Dry Air in Winter Making Your Skin Flaky and You Catching Cold After Cold? — Doctor Luo Dalun on Winter Dryness (Zao Xie): Moisturize and Protect Your Mouth and Nose

Search terms: dry indoor air in winter / winter dry flaky skin / catching colds all winter / winter dry cough / how to use a humidifier / elderly constipation in winter / dry nose in winter

Corresponding medical terms: dryness evil (zao xie) · fluid deficiency (jin ye bu zu) · lung yin deficiency · dry cough from yin deficiency · external contraction (wai gan)

Opening: everyone says “autumn dryness” — but winter dryness is actually worse

Hello, dear friends, good morning. Today we continue our voice chat on Chinese medicine — and the topic is dryness in winter.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: People say — isn’t dryness the dominant qi of autumn? True, autumn’s main qi is dryness. Note the word “main”: it is the principal one. But that does not mean other seasons have no dryness at all. Dryness is present at all times, and in winter especially, this dryness evil (zao xie) is actually very severe. Today I’ll explain why winter dryness is so fierce, and how to guard against it.

Why is winter so dry? Look at that frost pattern on the window

Winter dryness starts with the weather. When it is cold, water vapor condenses — which is why northern winters are so prone to “wind-dried, bone-dry” air.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I remember as a child in the northeast of China, every winter morning the windows were covered in a layer of frost patterns — beautiful, like frost crystallized on the glass. What happens? The water vapor in your room meets the cold window glass and condenses there. As it condenses, all the room’s vapor gets pulled onto the window — and gradually the room itself becomes dry. The same happens out in the world at large. So the climate makes winter wind-dried and bone-dry.

People feel it keenly: in the north, many people’s skin dries and flakes in winter, the whole body feels dry. And there is a very obvious telltale sign — static electricity.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In summer your clothes never give you static shocks; why does everything crackle and pop in winter? For a while I wore synthetic-fiber clothes, and at night with the lights off, taking off my sweater, I could see strings of sparks — that is friction-generated electricity from dryness: charge builds up, then discharges in an instant. That is the dryness the winter climate brings.

Turn on the heating, and the room dries like an oven

Winter dryness has a second cause — heating. One of the biggest features of a northern winter is indoor heating.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Once the heat is on, the room becomes extremely dry — every northerner knows this feeling. (In the northeast the heating is already on; Beijing will probably follow soon.) What is heating like? Underfloor heating, for instance, is like having an oven baking from beneath the floor — the air above gradually dries out more and more. Sprinkle a little water on the floor and it disappears in a moment — evaporated. So when winter heating comes on, many people feel the whole room is parched. That is when you need to take action.

The harm of dryness: fluids quietly drain away, and the elderly suffer first

What harm does dryness do to the body? The key is fluids (jin ye).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Normally our qi, blood, and fluids circulate smoothly inside the body. But if the outside environment becomes dry, it changes your internal environment too — because your body fluids are constantly being lost, evaporating out through sweat and the like, so the interior inevitably dries out. Then many people develop changes: some elderly people get severe constipation, because fluids suddenly drain away and jin ye become insufficient; many people get parched thirst — why? Lung yin deficiency; then dry coughs. The internal environment shifts with the external one, and at that moment outside pathogens find it very easy to invade.

The critical link: when mouth and nose go dry, pathogens march straight in

This is the point I must stress: in a dry environment, outside pathogens invade especially easily.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Pathogens usually enter through the mouth and nose. We breathe air; the air carries pollutants and pathogens — bacteria, viruses — traditional Chinese medicine calls them all wai xie (outside pathogens), and they enter through mouth and nose. Normally our mouth and nose are very moist: the mucous membranes stay active, the cilia move, and mucus traps pathogens and holds them there. The mouth has a microenvironment in balance with the outside world — when pathogens arrive, we can stop them at the gate. But if things become dry, the skin and mucous membranes dry out, no fluid is secreted, and pathogens march straight in — this is the most common thing in winter.

Many people have this winter experience: you feel inexplicably dry at night, and the next morning your throat is off — uncomfortable, then you start coughing, then you catch a cold.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why? Because overnight, breathing in and out, the pathogen marched straight into your body. It happens outdoors too — cold weather is one factor, dryness another. Normally your nasal passages have mucus and secretions — a normal microenvironment. Now everything is parched, and pathogens go straight through. That is why in winter people often feel “the wind enters my nose with nothing to stop it.” Under these conditions, the rate of winter colds is high.

Trick one: a humidifier — but change the water often, and use purified water

So what to do? Doctor Luo starts with small everyday methods. First: humidify the room.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In northern China, winter is especially dry, particularly indoors. What you need is a humidifier. Before I had one, I’d simply put a basin of water on the floor — but its effect is limited; at best it feels a bit more comfortable. I also suggest sprinkling a little water on the floor before bed — that helps some. But none of these works like a humidifier. A humidifier turns water into vapor and sprays it into the air, effectively changing the dryness of the room — very effective. Many humidifiers now have smart features: set the humidity level and it adjusts itself and stops automatically — it won’t pump moisture all night. In dry places, especially dry rooms, a humidifier is a good idea.

Two rules for using a humidifier:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: First, change the water often — do not let water that has been sitting for a week keep spraying out; the environment in that water may have changed. Second, use purified water: if you have a filter at home, put filtered water in; or buy bottled purified water and pour that in. You may say purified water is expensive — but this money is worth spending. Just as you drink clean water, a bottle of purified water sprayed into the air carries no pollution, and that is a benefit; tap water can carry pollutants, and spraying those into the air is not really good. That is my view.

No humidifier? Folk tricks work too

If you don’t have a humidifier, the folk methods are perfectly workable.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Besides the basin of water, you can wet a towel and lay it over the radiator to evaporate — these are the folk tricks, and I think they work. Also pay attention when you go out: because the air is so dry, you can wear a mask. What good does a mask do? It stops polluted air — or frigid air — from charging straight into your nose; and keeping the nose warm also helps keep it moist. So if your nose feels dry, put the mask on right away. It helps.

Food-based moisture: pear juice, tremella, Wu Mei Bai Tang, almond milk

That was about moistening the air. Diet can help too — eat things that are moistening.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Take pears: you can blend pear juice. Pear juice is cooling and moistening — give some to the elderly, give some to the children — as long as the spleen and stomach are not cold-deficient, a little pear juice keeps jin ye and body fluids sufficient. You can also use tremella (yin er) — it nourishes yin and moistens dryness. If you feel your body drying out, the Wu Mei Bai Tang (smoked plum and sugar soup) we’ve discussed before is good too: take a few smoked plums (wu mei) and boil them with sugar into a soup. What does it do? Sour-sweet generates yin (suan gan hua yin) — it engenders yin fluids, keeping the body’s jin ye abundant. When fluids are insufficient, pathogens invade easily; keep your internal fluids full, and you can actually resist all the disorders external dryness causes.

For elderly constipation in winter, use the “oily” route:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For the elderly, eat things with juice and oils — for example almonds, and drink some almond milk; oily nuts are good too. Because at this time dryness evil dries the stool, and many elderly people suffer from constipation; all sorts of oily, liquid foods can moisten the dryness.

A word for parents: blood streaks in the nose mean it’s too dry

Winter colds spike, and often dryness is pushing from behind.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What I’m sharing today may seem like a very small matter, but I want to tell you: in winter, many people catch colds precisely because dryness is present, and then pathogens march straight in — that is a big feature of winter. Especially in the north, when the indoor air is very dry, pathogens come especially easily. Your indoor temperature is high, outdoors is freezing — alternating cold and heat, plus dryness, disables your defense system, and that is when external contraction (wai gan) is most likely. So for parents: watch your children. If their nasal passages are dry — some children wake in the morning with blood streaks or crusts in the nose — that is very dry.

Make the room a moist environment:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Keep two pots of plants, some flowers — they all help moisten the room. All right? Though what I’ve said today is a small matter, don’t ignore it — because it affects your health through the whole winter. If you understand this principle, I’m sure you can think of many ways to moisten the air and keep a humid environment. That’s all for today. Thank you, and see you next time.

This article is compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s winter wellness lecture on the causes of winter dryness evil (zao xie) and how to moisturize and protect health — humidifiers, masks, pear juice, tremella, Wu Mei Bai Tang, and almond milk — keeping jin ye (body fluids) abundant so that outside pathogens have no opening to invade.

What to take away

Winter dryness is real and often overlooked — cold air condenses moisture out of the air, and indoor heating dries the room like an oven; the body’s fluids (jin ye) are quietly drained away.
The danger chain: dry mouth and nose → mucous membranes lose their secretions → cilia stop working, mucus can’t trap pathogens → outside pathogens (wai xie) march straight in → winter colds and coughs.
Moisten the room: a humidifier with purified water (changed often) works best; wet towel over the radiator, water sprinkled on the floor, and a couple of houseplants all help.
Protect the nose outdoors: wear a mask when your nose feels dry — it blocks cold, polluted air and keeps the nasal passages warm and moist.
Moisten from inside: pear juice, tremella, Wu Mei Bai Tang (sour-sweet generates yin), and oily foods like almonds for elderly constipation — keep jin ye abundant and pathogens have no opening.
Parents, check the nose: if a child wakes with blood streaks or crusts in the nose, the air is too dry — humidify the room.