October 24th, 2011, "Hoar Frost", the 6th/last small Autumn season arrives

      In 2011, the season of "Hoar Frost" is arriving on October 24th. For most of the seasonal information please read this article.

      Here are some additional information:


      In this small season, people who have or had asthma need to be extra cautious. According TCM theory, asthma usually started from the cold-wind or hot-wind damage, if the patient was not treated correctly or in time, there will be cold left and hide inside of the body, and that is considered as the root of asthma. When temperature drops in this season, the cold air can “trigger” the asthma easily. Naturally, to prevent cold from harming the body energy is a must. For asthma patients, the major area to be protected is the upper back (lower neck and shoulder blades area). Make sure to adjust the clothes according to the weather so you don’t catch cold either. Meanwhile, to fully treat asthma, you also need to work on removing the internal cold from the body. So eat less or no cold food or drink, make sure drink more warm water. The lungs, spleen and kidney are the three organs that related to asthma, Chinese Yam, walnut and chestnut are the three major foods that nourish these three organs. Chinese yam can be steamed just like other vegetable and I’m sure you know how to eat walnut and chestnut. 

      Asthma is not the only issue that is caused by cold, so are many other common symptoms. I have mentioned in the past season that to “challenge” the cold in early fall is a good way to prepare yourself for the winter, this theory has expired in this season. If you have done that in the past seasons you have already done you job, if you have not then you need to be extra careful on add enough clothes. Also:

1.  Train and improve your immunity system by doing proper exercise such as walking, Tai Chi, yoga; 
2. Keep the internal warm by taking warm drink and food; 
3. Know the “vulnerable” body parts, which include feet, shoulders, belly, neck and knees, and keep them warm.

      Regarding food remedy, peanut is one of the great choices on warming up the stomach energy, when being used as remedy, they are better to be eaten with the red skin as it nourishes the blood and hair. But peanut is NOT recommend for people who

1. gets bruise and blood spots easy,
2. had partial or full gall bladder removal,
3. gets allergy from it.

      In traditional Chinese culture, autumn and winter are considered as seasons to “nourish” or “add”, meaning to eat nourishing food to store energy. “Hoar frost” is considered as one of the best small season to do so. People believe doing nourishing in this season is like building a strong foundation for winter nourishing, only if we have a solid foundation, can we do winter- nourishing and energy storing effectively. There are many foods we can choose from (see the linked article), but no matter what we choose, we must have a strong and healthy digestive system to process them. Again, back to the stomach-spleen system, there are many food remedies for the stomach-spleen system such as millet, barley, Chinese Yam, dates, string bean and beef. For this particular season, we also highly recommend Gordon Euryale Seed, as I mentioned earlier that we are in a transitional season between late autumn (stomach) and winter (kidney), and Gordon Euryale Seed nourishes both the stomach-spleen and the kidney system. Simply cook it as you do with oatmeal, but make sure to cook it long enough to make it “well done”. And as usual, even it is a good remedy for now, do NOT over eat, we recommend less than 50 gram per serve. Also, because it is somewhat puckery and has strong force of withdrawing, it is NOT recommended for people who is constipated and woman who just gave birth.