Wind: Internal or External?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the season of Winter is full of "Wind Invasion". What is this you ask? It is literally the wind from our environment invading our body, but it is also the invasion of foreign entities (viruses). 

"Wind" both viruses and the wind itself, like to stir things up in the body, activating the immune system responses but also the nervous system. Have you ever watched a sickness travel through the office, but not every person has the same symptoms? That's because wind will affect us differently based on our constitutional strengths and weaknesses. Some people won't ever get sick and that's because they have a strong Defensive Qi or energy.

Luckily, a lot of wind symptoms, both viral and environmental, will receive the same herbs to alleviate the invading winds. The question is, what type of wind invasion do you have?

Wind Heat
Wind Heat has a lot of your classic sickness symptoms:

• Fever
• Sore throat
• Sudden onset of symptoms
• Has signs of heat - redness, irritated, stimulated
• Green, yellow, or orange mucus

Suggested herbs for Wind Heat may include:

• Boneset
• Yarrow
• Elderflower, not berry
• Linden
• Honeysuckle
• Violet
• Elecampane

Wind Cold
Wind Cold is less common and difficult to identify:

• Slow progression of symptoms
• Sluggishness
• Drippy nose or sinus congestion
• Sensitive to cold
• Low appetite
• White or clear mucus

Suggested herbs for Wind Cold may include:

• Hyssop, not Anise Hyssop
• Ginger
• Cottonwood Bud
• Astragalus
• Elderberry, not flower
• Lomatium
• Culinary spices such as Thyme, Oregano, Sage, Rosemary

Wind Damp
Doesn't this sound contradicting? Wind Damp is essentially stagnation of fluids. The invading wind causes (usually) lymph to slow down or stop flowing:

• Damp can be paired with hot or cold symptoms
• Swelling of lymph nodes
• Congestion of sinuses or lungs
• Sinus pressure
• Lack of appetite due to lymphatic stagnation
• Excess mucus production

Suggested herbs for Wind Damp may include:

• Lymphatic or circulatory herbs
• Violet
• Elecampane
• Astragalus
• Heal All AKA Self Heal
• Cleavers
• Chickweed
• Pleurisy Root

There are many combinations of Wind that can happen in one body and more types than what has been listed, these 3 types of wind are simply the most common invasions seen during cold and flu season. For any type of wind invasion, the body will benefit from hot showers, staying hydrated with plenty of fluids and electrolytes, gentle exercise like walking, and plenty of sunshine, rest, and relaxation. Resting allows the body to do what it is designed to do, even if it is a 5-10 minute break from the day, it will help tremendously. We understand this doesn’t always seem possible because the kids need to play and someone needs to put food on the table, which is why it is important to remember that small breaks are powerful! Just a quick brain-break to reset the nervous system and then you can go back to being your super self!!

Herbs and health-related actions are always most affective if applied at the very first signs of sickness. The runny nose, sore throat, sudden change in digestion, but not everybody expresses sickness through the standard symptoms. Some of us may experience wind invasion through headaches, migraines, or auras, becoming suddenly irritable, anxious, nauseous, sluggish, or excited then sluggish. Some of us will have a change in stool – usually a case of diarrhea. Perhaps there is a loss of appetite or you simply have a day of feeling “off” and nothing seems to really go right for you.

Wind likes to stir things up, think of a wind storm blowing your patio furniture away. Wind can affect us in all sorts of different ways and the important note to take from this is being able to notice when our bodies feel off. Slowing down enough to do a mental scope of your body allows a person to gain an outsider’s perspective of oneself to understand that something has changed. Our bodies will tell us; we need to be able to listen and then we can take action.

Here’s where it gets confusing – wind can also be generated internally, sometimes this is helpful and sometimes it can be a problem. The liver is in charge of generating wind to create movement of energy within the body. This can be our fight or flight response to a situation, it can be a state of excitement and enthusiasm, and it can be presented as a handful many other bodily functions or feelings.

There are a handful of herbs to be suggested for internally generated wind and like any situation, you need to do some research to understand how it is affecting your body specifically in order to figure out which herb to choose. Many herbs for internally generated wind will fall under the nervine, circulatory, or blood-building category:

·         Skullcap

·         Wood Betony

·         Saint John’s Wort

·         California Poppy

·         Kava Kava

·         Dong Quai

·         Stoneroot

·         Milk Thistle

·         White Peony

·         Rehmannia

·         Stinging Nettle Leaf

·         These are just a few options; there are many more

Wind in the body, both internally generated and external, can cause situations such as feelings of nervousness or anxiety, muscle tension, muscle spasms or twitches, sudden changes in mood, changes is digestion or stool, increase or decrease of blood flow and/or pressure, as well as other sensations not described here. If you feel you fall under the opposite and none of this “wind business” fits your body, perhaps you may be experiencing a degree of dampness or stagnation.

We are all unique and have different needs as well as different layers of health. We were asked earlier this week “How do you know where to start (with addressing health concerns)?”, my response was to ask “What is your number one goal?”. Without friends that are full of herbal theory, it can be difficult to understand where to start when wanting to make changes. You must have a health goal in mind and try to dissect your body to pin point where the problem stems from, and then figure out what the layers are that must be removed in order to finally make that long awaited change.