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Chinese medicine specialist Anna Vladimirova recommends resting where it is at least a little warmer than at home. And that’s why.
Oriental medicine studies not only and not so much the diseases themselves, but the factors that will sooner or later lead to their development. And there is such a thing as “accumulation of cold” in it. According to Chinese treatises, our body can accumulate cold, which eventually results in the development of inflammatory diseases.
We all know that hypothermia can lead to, say, a runny nose. It is also associated with abscesses, exacerbation of chronic gynecological inflammation in women and urological inflammation in men … In general, everything that becomes inflamed in the body does it with the greatest “enthusiasm” and speed against the background of hypothermia.
Who loves the cold?
If you are going to a place where the average temperature is lower than usual, the body will need a long period of adaptation – it must literally “close”, reorganize itself so as not to let the cold in. According to my own feelings, I can (absolutely unscientific!) call this process “shrinking”: from the cold, a person seems to want to become smaller and denser, enters an economical survival mode.
This is a signal that cold resorts are contraindicated for you. I do not insist on holidays in Thailand or Cuba. Let it be at least a little warmer in your chosen latitudes than at home. If, for example, you live in Moscow or St. Petersburg, then Sochi or Georgia are already more “sparing” places where you can properly relax.
Heat provides the body relaxation necessary for a good rest, along with it, psychological comfort and sleep are restored, and therefore health.
Some enthusiastically tell how they skied and sleighed, dived into an ice hole and ran away from a polar bear.
“But there are people,” you reasonably object, “who are delighted with ski slopes and Arctic expeditions! They get a charge of vivacity, bathing in the snow and exposing their faces to the mountain winds!”
I must say that this is a very specific type of people: they can be described as lean, dry, energetic. They enthusiastically tell how they skied and sleighed all day long, dived into the hole and ran away from the polar bear…
But people with a “softer” structure are not adapted to winter exploits, and for them entry into the cold should be gradual.
How to understand that the body has accumulated cold?
If, upon returning from a trip to the north, this or that inflammatory disease has developed, it speaks for itself: cold has accumulated in the body, it must be “expelled”.
It is better, of course, to catch hypothermia before it manifests itself in the disease. To do this, do the following experiment: lightly stroking the body, analyze the temperature of the skin in different places. Where the skin is colder, cold accumulates.
“This is just a fat fold, it should be colder,” is one of the frequent objections that one hears. Many (though not all) fat deposits are formed just above those places where cold has accumulated – they warm this area, protect against even more hypothermia.
How to drive out the cold?
Not for nothing in the Nordic countries in every hotel (and even in every room) there is a sauna – this is one of the best ways to expel the cold from the body. The champion in the depth of heating is an infrared sauna. A good service will also serve as a bath or regular sauna.
How to steam?
Firstly, do not abuse contrast procedures: you need to warm up, while a bath followed by diving into the snow is an additional burden on the body.
Secondly, the required course should consist of at least 5-7 warm-ups at short intervals. Sometimes hypothermia is not felt until the third or even the fifth procedure, and only when the sensations from the sauna change, it becomes clear how stiff and “frozen” the body was.
Finally, it is important to understand that any warming procedures are relevant only when hypothermia has happened, but has not developed into an inflammatory disease. Or in the process of recovering from an illness – in consultation with your doctor.
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Of course, it’s good when a vacation gives new impressions. But they should not be at the expense of recovery! If you work hard, you need time to recuperate, which means that the rest should be balanced: various activities, quality sleep and new experiences. And – warmth, which will provide additional relaxation!