For farmers the world over, spring is the season when everything starts to grow; summer is the season of rapid growth and maturing; autumn is for harvest, and winter is the time to store.

This is not only true for farming, but also for the changing conditions and energy balance of the human body. There are TCM therapies for all seasons to treat ailments and keep you healthy.

Winter, the season for storing energy, is the best time for jin bu, or reinforcing therapy in the form of gao fang, an herbal paste taken orally once a day to help you store energy. Take a teaspoonful in hot water before breakfast.

There's an old TCM saying: "If you get good gao fang in winter, you can kill tiger in spring."

Gao fang is not a cure, but it can strengthen the immune system and help those with chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure; it can make regularly prescribed medicine work more effectively, but it is not a substitute.

Gao fang is prescribed and compounded to suit individual types of constitution - hot, cold and neutral, according to the dominant yang or yin energy. Thus there are hot, cold and neutral people - most healthy people are neutral.

Cold people feel cold and catch cold easily. They have loose bowels especially after having cold food or drink; they usually have pale tongues.

Hot people get hot easily and often feel thirsty. They often suffer from ulcers in the mouth and from constipation; they usually have red tongues.

"One man's meat is another one's poison. It is also true in TCM," says Dr Zhou Duan, director of the TCM Internal Medicine Department of Longhua Hospital attached to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He emphasizes the importance of identifying the patient's constitution.

Cold people can't take cold yin herbs, while hot people can't take hot yang herbs.

Take ginseng for example. Red ginseng, American ginseng, and white ginseng can all reinforce energy, yet they have different characteristics. Red ginseng is hot, American ginseng is cold, while white ginseng is neutral.

People of cold constitution can only have hot red ginseng and neutral white ginseng; people of hot constitution can only take cold American ginseng and neutral white ginseng; people of neutral constitution can take any of the three.

Even the sweetener added to the paste must accord with the patient's constitution. Brown sugar is for "hot" patients, while honey is for "cold" ones.

"Paste can help medicine take effect better, but can't replace medicine," stresses Dr Zhou.

In addition, there are reinforcing foods that are especially good in winter and recipes you can prepare, such as walnut pancakes and soup made with mutton, ginger and Chinese angelica root. Jujube (Chinese dates), gouqi berries and prepared ejiao and guiling jelly are recommended. Dog meat is often eaten in winter because it is "hot."

According to TCM theory about the correspondence between human beings and the universe, at this time of year the body shifts into a relatively stable condition and is ready to store energy for the entire winter.