6 NATURAL BODY-WARMING Strategies to Weather the Rest of Winter
@vitaliia
“Growing up in New York City, I was forever in parks and wind tunnels. My muscles were always so tense and my hands were so cold,” Amanda Chantal Bacon, the wellness guru and founder of Moon Juice. She has Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism, which she likely developed around puberty. “Bacon had an extreme solution. “I moved to California,” she says. “I really think that’s why I sought out a warm climate.” Short of geographic relocation, I’m determined to seek out natural, body-warming solutions to get me through winter. And, I discovered, there are many strategies. From visualization exercises to herbal tonics, here’s what can fire up a cold body.
In the battle over the thermostat, women often feel that they run colder than their male counterparts. Interestingly, women are five times more likely than men to develop hypothyroidism, a condition that affects about one in 20 Americans. Hashimoto’s is a common culprit and—like many autoimmune diseases—the causes of it are not completely known, says Cheryl R. Rosenfeld, D.O., FACE, a partner at North Jersey Endocrine Consultants and an adjunct clinical associate professor of medicine at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. The current hypothesis is that fluctuations in female hormones create inflammation, which can interfere with the normal functioning of the thyroid. These shifts occur at various “inflection points” in a woman’s life, says Dr. Rosenfeld, such as menopause, postpartum, and puberty—which is likely when I first developed Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism.
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Reach for spices—specifically ginger
To ramp up blood flow and warm the body, Shrankhla Holecek—the founder of the wellness line Uma who was raised on Ayurvedic remedies—says to eat “tons of spices, as much as you can tolerate.” Turmeric, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and ginger stimulate circulation, and Holecek recommends grating fresh ginger into my morning tea to “rekindle” my agni, or digestive fire. Kelsey Barrett, a clinical herbalist based in Mill Valley, CA, is fond of ginger in the form of hot herbal baths. For a healing fix, boil one cup of freshly grated ginger for 20 minutes and add to a hot bath, then soak for 20 to 30 minutes (drinking ginger tea, made by steeping a pinch of the shavings in a cup of hot water, can amplify the benefits, too, says Barrett). “Stay in the bath until you sweat, and repeat,” she says. “It can really move cold out of the system.”
Activate energy points and warm your core
In traditional Chinese medicine, moxibustion treatments—which involve applying heated, compressed herbs to acupuncture points—can ultimately trigger body heat, explains Sandra Lanshin Chui, the herbalist, acupuncturist, and founder of Treatment by Lanshin in Brooklyn. Regular sessions can make a profound difference, she says. Another tip: “Wear a belly warmer like the Japanese-style haramakis from Nuku Nuku,” she says. The thermal bands “help protect and maintain your core heat,” says Chiu.
Tune into breathing and bio-dot sensors
Autogenic training, a mind-body technique often used to balance the nervous system, can also help raise body temperature, says Monique Class, MS, APRN, BC, a nurse practitioner at The Center for Functional Medicine in Stamford, CT. Stress causes body temperature to plummet, so by “training” the body—with verbal commands (like “my arm is getting heavy”) and visual cues (“I’m holding a hot cup of coffee”)—you can increase blood flow, relax breathing and bring about physiological changes, she explains. Wearing bio-dots sensors (stickers that change color depending on your body temperature) can help you track when to tap into this technique.
Start drinking beet juice
Spike your green juice with beets, says Class. The root vegetable is rich in nitrates, natural compounds that convert into nitric acid in the blood, which can help widen and relax blood vessels to increase blood flow—warming you in the process. If beets aren’t on the menu at your local juicer, consider a powder supplement, like Dope Naturally’s Energize Me, with organic beetroot.
Take alpine clothing to the next level
There’s no shortage of bio-warming, insulated thermal clothing (from brands like Uniqlo to REI), but you can go one step further with options meant for tundra-like conditions: The Vermont Country Store has wool shearling inserts for boots and heated herbal neck wraps, while the Warming Store (yes, such a thing exists!) sells everything insulated, like gloves and jackets that can be hooked up to a 5-volt battery pack and dialed up or down in heat (the Cadillac of cold-weather gear).
Wind down on a biomat
Bacon, for her part, takes comfort in social activities that “make me feel better,” she says. That often means inviting friends over for warm beverages and hanging out on her biomat: a pad lined with amethyst quartz that naturally conducts far infrared light waves to radiate heat and warm the body from the inside out. Sounds like heaven—here’s hoping that biomat partying becomes a thing.
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