Tip of the day 3.5 Cold but hot? No chips and ice during a cold. Small touch on my research and honors thesis on complementary and alternative medicine. Allergy season is coming up but mixed in there people get sick before midterms or from other pathogens (remember to buy your local raw honey ASAP if youre still trying to get in on the innoculation method). What I am about to say is not Western medicine, but rather natural humoral medicinal theory that 80% of the world subscribes to in some form. Its a mixture of Ayurvedic, Chinese, Kampo, Greek, Tibeten medicines. Remember, most of the world doesnt use Robitussin/Dimetapp/antibiotics during colds- most of them use preventative medicine. I like preventative medicines because most cold meds dont really cure, but soothe your ailments- like decrease coughing, decrease mucus, sleep better... etc but none of them really fix you unless you take antibiotics which although good mess up your gut flora and then youre constipated/diarrheal for days b/c the antibiotics also wiped out the good bacteria. So I always promote preventative medicine- prevent before it gets bad and if it gets bad, what most of the world would do. Humoral medicine believes by making your body strong in the first place you dont get sick, and also balance of diet to get your body back into balance bc it was knocked out of balance in the first place. Some terminology: Humoral medicine= balance of hot and cold energies. hot= high calorated, very nutritious, over nourishing and cold= less nutritious, watery, less nutrient dense The DONTs of a cold 1. Drinking cold things- Western medicine says, your throat is sore, so you drink cold things. REST of the world suggests- warm things because your body is naturally warm. You want to get your body back to balance so you take the same temperature fluids/foods as your body is. You dont want to shock the body when its already fighting so hard. Warm soups, warm teas (green tea and lemon), warm water. Also, drinking warm water can speed up your metabolism for those who want to lose weight. Warm= speed up reaction. Cold= slow down reactions= slow metabolism. 2. Eat fried/crispy/baked/hard things. So most places believe that you have something called hot and cold energies in your body. If you have a cold you have heat symptoms such as sore throat, cough, phelgm, sores, pimples, constipation, dry which leads to your cold. best way to fight eat is not to take anymore heat but things with cold energies. So, you want lots of veggies and fruits. Nothing greasy, spicy, or hard which makes since b/c you dont want to scratch or irritate your throat. 3. Salty. You dont want to make your body a thirsty shriveled up thing. you want hydration to flush out toxins. The DOs 1. WARM WATER/Fluids. Remember, balance, homeostasis. Green tea is great for antioxidants and its cooling properties. 2. Bland, simple, low fat, foods- your body is already got too much heating toxins, so you dont want anymroe over calorated nutrient dense stuff like baked, fried, crispy Some of this fits the biomedicine model but most of it is folk/natural therapy that has been around for THOUSANDS of years and makes sense- use your common sense for preventatve care. Curious bout this weird humoral stuff? Message or comment!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:16:31 +0000
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