Brrrrrrr, you would have probably noticed by now that mornings seem harder for you to get out of bed, getting out of your comfy warm PJs can be a battle, you are preferring the Eskimo look and can sense a chill in the air.
Welcome to Winter or otherwise known as ‘FLU season’.
Tis the season where you would generally be eating more, exercising less, drinking less water and preferring to hibernate. Sometimes you may underestimate the cold weather and not wear enough layers.
Meet my patients who all presented with ‘Flu like symptoms’ but contracted it in many different ways.
CASE STUDIES
- Jan is a 35 year old working mum of 2 who keeps up with her regular early morning outdoor workouts 5 times a week. Since the beginning of June she reported that it felt like her immune system wasn’t as strong and that she felt run down all the time. She would wear her tights and jacket to run, sweat a lot by the time she finished and remove her jacket while cooling down. The onset was 3 weeks.
- Rob is a 27 year old male who travelled to Melbourne for a relaxing weekend with the boys, where there was a lot of drinking, eating out and getting minimal sleep. Also he mentioned that the weather there was freezing! The onset was 3 days.
- Thu is a 75 year old female who generally likes to hibernate during this time of the year with the heater on all the time. When she had to go for her quarterly check up at the specialist’s office, she found that when she came home, she did not feel well. The onset was 5 days.
- Kevin is a 10 year old little boy who came home school one day not feeling well at all. It was raining that day at school so during lunch time, all of his peers, a lot of whom he mentioned were sneezing and with lots of ‘boogies’ hung out in the common room. The onset was 2 hours.
- Minh is a 55 year old woman who woke up one day feeling unwell. A big fan of antibiotics in which she took for a period of 2 weeks with no resolution of her symptoms. She thinks they don’t work against her cold anymore. The onset was 2 and a half weeks.
Their presenting symptoms were all very similar:
* Feeling run down
* Chills and Fever
* Loss of appetite
* Runny/blocked nose/sneezing
* Sore throat/coughing
* Headaches/body aches and pains
* Pale and dry skin.
In my field of Traditional Chinese Medicine, all of my 5 patients have contracted a form of ‘Wind’. Yes the type of breeze you can feel but can’t see. The easiest way it enters is through your chest and neck and that results in the symptoms above.
The treatment strategy is most importantly to remove wind from the body. With an array of tools at my fingertips to help these individuals:
* Wind scraping
* Suction Cupping
* Acupuncture
* A take home herbal prescription
POST TREATMENT ADVICE
Each patient was advised to try to eat something, keep up with their fluids, and take their herbs and rest in bed.
THE RESULT
I’m happy to report that all 5 patients felt much better just after one treatment. 2 of my patients had to return for a follow treatment as they had left the cold lingering for a bit too long while the other 3 made a full and quick recovery under 1 week after seeing me.
BOTTOM LINE
Feeling sick is horrible so do something about straightaway before it becomes a burden of your life!
