Spring Health Tips: Remember the "5 Do's and 5 Don'ts"
Introduction: In spring, a person's liver qi can easily become excessive, which adversely affects the spleen and stomach. At the same time, spring is the season when yang energy begins to flourish, and various germs and microbes multiply and revive, making diseases prone to spread. Therefore, it is essential to focus on health preservation in spring. Today, we offer some suggestions: you must remember the "five do's and five don'ts" for spring health.
Five Do's for Spring Health
1. Do regulate your emotions and boost your spirit
Spring is sunny and pleasant. The elderly should not sleep alone or sit idly, as this can lead to melancholy. One should maintain an open mind, be optimistic, and avoid depression and anger to cultivate one's temperament. The best way to improve negative emotions is to cultivate a love for life and nature. You can go out with friends and family to enjoy the spring scenery, climb mountains, play by the water, or take walks and practice exercises to cultivate your character, which will regulate qi and blood and boost your spirit.
2. Do maintain a regular routine and guard against wind and cold
In spring, it is advisable to sleep late and wake up early, and to spend more time outdoors to stretch your body, making you more energetic throughout the day. The morning air is fresh, which helps expel harmful substances accumulated in the respiratory tract during the night and promotes metabolism. However, it is worth noting that due to the decline in organ function in the elderly, one should not get up immediately after waking. Because the ligaments of the elderly are relatively loose, a sudden change from a lying to a standing position can easily cause sprains to the waist and back and may also affect the nervous system. For those with high blood pressure or heart disease, a sudden change in posture could lead to accidents. After waking up, the elderly can stretch in bed, move their limbs and joints, and rest in bed for a while before getting up. Additionally, in early spring, the temperature is unpredictable, like a child's face, changing in a moment, with cold snaps often occurring. Therefore, one should not be careless with clothing (see "First Don't").
3. Do eat in moderation and nourish yang energy
As human metabolism speeds up in spring and nutritional consumption increases accordingly, the diet should be sweet and warm, rich in nutrition, with the principle of strengthening the spleen and supporting yang. Avoid overly astringent foods; prefer light and palatable dishes, and avoid greasy, raw, and cold foods. It is especially not advisable to consume large amounts of pungent and hot substances, such as ginseng and strong liquor, to prevent generating excessive heat and fire. One should choose foods that are both uplifting and nutritious, such as soybean sprouts, mung bean sprouts, tofu, fermented soybeans, barley, wheat, red dates, lean meat, fish, eggs, peanuts, black sesame, citrus fruits, green onions, ginger, garlic, coriander, and honey. Due to the scarcity of fresh vegetables in winter, which can lead to insufficient vitamin intake, one should eat more fresh vegetables in spring, such as spring bamboo shoots, spring leeks, rapeseed, spinach, celery, shepherd's purse, Malan vegetable, wolfberry, and toon.
4. Do strengthen the body and build physical fitness
The fresh air in spring is most conducive to expelling the old and taking in the new, nourishing the internal organs. Exercising more in spring will enhance immunity and disease resistance, reducing the incidence of various illnesses like the flu throughout the year, and it also sharpens the mind and reduces fatigue. People can choose outdoor activities according to their age and physical condition. The amount of exercise should not be too strenuous to avoid excessive sweating, which can damage yang energy. The appropriate level is feeling energetic, relaxed, and comfortable after exercise. Generally, simple and easy activities can be chosen, such as Tai Chi, walking, jogging, spring outings, flying kites, and playing on swings.
5. Do focus on health preservation and prevent diseases
In addition to paying attention to diet and daily routine, one must also prevent various diseases in spring. Because spring is a time of alternating warm and cold, with a changeable climate, bacteria and viruses can easily breed and spread, leading to diseases like the flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, cerebrospinal meningitis, scarlet fever, mumps, and viral myocarditis. Therefore, it is essential to maintain good hygiene, wash and sun-dry clothes and bedding, eliminate pests, ventilate rooms, improve defense capabilities, and avoid crowded public places during epidemics to prevent infection.
Five Don'ts for Spring Health
1. Don't reduce clothing abruptly
Throughout history, those skilled in health preservation have attached great importance to the principle of "spring wrapping" (chun wu). There are sayings like "Don't pack away your cotton clothes in the second month, as there may still be pear blossom snow in the third," and "Only after the Dragon Boat Festival can you put away your cotton clothes." In early spring, the temperature fluctuates between cold and warm, and the weather is unpredictable. Clothes should not be reduced abruptly. Taking off winter clothes too early can easily lead to colds and lung damage, causing respiratory diseases. Sudden cold can also cause blood vessels to spasm, increase blood viscosity, slow blood flow, and lead to organ ischemia, thus providing an opportunity for colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, arthritis, migraines, coronary heart disease, and other ailments to occur. Furthermore, bedding should not be thinned too quickly to follow the principle of "spring wrapping."
2. Don't indulge in spring drowsiness
"Spring sleepiness, autumn fatigue" is a common saying. People tend to feel drowsy in spring, and some elderly people have the habit of sleeping in. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that lying in bed for too long damages qi. Excessive sleep can make a person ill even if they were not sick before. Because prolonged lying down can slow down metabolism and impede the smooth flow of qi and blood. The air in spring is very fresh; the elderly should go out to participate in fitness activities to align their bodies with the vibrant energy of the season, thereby avoiding a state of excessive drowsiness.
3. Don't eat indiscriminately
The diet in early spring should focus on high-calorie foods. The elderly should pay attention to eating more nutritious, easily digestible, and light foods, and avoid or minimize raw and cold foods to prevent stimulating the gastrointestinal tract and causing diseases. For those with a cold stomach, drinking ginger and brown sugar water in the morning and evening has a dual effect of warming the stomach to ward off cold and preventing colds.
4. Don't let your emotions become imbalanced
In "Dream of the Red Chamber," there is a scene where Daiyu buries fallen flowers. In life, when the elderly see spring flowers and warm sun, they may also develop sentimental feelings, especially elderly people living alone, who are more likely to dwell on memories of the past. This is very detrimental to health preservation. Once emotions become imbalanced, external evils can take advantage of the weakness and cause physical ailments. Therefore, in spring, the elderly should focus more on the beauty of life and keep their spirits high.
5. Don't overexert yourself
Spring is a season with many infectious diseases. The elderly have weaker immunity and are therefore more susceptible to infection. If they overexert themselves or frequently visit crowded public places like shopping malls and cinemas, they are more likely to be infected by bacteria and viruses when their bodies are tired, leading to respiratory and other infectious diseases. Therefore, the elderly should pay attention to balancing work and rest and engage in moderate activities.