Traditional Chinese Medicine believes humans are intimately connected to the natural world, and the seasons can affect our bodies, sleep and energy. Trying to keep fast-paced rhythms all year long, regardless of the natural ebb and flow of the world around us, will create disharmony and imbalance. In Chinese Medicine, if the balance is not restored, it is believed this is when illness and disease occur. This is true everywhere you live, including here on the Gold Coast.
To live in accordance with the seasons is to adjust one’s actions to reflect the environment around them. Our bodies reflect seasonal changes in various ways, including simple ways, like what we crave to eat. For example, we crave salad and fruit in summertime, not soups and stews.
In Chinese medicine, summer brings more blood to the small intestine, making food easier to digest. This also explains why people’s intolerances to food become less in Summer, whereas in Winter, people are a lot more sensitive. In Winter, we need to add more heat to the small intestine, so we eat heavy hot meals that encourage digestion at a deeper level.
Our clinic has many fatigue and pain conditions associated with autoimmune diseases, post-viral or even unknown origins. If you ‘flare’ less in summer, then the change of season comes in April/May (Southern Hemisphere), you will have fewer flare symptoms, and Winter will generally be better overall. So look after yourself in Summer, and your Winter will be great!
What can we do?
The season change is one of the best times to get your maintenance acupuncture. Season changes are times of turmoil. People by nature are imbalanced, so these transitions exacerbate the imbalances in a person already there.
We can use acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine to reduce inflammation and restore blood flow; this follow-on helps our whole system be more balanced with the seasons.
Mostly we suggest eating as close to the season you are in with fruit and vegetables and eat climatically (temperature).
