Poetry for old age and health

The essence of poems related to elderly health is the concrete expression of traditional Chinese health concepts through literary carriers. The core of all related works that have been handed down to this day coincides with the core principles of modern geriatric medicine of "physiological adaptation, emotional priority, and moderate exercise."

Last week I was doing a quarterly health follow-up at a street-based elderly care service station, and I just happened to catch up with their "Old People Come to Read Poems" activity. More than 20 elderly people with an average age of 72 sat around a long table on the verandah.

The first thing someone read was Bai Juyi's "The old man is slow because of his slow nature, and the absence of illness means he is generous." As soon as the words finished, Aunt Zhang, who was sitting next to me, laughed and said that this sentence was her "prescription for lowering blood pressure." In the past two years, she had a conflict with her daughter-in-law because of taking care of her grandson. She was bored at home every day, and her blood pressure reached a maximum of 170. She couldn't stabilize her blood pressure after changing her antihypertensive medicine twice. Later, the boss of the activity station, Mr. Chen, wrote this sentence for her and posted it on the refrigerator. She read it again every time she got angry, and she gradually figured it out. Oh, yes, I have to add that emotional regulation is always a supplement, and antihypertensive drugs must not be stopped casually. Aunt Zhang’s dosage reduction was only decided by the doctor after evaluating three months of dynamic data. Don’t believe in the nonsense of “reading poetry to cure diseases”.

Xiao Zhou, a Western medicine practitioner who came to the free clinic and was sitting next to her, answered the question and said that the poem made sense but could not be absolute. Last month, she treated a 74-year-old man. He talked about "a broad mind means he is free of disease" every day. He had stomach pain for three months and refused to come for a check-up. He said that this minor problem was not worth the trouble. In the end, he fainted from the pain and was sent to the hospital. It was found that his stomach ulcer was perforated. Therefore, the word "disease-free" in this sentence refers to the mentality of not worrying about minor problems. It does not mean that the body is really struggling to cope with the red light. On this point, the views of Chinese and Western medicine are surprisingly consistent.

Later, someone picked up another line from Bai Juyi, "After eating, sleeping, and getting up with two bowls of tea." The controversy was directly brought to the table. Xiao Zhou was the first to object, saying that this is not suitable for all elderly people. The gastric motility of the elderly is weak. Lying down immediately after eating can easily cause gastroesophageal reflux. If the elderly have high blood lipids and carotid artery plaque, the risk of blood clots may also increase. Before he finished speaking, Stationmaster Wang, who had been a traditional Chinese medicine doctor for thirty years, laughed and shook the glass of light green tea in his hand: "You are reading only half a sentence of a poem. The ancients said 'eat' and lie down as soon as you put down the bowl. You walk a hundred paces first, rest for half an hour and then squint for a while, and the premise is that you only eat seven to eight cents full after eating, so you eat your elbows every time. After eating so much, I felt uncomfortable even sitting down. Besides, the two bowls of tea were not strong tea, but warm weak tea. If you give strong tea to an old man with osteoporosis every day, something will happen." Stationmaster Wang is 76 years old, and his annual physical examination blood lipid and blood sugar indicators are more stable than those of many thirty-year-old young people. As soon as he said this, everyone nodded.

What impressed me most was the 81-year-old Uncle Li sitting in the corner, slowly reciting Lu You's "The power of climbing is still there, and the joy of feeding chrysanthemums is endless." He said that he had a hip surgery two years ago after a fall. After that, he did not dare to move. He lay at home every day. The more he lay down, the softer his legs became. He was even afraid of going downstairs to buy groceries. Later, his grandson found him a book of poems by Lu You. When he saw this sentence by chance, he thought he would start by standing and watering the flowers on the balcony, then slowly walk around the living room, and then walk around downstairs. Now he can walk around the community three times every morning, and there are five pots of different varieties planted on the balcony. Not long ago, I followed my old friends to climb halfway up a hill in the suburbs. Of course, Uncle Li's exercise program was specially prescribed by a rehabilitation therapist. If you are an elderly person with degenerative knee joint disease, don't force yourself to walk for a long distance. Swimming or sitting and stretching are more suitable.

When I was sorting out the poems that everyone had collected that day, I also discovered something quite interesting: these sentences about old age and health never mentioned anything about "rejuvenating" or "not getting old". They were all about accepting the fact of aging calmly, moving slower, eating lighter, being more broad-minded, and moving when you can. On the contrary, they are much better than the "miraculous anti-growth medicine" and "anti-aging secret recipe" that are touted online now.

At the end of the event, the 78-year-old Grandma Zhang wrote on a note: "Occasionally, I have a minor illness and I am anxious, and I laugh while eating three meals a day." Everyone came over to take a look, and they all booed and said that she wanted to post it at the door of the activity station as everyone's "exclusive health poem." The wind blew over from the balcony, blowing the chalk dust beside the blackboard into the air, mixing with the fragrance of chrysanthemum tea that filled the room. I suddenly felt that there was no profound secret to old age health. These sentences that have been passed down for thousands of years are, in the final analysis, the principles of living a good life.