Winter is so cold this year. As you age, becoming cold becomes an aspect of self-care and not just a physical comfort. Your organs are all in your abdomen and they are the target of efforts to move blood up from the feet. Knowing a little about warming yourself and how it staying warm is related to your general health. A bit of knowledge may help you to keep up the continual effort to warm yourself. What most people don't realize that keeping your feet warm is key to warming the organs of your abdomen. This is not easy because the return of blood and qi from the feet must rise against gravity. Movement of muscles in your legs are the main pumps bring blood back to your heart. The larger those thigh muscles are, the more blood will move up to your abdomen. So building up your thigh muscles is key to the health of your abdominal organs. Contrary to the fashion gurus, a big butt and hefty thighs are blessings if they are also muscular.
So, please remember that cold blood and lymph do not flow. This is because the veins and muscles contract. The physiological reasons why blood rises with such difficulty from the feet can be simply summed up in the observation that the heart only has enough power to pump blood away from it. The heart lacks the power to pull blood up your body. It only pushes blood out. Both lymph (your immune system) and the oxygen poor blood from your feet need to rise to the heart in order for fresh oxygenated blood to be efficiently pumped out of your heart. So aerobic leg exercise are the major means of facilitating this process of emptying the old blood in order to pump in the nourishing blood. Moving from your core muscles around your spine would be ideal, but most people have been trained not to use their core muscles either for breathing or movement, so let's begin with the easy way to circulate the blood back to the heart. By moving those big muscles on your thighs, you assist the return of blood from your feet to your heart. This is common sense, but, knowing why may encourage to stay warm with lower body aerobic exercise. During the dead of winter, aerobic leg exercise at home may be the best solution. A little frequently goes a long way toward staying warm and healthy.
You can test your body temperature by simply taking it under the arm. Interestingly, most people will have different left and right under arm temperature. My temperature is between 36.1 c and 36.5 c. My temperture will be low on the side of the body where the qi is weaker. The weakeness of this side of my body is obvious when I compare my breasts. The weaker side is smaller. Oddly but understandably, all my injuries and arthritic pains tend to center on the strong side. Without obcessing over my lack of body heat, I can tell easily that I am in worse shape generally when my body temperature is lower. After receiving an acupuncture treatment, my body temperature rises. I think any good treatment would have this effect.
My most important tip focuses on keeping your feet warm. Before I discuss, the more efficient way of warming your feet, let me discuss general simple tactics for staying warm:
Warm your bed before sleeping One friend puts her blankets on the radiator. I have an electric blanket in my bed. Don't sleep with the electric blanket turned on if you want to keep your body's electrical system balanced. Most people can't tell when they are off balance. The damage done by an electric blanket becomes obvious only when you receive treatments such as acupuncture which balance your energy. So, please take my word for it. Elderly people sleeping on electric blankets used to be the bread and butter of my shiatsu practice. They were typically crippled by arthritis.
Before you go to bed, turn on your electric blanket. That warmth will help to dry the blanket as well. When you sleep turn it off. For continued warm throughout the night, bring hot water bottles to bed. I wrap them in an old sweater. I sew up the bottom of the sweater and then use the neck as the opening of the bag. Just wrapping the hot water bottle will allow you to use boiling hot water in your water tight container of choice. If you don't have a hot water bottle, use drinking bottles etc. Improvise, but remember, if it leaks, you have a cold wet bed. In Japan, flat hard metal or plastic bottle made specifically for warming the bedding cost 6-10 dollars.
Dress for warmth. Wool is expensive, but it is warmer than any synthetic. I use old wool sweaters to wrap my belly and ankles. I splurged on wool tights and socks so I can appear in public looking somewhat graceful. I find that "smartwool" is very durable and worth the extra cost. Naturally, thick wool socks make a huge difference.
When I need to got out, of course I layer. But, there is a severe limit to my own body heat, so I also attach chemical warming pads to my inner layer of clothes. In front, one big pad horizontal above the pubic bone and another big pad vertical low on the sacrum. If I had back pain, I might put the pad elsewhere on my spine. If the upper part of my abdomen is cold, I might add a small pad just below the rib cage. If I am worrying about respiratory problems, another small pad vertical on the upper spine near the base of my neck. Even at home I add these pads to my costume and my health improves noticibly.
Honestly I have not found a good way to keep my feet warm using these chemical pad, without looking very odd. I put a small pad on my instep and on the inner side of the foot. Still my feet remain cold. If I put pads near my toes on the bottom of my foot, by feet warm up but my shoes hurt. I suppose I should wear bigger shoes. But then I really will look like a snowman.
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