Traditional Chinese medicine health quotes

Those TCM health-preserving quotes that have been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years have never been a "health-preserving bible" that is universally applicable, but a "trap-avoiding guide" compiled by doctors of different eras and schools from clinical practice and life observations. It is useful, but only if you have a clear grasp of its applicable boundaries and don't blindly make blind decisions.

Let’s take the familiar saying “Eat carrots in winter and ginger in summer, and you won’t have to ask the doctor to prescribe medicine.” My aunt asked me this sentence a while ago, saying that she took three slices of ginger every morning according to the instructions on the Internet, but why did she end up with sore mouth ulcers for a week? In fact, this statement was originally summarized by doctors of the Typhoid School based on the climate of the four distinct seasons in the north: in summer, Yang Qi floats on the surface of the body, and the inside of the spleen and stomach is weak and cold. Eating some ginger can warm the middle burns; in winter, Yang Qi is withdrawn into the body, and eating some white radish can eliminate internal heat. But it’s different from the perspective of the febrile disease school. The Jiangnan area is hot and humid in summer, and many people run outdoors every day. Their tongues are red and yellow, and their faces are covered in acne. They already have internal heat. Wouldn’t gnawing on ginger add fuel to the fire? There is nothing wrong with either statement, but the corresponding groups of people and scenes are vastly different. Last summer, Aunt Zhang in the community was sweating from dancing in the square for two hours a day, and insisted on eating ginger to keep healthy. As a result, her throat became swollen to the point that she could not speak for three days. She came to my place and drank honeysuckle tea for three days before she recovered. She was still wondering, "How can the famous quote be wrong?" The famous quote was not wrong, but I didn't find the right person to match her.

Speaking of this, I think of the sentence in "Su Wen": "Looking for a long time hurts the blood, lying for a long time hurts the Qi, sitting for a long time hurts the flesh, standing for a long time hurts the bones, and walking for a long time hurts the tendons." Many people use this sentence as an excuse for lazy people, saying that they can't do anything? What does this mean? A while ago, I was treated by a young UI designer girl who worked in front of the computer for 14 hours a day. Her eyes were so dry that she had to put in half a bottle of artificial tears a day. Her shoulders and neck hurt so much that it was difficult to lift her arms. She insisted on running five kilometers every day after get off work according to the "self-discipline guide" on the Internet. As a result, her feet sprained after running for a week, and she couldn't even go upstairs. This is a typical example of already taking into account "long-term looking hurts the blood and long-term sitting hurts the flesh", and then adding "long-term walking hurts the muscles", will there be a problem? Regarding the usage of this sentence, doctors with different backgrounds have different opinions. An old Chinese medicine practitioner from the Wu family believes that "movement is necessary to gain the method." After sitting for ten minutes and standing for five minutes, it is much more effective than running for five kilometers. Doctors with literary backgrounds prefer "quietness to nourish the mind." Even if you sit at your work station with your eyes closed for five minutes to adjust your breath, it is better than exerting yourself to exercise hard. In the end, there is no standard answer. It just depends on your current state.

There is also a saying that has been overused by various health product marketing accounts: "When a person reaches forty, Yang Qi is insufficient, and the damage will come with time." When Sun Simiao said this, ordinary people worked hard in the fields every day and ate a simple diet. Most of the people in their forties had cold hands and feet, lack of energy and shortness of breath. Of course, it is right to replenish Yang. But now, most forty-year-old middle-aged people stay up late to socialize every day, eat takeaways that are heavy in oil and salt, sit in the office and rarely get sunlight, and many of them have Yin deficiency constitutions with red tongue, dry mouth, and night sweats. If they follow the marketing account and eat aconite stewed mutton and velvet antler powder, won't they cause nosebleeds and blood pressure soar to 170? I received a patient like this last year. He was a business executive. He said that he had heard from "experts" that he should replenish yang when he was forty years old. After eating mutton stewed with aconite for half a month, he had a nosebleed and went to the emergency room. In fact, Zhu Danxi’s yin-nourishing school has long said that “yang is always in excess and yin is often insufficient.” Given the current pace of life, many middle-aged people need to replenish yin more than yang. There is no superiority between the two views, but the era of adaptation has changed.

Oh, by the way, there is also the mythical saying "Eating ginger in the morning is better than ginseng soup, and eating ginger at night is better than arsenic." I worked the night shift last month in the winter. I stayed in the emergency room all night and my hands and feet were cold from the cold. Before I got off work, I made a cup of ginger-date tea and drank it. It warmed my whole body and relaxed me, and I didn't seem to be poisoned? This is to remind everyone that if you eat barbecue hot pot at night and you are already hot and irritated, eating ginger will aggravate the internal heat and affect your sleep. If you are shivering due to the rain and cold at night, or your spleen and stomach are weak and you have diarrhea after eating cold things, drinking a bowl of ginger tea can prevent colds and diarrhea. There are no black and white rules.

I have been following my father, an old Chinese medicine doctor for almost 20 years, and the health sayings he usually talks about are the simplest: "Whatever makes you feel better." Don’t listen to what one person says to eat this or what other person says to do that. After eating, drinking, and doing that, you feel comfortable and refreshed, and that’s what’s right for you. If you feel uncomfortable after eating, even if it’s a famous saying that has been passed down for thousands of years, you have to put it aside first. The ancestors originally wrote these words to prevent us from stepping into pitfalls, not to put shackles on us.