With the arrival of summer, the gradually increasing temperature can make people feel uncomfortable, especially for the elderly, whose bodies are more susceptible to the heat. So, what aspects should the elderly focus on to stay healthy during the summer?
Preventing Diseases in the Elderly during Summer
1. Gastrointestinal Diseases
In hot and humid weather, food is prone to spoilage. Doctors advise against consuming expired or spoiled food to avoid acute gastrointestinal diseases such as diarrhea and abdominal pain.
Moreover, excessive consumption of frozen watermelon, cold tea, and other cold drinks should be avoided during humid and hot weather to prevent damage to the spleen and stomach.
2. Respiratory Diseases
Rainy days with large temperature differences and heavy humidity can cause respiratory diseases. Doctors suggest that the elderly should open windows at appropriate times even on rainy days to ensure indoor air circulation.
3. Skin Diseases
In seasons with high temperatures and humidity, the activity of bacteria and fungi in the environment increases, and sweating can easily lead to infectious dermatitis.
Doctors recommend that the elderly should avoid wearing clothes that are not thoroughly dried during rainy weather. As sweating increases in hot weather, the elderly should wear breathable and sweat-absorbing fabrics.
4. Cardiovascular Diseases
The elderly have weaker adaptability to high temperatures, and fluctuations in blood pressure during summer can easily cause cerebral infarction and cerebral hemorrhage.
Especially for people with a more irritable temperament, hot weather can easily stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, causing an accelerated heart rate, increased secretion of circulating hormones, and vascular constriction, leading to increased blood pressure.
Tips for Elderly Summer Health Care
1. Control Anger
Anger is the most intense emotion among the seven emotions. "Anger harms the liver and causes stagnation of Qi."
Anger can obstruct the smooth flow of Qi, causing Qi reversal and stagnation, leading to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, those who are good at taking care of their health avoid anger.
2. Reduce Desires
The key to health preservation lies in nurturing the heart, and nurturing the heart depends on nurturing the spirit. Humans cannot exist without material and spiritual needs and pursuits.
But these pursuits should be based on reality and should not deviate from objective and subjective conditions, or even indulge in fantasies. Otherwise, disappointment can lead to suffering, and excessive worries can affect health.
Therefore, those who are good at health preservation reduce personal desires and downplay fame and fortune.
3. Avoid Excessive Indulgences
This means reducing desires to nourish essence. Nourishing essence refers to protecting the physiological functions of organs.
Indulging in excessive desires and lust can not only cause a decline in sexual function, leading to physical and mental exhaustion, but also disrupt the body's endocrine system, resulting in various diseases.
4. Moderate Speech
Moderate speech does not mean not talking at all, but rather not talking incessantly or shouting loudly, and avoiding frequent provocation and arguments.
Constantly speaking loudly can lead to insufficient vital energy, affecting the function of the respiratory organs and being detrimental to health.
Healthy Recipes for the Elderly
【Jellyfish and Pork Bone Soup】
Ingredients: 100g jellyfish, 500g pork bone soup, appropriate amount of yellow wine, green onion, and refined salt.
Wash the jellyfish and tear it into small pieces, mix it with wine, salt, and dry starch, and set it aside. Bring the bone soup to a boil, add the jellyfish, season it, sprinkle with green onions, and bring it to a boil.
Benefits: This soup has a rich and mellow taste and can calm the liver. It is suitable for elderly patients with hypertension and cerebral arteriosclerosis caused by liver wind, as well as those with anemia, dizziness, and constipation.
【Water Chestnut and Lamb Soup】
Ingredients: 250g water chestnut, 1 pair of lamb tendons, 12g Chinese yam, 9g goji berries, 6g longan flesh.
Wash the lamb tendons, remove the fur, and cut them into pieces. Boil them in water for about 1 hour, then remove and set aside.
Wash the water chestnuts and cut them into small pieces. Stir-fry them with oil, salt, and ginger for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a pot.
Add an appropriate amount of water, put in Chinese yam, goji berries, and longan flesh, and cook for about 4 hours until the lamb tendons are tender. Season it and it is ready to serve.
Benefits: This soup nourishes the kidneys, strengthens the body, and relieves rheumatism. It is suitable for elderly people with rheumatoid arthritis, pain in various parts of the body, and soreness in the waist and legs.
