Beginning of winter is the first solar term in winter.
The arrival of beginning of winter officially drew a clear line with autumn. The heat of the ground sun sinks into the ground, changing from "collection" to "hiding". The weather is getting colder and colder, the plants and trees are dying, the nature and man are corresponding, the cold and evil are in season, and the human body is full of yin and yang.
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Because the main qi in winter is cold, and cold is yin evil, it is easy to hurt yang, and after cold hurts yang, it will produce a cold phenomenon, and many old diseases are likely to recur or even worsen. No matter where you are in the north and south, you will start to catch a double cold.
At this time, doing a good job of cold protection in advance is to nourish the yang and help the yang to be collected more thoroughly in winter.
Cold pathogen invades the body, and meridian qi and blood are lost to yang.
Susceptible to various diseases
Cold is yin evil, which is easy to hurt Yang Qi, and the movement of qi, blood and body fluid depends on the promotion of Yang Qi. Therefore, the invasion of cold evil causes the qi and blood in the meridians to lose yang, which blocks the coagulation of qi and blood and leads to all diseases.
1. Cold is yin and easy to be injured.
Cold is the expression of Yin Qi, and its nature belongs to yin, so cold is yin evil.
Yang Qi could have suppressed yin, but when the yin cold was too strong, Yang Qi was not enough to drive away the cold evil, but was deceived by the yin cold, so the cloud "Yin strong is cold" and "Yin strong is yang disease". Impaired yang spirit and loss of warmth will lead to a cold image of the body.
2. Cold coagulation, blocking qi and blood
Stagnation, like freezing, means slow solidification. The movement of human qi, blood and body fluids can only be unimpeded under the warm drive of Yang.
When the cold pathogen invades the human body, the qi and blood in the meridians lose the warmth of yang, which is easy to block the coagulation of qi and blood, and stagnation leads to pain, so pain is an important feature of the cold pathogen.
3. Causes of cold and block
"Cold-induced aspiration" means that cold pathogen has the characteristics of "rapid aspiration". "Cold leads to stagnation of qi", and the invasion of cold pathogen into human body can make qi converge, block meridians and contract rapidly.
Therefore, winter is often a period of high incidence of diseases, such as bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. In addition, arthralgia of limbs is often induced or aggravated by cold invasion.
After being invaded by cold evil
How does the body react?
1. cold injury table: hot and cold, no sweat.
The closest organ between human body and nature is the skin, which is the most superficial protective cover on the muscle surface of our human body, so the invasion of cold pathogen starts from the skin fur.
For example, our most common exogenous diseases are often caused by colds, fatigue, rain, etc. before the onset, and the symptoms are often cold and hot, and there is no sweat.
After the cold pathogen invades the skin, if the healthy qi is not enough to drive the pathogen out, it is easy to hold the human body's qi and get fever.
2. Frostbite of meridian joints: pain paralysis
If you don't pay attention to keep warm, cold pathogens can easily stay in meridians and joints.
Huangdi Neijing said: "Wind-cold-dampness mixed, become arthralgia." In other words, cold pathogen is one of the pathogenic factors leading to joint and bone pain and paralysis.
Because of "evil combination, its qi will be deficient", joints and bones are deficient in qi and blood, and cold pathogens dominate, so it is easy to stay in meridians and joints.
In this case, because the liver and kidney dominate the bones and muscles, there are often cases of liver and kidney deficiency or kidney yang deficiency. You can see discomfort symptoms such as waist and knee pain, joint stiffness and muscle tension.
3. Cold injury to viscera: abdominal pain, diarrhea and cough.
If you are a sickly person, the cold can easily go straight to the depths of the human viscera.
Among them, the lungs and spleen and stomach are the most vulnerable. "Su Wenju's General Theory" said: "Cold is between the stomach and intestines, under the membrane, blood can't disperse, and small collaterals cause urgency, so it hurts." The cold is confined to the small intestine, which can't gather, and the abdominal pain is discharged afterwards. If you feel cold evil in your diet, you are prone to stomach pain, abdominal pain, diarrhea and other discomfort.
However, it is clearly pointed out in "Zangfu Disease Syndrome Lingshu" that "it is harmful to the lungs to become cold and drink cold". The lungs control breathing, and they can feel the change of the cold in heaven and earth best.
At the same time, both lung and spleen belong to the lunar meridian, and cold diet can also lead to lung diseases, such as common asthma, chronic bronchitis and cough.
Besides soaking your feet, what else can you do to resist the cold?
The invasion of cold pathogen is often accidental, which may be due to catching cold after sweating, careless diet, or weak constitution. So besides keeping warm and soaking feet with wormwood, what other simple and easy ways can protect the yang in the body and resist cold evil?
1. Eat warm and tonify cold.
The weather is cold, in order to increase heat and resist cold evil, you can take appropriate supplements.
It is cold in winter in the north, so you can supplement warm foods, such as beef, mutton or dog meat. The mild climate in the south is more suitable for adding sweetness, such as chicken, duck and fish. And try to eat less cold fruits such as pears and water chestnuts.
2. Wear stockings and long skirts, and keep your feet warm.
Pay special attention to the warmth of the lower body parts such as knees and waist, because the cold comes from the foot, and the waist is the house of the kidney, and the foot is also the place where the bladder meridian of the foot is full of yang and the kidney meridian of the foot is full of yin.
Socks cover ankles as much as possible, and skirts cover knees, which can effectively prevent cold evil from invading human meridians and joints.
3. Ensure more than 6 hours of sleep.
"It is better to lie down alone than to take medicine", and sleeping should be the easiest way to maintain yang.
Ensure at least 6 hours of sleep every day, and adequate sleep is conducive to the storage of yin and yang.
4. Sunbathing 10~ 15 minutes.
Cao Tingdong, a famous doctor in Qing Dynasty, wrote in Essays on Health Preservation:
When the sun is clear, just sit under the south window with your back to the sun. This is what Liezi called "the mystery of negative sun". The slight warmth of the spine can make the whole body unobstructed. The sun is the essence of the sun, and its light strengthens the yang, which is very beneficial.
A simple way to nourish Yang Qi is to bask in the back. The first line of defense against cold evil is the bladder meridian of the foot sun.
The sun is out, go out to bask in the sun. When the sun doesn't come out, you can also bake your back with a heater until you are warm all over. It's best to sneeze a few times to get rid of the cold in the body and get plenty of sunshine.
In daily life, we can make a simple version of the sun moxibustion, at noon 12 o'clock, bow our heads slightly in the sun, and let the Fengchi point behind the neck and Baihui point on the top of our head bask for about 10~ 15 minutes.