5 Ways to Protect Only Your Stomach in Air-Conditioned Rooms

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Hello everyone. This is Yuyu Kampo.

As July draws to a close, the days continue where we cannot live without air conditioning. Whether at work, on the train, or entering a shop, it has become normal to have cool air. In this heat, air conditioning is not something to endure. I believe it is something that should be used properly.

However, while enjoying the benefits of the coolness, many people find that only their stomach feels cold. In this season, there are many people like that.

In Oriental medicine, the function of digesting food and turning it into the body's energy is called "Hii" (spleen and stomach). It is easier to imagine it as a small "hearth" inside your stomach. The wind from the air conditioner and cold drinks gradually weaken the fire of that hearth.

So today, I will introduce five ways to protect only your stomach without turning off the air conditioning. All of them can be started today, and you hardly need any special tools.

Tip 1: Keep your stomach out of the path of the wind

The place that gets the coldest from air conditioning is not the room with the lowest setting. It is the place where the wind is hitting directly.

Even in a room at 26 degrees, the amount of heat lost by someone sitting directly under the vent all day is completely different from someone in the corner of the room. First, please check if your seat is in the "path of the wind."

If you can choose your seat, avoid the front and directly under the vent. If the seat cannot be moved, even adjusting the wind direction flap slightly upward makes a difference. Cold air naturally descends, so sending it along the ceiling reduces the direct hit to your body.

Another method is to run a fan or circulator on a low setting to mix the air. When the room temperature is uniform, you don't have to lower the setting temperature too much.

It is not about the temperature number, but whether the wind is hitting you. The latter is what affects your stomach.

Tip 2: Add one layer to your stomach and ankles

It is believed that cold enters from your feet and stomach. Just adding one layer to these two places makes a big difference in the heat escaping from your body.

A thin belly warmer is easy, but if you are resistant to that, wrapping a stole around your waist or pulling a lap blanket up to your stomach is fine. For your ankles, add a pair of socks. If you stay in an air-conditioned room all day in sandals with bare feet, your ankles will quietly get cold.

The important thing is to keep it in a form that you can continue. If you think "should I bring it today?" every morning, there will be days you forget. Leave one at work. Keep one in the car. It works better to protect yourself with a system rather than willpower.

Tip 3: Don't stop drinking cold drinks, but change "how you drink them"

This is a point I want to convey clearly.

You don't have to give up enjoying cold things in the summer. A health regimen that cuts out all enjoyment won't last, and restricting fluids in this heat is actually dangerous.

What you should change is not the amount, but how you drink.

The first way is not to gulp it down all at once. Even with the same glass, the intensity of the cold reaching your stomach changes depending on whether you chug it down in one breath or sip it little by little.

The second way is to use one less ice cube. Or, take it out of the refrigerator and let it sit for a while before drinking. It is only a difference of a few degrees, but if you have many glasses a day, the cumulative effect is significant.

The third way is to have only the first glass at room temperature. If you can make that first glass—the one you drink most eagerly when you get home thirsty—room temperature, that alone will significantly reduce the amount of cold water hitting your stomach.

Don't think of it as deprivation; just change the order and speed. That approach is more likely to last until the end of summer.

Tip 4: Have a warm soup once a day

When you spend the day in an air-conditioned room, your body is constantly being cooled from the outside. That is why you should create a time to warm it from the inside at least once.

Miso soup, broth, or clear soup—it doesn't matter. Morning or night—it doesn't matter. Just once a day, let something warm pass slowly through your stomach. That is all.

If you have a habit of using ginger as a condiment, try moving it to this warm soup instead of your cold noodles. Even with the same ingredient, if you consume it with something cold, the benefit of the warmth is canceled out.

Ending the day by eating only cold noodles in an air-conditioned room. Try to reduce the number of days you do that per week. That level of awareness is enough.

Tip 5: Make time to soak in the bathtub at night

In the summer, it is easy to just settle for a shower. A shower makes you feel refreshed, and I often hear people say they don't feel like getting in a bathtub on a hot day.

However, the more time you spend in an air-conditioned room, the more your body holds onto coldness inside. A shower washes away sweat on the surface, but it doesn't reach that deep-seated cold.

You don't need to soak in hot water for a long time. Just lukewarm water for a short time. Even then, you can feel the tension in your stomach and lower back melting away.

It doesn't have to be every day. Try to make time to soak in the tub two or three days a week. That alone will change how your body feels throughout the week.

You don't have to do all five

I have listed five things here, but if you try to do them all, you usually won't keep it up.

If you want to choose just one, try thinking about it based on these guidelines.

• If you are bothered by strong air conditioning at work or on the train → Tip 1 and Tip 2

• If you are aware that you drink cold beverages often → Tip 3

• If your appetite has dropped and you only choose cold foods → Tip 4

• If you feel like your body is stiff at the end of the day → Tip 5

Self-care is not a competition for points. If you can keep up one practice for a week, that is the right approach for you.

Even so, if your stomach condition does not improve

When things do not change even after trying various tips, Kampo is another option.

For a stomach that has become sluggish due to cold, Kampo considers the approach of "not cooling it down, and warming it up." Ninjin-to is a formula aimed at warming a cold, weakened stomach from the inside, and it is a formula that is often mentioned when discussing gastrointestinal distress after consuming too many cold things.

*Kampo medicines vary from person to person depending on their constitution (sho) and symptoms. To choose the right Kampo medicine for yourself, please do not rely on self-judgment and be sure to consult a pharmacist or doctor who is knowledgeable about Kampo.

And there is one more thing I would like to tell you.

If you experience any of the following, please consult a medical institution before considering self-care or Kampo.

• You are losing weight

• You have had no appetite for several weeks or more

• There is blood in your stool, or you are passing blackish stools

• You have severe abdominal pain

• You have a fever

Do not explain away all summer ailments as just "summer fatigue" or "coldness." That, too, is an important part of self-care.

Today's small act of self-care: Leave one item out for your future self tomorrow

Today's step is completed tonight.

Tomorrow, please leave just one item in a place where you will be sitting for a long time. Keep one belly warmer in your desk drawer at work. Keep one shawl on the back of your chair. That is all.

Your self tomorrow morning will be busy getting ready in the heat and will not be thinking about keeping your stomach warm. If you leave it out tonight, your future self will not have to make any decisions.

The difference between those who continue their health regimen and those who don't is not the strength of their willpower, but the presence or absence of these small systems.

Tomorrow, I will deliver a definitive guide that summarizes everything we've discussed this week regarding summer chills and gastrointestinal health.

May your daily life be even a little more energetic and comfortable.

Yuyu Kampo

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