This meeting is the first on the seasonality and locality cues in oriental medicine. I call it Oriental medicine —the human heritage that goes back to our creation. It combines local healing arts, mainly from various parts of Asia, as well as some from Africa and even Europe. Everything is so thoroughly road-tested, well-documented, and even filtered through the scope of the science of the time. It treats the patient, not the disease. It primarily focuses on prevention, a critical aspect of public health.
The physicians ensured that people followed seasonal guidelines to prevent the spread of disease and not jeopardize the health of others. In this regard, they educated and encouraged the public to live in harmony with the seasons, with each season having its unique diet, lifestyle, emotions, associated internal organs, rituals, prevalent pathologies, and preventive measures. Wisdom and seasonal knowledge were passed down from parents to their children, a tradition that continued for many generations until recently.
February 3 marked the beginning of spring in the far eastern medical calendars; the vernal equinox was halfway through it. The transformation into yang is gaining pace as the days get longer. Our dragon is slowly awakening. He feels the urge to step out and move around freely, generating momentum and vitality. He can be both compassionate and cruel; if his adventurous side is satisfied and he can soar high, he can remain calm and provide enormous energy for new projects. However, if he feels stuck and remains sedentary, he can become short-tempered easily. It can set everything on fire and can be destructive. He is strong, with considerable flexibility, and has a reptilian spine, allowing him to move quickly. His vision is far and wide. He sees everything from a high vantage point.
It is the season to let the dragon go loose. His mom is the winter —the season of the bear, the water component of the annual cycle. If the mother is strong, the dragon will thrive and flourish. If we have had a good winter reflecting on the past year, enjoying the slow pace of indoor life and looking into the flames by a fireplace chatting with an old friend and close family, if we’ve waited successfully and effectively for the new beginning of the life cycle to kick in by the thaw, the dragon will rise solid and ready to fly out. He will be gentle and kind.
In oriental medicine, the liver is the organ associated with the spring. Liver health is attributed enormous importance, and it is called the chief of staff since it communicates with all other organs of the digestive tract, monitoring them and collecting blood 24/7. To the best of our knowledge, it performs more than 600 physiological functions; however, this number may be higher. It is located directly under the diaphragm, occupying considerable space and connected to it via three ligaments. It weighs 6 pounds, soaked with blood, almost like a sponge, blood moving in and out equally, round the clock, with millimetre accuracy. It is a large organ with many crucial duties for women’s health. Many gynecological issues are related to poor liver function and numerous other pathologies, such as allergies, digestive issues, bloating, skin disorders (including rashes), vision problems (including dry eyes, floaters, and hair loss), migraines, and general tightness that may cause musculoskeletal issues. Low iron levels may also result from an unbalanced liver. Chronic stress syndrome is characterized by the liver’s inability to terminate the histaminic response due to a deficiency in producing a specific enzyme.
Whatever goes through the mouth ends up in the liver. It is the largest filter in the body, performing the critical task of removing toxins from food and fluids. Once it hardens due to stress, it may fail to perform its filtering job. It can even send some of the blood back to the organs from which it collects, a phenomenon known as hepatic portal vein backflow, thereby increasing internal stress. It is brilliant, doesn’t want to waste any good, and tends to save it for further use as fat, storing it nearby. Liver malfunction is, therefore, closely related to weight gain. Additionally, the relationship between COVID-19 case severity and liver health has been reported in numerous research articles worldwide.
The good side is that the liver can heal itself. Between 11 pm and 3 am, the liver rejuvenates and draws extra blood, especially from the limbs. However, we can help our liver by eating fewer sweets, moving around more by sitting less, engaging in early morning exercise, consuming less packaged and processed food, practicing diaphragmatic breathing, avoiding late nights, and trying not to get angry, especially in the springtime. Intermittent fasting is an excellent idea to give the liver a break. Floor sitting is also a great way to stay mobile and active, as it changes sitting posture frequently. Taking 10-minute walks before breakfast, stretching the sides of the body, working on a fluid spine, and practicing powerful exhales are the seasonal priorities in establishing a daily exercise routine. Administering too many supplements can do more harm than good, as it tires out the liver and thus leads to insufficient metabolization.
The liver is not fond of excessive sugar intake. It will be a great idea to cut down on sweets during the spring months, if not the whole year. The same applies to alcohol. If not my favourite candies, will my life be the same? Well, at least do your sweets until 3 pm, when your gut energy is higher, before it starts slowing down towards the evening. To inform you, rice, corn, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsley, chestnuts, and dried fruits like apricots can help alleviate sugar cravings.
The liver doesn’t like a sedentary lifestyle either. Engaging in more physical activity during the day, such as a short, brisk walk of up to 20 minutes in the morning before breakfast, is an excellent way to move excess blood from the liver into the extremities, helping transition from the winter months’ hibernation mode into the liveliness of summertime. I cannot overemphasize the importance of belly breathing, as the diaphragm’s movement provides a gentle massage to the liver, helping retain its spongy texture. Work on your adventurous side in the springtime, travel to a place you have never been to, read a book that you thought you’d never be interested in, eat a food or an exotic dish that you never tried before, meet new people, walk out of your routine to test yourself and see how you’d feel about it.
Spring is the wood element in Chinese Medicine’s five-element theory. It is the son of the water element and the mother of fire, winter, and summer, respectively. It is best to visualize and personalize as a tree in the springtime; what would a tree do? How would it behave, and what happens from winter to summer? What makes it strong, and what may hurt it? Grounding, strong roots, and a resilient form can all contribute to a tree’s health. The goals of daily exercise routines may involve the typical characteristics of a tree: shaking, lateral bending, stretching, strengthening the legs (our roots), and maintaining joint health. The spine’s fluidity is the focus of all exercise plans, which involve gentle movement in all three planes. Please try not to use the backup camera often. Instead, turn around and look over your shoulder when backing up your car; that is a fantastic way to practice spinal fluidity. I wouldn’t say I like the power windows either; if we had gone back to manual windows, there would be fewer shoulder issues.
They say artichokes are the darling of the liver, making them one of the best culinary items in spring. Asparagus, basil, broccoli, celery, fermented food like sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, kale, fresh ginger, radish, seaweed, sprouts like alfalfa and grains, small amounts of vinegar, anything the colour of green, root vegetables help improve the effectiveness of the gut, relieving the stress on the liver between February and June in our geography. Dandelion is renowned for its healing powers on the liver, making it the primary herbal choice among all wildflowers. Milk thistle is another popular wildflower that treats the liver as the days get longer. The fresh leaves pair well in salads, and the coffee substitute made from its roots and chicory is a delicious gourmet item during this time of year.
The liver is known as the sea of the liver. Planning things is excellent, but making too many plans is believed to harm the dragon; it is accommodating. Focus on planning you can execute and fulfill, and avoid being too dreamy. Disturbed sleeping with heavy dreams, for example, may be a sign that things are not going well with your liver, either physically or emotionally. The suppression of anger is one of the most severe challenges for the dragon; it needs to be released. The best approach is to try to change our thoughts and avoid getting angry. If you feel angry, don’t hide it; kick a few empty cardboard boxes to ease the frustration! My most extensive advice is to incorporate breathwork into your routine to help tackle chronic stress. There are tons of videos online, and there is no way to do it wrong and hurt yourself. Try out a few and see which ones fit you the best. Breath is believed to be where the body meets the mind; you will observe excellent results in a few weeks if you are consistent.
Intolerance and impatience, volatile emotions, impulsive or overdisciplined behaviour, and self-indulgent or self-punishing behaviour are associated with a disturbed wood element that gets aggravated in the springtime. Temporal headaches, muscle spasms, nerve inflammation, migratory pain, and even high blood pressure may result from emotional imbalances, especially around this time of year. 11 pm-3 am is when our dragon is in a deep sleep; please don’t disturb! Your dragon needs attention if you have difficulty falling or staying asleep during those hours.
Confident, assertive, bold, ambitious, competitive, direct, committed, and decisive are the characteristic features of the wood. If there is too much of it, one can become arrogant, aggressive, reckless, and compulsively impulsive. In the case of insufficiency of the wood element, the result is usually peevish, pretentious, erratic, premature, devious, fickle, and ambivalent behaviour. People of a wood type often struggle with issues related to intensity, equality, sharing, cooperation, ambiguity, and managing anger.