Did anybody notice that the cold weather snuck up on us quickly this year? The events of the fall seemed to have frozen time—it was hot on September 11, remember? And suddenly it was Halloween. Consequently, this year even more than other years, the need to transition smoothly and rebalance ourselves to prepare for winter is great. I would like to recommend a traditional Chinese herbal tonic tea that is drunk specifically during times of change, seasonal transitions, periods of life transition and high levels of stress—which we have all had plenty of this fall.

Change of Season Tea
3-5 grams Codonopsis (Dang Shen)
3-5 grams Lycium berries (Gou Qi Zi)
3-5 grams Astragalus (Huang Qi)
3-5 grams Radix Diocorea oppositae (Shan Yao)

To prepare this tea, add equal amounts of herbs to a fireproof earthenware or enamel pot with 2 cups of water and decoct over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the water is reduced by about a third. Divide the tea and drink half in the morning and half in the evening.
The tea can be refrigerated, then reheated and drunk warm. The herbs can also be saved and reused once. Look for the herbs at the High Falls Food Co-op (687-7262) or special order them through your local health food store.
In general, a holistic strengthening of the body and the immune system for winter is a two-part process. The first part of the process is to strengthen and consolidate the body’s exterior to prevent outside pathogens from invading. Your body’s exterior, or Defensive Qi, as it is called in Chinese medicine, is considered weak if you:

• dislike wind or feel vulnerable when there is a
cold wind blowing on you
• sweat spontaneously, for no apparent reason
• have a weak voice
• feel tired
• catch colds frequently.

The second part of building the immune system is to stoke the fire of the body’s inner core. We call this the Kidney Yang energy in Chinese Medicine. This is not your physical kidney, as it is described in Western medicine. In this case, the Chinese understand the kidney to be the home of the most basic metabolic fire, which fuels all other body processes that require energy. Deep core strengthening increases your energy, it builds your reserves, and it gives you something to fight back with when you are resisting a strong cold. Your inner fire is down if you have several of the following:

• chilliness or cold hands and feet
• dislike cold weather, cold beverages, and ice
• poor appetite
• abdominal distention after eating
• cold sensation in the back
• urinary frequency
• loose stools, maybe with undigested food particles.

There are things you can do to strengthen the body’s exterior protective mechanism. Some of these are simply common sense. First, dress appropriately for the cold weather. Wear a hat, gloves, and most importantly a scarf around your neck. You can also wear a tummy warmer, or a haramaki as they are called and frequently worn in Japan, to keep the abdomen and the inner organs warm.

Second, eat for the season. Winter eating and drinking habits shift with the temperature and the availability of food. Buy and prepare locally grown fruit and vegetables if you can, and add more whole grains, beans, root vegetables and fats to your diet. Winter is the time to cut down on the raw produce and iced foods. If you want to keep fruit in your diet, cooked fruits and compotes are fine. In place of salads, go for warming root vegetables such as carrots, rutabagas, turnips, sweet potato, burdock, parsnips, leeks, and onions, cooked in stews with hearty meat broths. Be sure to season with ginger and garlic. And since you will be using meat medicinally, please be sure to use locally raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free meat. (Chemical-free lamb and beef from Meiller Farms (local) can be purchased at Adam’s Fairacre Farms in Kingston, 336-6300; Poughkeepsie, 454-4330; or Newburgh, 569-0303). The package will say “local, all-natural.” Free-range chicken is available from Northwind Farms in Tivoli, and from Bell & Evans farm in Pennsylvania, which is available at most local supermarkets. You can also order pasture-raised beef and venison bones from Valley Farms Livestock Marketing Coop (868-1826.) If your supermarket does not stock hormone-free meat, remember to ask them to carry it to help create a demand.

Try to reduce or eliminate sugar from your diet for the cold season. Caffeine, white refined flour, dairy products, alcohol, and excessive consumption of spicy foods should also be avoided.

Various herbs can be added to soups and stews to increase their tonifying properties. I like to add the herbs in the Change of Season Tea to my soups in winter for an added boost. Dried shiitake mushrooms are a proven immune strengthener and they improve the taste of almost anything.
Dina Falconi, an herbal skin and health care authority and author of Earthly Bodies and Heavenly Hair, offers several suggestions for staying healthy in winter. “I tell people that it’s important to nourish themselves emotionally as well as physically,” she says. “Avoid isolation; it can cause sickness. This is a time for more potlucks, book clubs and other activities with people. On the other hand, it’s also important to get enough sleep, to be more internal, to rest more, and go to bed earlier. Not every night, but to have that tendency. The important thing is to balance the social interaction with rest, to keep yourself involved with others, yet in the process of getting what you need to rejuvenate for next spring.”

Falconi also points out that being home-bound during the cold season can lead to a lack of physical activity, which can also lead to sickness. “Get a half an hour of physical exercise a day to activate the lymph system,” she advises. “Brisk walking outside is great—try to get some sunshine while you’re doing it. The body needs a constant sun supply in winter.” A lack of sun can lead to Seasonal Affect Disorder-type symptoms, she points out. “Sometimes I just sit outside in my snowmobile suit for half an hour to get the sun I need,” she laughs.

Keeping the nasal passages and throat clear is also important to prevent colds and flu. Try irrigating the nasal passages with a neti pot, which you can purchase from most health food stores in the valley. Gargling with salt water when you are coming down with a sore throat is essential, but you have to do it correctly. Usually this means gargling repeatedly, using 8 ounces of warm water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Gargle for 5-10 seconds each swallow, and refill the glass 2 to 3 times. Repeat this process every 2 hours until the symptoms have abated. It drives me crazy when my patients say they’ve gargled but it didn’t work, only to learn later that they gargled with a quarter cup of water for 5 seconds. It doesn’t work that way, folks.

Strengthening the inner fire is the second part to building winter immunity, which means strengthening the kidneys. One common method of augmenting kidney energy utilizes the adage that “like treats like” in Chinese medicine, which, in this case, means to eat pork kidneys. A note on preparing organ meats: they should be purchased as fresh as possible, never frozen. Cut the kidney in half; remove the white tendons, place into a steamer and steam for 30-45 minutes. Rinse well before adding to slow-cooking soups, stews, or simmered dishes. Or you can slice the kidneys and serve them hot in a sauce of slivered scallions, julienned red or green bell peppers, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and a touch of rice vinegar. Lycium berries (gou qi zi), which look like red raisins and strengthen the kidney and the liver, can be added to soups and stews, tea, and hot breakfast cereals. Adzuki and kidney beans are also important food sources for kidney support; eat them weekly in winter. Black sesame seeds, string beans, white sword beans, and sweet potatoes also have kidney tonifying effects according to Chinese nutritional medicine.

Your local health food store has the echinacea-goldenseal tinctures that many of us use against colds and the flu, but there are other options, says Andrew Randel, from Mother Earth in Kingston. “One of the best immune strengthening products I’ve seen on the market right now is New Chapter’s Immortal Mushrooms,” he says. Made with reishi, shittake, maitake, cordyceps, and coriolus mushroom extracts, the mushrooms contain beta-glucans or similar polysaccharides that bind to macrophages to activate the immune system.

Another popular immune strengthening formula is from an herbal company in Saugerties called Quantum. “Our hottest seller is our Quantum Herbal Products Cold & Flu Formula—we ship it all over the country,” says Quantum owner Dr. Hank Sobel, ND (246-1344; (800) 348-0398). Made with 21 different organic, wild-crafted herbs that have been fed super-oxygenated water, the formula gets a high rating by those who want to prevent a cold or knock out a cold at its first sign (60 drops in water, 2 squirts of a dropper). Mother Earth’s Randel warns that it has a strong taste, but you might want to grit your teeth and swallow if you really cannot afford to get sick.
Those so inclined can make their own anti-cold and flu garlic concoction to keep handy in the fridge. I learned this folk remedy in Japan, where the taste of garlic is under-appreciated at best. Steam 5 cloves of garlic until they are very soft. Then crush them, place in a thick saucepan, add 1 cup of honey, and stir regularly over medium-low heat. The garlic should give off its characteristic fragrance when it is done cooking. Store in the refrigerator and take a teaspoon in water three times a day whenever you feel a cold coming on. Take a teaspoon or two before bed to quell a painful throat or cough. This remedy is good for children, too.

I advise my patients to make Scallion Broth followed by a hot bath and bed whenever they come down with a cold.

Cold Quelling Scallion Broth
3 Garlic cloves, crushed or pressed
1-inch piece of Ginger, finely sliced
3-5 Scallions, white parts only
1-2 fresh Perilla leaf (optional, ask your local
Japanese restaurant)
2 cups Water
1-2 dried Shiitake Mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes
2-3 tbsp. Barley or Soy Miso (optional) dash of
Cayenne (optional)

Chop the garlic and ginger, slice shiitake, and add to water. Cook on medium heat until the mushrooms are soft. Slice off the tops of the scallions and remove the inner whites of the bottom, slice, and add to the soup. Turn off the heat and add the miso and perilla if desired. Serve hot. Follow this with a very warm bath and go to bed immediately. You should start sweating the cold out (remember, the pores regulate the exterior).

Aromatherapy can be great for boosting the immune system, says Terra Soleil owner Karen Schwitters, (914) 475-2654, but you have to be careful to use therapeutic Grade A oils. “The pines, hemlocks, and spruces are all powerful cold prevention. Tea tree oil is good, and eucalyptus encourages deep breathing. Herbs like cinnamon, cloves, oregano, and rosemary have such powerful anti-bacterial and antibiotic properties that they are now being researched scientifically. And the great thing about these oils is that a 10 milliliter bottle of oil isn’t expensive, (about $12) and all you need are a couple drops to a vaporizer or a diffuser,” she says. You could also mix a drop or two of mixture of oils and inhale as a vapor by pouring hot water into a bowl and adding the oil. Then put a towel over your head and lean over the bowl with your face about 10 inches away and your eyes closed. Breathe deeply through your nose for about one minute.

Finally, a note on vitamin C. Make sure the vitamin C you take is buffered, and try to eat other foods that contain vitamin C when you’re taking the supplement. This will render the vitamin more effective. Vitamin C derived from the rough extracts of nutrients from real foods is said to be most efficiently utilized by the body, and is available from a company called New Chapter.