Spring Health Preservation methods

Spring refers to the period from the Start of Spring to the Start of Summer, including six solar terms: Start of Spring, Rain Water, Awakening of Insects, Spring Equinox, Qingming and Grain Rain. Spring is the first of the four seasons and the beginning of the renewal of all things. Just as the "Huangdi Neijing" states: "In the three months of spring, this is called the emergence and renewal." Heaven and earth are born together, and all things thrive. It means that when spring returns to the earth, the ice and snow have melted, the Yang energy in nature begins to rise, all things come back to life, willow branches turn green, and all things in the world present a thriving scene. "Man and the earth are in harmony." At this time, the Yang energy in the human body also conforms to nature, spreading upwards and outward. Therefore, in spring, health preservation must grasp the characteristics of the rising and smooth energy of the spring season, pay attention to protecting the body's Yang energy, and keep it constantly abundant and gradually vigorous. Any situation that depletes or hinders Yang energy should be avoided. This principle of health preservation should be specifically integrated into all aspects such as diet, exercise, daily routine, disease prevention, and mental state. How can one nourish the Yang energy in spring? The Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor once clearly states: "The evil wind that can cause illness should be avoided at the right time." This means that for the wind evil that can cause illness, it is necessary to avoid it in time. This is especially important in spring. The reason is that spring is the dominant season of wind. Although wind evil exists throughout the year, it mainly occurs in spring. The surface of the Earth is uneven and uneven in temperature, thus giving rise to the wind that comes and goes in a hurry. The wind is both the messenger of green and the culprit of fallen leaves. Throughout history, it has been bestowing blessings and misfortunes upon humanity with two masks: gentle and kind, and violent and ferocious. Wind pathogen can either act as a pathogenic factor alone or often coexist with other pathogenic factors to cause illness. Therefore, there are many types of wind diseases and their lesions are complex. Thus, the "Huangdi Neijing" states: "Wind is the chief of all diseases," indicating that among the numerous external pathogenic factors that cause diseases, wind pathogen is the main pathogenic factor. Medical meteorology tells us that when strong winds howl, the noise of air collision and friction makes people feel irritable and uncomfortable, especially when sometimes the sound of strong winds is too low, even reaching the standard of "infrasound". Scientists have discovered that infrasound is a lethal sound wave. It can directly affect the human nervous system, causing headaches, nausea, irritability, and even death. In addition, strong winds often cause a significant reduction in the "vitamin" in the air - negative oxygen ions, leading to changes in the chemical processes in the bodies of those who are sensitive to weather changes. As a result, a large amount of serotonin begins to be secreted in the blood, making people feel nervous tension, depression and fatigue, and can also cause an excessive burden on the thyroid gland in some people. Moreover, strong winds cause intense evaporation from the ground surface, driving away a large amount of water vapor and greatly reducing the air humidity. This can lead to dry lips, dry nasal mucosa, reduced elasticity, and the appearance of tiny fissures, thereby lowering the disease prevention function. This allows many bacteria to take advantage of the situation and invade, leading to the occurrence of respiratory diseases, such as bronchitis, influenza, tuberculosis and many other diseases. This is often the result of "wind boosting illness". Therefore, the "Huangdi Neijing" also states: "Wind is the origin of all diseases," meaning that the occurrence of many diseases is often related to wind pathogen. According to traditional Chinese medicine, when wind pathogen invades the human body, the following pathological changes can occur: First, it can harm the upper part of the body: such as the common symptoms in colds and flu, such as headache, nasal obstruction, excessive nasal discharge, and itchy and painful throat; In terms of feng shui, at the beginning, eyelid edema is also more common. This is due to the confrontation between wind pathogen and water phase, and the wind nature is upward. The reason why colds and flu often present symptoms such as headache, aversion to wind and chills is that the lungs have been invaded and wind pathogen is on the surface. Because wind pathogen often invades the human body from the outside, the lungs and skin are the first to be affected. Especially when the evil wind cannot be avoided or when sweating occurs due to the wind, 腠理 opens, and the wind pathogen takes advantage of the weakness to invade, often leading to poor lung qi, unstable defensive qi, and disharmony between ying and wei, presenting symptoms such as fever, aversion to wind, coughing, and sweating. Second, the range of lesions is wide: According to traditional Chinese medicine, wind pathogen has a variable and unpredictable nature, often moving up and down, so the range of lesions is relatively wide. On the surface, it can remain in the skin and hair or muscle 腠理, or wander in the meridians. Going against the top can lead you directly to the summit. If it invades the lower parts, it can affect the waist, knees, tibia, fibula and other areas. Such rapid and ever-changing impacts are also not uncommon in clinical practice. For instance, rubella on the skin can develop rapidly and spread all over the body within minutes, causing unbearable itching. But sometimes they leave quickly, retreating at any moment, and often leave no trace at all. As for conditions such as "wind-induced arthralgia" and "moving-induced arthralgia", it is common to see migratory redness, swelling, heat and pain in the large joints. In some typical cases, it can be seen that when the lesion starts from the shoulder, the shoulder and elbow gradually recede while the knee and ankle rise again. Therefore, the "Huangdi Neijing" states: "Wind is a virtuous act that changes frequently." The third is "When the wind prevails, it moves" : Ancient people observed that the movement of air forms wind, and thus concluded that wind pathogen causes illness. The symptom is characterized by movement, which is what is called "when the wind prevails, it moves". Therefore, whenever abnormal limb movements are observed, such as convulsions, spasms, tremors, peristalsis, and even opisthotonus and stiffness of the neck, they are often attributed to wind and classified as wind diseases. Tetanus convulsions and facial nerve paralysis causing facial distortion can be regarded as representative cases. The fourth is the combination of various pathogenic factors causing diseases: The so-called combination of various pathogenic factors causing diseases refers to the fact that wind pathogen often combines with other pathogenic factors to invade the human body. During the long summer season, wind pathogen and dampness pathogen often invade the spleen and stomach, and symptoms of spleen and stomach damage such as indigestion, abdominal distension and diarrhea are often observed. If combined with heat, it becomes wind-heat. When combined with cold, it forms wind-cold. Or when the three qi of wind, cold and dampness are mixed and invade the human body, the commonly mentioned wind-heat external infection, wind-cold external infection, rheumatic arthralgia, etc. are obvious examples. Not only that, traditional Chinese medicine holds that wind can also combine with pathological products within the body, such as phlegm, to form wind-phlegm. When wind-phlegm ascends, it can cause various diseases. In conclusion, the disease caused by wind pathogen must be taken seriously. The key to health preservation in spring is to prevent wind. Modern medicine also attaches great importance to the relationship between air flow (i.e. wind) and health, as changes in air flow can affect a person's breathing, energy consumption, metabolism and mental state. Moderate air flow makes the air clean, fresh and beneficial to health, while abnormal air flow is harmful to human health. Although strong winds in China occur more frequently in spring, they are also not uncommon in autumn and winter, especially in North China where the wind is strong and the weather is relatively cold at this time. Due to the effect of strong winds, the heat exchange between the air and the skin is intensified, causing excessive heat loss in the body and resulting in a decline in a person's disease resistance. Excessive cold can cause the blood vessels on the skin surface to constrict, which can directly trigger the onset of certain rheumatic diseases, such as Raynaud's disease and scleroderma. When working or engaging in activities outdoors, if one is exposed to strong cold winds for too long, it is easy to cause the occurrence of "facial nerve palsy" (facial nerve paralysis).