Examples of TCM Life Cultivation in Accordance with Seasonal Conditions |
Regulating the diet Ingestion of tonics in winter has been the traditional life cultivation method in China for several thousands of years. Modern researches believe winter is the season in which nutrients are most are most easily accumulated in a year. Therefore, nutrients can be transformed into energy to the greatest extent and stored inside the body by means of recuperation with the proper diet to nourish viscera, limbs and bones. Ingestion of tonics in winter includes the two types of tonification with the diet and tonification with drugs. Tonic foods include mutton, chicken, beef, dog meat, and so on; tonic drugs include Ejiao, Renshen, Lurong, etc. However, it should be stressed that the ingestion of tonic should be based on the requirement of one's own body no matter what methods are aborted, and that the tonification should be in combination with the constitution and the state of illness. Otherwise, the tonicfication is harmful, not beneficial and just opposite to the intended result. In terms of tonification with the diet, the people with yang deficiency or relative yang deficiency should eat sweet, warm-natured and yang-promoting foods like shrimps, dog meat and lurong; the people with yin deficiency or yin deficiency syndromes should eat sweet and cool-natured or sweat and moist-natured foods such as rabbit meat, toroise meat, soft-shelled turtle meat, Baihe and Yin'er; thepeople with deficiency of qi and yin should eat duck meat and goose meat. In trems of tonification with drugs, more attention should be paid to the fact that the tonification should be under the guidance of the doctor, free from arbitrary and excessive tonification to avoid the adverse effects on the body. For example, the people with weak constitution and qi deficiency may take Renshen; the people with deficiency of qi and blood may take Ejiao; the people with asthenic kidney should take Liuwei Dihuang Bolus regularly; the people with yang deficiency of the kidney should take Jinkui Shenqi Pill, Lurong Paste and so on; the people with deficiency of both qi and blood should take Renshen Guipi Pill or Shiquan Dabu Bolus, etc.
Physical training though it is cold in winter, people should still persevere in their physical training. This is the basic method to strengthen health. The sports events should be flexibly selected in accordance with the individual's and local condition in the physical training in winter. The events suitable for indoor physical training in winter include health-strengthening massage, keep-fit qigong (chi kung), Taijiquan (tai chi chuan), setting-up dance, and so on; the outdoor training events include long-distance running, heel-toe walking race, gymnastics, ball games, ice-skating and skiing, etc. The climate in winter is severely cold. All the living things in the universe are in the state of hiding. People should pay attention to prevention of cold and heat preservation to make yin and essence hide inside, yangqi not release excessively. This is in agreement with the natural climate in winter. Only in this way can “yin be even and well and yang firm”, diseases eliminated and life prolonged. It is best to select the movements with large amount of exercise and to make the body sweat slightly when the sun rises. It is not advisable to rise early so as to avoid stirring up yangqi of the body. Meanwhile, avoid the training in strong wind, bitter cold, heavy snow, fog and dew. This can not only reach the purpose of avoiding cold and warming the body, but also maintain a cheerful frame of mind to gather essence, qi and vitality inside. This is in agreement with the principle of “preserving health by hiding” in winter. Violating this principle may incur the impairment of the kidney qi and flaccidity with cold limbs when spring comes to result in the weakening of the body's adaptation to the spring sprouting.
It should be emphasized that temperature inversion often exists in the morning due to the influence of cold high pressure. Namely, the temperature of the terrestrial surface atmospheric layer is low, with weakened connective activities. Consequently, the chemical atmospheric pollutants from factories, domestic kitchen ranges, etc. Con not easily diffuse into the upper atmospheric layer. As a result, these pollutants accumulate and stay in the breathing belt of the lower atmospheric layer. At this time, the people having the outdoor physical training exactly become the victims. Accordingly, it is not suitable to have the outdoor physical training in the early morning, especially for some old people, viewed from the angle of atmospheric pollution. |
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