Spring Dietary Remedies for the Elderly

Elderly people with excessive liver yang often experience headaches and dizziness in spring—this is what traditional Chinese medicine refers to as "spring energy affects diseases in the head." Modern medicine has found that climate changes in spring can easily raise blood pressure, leading to symptoms such as headache, dizziness, and insomnia.
Remedy for lowering blood pressure: Eat about 400 grams of bananas or oranges daily; or use 100 grams of banana peels, boil in water, and drink the decoction frequently as tea. Bananas contain potassium ions which help lower blood pressure. Additionally, regularly consuming potassium-rich foods like lemons, pears, and mung beans can help prevent hypertension. Celery and red dates boiled as tea also have blood pressure-lowering effects.
Stomach and duodenal ulcers tend to flare up in spring. Avoid foods rich in creatine and purine bases such as pork soup, chicken soup, fish soup, beef soup, spinach, legumes, animal offal, and spicy seasonings, as these stimulate gastric juice secretion and cause bloating, increasing gastrointestinal burden.
Dietary remedies: Use honey therapy—steam honey over water, then take it on an empty stomach before meals, 100 ml per day divided into three doses; alternatively, use fresh green cabbage, wash, crush, squeeze juice through sterilized gauze, warm slightly before drinking, twice daily for 15 days as a course; or mix 250 ml of milk, boil, then add 50 grams of honey and 6 grams of white agaric, stir well and consume. All these have nourishing yin and strengthening the stomach effect.
Chronic bronchitis in the elderly tends to worsen in spring. Dietary prevention includes eating more foods that clear phlegm, strengthen the spleen, tonify the kidney, and nourish the lung—such as loquat, tangerines, pears, lotus seeds, lilies, jujubes, walnuts, and honey. The folk saying “fish generates phlegm, meat generates fire, cabbage and tofu keep you safe” has scientific basis. Spicy foods like chili, pepper, scallions, garlic, and overly sweet or salty foods should also be avoided to prevent respiratory irritation and worsening of condition.