September 22 is fast approaching, marking the autumnal equinox and the beginning of fall. The equinox is one of two times a year when there is an equal amount of daylight and night.
In nature, plants and animals use this time to balance and begin to store their energy in preparing for the longer nights and colder temperatures ahead. Trees, for example, return their leaves to the earth and focus on their roots, something we can emulate. It’s a good time to gear down, look inward, and let go of things that no longer serve us.
In many cultures, health practitioners see the fall as a great time to balance your lifestyle and prepare your immune system for the cold and flu season ahead. Read on for some professional advice about how to support your body and mind, as the universe entreats us to find equilibrium in the equinox.
Start with the harvest
“The biggest thing, nutritionally, is leaning more into what we’re harvesting at that time of the year, both for its nutritional quality, but also [for] energetic properties,” says Robyn Land, ND, owner of Local Health Integrative Clinic in Vancouver.
“When we look at things from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, which is part of our naturopathic scope of practice,” says Land, “as we go into the colder, wetter seasons, we need more of the root vegetables and the orange squashes. It’s this time of the year that we want to invite more of that grounding sense in.”
Orange foods are full of antioxidants like beta carotene and vitamin A, which are important for healthy skin, bones, lungs, and kidneys. Other beneficial nutrients for this time of year can be found in traditional autumnal foods of North American Indigenous Peoples, like cranberries, salmon, and mineral- and protein-rich wild game and bone broth.
Support your immune system
Ensuring that our immune systems are supported during this time of year is especially crucial in order to ward off seasonal cold and flu viruses. Nutrients, such as beta carotene, vitamins C and D, and zinc, along with probiotics and protein are all important for supporting immune health.
Keeping our gut flora in balance is also vital in keeping us from getting sick, says Land. “Probiotics can be incredibly helpful. [The] digestive tract is one of the first lines of [defence] in our immune system.”
The season of sleep
Less daylight and cooler temeratures nay also make the autumn a good time for improved sleep, which helps everything from our immune systems to our moods, according to Land.
With less daylight, we naturally produce more melatonin—the hormone that regulates our circadian rhythms and promotes sleep. Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in response to darkness.
Tart cherries are a natural source of melatonin, and early research shows that drinking tart cherry juice may raise the amount of melatonin in the body. It may also help people sleep more soundly and for longer.
“From a Chinese medicine perspective, ideally we need three hours between our last meal and when we go to sleep,” says Land. “This makes for optimal sleep function as well as optimal metabolic function.”
Self-care tips for autumnal mental health
Land’s holistic practice looks at the whole person, including their mental health. For mild seasonal depression, she recommends nurturing your soul, whatever that means to you. “I think that’s a really important question [to], as opposed to ‘what should I do to relax?’ Most people will think of reading a book, … taking a bath, or going for a walk in nature.”
“It doesn’t have to be big,” Land says, “but I think it’s healthy to lean a lot more into that energy of the autumn, of grounding, centring, hibernating, and nurturing yourself.”
Supplements for balance at the autumnlal equinox
Supplement
Benefit
vitamin D
may help with immunity, bone density, and nerve and muscle function
probiotics
can help with digestion and improve immune function
tart cherry juice
increases melatonon in the body and may help improve sleep
bone broth
contains small amounts of the amino acid glycine, which may promote relaxation and deeper, more restorative sleep
omega-3 fatty acids
may help improve sleep quality and improve gut health
antioxidants
support the immune system and help cells repair
melatonin
may help some people with sleep problems
Traditional Chinese medicine: finding balance in your body
Autumn is the time for letting go of uneeded things; and one prime example of how the body holds onto what is toxic is constipation.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) uses acupuncture, herbs, and dietary therapy to help improve digestion and the process of “letting go.” TCM practitioners utilize acupuncture points that have a descending action to help improve the circulation of qi and blood. TCM also addresses the lungs which may be damaged by the dry, cold air that comes with autumn and winter.
“It’s really about finding the balance,” says Land. “So if it’s cold outside, we want to make sure our bodies are warm. If it’s damp outside, we want to make sure there’s a quality of dryness or that we’re not perpetuating that dampness within us.”
Vitamin D is key
A key component of our immune systems, vitamin D is also important in other crucial roles, including bone density and nerve and muscle function.
Land recommends getting outside into the sunlight for at least 20 minutes a day, but that may not be enough to get your recommended dose of vitamin D, especially as we enter into autumn. Health Canada’s recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D is 600 IU per day for most adults, but has recently upped the maximum dose allowed for non-prescription oral vitamin D supplements to 2,500 IU per day to address deficiencies.
This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue of alive magazine.
