3 Tips for a Happy, Healthy, Spring
Spring is a favourite season among many people. Theres a sense of hope as the cold dark days of winter disappear, and signs of new beginnings, vision, growth, and prosperity, shows itself via warm weather and budding plant life. Yet this is a time where people often catch a cold, get frequent headaches or migraines, have a lot of anxiety, insomnia, skin breakouts, or fluctuating emotional issues.
Below are a few tips to make your transition into spring a good one.
- Resist the urge to underdress
Always wear or bring a scarf and an extra layer with you when you’re out and wear clothing that breaks the wind. Just like autumn, spring is a time of year where a lot of people catch a cold. This is because of rapidly changing weather patterns and people not wearing enough protective clothing. In Chinese Medicine, “wind” is said to carry pathogens and can lodge into joints and muscles causing anything from pain, to skin problems, to cold/flu/viruses. Always make sure to cover your neck when its, cold, damp, or windy outside. Also, be sure to protect any injured areas from the elements as well- if you have low back pain, skip the crop top, if you have wrist or hand issues, keep wearing gloves until its fully warm outside.
2 . Eat more green leafy vegetables
It’s always a good idea to eat with the seasons. This means eating food that’s growing in the region where you live, at that time of year. Of course, in our globalize world, we eat food from all over the world, all year wrong, and that’s great too. But it’s still a good idea to think seasonally. In the winter it’s common to eat heavier, richer, saltier and more preserved or processed foods. We generally exercise a lot less as the cold, dark days are not as appealing to be out and about. The combo of less exercise with more richer, processed foods, leads to a buildup in the system and it’s common for people to feel bogged down. This can show up as poor digestion, low mood or seasonal depression, brain fog, weight gain and so on. This is why it’s common in many cultures around the world, to do a cleanse or fast in the spring. Dark leafy green vegetables are generally the first vegetables that come out of the ground after the long winter. They also support liver function which has a large role in the breakdown of fats, sugars, and toxins in the body. So if you’re feeling like you want to shake off the heaviness of winter, try adding more greens in your diet.
3. Balance Yin and Yang
There’s a tendency to want to do it all at this time of year. Spring cleaning, working, planning, going on trips, exercising more, seeing more friends and family, gardening and staying up later into the night. These are all wonderful things but sometimes this can be a little too much all at once. This can lead to overwhelm, anxiety, insomnia, digestive problems, anger or frustration, migraines or neck pain. Make sure to balance this sudden increase of activity (Yang) with Yin things such as cooling and light foods, staying hydrated, meditation, getting a massage, acupuncture, or other treatments that you like that helps you de-stress. Try to get to bed at a good time as much as possible.
Written by Ashton Shearer, R.TCMP, R.ac
Ashton is available for acupuncture, herbal medicine and cupping treatments, here at Regeneration Station Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays.
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Healthy Life Extension – The Future Of Humanity?
Healthy Life Extension
Since times immeasurable humans have been fascinated with the concept of immortality.
We have come across stories such as the epic of Gilgamesh, or the search for the fountain of youth and we can see the clamour for eternal life has existed in many different cultures over many different aeons.
Whatever reasons humans may have had in the past regarding their quests for immortality; humankind has never been so close to attaining this elusive goal as it is right now.
Scientists worldwide, (including a company owned by Jeff Bezos) – are currently conducting research and experiments with life extension as their ultimate goal. Not just any old life extension either – infinite extension of the human health-span. In other words, attempting to remain young and healthy for an infinite amount of time; aka immortality.
Current research has shown us that as we grow, the cells in our bodies replicate a finite number of times until they lose that ability altogether and become senescent (zombie cell). These zombie cells then release toxic substances into our bodies furthering the damage. This process of cellular senescence and subsequent leaking of toxins is a major factor in our bodies aging process and contributes significantly to age related health issues.
Scientists have discovered that at the end of our DNA strands exists something called telomeres. These telomeres basically
look like little strings at the ends of our DNA strands. Every time a cell replicates, the telomeres get a little
Bit shorter.
“Thus, in accordance with A. M. Olovnikov’s telomere theory of aging, when the telomere length approaches a certain critical level the cells stop dividing and begin ageing and are exposed to apoptosis upon reaching that level (Olovnikov, 1973).”
After so many times of replication, the telomere will be so short that the cell can no longer replicate and it becomes senescent.
A current theory is if humans can alter our DNA somehow, we could prevent our telomeres from shortening each time the cell replicates.
If the telomere no longer shortens with each replication, the cell can theoretically replicate indefinitely and lo and behold we no longer age.
One promising lead is an enzyme called telomerase.
Telomerase has been shown to increase the length of telomeres when injected into mice.
Studies show mice who have been treated with telomerase live much longer than mice without the treatment.
Could humans figure out a way to alter our genetic code to produce telomerase naturally in each cell of our bodies? If so, does this mean we can live healthy, eternally?
What do you think?
Comment below!
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