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5 Fall Essentials To Increase Your Daily Comfort

By Chia Chia Cheng, L.Ac.

The weather has changed drastically. In order to keep yourself comfortable and healthy, keep these five fall essentials handy. They are economical to obtain and easy to use. Chances are you already have these five items in your closet and drawers.

1. microwaveable hot pack
2. scarf
3. vest
4. wool/pass the ankle socks
5. hot tea or coffee

It’s 46 degrees outside. The wind is blowing at 8-10 miles an hour. My son went on a bike ride. He was surprised how he couldn’t feel his hands after two minutes.

The first essential fall item is a hot pack. I prefer the microwaveable ones filled with flax and herbs. These provide moist heat and mold to your body. 

Unlike plug in heating pads, flax filled hot packs do not emit EMFs. Your body has its own electromagnetic field. An electrical device while plugged into an outlet emits an electrical field that doesn’t complement yours. A flax filled hot pack is wireless and made of organic materials. Just be sure to stand on the other side of the wall while the microwave is running.

The main complaint of using a microwaveable hot pack is that it loses heat too quickly. You can keep it warm for a longer time by placing a hand towel over it. For the neck and shoulder area place the hot pack under your clothing.

Use it to heat up the bed before you climb in. Place it on your belly or feet. Or better yet, directly behind your neck. Reducing muscle tension will help you relax into sleep. A hot pack on your chest can help you fall asleep easier. It relaxes the intercostal muscles of the ribs, where we often hold tension and chest breathe instead of belly breathe. 

A scarf has a dual purpose. It keeps the wind points near your neck and shoulders covered from the wind and contains your body heat . Your neck is like the rim of a mug filled with hot tea or coffee. A scarf is like a lid on a mug. Keeping a scarf around your neck keeps your body heat from escaping. 

A 2015 study on mice by Yale University concluded that the cold virus multiplies better in the nose at cooler temperatures. The cooler environment of the nose is more favorable than the warmer one of the lungs. Wearing a scarf around your neck keeps your overall body temperature higher, making it less favorable for the cold virus. It’s cold prevention with style!

The vest is a Chinese classic. Like any outdoor lover, the Chinese love wearing vests, too. A vest keeps the torso warm while allowing the underarms to vent. When the body spends less of its energy keeping itself warm, it can use this to keep the immune system strong. There’s also the added benefit of reducing muscle tension on the neck, shoulder and back muscles. 

If you wake up in the morning and notice your nose is either stuffed or a bit runny, put on a vest while you make your morning drink and brush your teeth. Wearing a vest for the first 10 minutes while you get going will decongest you and stop the sniffles. 

Before going outside put on wool socks or socks that go above the ankles. On those crisp mornings you lose a lot of heat in your ankles and legs. Most people still wear short socks. The same ones they wore in the summer! 

If you’re going on a walk, warm feet means better circulation, balance and proprioception. Warm feet provide immediate feedback of where your feet are in relationship to how you want to move, helping you move as one unit. This reduces your risk of spraining an ankle, twisting your back or falling. 

Warm feet also have less pain from the stiffness or arthritis.  If you wake up with stiffness in your feet or any where in your body, use a hot pack on it for 10-15 minutes before you start your day. This is particularily helpful for chronic plantar fasciaitis.

A hot morning drink not only gives you caffeine to jump start your day. It also gets the digestion going. If you don’t drink either coffee or tea, filtered or well water works, too! 

Everything is colder in the fall. If you experience a stomach ache, bloating or slow digestion, warming up your stomach before eating could be helpful to avoid these. The same goes for water. Heat it up for 30 seconds in the micro. If you leave water on the counter, its temperature is 60-68 degrees F depending on how warm you like to keep your house. Compare this to your stomach that is 98.6 degrees F on a good day.

These 5 Fall Essentials are likely already in your household. You just need to make use of them. So take the extra two minutes to heat up a hot pack or go back inside to grab a scarf. Not only do they help increase your daily comfort. Using these 5 things will help boost your immune system, too. 

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