This Saturday will mark the beginning of "Start of Spring", one of the 24 solar terms. This is the first of the 24 solar terms and also marks the beginning of spring. Since spring belongs to wood, which corresponds with the liver, health preservation during spring mainly focuses on protecting the liver and regulating mood. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes that maintaining a pleasant mood not only prevents excessive liver fire but also benefits the growth of yang energy. Therefore, it's important to avoid outbursts of anger and maintain an open mind, optimistic attitude, and a peaceful and pleasant state of mind.
Cold Protection: Still need to wear warm clothing for warmth
From the perspective of the solar term, although Start of Spring signifies the beginning of spring, this time of year is still very cold. Health preservation should be combined with regional and climatic realities.
Judging from past climate changes, after Start of Spring, the weather can be warm but still chilly, with significant fluctuations. At this time, as the human body becomes more relaxed with the arrival of spring, its resistance to cold decreases. Therefore, at the beginning of spring, it's not advisable to reduce warm clothing too early. The elderly and those with weak constitutions should be especially cautious when changing clothes and should not make sudden reductions. "Dressing warmly in spring and lightly in autumn" is a traditional health-preserving saying. During the three months of winter, when vegetation withers and freezes, human metabolism slows down, resistance decreases, making it easier to get sick and lose yang energy. Slight exposure to wind-cold can easily trigger old illnesses. If sweating occurs, it should be wiped off promptly, and one should not expose their chest to strong winds. Appropriately dressing warmly in spring can reduce illness, especially common respiratory infectious diseases.
Additionally, health preservation during Start of Spring should focus on disease prevention. Due to the climate characteristics dominated by wind after Start of Spring, wind pathogenic factors can act independently or combine with other pathogenic factors to cause diseases, especially at the beginning of spring, when the weather transitions from cold to warm. As the body’s yang energy begins to grow, warm-toxic pathogens also become active, and various disease-causing bacteria and viruses start to grow and multiply. Diseases such as influenza, meningitis, measles, scarlet fever, and pneumonia often occur and spread according to modern medical descriptions. Additionally, due to the wide range of lesions, wind pathogenic factors are prone to rapid changes, unpredictable, and can invade up and down, reaching the forehead or affecting the waist and knees. Moreover, “wind predominance leads to movement,” so any abnormal limb movements, such as convulsions, spasms, tremors, opisthotonus, and neck stiffness, are often attributed to wind pathogenic factors causing diseases.
To avoid the occurrence of spring diseases, preventive measures include adapting to climate changes by adding or reducing clothing; keeping windows open to ensure indoor air circulation and keep the air fresh; paying attention to rest and strengthening exercise to enhance the body’s defense capabilities. Additionally, focus on oral and nasal health care. In daily life, adapt to nature by going to bed early and rising early, appropriately increasing outdoor activities to allow the body to transition from its winter hibernation state to adapt to the arrival of spring, aligning one’s spirit and emotions with nature to achieve harmony and vitality.
Diet: Eat fewer sour and spicy foods
In the vibrant season of spring, all tissues and organs in the body become active, requiring a large amount of nutrients to meet the needs of physical activity and growth development. However, as the spring climate warms up and becomes dry, the body's dispersion phenomenon is relatively noticeable. Therefore, in terms of diet, it is advisable to consume more juicy fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes and radishes, which can also replenish water for the body. But considering that yang energy begins to rise in spring, it is suitable to eat pungent and sweet dispersing foods, rather than consuming too many sour and astringent foods, such as oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, apricots, papayas, loquats, hawthorns, olives, lemons, pomegranates, and plums. In the relationship between the five internal organs and the five flavors, sour enters the liver, has astringent properties, and is not conducive to the rise of yang energy and the free flow of liver qi.
During winter, many people enjoy eating dog meat and mutton to warm their bodies. However, after Start of Spring, as the weather warms up and the climate becomes dry, it is easy to become overheated. Dog meat and mutton are warm-natured foods, and eating them excessively in spring can easily conflict with the climate. According to TCM, as yang energy begins to rise in spring, the weather transitions from cold to warm, and all things sprout with vitality. Human yang energy rises, the liver functions freely, and blood and qi tend towards the surface, making human metabolism most active. After the long-term nourishment of the digestive system during winter and the rich food consumption in January, there is a significant accumulation of stagnation, so it is not advisable to consume greasy and spicy foods to prevent assisting yang energy from escaping.
TCM believes that special attention should be paid to liver preservation in spring to adapt to the seasonal timing. Therefore, dietary adjustments should consider the characteristic of yang energy starting to rise in spring, making it suitable to consume more pungent and sweet dispersing foods. Such as rape, coriander, leek, onion, mustard, white radish, celery, Chinese cabbage, fennel, Chinese cabbage, celery, spinach, etc., which have pungent and sweet dispersing characteristics.
Exercise: Focus on "slow" exercises
After Start of Spring, as temperatures rise, people should gradually increase outdoor activity time to accelerate blood circulation and promote qi and blood flow. However, since the weather after Start of Spring is warm but still chilly, slower-paced exercises like spring outings, kite flying, walking, jogging, Tai Chi, and non-intense ball games are more suitable.
While walking, you can perform lung-rubbing exercises. After Start of Spring, as the pores of the human body gradually open, wind-cold pathogenic factors can easily invade, leading to colds and rhinitis. Regularly exercising the lung meridian can enhance the skin's resistance to wind-cold. The lung meridian runs along the inner side of our arms, starting from the shoulder pit and extending downward to the thumb. Therefore, massaging the upper and lower ends of the meridian can yield good results, and these acupoints are easy to locate. One is Zhongfu located in the shoulder pit, and the other is Shaoshang on the thumb. Knocking each with a half-clenched fist every morning for a hundred times can be effective.
It's important to note that exercise during this period should not be too intense, avoiding profuse sweating and heavy breathing, as it may deplete yang energy, which is detrimental to health preservation. Additionally, since the climate remains dry after Start of Spring, hydrating during exercise is necessary.