Women's Health Collective: Winter Readiness

(music) (music) (music) Collective, and because it's getting cold out we thought it would be we would talk about moisturizing your body, first we'd like to talk about why we think it's important to winterize your body and briefly go over some of the environmental changes that could help and then talk about personal changes or things that we we can do with our own body including nutrition, herbs vitamins, liquids, skincare, exercise and proper We want you all to remember that everyone has a different lifestyle and these are just some ideas of things that we've read about, talked to other people or feel that they are useful for us and we'd like to share them with you. We are not Just some suggestions. Why we feel it's important to winterize

Well, the whole concept came to me when I caught my first cold in the season and why do we catch these colds and it's a way of my body telling me I haven't been paying attention to the elements maybe I got a chill, I went swimming in the jacks fork river two weeks ago and it wasn't eighty five degrees out; it was only about sixty degrees, so there are certain preventive measures that i need to start thinking about that'll help you stay healthy and robust for confirming the colder out there. It can be a friend instead of an enemy What do you think Melisa? - I know when it starts to get cold I stay in doors if i know that i'm protected or have Colds or just from feeling cold nature ignored by all the sudden

I stop doing certain things because it's cold out. - And one thing you said that was particularly important. a lot of people have a sedentary lifestyle in wintertime. There's less baseball less Frisbee, less bike riding. But it doesn't have to be so. There's a lot one can do with your body outside to appreciate the cold and the brisk air and that those activities such as playing soccer which you wouldn't think of doing in the hot hot summer areas around us, so exercise is something to make sure we get a lot of in winter to avoid the trend to sit in the house and stay warm We could be warm by moving ourselves outside too. - Ok. Before we talk about outside Let's switch to inside and what we can do with out homes to make them more comfortable and warmer...one of the basic things is to caulk or put weather stripping or just cloth in all the cracks we have indoors to prevent heat from escaping and cold air from coming in another idea was putting newspapers under rugs to help insulate the cold air -the cold drafts from the basement, mhm. - Another good idea

Sue had was to have a lot of indoor plants. The more indoor plants, the moisture is produced and we all know that when the air is heated, it gets dry -And we lose humidity in the Missouri area, in winter time and skin starts drying -The more moisture we can produce, the better it will be for the air and for our throats and lungs we don't want to talk too much about the environment but we that we'd be able to tell you that the county energy project is here in Columbia and they have a lot of information on ideas for retrofitting insulation, weatherization and other energy savers... - And lots of good books. - Good books, right and people that can come and help you weatherize you, practical suggestions. - Perhaps you've heard of a house doctor. Well, this is a different kind of diagnosis, but they can tell you how to make your house tight and energy saving and warm for you in winter. - It can also be more economical, with high energy bills. - And so that's the

county energy project at 811 Cherry St. -Room 318. Give em' a call. Look them up in the phone book. County energy project. - Ok. What are some of the, uh, different food that we could eat that might help our bodies in the winter? - Well everyone starts thinking about oatmeal and warm grains, like buckwheat groats in the wintertime we start thinking about baked potatoes and hot soups and consuming a lot more warm and hot foods that also served to keep us warm as we metabolize these sorts of foods through the day. Also it's important to get plenty of vitamin c in the winter. Fresh fruits and vegetables aren't as easy to come by with a winter crop so drink more orange juice. Eat more fresh oranges and you might even think about taking vitamin c supplements as preventive for avoiding colds that winter brings on so often. In other

words, preventing a cold is the best cure. A lot of people have asked, what kind of vitamin c supplements should I take? And I just wanted to pass on a small hint about when you're purchasing vitamins at the store. It's best to purchase vitamin c from acerolla. Acerolla source natural, of natural vitamin c contains bio flavornoids, which helps you assimilate the vitamin into your system. A lot of the inexpensive cheaper vitamins contain binders like acetone which might not be that good for your system so that's the basic difference between natural vitamins like acerolla or rosehips and synthetic vitamins. You pay more for the natural vitamins but one source did say natural vitamins had the bio flavornoids, so think about that. Or, if you buy the synthetic vitamins eat an orange along with taking your vitamin supplement if the orange contains bio flavornoids and so do green peppers and other green sources of vitamin c. If you have problems with

kidney stones, however, it's not a good idea to take in large amounts of vitamin c so we're recommending, for preventive measures, take about two hundred fifty to five hundred milligrams of vitamin c once a day to prevent colds, and if you feel a cold coming on, it like a good idea to take about five hundred milligrams of vitamin c supplements four times a day. What else can help you prevent a cold? What other foods might be good to concentrate on in winter time? Well, leeks, onions, radishes and garlic all contained inside of them a component known as alatin. Alatin is an anti bacterial agent. It helps fight against strep, staff, pneumonia and chloroform type bacteria, so it might be an old wives tale but it has some scientific base today that's a good bowl of onions soup or plenty of garlic in your burritos will help you fight off bacterial infections which are the common colds.

What do you eat a lot more of in winter time? -Well for breakfast, I try and have cream of wheat - I always feel full. - Mhm. You feel full. It seems a lot better than running around hungry especially when your body is trying to produce heat to keep you warm. Partially due my over intake of dairy products. agents yeah cheeses and milk and those sort of things. Vegetables, fruit and grains. Um imagine

A macrobiotic teacher in Boulder, CO writes an article for a certain newsletter that comes out in terms of the health care field and her suggestion for grains was to eat plenty of buckwheat in winter time because this is one of the most warming grains you could put into your body. In other words it'll produce a lot of heat and keep it feeling warm from an internal source in winter time. So we also have to think about skin care. We have to think about what kinds of lotions will be best for rubbing on our face and rubbing on our hands; don't have a lot of artificial ingredients and chemical that are not good for us, and Melissa has a homemade recipe with some good skincare products, so grab a pencil and here she goes. - Ok, so this is taken from the holistic health handbook, which was compiled by the Berkeley holistic health center if anyone is interested in getting your own copy. The section is entitled "lotions and creams", and it's

written that a long time ago when cosmetics truly were cosmios tools for restoring harmony to the body, creams and lotions were created as skin foods. Made with fruits, vegetables, aromatic herbs and fruit oils, they provided the skin with external nourishment. I think that's a very interesting concept because we are, I know i don't think of lotion as a food for my skin, I just think of it as a surface rather than a food and nourishment as the idea of entering internally to make a change I think that's a very good idea to look at lotion as a food. The basic recipe they give for skin food is one that can be varied, but I will give you the basic recipe and then from there, you can use your own ideas for whatever is your favorite flavor or scent The basic recipe is one part lanolin, one part coconut oil, one part aloe vera gel and vitamin E oil,

which contains ten thousand international units per cup of lotion. Now to prepared this food, you melt the lanolin and the coconut oil together. Once they are together and heated, you remove and beat in the aloe vera and Vitamin E (Music) I was talking to a friend of mine about what she does in preparing for

winter and she said she loves to take more hot tubs and sauna because she prefers to clean her system from the inside out and be ready to have a good warm glow in coming outside after indulging in a hot tub or sauna. A good hot bath is good for that also. But the reason many people many the finns where saunas have their origin from, would take saunas is because it's a dry heat it allows your skin to sweat as opposed to sitting in a hot bath and that allows your skin to cleanse, so a good sauna and application of your own homemade nurturing skin food might sound like a wonderful way to indulge yourself on a weekend and perhaps before your sauna. you might want to get a lot of exercise. Remember we have to keep our circulation going strong to keep our fingers and our toes warm in winter time. What kind of exercise is good is good in winter time? Well I personally like to bicycle. - When you first get out there it's really cold, make sure you have

so we're talking about some calisthenics and aerobic exercises but in addition to all of these you can think about stretching or yoga because yoga increases your heart rate also, it increases your circulation and yoga and these other exercises Melissa was talking about also affect the limph system. Many people don't know what the limph system is another circulatory pathway in the body and it carries a lot of lymphocytes which are white blood and

helps the white blood cells deal with disease and helps knock out any kind of foreign bodies and bacterial agents virus producing or cold producing trends in your body. So yoga or aerobic exercises or stretching, going out and dancing, just jumping for joy (laughs) any of this in addition to plenty of warm liquids which we'll go into last, as well as keeping your body clean, keeping your skin moist in dry winter thinking about good food, will all help you feel healthy and robust for dealing with the Zephyrus, the north wind. Several of the - People I talked with when I asked, "Well, how do you prepare for winter?" The first reaction was clothing, warm clothing. Getting out their sweaters and winter coats and that's very important, especially, even if you are just going out for a walk You should have something to cover your head and ears and shoulders because almost 50% of energy loss from your body is through your head and shoulders. And when you think about shoes and gloves and coats, but hats and scarves are the last thing you think about. They tend to be the most important. 50% is a lot of energy. That's something to remember when you are getting dresses to go outside.

and wool is an excellent fabric and excellent natural material to clothe your body with in winter time because even wool gets and think about

about good liquids to warm you quick and to hold, a good warm cup of something in between your fingertips is one nice way to thaw our chilly hands. Hot apple cider is excellent in winter time. Gives you quick energy. Fruit and sugar, put some cinnamon in there. Hot peppermint tea is great, it also is real good aromatic blend to deal with any kind of sniffles. A lot of people drink more coffee in winter. However, coffee in the long run is a vase-dilator. It will open up your surface skin vessels and cool you down so you might think you're getting warmed up by drinking a hot cup of coffee but if you're about to go out or you're going to tackle the cold coffee in the long run isn't the best warm liquid to have in your system. One other point I wanted to bring up was hot chocolate. Hot chocolate has got to be one of the most favorite beverages in winter time. Begin to read labels. If you buy the commercial brands of hot chocolate, you'll see there's a BHA, BHT artificial flavor,

artificial colors, all kinds of stuff we do not need. It's just no redeeming value. If you want to drink hot chocolate, think about making it from scratch at home. Think about buying Hershey's cocoa, reading the label, it will give you a recipe for a fantastic cup, or better yet, think about the prospects of making hot carab, which is a very similar to chocolate. (Music) Stay healthy Stay hearty, and stay warm this winter time, and do you think about calling Melissa on behalf of the women's health collective and she will put you in touch with our activities and describe more fully what we do. One thing we're going to be doing next month is taking a hot tub together If you're interested in the women's health collective, we'd love to have you.

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