TCM’S GEM: TREAT YOUR WINTER WOES IN THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER.

I read today with some delight that it is predicted that Ireland is heading for a wonderful summer with temps of up to 30 degrees or more from July!!! This got me thinking about Chinese medicine and how it has a unique category called “Summer treatment of Winter conditions” or “Dong Bing Xia Zhi”  Dong (winter) Bing (disease) Xia (summer) Zhi (treatment). This is a treatment that strengthens the yang energy in the summer in order to prevent recurring respiratory problems from  happening during the season of winter. These “Winter Conditions” refer to issues such as  asthma,colds, bronchitis, allergic rhinitis,pneumonia, rheumatism,sinus infections and shortness of breath, that  really in TCM terms, occur as a result of a yang  deficiency in the person  coupled with pathogenic cold.

This tradition is held in such high regard in China that the  Chinese in the full of their health during the 30 hottest days in summer, or san fu,usually around  mid-July to mid-August, attend specialist TCM hospitals in the summer to help strengthen them to ward off issues that really bother them during the winter months. The theory is that if people follow this treatment for three years in a row then the body has moved into a stronger and more balanced state thus allowing the patient to be able to live a healthier life without many recurring illnesses  during the Winter months.
This is a very different approach to how we deal with health in the west. We are living in an age where we treat the person when it happens, all too often too late . Whilst treatment is absolutely fine for any of these conditions during winter , the advice in Chinese medicine, to seek treatment during the summer, is quite clever, as besides TCM’s ability to strengthen the body’s system allowing it to be  strong enough for the season that exacerbates the problem, it is truly a medicine that is preventative at its core.