TCM Health Enlightenment

Don’t believe in universal health-preserving formulas that are available across the Internet. Understand your own physique first and then make corresponding adjustments. This is the prerequisite for all health-preserving actions to be truly effective.

Don’t believe it. Last year, a girl from my department posted a short video about “Three Volts of Moxibustion to Replenish Yang and Cure All Diseases.” She had a yin-deficient constitution that kept getting mouth ulcers, could not fall asleep until two or three o’clock at night, and her palms and soles were always hot. She was stunned to receive moxibustion for three days in a row. Finally, she went to see a traditional Chinese medicine doctor with a nosebleed. Three large red pimples on her chin took half a month to disappear, and she was scolded by the outpatient doctor for “messing around.”

Speaking of which, when I first came into contact with traditional Chinese medicine, I encountered many similar pitfalls. A few years ago, when the adzuki bean and barley water was very popular, I stocked up two large cans of raw materials and cooked and drank it every day. After drinking it for half a month, my spleen and stomach were so weak that I could not even eat rice. I felt like swallowing, so I went to an old Chinese doctor I knew for advice. He told me something: raw barley is cold in nature. If you have a cold spleen and stomach, drinking it twice a week is too much, let alone drinking it every day. If you really want to remove the dampness, use fried barley and add two or three slices of ginger to neutralize the cold nature.

To put it bluntly, the human body is like the soil in a flowerpot. When growing a cactus, you cannot water it every day. When growing a pothos, you cannot expose it to the sun. Health care is essentially about adapting your pot of "flower" to the most comfortable growing environment. Is there any standard answer that can be used by everyone? When I chatted with doctors of different sects of traditional Chinese medicine before, I found that everyone’s ideas on health care are quite different: some doctors from the Jingfang school prefer “warm nourishment” and feel that most modern people do not have enough yang energy, so it is right to supplement it with more heat. ； Some doctors who believe in febrile disease do not agree with this statement, saying that summer in the south is hot and humid, and many young people suffer from internal heat. Drinking ginger tea every day can easily cause problems due to heat accumulation. ； Some doctors who advocate "taking it down" believe that people nowadays eat too much and move too little. Six out of ten people have a problem caused by blockage. It is not a deficiency at all. To supplement at the beginning will put a burden on the body. The right thing is to relieve the problem first and then supplement.

These statements are actually correct. If put in the corresponding physical constitution, it is a good strategy. If put in the wrong way, it is "poison". If your hands and feet are always cold and you get upset after eating some ice, drinking more ginger tea and moxibustion at Zusanli will really make you feel better. ； If your mouth is dry all the time, your throat hurts and you get acne after eating spicy food, and you still take Yang-tonifying prescriptions every day, then it would be strange if you don’t have a nosebleed. There is no need to stick to the standards of the nine constitutions from the beginning. Just keep in mind your daily conditions: I always feel tired, I feel confused after eating, my stool is sticky and the toilet is not clean after flushing it several times. It is most likely due to phlegm and dampness. ； I usually sigh a lot. Before I came to visit my aunt, my chest was so swollen that I couldn't touch it. I couldn't eat when I was in a bad mood. It was probably due to stagnation of energy. ； If you break into a sweat when you move even a little bit, you can't breathe after climbing two floors, and you can't even speak in a low voice, these are signs of qi deficiency.

Oh, by the way, there is another detour that many people take at the beginning: they always think that health care is a big thing that requires special time to do. They have to stock up a cupboard of health tea, do moxibustion for an hour every day, and buy various tonics to stew and eat. In fact, it’s really not the case. I now feel that the most effective ways to maintain good health are small things that can be done casually: after sitting in the office all morning in front of the computer, your shoulders are too heavy to lift. Don’t be busy filling coffee. Stand up on tiptoes, raise your hands above your head and stretch out. Then pinch the muscles on both sides of the back of your neck twice. The blood will flow and the head will not feel dizzy. It is more effective than any refreshing drink. ； Don't always think about "eat more of this because it's nutritious" when you eat. Eating until you're seven to eight percent full is much better for your spleen and stomach than forcing down half a kilogram of sea cucumbers. ； Don't lie in bed until one or two o'clock while scrolling through your mobile phone at night. Turn off the lights and go to bed half an hour earlier. It will be more effective than applying ten facial masks to replenish qi and blood.

Nowadays, I never dare to recommend health-preserving formulas to people around me casually. When anyone asks me, I first ask them to tell me about my usual state: Are there any discomforts? What will make you feel good when you eat it, and what will make you feel uncomfortable when you eat it? After all, traditional Chinese medicine health care is never a mysterious IQ tax, nor is it a magic medicine that can cure all diseases. To put it bluntly, it allows you to follow your own physical condition. If it feels comfortable, you can continue. If it feels uncomfortable, stop quickly. Finding the right rhythm that suits you is much more effective than following the prescriptions on the Internet.