Ma Yinchu also did vascular exercises to prevent cancer

Hot and cold baths are called "vascular exercises"

As a famous economist, educator and demographer in modern Chinese history, Ma Yinchu experienced many hardships in his life but lived to be 100 years old. This is inseparable from his scientific mentality and lifestyle.

That year, Mr. Ma, who was the president of the university, was dismissed from his post. When his son told him the news, he just said "Oh". Decades later, when his son told him the good news of his rehabilitation, Mr. Ma exclaimed "Oh" again. This kind of cultivation and bearing is something that ordinary people cannot achieve. In addition to mentality, Ma Yinchu also has a magic weapon, which is "vascular exercise".

When he was studying in the United States in his early years, he was weak and often ill. While studying at Yale University, I had the good fortune of meeting a 93-year-old doctor who still had a youthful appearance. The doctor told Ma Yinchu that taking hot and cold baths, also known as "vascular exercises," was an extremely effective way to stay fit and healthy.

Ma Yinchu then followed this method of alternating hot and cold water bathing for many years and benefited greatly from it. The specific method is as follows. First, rinse your whole body with hot water, then gradually adjust the water temperature to cold water. When you are almost done, adjust the water temperature to hot water again to thoroughly rinse off the soap foam and dirt on your body. If it is hot in summer, you can rinse again with cold water; and after the autumn cools down, rinse with cold water and then rinse with hot water. In the medical field, this "hot and cold bath" is also called "vascular exercise."

When we bathe with alternating hot and cold water, we start with hot water each time. Hot water can expand the sweat pores, and the sweat that flows out can expel dirt from the body. In addition, the blood vessels are dilated by the heat and the blood can circulate fully, which is beneficial to metabolism. Then take a cold water bath. The temperature of cold water is generally close to body temperature. Cold water makes the dilated blood vessels contract. Repeated hot and cold stimulation of blood vessel expansion and contraction enhances the elasticity of blood vessels and prevents them from hardening. From then on, Ma Yinchu continued to bathe in this way, alternating between hot and cold water, for more than 40 years.

Mountain climbing enthusiasts use "beans" to measure their steps

Another way Ma Yinchu kept fit was mountain climbing. In the 1940s, he was placed under house arrest in Gele Mountain, Chongqing. He climbed the main peak of Gele Mountain, Yunding Temple, every day. It only took 60 minutes to go up and down the more than 10 miles. Over time, he stepped out a path in the mountains where there was no road originally. He climbed the mountains at a jog pace, and he did so until he was 80 years old.

After he turned 80, Mr. Ma no longer went hiking far away, but only practiced hiking in Jingshan Park and Beihai Park in Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution in 1966, all parks were closed, so Mr. Ma took walks in his own yard, insisting on walking 3,000 meters every day. He even used a small notebook to record the number of laps he walked, for fear that he would not walk enough and get enough exercise.

Later, his memory gradually declined, so he put 50 beans in one pocket of his clothes. Every time he walked a circle, he took out a bean and put it in another pocket until all the beans were gone. In 1969, his right leg suddenly became paralyzed. He held on to a high stool with both hands in the room, dragged his paralyzed right leg, and continued to move with difficulty, eventually leaving a wide mark on the floor. Later, his left leg became paralyzed and he could not walk, so he sat in a wheelchair to move his arms.

In summer, he would insist on waving the large cattail leaf fan thousands of times every day. At the age of 91, Ma Yinchu was diagnosed with rectal cancer. However, after two operations, he escaped death and recovered. The doctor said that it was the decades of exercise that had built up Mr. Ma’s good physical fitness to overcome cancer. It is nothing short of a miracle that the cancer cells did not worsen or metastasize in the last 10 years of his life.