Winter: respect, adapt. Feel better.

Welcome to the world of the blanket fort! This kitten with dark eyes is wrapped up in natural fiber blankets, anthropomorphically trying to keep warm and seek your sympathy during this cold snap.

Happy midwinter everyone! I am writing this during a cold patch, and the clinic surely is full of the bitter winds of pain and illness. Read on for tips on treating (cold) pain plus warming food recipes.

What Winter and Extreme Cold Mean in Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine, winter isn’t something to push through — it’s something to listen to. What is happening in the environment is reflected by our own bodies. So listen, learn and go with the flow…

Winter is associated with the Water element, the Kidneys, and our deepest reserves of energy. Nature slows way down this time of year, and we’re meant to do the same (you know, if that’s in your purview). Extreme cold pulls energy inward, tightens tissues, and asks us to conserve rather than expend. Things dry up, crinkle, bow down and get covered by hoods of ice and snow. In other words, hiding in that blanket fort you have set up on your couch. When we ignore winter’s natural rhythm — by overworking, under-resting, or eating too many cold foods — we can end up feeling more depleted, stiff, or emotionally worn thin.

Respectfully, I do know we may not always have an ability to follow our desire of following nature’s lead. It’s only honest to say that it is extremely challenging, sometimes near impossible, to seriously rest and slow down. So, we meet ourselves where we are at, and adjust what we can. Even for a few minutes, or for a meal.

One of the simplest ways to support the body in winter is through warming nutrition. Chinese medicine favors cooked, gently spiced foods that help circulation and protect digestion. That’a why soup season (ha ha) and casseroles seem so right! How about soup parties? Don’t worry, here is a casserole list for you solid food only eaters. No shade to you.

Winter Warming Ginger–Turmeric Chicken Soup

This simple soup is deeply nourishing in winter, when cold constricts circulation and digestion benefits from warmth. In Chinese medicine, cooked foods, gentle spices, and broth help protect energy and keep Qi moving during extreme cold. Friends with cold extremities and those who low-key hate winter, this is for you.

Ingredients (8 total):

• Chicken broth

• Chicken (thighs or breast, chopped)

• Fresh ginger (1–2 tablespoons) chopped fine or minced

• Fresh or ground turmeric (get fresh at Outpost and Pan Asia Supermarket)

• Starch: rice, rice noodles, potato, or sweet potato

• Thinly sliced Carrot

• Scallions

• Sea salt

• If you want to add fresh ginseng, they have it at Pan Asia Supermarket, too

Directions:
Bring broth to a gentle simmer. Add ginger and turmeric and cook for 5 minutes. Poach chicken until cooked through, then set aside Add starch and simmer until cooked through (15–25 minutes or follow package directions on noodles), or cook on the side in salted and seasoned water. Add carrot during the last 10 minutes. Then add the chicken back to warm through. Season with salt or soy sauce and finish with scallions.

Warming, grounding, and easy to digest — this is an ideal soup for cold weather, cold/flu, pain flares, or anytime your body needs extra support.

A few other links to soups. I am a bean fanatic so check this out. Here is one that has the warming, sweet and mildly spicy vibe that I love, Thai style. And don’t forget to check my instagram highlights for my stories of soup!

PS Using a heating pad or hot water bottle on the abdomen can help with bloating and pain, and support digestion. Warmth and increased circulation, remember? Plus, it can be relaxing, which helps the body move away from fight/flight into rest/digest.

Why Cold Makes Pain Worse (and What Chinese Medicine Says About It)

From a Chinese Medicine perspective, cold contracts. When cold enters the body — whether from weather, air conditioning, or internal “deficiency” — it slows circulation of Qi and Blood. Where there is stagnation, pain tends to follow. This is why arthritis, old injuries, low-back pain, and neck tension often flare-up in winter or during cold snaps, like right now.

Cold pain is typically described as:

• deep

• achy

• tight

• better with heat

• worse with cold or damp weather

Warmth helps because it restores movement. The goal clinically is often to warm, circulate, and unblock. We don’t want to numb symptoms and walk away. We want to activate the body’s ability to heal itself! Or if it can’t fully heal, it certainly can mitigate the damage done by having a chronic condition.

Herbal Ingredients Commonly Used for Pain Relief

Below are some of the herbs and plant compounds frequently used in topical formulas and liniments, especially during cold seasons. If you are shopping around for TCM pain relief and you have no idea what you are looking at, a clue: watch out for red liquid topical analgesics or a pain patch in red packaging. Sometimes it will say warming on it. And generally speaking, you want these types of external treatments for older and chronic injuries that feel better with heat. I often google the label for more info.

• PS if your pain feels better with cold and you are buying a TCM product, the label might be green, white or blue, and it may say cooling on it.

  Feel free to text me a photo of something you want to try and I will let you know what I think. Or, just come to the office. There is so much we can do to help.

🌿 Herbal Support for Pain & Circulation

• Camphor
  Warming and strongly moving; helps open channels and reduce deep muscular aches.

• Menthol
  Promotes surface circulation and provides cooling relief that improves local blood flow. Cooling on it’s own.

• Cassia
  A warming bark related to cinnamon; improves circulation and helps disperse cold stagnation.

• Hemp (Ma Zi Ren / hemp seed derivatives)
  Nourishes tissues, supports inflammation modulation, and aids recovery.

• Cinnamon (Gui Pi / Gui Zhi family)
  One of the most important warming herbs in Chinese medicine; improves circulation, warms channels, and reduces cold-related pain.

• Japanese Knotweed (Hu Zhang)
  Powerful mover of Blood; traditionally used for trauma, inflammation, and stubborn pain.

• Angelica (Bai Zhi)
  Especially helpful for headaches, sinus tension, and upper-body pain; reduces swelling and promotes circulation.

These herbs don’t just mask discomfort — they work to restore flow, warmth, and tissue nourishment.

Two New Topical Products I’m Loving in Clinic

This winter I’ve introduced two new topical pain-relief products in the clinic, and I’ve been genuinely impressed by the results I’m seeing. Evil Bone Water and Dragon Pain Relief Balm.

Both formulas combine traditional Chinese herbal wisdom with modern extraction methods to deliver deeper penetration and longer-lasting relief. They’re especially helpful for:

• Pain in major and minor muscle groups

• arthritic joints

• headaches

• old injuries that flare in winter, repetitive injury pain

• pain that improves with heat, cold-sensitive pain

Evil Bone Water is a spray liniment (if you have used my gauze pad liniments it is similar). EBW is really good for pain and it’s easy! It’s spray and dry, then go! Or you can spray it onto a carrier or massage oil and work it in that way. I have used it on my dog, too. It’s a very, very old recipe. 5 Stars from me, and I am collecting patient reviews should you want to send me yours.

Dragon Pain Relief Balm is effective like the Tiger Mom pain roller I used in the office for years, but haven’t been able to find in loooong time. This product comes in a travel size roller balm, large solid stick, a softer tub, or in a lotion. It comes in 3 strengths.

To compare, we can try both in clinic to see if one works better for you. I am happy to talk with you by phone, too. In general, though:

Evil Bone Water is less menthol-ish than Dragon is, and the scent goes away quickly and dries clean. It is also a deeper healer.

Dragon is more tingly. It is easier to carry around. It comes in 3 different strengths. It has cannabinoids. And I also like it as aromatherapy for stuffy nose, headache and anxiety.

• Patients are reporting faster relief, better mobility, and less reliance on repeated applications — which tells me the formulas are actually doing what Chinese medicine intends: moving stagnation and warming the channels, not just distracting the nervous system.

If winter tends to tighten your body, flare old pain, or make you feel like everything has slowed to a crawl, this season may be inviting you to work with the cold rather than fight it — warming gently, resting more deeply, and supporting circulation from the inside and out. Don’t forget stopping and just doing 5 deep breaths with loooong exhalations. That’s a mini-break that is very effective. And personally, it’s easier to do my seated hobbies this time of year.