It doesn’t look any sillier than snot running out your nose.
It’s quickly getting warmer in Japan again, which means it’s the season in which sugi cedar trees pollinate with wild abandon and torture those allergic to it with unstoppable runny noses and red, itchy eyes. In the past, several techniques to reduce the irritation of hay fever have come forward, but more relief is always needed.
Also in search of relief was the Tokai TV program News One, which spoke with Takigawa Iki Iki Clinic in Nagoya. Their main advice was to keep your body temperature up because hay fever symptoms tend to be more intense as the body cools down.
Of course, they recommend all the standard ways to do that, like taking a hot bath or wearing a haramaki belly band. Another way to go about it is to get the juices flowing with some exercise, but we don’t always have the time or energy to go for a three-mile jog every time we get itchy eyes. That’s why they recommend “cockroach exercises” (gokiburi taiso).
Cockroach exercises simply involve the person lying on their back, sticking their arms and legs straight up into the air, and wiggling them around like a dying cockroach. Doing this for about 30 seconds to a minute will help improve circulation, which in turn warms up the body.
This shouldn’t be confused with the “dying cockroach” exercise which is similar but involves holding your arms and legs still while raising your shoulders to strengthen the core. It’s unclear whether that’ll help your sniffles much.
Sure, you could probably just do some jumping jacks, but cockroach exercises are accessible to a wider range of physical abilities and age groups, and quite frankly, they look a lot more fun to do. Besides, when was the last time you’ve seen a cockroach with hay fever?
So, next time those heinous sugi trees or any other plant sends its irritating offspring throughout the air, don’t just take it lying down. Take it lying down while also wiggling your hands and feet in the air!
Source: News One
Featured image: ©SoraNews24
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