Beginning of winter pays attention to keeping warm and promoting blood circulation to prevent waist and knee pain.

As the solar term approaches in beginning of winter, the temperature obviously turns cold. Recently, there are many patients with degenerative arthritis and chronic low back and knee pain in TCM clinics, and most of them have aggravated their symptoms because they entered the cold winter. In this regard, Wu Jiandong, a Chinese medicine practitioner at Linsen Hospital of Taipei United Hospital, suggested that attention should be paid to keeping warm, applying more hot compress, and using medicated diet moderately to keep the body warm and reduce soreness.

Beginning of winter, the symbol of winter, is coming soon. Wu Jiandong, a Chinese doctor, reminds the elderly to keep warm when going out in cold season, so as not to aggravate the symptoms of waist and knee pain. (Photo courtesy of/Huang Zhiwen) Wu Jiandong, a Chinese medicine doctor in Linsen Hospital of Taipei United Hospital, said that the weather has been hot and cold recently, and many patients with degenerative arthritis who have taken care of stability have gone to the hospital because of the aggravation of pain, especially the knee joint and lumbar spine.

The cold weather in winter will make the blood of warm-blooded animals stagnate, their metabolism deteriorate, and there will be painful symptoms of "if they can't get through". In addition, cold can easily make muscles tense and joint activities stiff, thus aggravating pain symptoms.

Do a good job in cold protection

How to maintain it? Ancient Chinese medicine books suggest going to bed early and getting up late. It is too cold to go out as far as possible. If you want to go out, you must keep out the cold at home and try to choose a sunny place. Especially for the elderly who have the habit of getting up in the morning and cardiovascular diseases, they should pay more attention to the indoor and outdoor temperature changes to avoid discomfort.

Strengthen local qi and blood circulation

In addition, when the outside temperature is low, external heat energy can also be used to promote blood circulation, such as hot compress and hot water immersion. Dr. Wu Jiandong, a Chinese medicine doctor, said that if we want to strengthen the local circulation of qi and blood, we can also use moxibustion therapy combined with acupuncture treatment, and use drugs such as ginseng, astragalus, dried ginger and aconite to invigorate qi or strengthen yang, so as to drive away the cold, retain the yang and keep the body warm.

As far as China people's habits are concerned, beginning of winter tonic is another internal tonic method. All hot foods such as angelica mutton pot, longan red jujube tea have the function of dispelling cold and strengthening yang, but people with hot constitution should try to avoid these foods to avoid getting angry and increasing the burden on their bodies.