Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Knowledge Lecture

Traditional Chinese medicine health care is never a metaphysics, and there is no need to buy thousands of expensive supplements. It is essentially a life adjustment method of "according to nature and people". 90% of ordinary people can solve 80% of minor sub-health problems as long as they understand their own physique and adjust the three daily dimensions of diet, work and rest, and emotions. The health care methods of different schools may seem very different, but the core is to help you find a balanced state of the body.

Last week, Aunt Zhang from the community blocked the door of my office and complained, saying that she drank Sanyue Astragalus Water following the short video to replenish qi and blood, but ended up with ulcers in her mouth and constipation, and she was tossing and turning even when sleeping. I felt her pulse and it was typical of liver stagnation and qi stagnation. She usually gets sulky and the middle burner is so blocked that all the replenished qi accumulates in the spleen and stomach and cannot be dissipated. It would be strange if she doesn't get angry. Do you think this is bad astragalus? Or is the health regimen wrong? To put it bluntly, I don’t understand that “suiting yourself” is the first criterion.

Speaking of which, there are a lot of debates in the health care circle nowadays. I had a dinner with two Chinese medicine practitioners from different schools a while ago and we talked about this matter. Lao Chen of the Jingfang sect always advises people to drink less ice, don’t expose your ankles, and cover the back of your neck when sleeping. He says that modern people consume too much yang energy, and protecting yang energy is the fundamental thing. ； Xiao Li, who belongs to the febrile disease group, laughed at him for being old-fashioned, saying that people these days eat hot pot, milk tea, crayfish all day long, and generally suffer from internal heat. Failure to replenish yang will easily make you sick, so you should drink some chrysanthemum and honeysuckle to clear the fire. The two of them argued for half an hour with no result. Finally, they had a cup of tea and said in unison: "Anyway, it's up to you to wait and see what the dishes are."

This is true. If your hands and feet are usually cold, you have diarrhea after eating something cold, and your whole body aches after blowing the air conditioner for half an hour, then you are right to listen to what Lao Chen said. If you can quit iced milk tea, don’t expose your ankles in winter, which is more effective than any other supplements. ； But if you always have a sore throat, dry stools, and eating hot pot with skewers, it’s not a problem for Xiao Li to let you soak some chrysanthemums to drink, but if you force yourself to drink ginger soup, you will get angry and have nosebleeds. There is no absolutely correct formula for maintaining health. It all depends on the state of the body.

I have been in clinical practice for more than ten years, and I don’t advise patients to engage in fancy health regimens. I just stick to a few simple habits, and most people get results if they stick to them. For example, after eating, don’t lie down on the sofa and check your phone right away. Walk slowly for 10 minutes. While walking, warm your hands and rub your belly clockwise. With this small action, I have an old patient with chronic indigestion who has persisted for three months. He has never taken Jianweixiaoshi tablets again, and most of his bloated belly has been cured. Also, don’t follow the Internet and quit carbs blindly. The "Huangdi Neijing" says that "grains are for nourishment." Millet and rice are the most nourishing foods for the spleen and stomach. I met a little girl a while ago who did not eat staple food for three months in order to lose weight. In the end, her aunt postponed it for two months, and her face turned sallow as if covered with a layer of dust. Later, she drank a bowl of millet porridge every day and slowly added the staple food back. It took half a year to recover.

Some friends always ask me, saying that "eat carrots in winter and ginger in summer" is said online. Isn't it counter-intuitive to eat ginger in summer when it's so hot? I asked him, do you sit in an air-conditioned room all day long, or do you run outdoors every day? In summer, our pores open, the yang energy floats on the surface of the body, and the spleen and stomach are weak and cold. If you stay in an air-conditioned room all day long, drink ice milk tea, eat ice watermelon, eat some ginger to warm the spleen and stomach, and dissipate the cold accumulated in the body, it will be very comfortable. ； But if you run at a construction site or express delivery station every day, sweating profusely from the sun, and you have a lot of internal heat, and you drink ginger tea every day, it would be strange if you don't get angry. The old sayings all have applicable scenarios, and they are not meant to be applied to you regardless of the situation.

To be honest, I have seen too many people make health care a burden. Today they buy tens of thousands of physical therapy devices, and tomorrow they stock up a cabinet of donkey hide gelatin and ginseng. They spend a lot of money, but their health becomes worse and worse. The essence is that they fail to understand that health care is about "nurturing yourself" and not following other people's instructions. If you feel comfortable drinking warm drinks, drink more warm drinks. If you drink cold drinks feel comfortable, drink appropriate amounts of cold drinks. If you stay up late once and you can’t feel better the next day, don’t stay up. It’s more effective than learning a hundred folk remedies online.

The lecture time today is limited, and it is impossible to thoroughly explain all the methods of regulating the body constitution. Finally, I would like to remind everyone: If you are really not sure what body constitution you have, go to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor in a regular traditional Chinese medicine hospital or a community health service center to ask your pulse. Don't speculate on your own and follow the trend. I sit in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department of our community hospital every Wednesday. If you have any questions, just come to me at any time. That’s all for today. Thank you all.