to tone down swelling, numb the pain,or to ease inflammation.
How do We Get Cold to be Lodging in There?
Early lives – inconsiderate birthing exposures.
Loss of umbilical blood, vastly reducing the volume, breathing capacity and warmth, also the Shen is travelling there – so surely in addition to this being a pivotal/primal time, losing a component of our Shen when we first arrive is surely not optimal???? Google physiological third stage/cord clamping and anything by Dr Michel Odent and Dr Sarah J Buckley . . . .
As Shen travels through the blood – what of the shock issues?
Early lack of appropriate clothing = parents may be warm enough – what about their vulnerable peripheral circulation? (e.g. All babies in strollers without booties) Cold/cool ice creams/fruit juices/etc
Later life:
- Choice of ingestibles
- (Possibly already internal heat there and self medicating)
- Occupational
- Hobbies (fishing in NZ is standing in very chilled water)
- Sleeping arrangements – one partner sleeps ‘hotter; than the other, necessitating other to get continual small increments of cold invasion – stored for later
- Clothing – fashion statements And others too numerous. . .
“Therapeutically”
- Ice physically placed on everything acute.
- Cold blood replacement/nasal gastric feeding etc
- Vibrational effects of medications – insulting body with cold = eg antibiotics . . .
- Air conditioning far too cold for the weakened, vulnerable ill and wounded who there for apparent healing and comfort.
- Actual cold connection – in lying on metal, and having metal placed within body to be worked upon
- Fed and watered with chilled products . . . et al
What does Yang do?
Allow normal, dynamic life processes to occur, independently of any interruption or interference from us – as healers or as inhabitants of the body.
How do we know it is there?
We can feel it. Place a warm had/inner arm on the belly – upper and lower – and feel the temperature discrepancies. What does this mean? Have you a passion for ice blocks/ ice cream/frozen yoghurt/or banana smoothies for breakfast?
We can see it. Place an open palm on the upper back and watch your palm print stay there as a reverse photo. . . . press in with fingers and see the white spots in amongst the purple . . What does this mean for the circulation up to the head, around the areas where you have pain/ blockage? Are you sleeping with a fan on; the window open – husbands are notorious for sleeping too hot whilst she hides under the covers . . . .
We can extrapolate by observation and listening to what has occurred. Look at the sequence of events – especially round birthing. These days the modern medical are working against our very vulnerable beings – babies and mothers – and allowing ice compresses, frozen cabbage leaves, ice and chilled drinks in preference to warm broths pre and post birth
What does COLD in excess do?
Cold in the body wastes yang qi, as it is the yang qi’s function to keep the body warm -body temperature to stay within very rigid limits. This means that there may well be less yang qi to do anything else with – (digestion, circulation, hold organs, tissues, blood and pregnancies in place, protect from other invasions), as the first priority is to stay warm.
Cold causes contraction and hardening, spasms, and pain that is eased temporarily by heat, and much worse by the application of cold. Pain is an obstruction of normal flow. Childbirth, and postnatal care are no places for ANY application of cold – be it ice to suck, cool drinks, cold foods afterwards, bare feet in labour rooms (air conditioned for clothed people’s comfort) or perineal ice packs.
Cold stops up the pores, stopping the normal sweating process, ensuring that when the person feels hot, their skin may feel very chilled. Cold in the pores may also cause pain and numbness at the skin level, and may be visible, by the blanched or purplish discoloration.
The cold energy impedes the normal circulation of nourishing qi, blood and nervous pulses from reaching intended targets. Cold lodged indefinitely may eventually be discovered, when that joint or area is found to have non standard growths, often over calcification, or weakening of tissue or functioning.
Cold announces its presence when our inner yang qi is feeling stressed by an extra load. This is often when it gets cold, or we get older/weaker. The inner cold resonates with the outer energy, causing aching of the affected part. Unless the cold is removed, rather than continually warmed nicely, it will quietly nibble away at the store of yang qi. Taking pain and inflammatory blockers, will not only distort the body structures, but will eat into the reserve that should be there to enrich and enhance the person’s twilight years.
Cold lodges indefinably, insidiously arriving in tiny little increments, when we are young and strong. Our defensive qi keeps it quiet, and out of circulation, to re emerge when that defensive qi is called out to a more life threatening event, leaving the way open for the old cold to assert its presence – ‘arthritis’ etc.
How to get rid of COLD
1 – Initial invasion – in skin level
Rug up and promote sweating, take a very hot bath, eat a hot curry, drink grandma’s recipe to drive out cold.
Prevention – avoid breathing very cold air.
Sleep in an enclosed room, free from draughts.
Turn a thermostatically controlled heater on ‘low’ setting, especially for young children, to avoid winter coughs that linger.
Keep Chinese herbs on hand, to be taken at the hint of a cold, to remove it.
Avoid getting ‘run down’, so your protective qi ensures that you never get ‘sick’.
Take a ginger bath (see below)
2 – Joints and muscles
Take Chinese herbs to assist the above process – best to see a qualified acupuncturist, who use energy, not physical framework.
Prevention – avoid working and living in cold, damp and windy conditions, which create the invasion that eventually shows up as pains in the body that respond to weather conditions, and are relieved by their opposition. Take a ginger bath (see next page).
3 – Menstrual
Chinese herbs, which will over time, restore normal – something that may be yet to be experienced. Use a hot salt pack (see below)
Always keep some covering on the feet, do not barefoot water-ski, always wear sufficient clothes, covering the midriff, and lower back.
Do not go swimming, or get excessively cold, especially when bleeding.
Strictly avoid cold at the time of birth and immediately post natally – no ice to suck, no ice packs on perineum.
Ginger Bath
Not to be undertaken if bleeding, pregnant or possibly so, elderly, frail, in a feverish or infectious state, if you have hot or itchy skin rashes or condition, and possibly not alone, in case of fainting, or having to attend to children, or whatever, instead of totally looking after yourself.
2 – Ensure that the room you will go to is warm, that you have everything completed, and ready for your retirement for the evening, after emerging from the bath, and rugging up.
4 – Go to bed, and expect to sweat it out. Do not get cold. No sexual expression, do not exert self at all.
5 – If no sweating, repeat next night with new ginger
The point is to open the pores, and let the trapped cold escape.
Hot Salt Pack
To be used in preference to all wheat packs, and similar that rely on moist heat. These may provide temporary relief, but when cold is trapped within, (feels better with heat, and worse in cold situations), – you need to extract the cold, rather than just warm it up.
Buy rock salt. Not sea salt. Not ordinary salt.
Place in a dry skillet, and roast the salt gently for 20 minutes. The salt may change colour.
Place the heated salt very carefully into a cloth container – strong envelope, like a pillow case, wrap firmly in place, so none can escape, wrap again with a towel, or similar, and place on affected area.
Be very careful to not spill any heated salt onto yourself.
Especially useful for each night three days before a period, if the period pain is relieved substantially by heat. Do not use if you may be pregnant, or if you have flooding flow – see a good acupuncturist first.
In health, yang rules the transformative and circulatory processes.
When the spleen qi is weakened, digestive, hence all systems are affected eventually, as quality Qi, Blood, body fluids, Jing and thus Shen nourishment are compromised.
Cupping the Navel
To remove cold throughout the body, especially pertaining to all things feminine – libido enhancement through conceiving easily to having painless easy periods.