weather and your health

First topics of conversation is the weather. Many of us do it without thinking. We

meet and
comment on the cold by pulling ourselves in and wrapping our arms around
ourselves. Or the damp – it’s so muggy and heavy and d-u-l-l. Let’s hope it
brightens up soon. And the wind – it really gets to you, doesn’t it? It penetrates.
It makes it feel even colder. Then at last the sun shines. We love it and the whole
country brightens up and we all chat to each other and become friendlier. But
after a while we start to moan. It’s really too hot and it’s humid too. I can’t bear
it any longer – too much heat!
The weather is a part of our everyday lives. Well, there’s so much weather for us
British people to deal with! It affects us all the time. We get ‘under the weather’.
We’re often not conscious of the effect it’s having but we’re experiencing it in
our body.
When I first learned Chinese medicine it put into words what I’d unconsciously
known about the climate.
Damp makes us feel heavy and sluggish.
Cold slows us down and makes us contract inside.
Wind drives in other climatic factors with what we now call the ‘wind-chill
factor’.

We become more expansive in the heat – but if we get too much of it or if it’s
damp and hot, it makes us feel tired and sluggish.
In the past, all cultures were aware of the weather’s effect on their health.
Chinese medicine has retained this knowledge and it has been passed down
through generations. In the West this has mostly been lost. This is especially
in the years since the Second World War when this wisdom, often found in ‘old
wives’ tales’, has been discarded.
I was born just after the war and I learned various old wives’ tales from my
parents. ‘Don’t sleep with wet hair’, ‘wrap up against the cold’, ‘avoid sitting in a
draught’, ‘wear warm slippers’. When I was young these seemed to be pointless
and I ignored them. When I learned Chinese medicine I realized that they were
in fact wise sayings. The effect of wind, cold, damp, dryness and heat are known
to Chinese medicine as the climatic or ‘external’ causes of disease.
We are all affected by at least one climate. Invariably in the UK either the cold
or the damp affects the largest number of people. This is closely followed by the
wind and heat. Not surprisingly in such a damp country, very few are affected by
excess dryness – although in Arizona or the Sahara it is different.
These external climatic conditions can have as big an impact on our health as
our emotions and we can become healthier if we learn to protect ourselves from
them. In this chapter we’ll discuss some simple lifestyle changes that will ensure
better health if we heed them. Meanwhile you might think about which climatic
conditions affect you the most and how you protect yourself from them.

conversation is the weather. Many of us do it without thinking. We meet and

comment on the cold by pulling ourselves in and wrapping our arms around
ourselves. Or the damp – it’s so muggy and heavy and d-u-l-l. Let’s hope it
brightens up soon. And the wind – it really gets to you, doesn’t it? It penetrates.
It makes it feel even colder. Then at last the sun shines. We love it and the whole
country brightens up and we all chat to each other and become friendlier. But
after a while we start to moan. It’s really too hot and it’s humid too. I can’t bear
it any longer – too much heat!
The weather is a part of our everyday lives. Well, there’s so much weather for us
British people to deal with! It affects us all the time. We get ‘under the weather’.
We’re often not conscious of the effect it’s having but we’re experiencing it in
our body.
When I first learned Chinese medicine it put into words what I’d unconsciously
known about the climate.
Damp makes us feel heavy and sluggish.
Cold slows us down and makes us contract inside.
Wind drives in other climatic factors with what we now call the ‘wind-chill
factor’.

We become more expansive in the heat – but if we get too much of it or if it’s
damp and hot, it makes us feel tired and sluggish.
In the past, all cultures were aware of the weather’s effect on their health.
Chinese medicine has retained this knowledge and it has been passed down
through generations. In the West this has mostly been lost. This is especially
in the years since the Second World War when this wisdom, often found in ‘old
wives’ tales’, has been discarded.
I was born just after the war and I learned various old wives’ tales from my
parents. ‘Don’t sleep with wet hair’, ‘wrap up against the cold’, ‘avoid sitting in a
draught’, ‘wear warm slippers’. When I was young these seemed to be pointless
and I ignored them. When I learned Chinese medicine I realized that they were
in fact wise sayings. The effect of wind, cold, damp, dryness and heat are known
to Chinese medicine as the climatic or ‘external’ causes of disease.
We are all affected by at least one climate. Invariably in the UK either the cold
or the damp affects the largest number of people. This is closely followed by the
wind and heat. Not surprisingly in such a damp country, very few are affected by
excess dryness – although in Arizona or the Sahara it is different.
These external climatic conditions can have as big an impact on our health as
our emotions and we can become healthier if we learn to protect ourselves from
them. In this chapter we’ll discuss some simple lifestyle changes that will ensure
better health if we heed them.