Beginning of the new school means beginning of new seasonal colds, flu, allergies, busy schedules, stress, missed days in school and work and lot of headaches for many.
Going through a hurricane at the same time with increased levels of humidity and strong winds is only adding on to this, but I’ll only address the Wind aspect of it and how it’s affecting us.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, “wind” is one of the 8 “evils” and is the cause of many diseases. As we know, winds carry pathogens and seed them from one area to another and we never know what we’re getting (that’s why flu shots are nothing but somebodies best guess on cocktail of bacteria winds may bring that season!
When wind enters through our skin exposing us to the plethora of pathogens, a battle between your skin and muscles begin and your immune system is activated. Hence the first symptoms of the cold/flu can be chills, fever, stiff neck, headaches, runny nose etc.
That is why I am going to introduce an acupuncture point – GB 20.
GB 20 is widely known as the “Wind Pool” point because of it’s ability to release any kind of “wind” condition – either from a cold (Wind Cold), a flu (Wind Heat), stroke and few other neurological conditions (hypertension, dizziness, seizures, occipital headaches etc.)
Wind Cold is a condition where the “wind” is introduced to the body sneaking in the “cold” pathogen, and it usually enters the body through the back of the neck. In this instance, one will have a stiff neck, have aversion to wind and cold and will have a hard time breaking into sweat.
Wind Heat is a condition that brings in the pathogen through the mouth and the nose (remember to wash your hands!) and in this condition instead of feeling cold, one will develop a fever, have stuffy nose, sore and itchy throat that and symptoms here develop rather quickly.
There’s also condition that is called “internal” wind and is the root for strokes of different types and many neurological diseases.
The beauty of the point GB 20 is that it can be used for a n y kind of wind condition.
Apply gentle pressure to this point, hold for 30 seconds, release and massage gently. Repeat as many times as needed at the onset of either wind cold or wind heat condition or at the first onset of headache.
