After going through the pandemic, I am sure you are very familiar with how active the virus can be during wintertime. But does that mean we are more likely to get sick in the winter?
First of all, having yourself surrounded by the virus is only a small part of getting sick.
You probably have this experience: you have an office full of people getting the flu, but you are the only one still healthy. Or you have worked yourself dry, and then suddenly, you find yourself stricken with the nastiest flu. Let’s look at how the body operates through the lens of Chinese medicine and functional medicine.
Short answer, yes, we are more likely to get sick in the winter. In wintertime, our overall Qi is more submerged. It doesn’t mean it’s not active. It’s like the plant’s leaves fall off during fall, and no new growth until the spring, so it can start blooming in the spring with buds and leaves. This process is called “reservation of the essence.” You can think of it as collecting interest from your savings.
So what if you have been using up your savings and it’s starting to be in deficit?
Well, then, when it comes to winter, the body can’t be nourished when Qi starts to submerge. Particularly, our lung Qi is promoted by the kidney Qi and forms the defense Qi, which fortifies us everyday. So if you keep overdraft on your principle (the kidney Qi), then your lung Qi will be deficient and eventually fail to defend us.
The three keys to reserve the Qi are: rebalance, restoring, and removing (stagnation)
So what if you truly get sick? Is there a way to heal faster?
First, let’s look at the options we have. In wintertime, Flu or upper respiratory infections are the most common illness we get. So with infection (from external pathogens), we might get a fever. Fever or inflammation are the immune defense mechanisms. We need that to activate our immune system to fight off the pathogens.
We might reach out to the common OTC to suppress the fever and relieve the pain brought upon by the inflammation. I am not opposing using OTC when you need to, but we have to keep in mind that each illness is a chance for us to examine what we have missed.
The benefit of acetaminophen or NSAIDS is you can get a really quick relief. But suppressing the initial immune response might have us missing the chance to truly heal. Especially, when the fever is suppressed, but our immune system is in need of the inflammation for a chance of healing. Fever is the siren of the alarm, and fever suppressant is turning off the alarm when the burglar breaks in.
It should be used wisely.
When using fever suppressants (such as Tylenol) or NSAIDs for symptom reduction, we have to keep in mind that it doesn’t equal healing. Everytime we get sick, it’s actually a good time to rebuild a stronger and more resilient body. Furthermore, using analgesic or NSAIDs may cause more issues in the gut, such as stomach bleeding or gut dysbiosis.
Why not use herbs and acupuncture?
Treatment for febrile disease has been established for thousands of years in Chinese medicine.
The idea of using acupuncture and herbs is not simply using antiviral or antibacterial herbs. It focuses on restoring the balance of our body to build back the defense. The idea is to rebalance the function, restoring our Qi, and remove the stagnation and toxin so we can heal.
Using acupuncture and herbs doesn’t suppress our immune system or immune defense mechanism. In fact, it promotes the host defense so it can shorten the duration of the illness, promote recovery without lingering, and truly help our body to build and grow in a healthy way.
