How to Improve the Condition of Women with Cold Body Constitution
Women with cold body constitution can generally improve their condition through adjusting diet, maintaining daily warmth, adhering to moderate exercise, ensuring regular rest schedules, and utilizing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as an adjunct. Detailed explanations are as follows:
1. Adjust diet: Consume more warming ingredients such as lamb, ginger, red dates, longan, and yam. Use warming spices like pepper and chili in cooking. Avoid raw and cold foods, such as iced drinks, sashimi, and cold-natured fruits, to reduce the risk of chilling the stomach and spleen.
2. Maintain daily warmth: Focus on keeping areas prone to getting cold, such as the abdomen, waist, and feet, warm. Avoid clothing that exposes the navel or waist. Dress warmly in cold weather, and soak feet in warm water for 15–20 minutes before bedtime to promote lower limb blood circulation.
3. Engage in moderate exercise: Choose gentle activities such as brisk walking, yoga, tai chi, and Baduanjin (Eight Pieces of Brocade). Aim for 3–4 sessions weekly, each lasting about 30 minutes. Exercise promotes blood circulation, enhances organ function, and helps the body generate heat.
4. Maintain regular作息: Avoid staying up late, go to bed at a fixed time every day, and ensure 7–8 hours of sleep. Nighttime is crucial for yang energy conservation and body recovery. A regular作息 reduces yang energy consumption and alleviates symptoms of cold body constitution.
5. Use TCM adjunctive therapy: Under professional guidance, undergo moxibustion, cupping, or take warming yang herbal medicine. For moxibustion, select acupoints such as Guanyuan (CV4), Qihai (CV6), and Zusanli (ST36), using heat stimulation to unblock meridians and nourish yang energy.
Managing cold body constitution requires long-term persistence and should not be rushed. Pay attention to bodily responses in daily life; if symptoms do not improve after a period of management, promptly consult a healthcare professional.