With the continuous high temperature weather in many places, what should we pay attention to to avoid the heat and hurt the body? What dietary taboos do I need to be aware of in summer?
△ Professor Lu Yi of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
Xiaoxiao is the fifth solar term of summer, starting from Xiaoxiao, the weather begins to really become hot, and soon it will enter Futian, not only hot weather, but also more humid. Under the influence of heat evil, people are prone to heat irritability, chest tightness, fatigue, and poor appetite. This is because the heat evil has two attributes, one is the attribute of the heat evil, which is easy to make people sweat and consume energy; The other is the attribute of dampness, which is wet and viscous and turbid, which is easy to trap the spleen, causing the spleen and stomach to be dysfunctional, and easy to be on the surface, causing the body to be heavy and the head to be heavy. Therefore, we should maintain health according to the two characteristics of summer heat and summer humidity in our lives.
In terms of diet, we can eat more heat-clearing and qi-invigorating foods according to the characteristics of summer heat, such as mung beans, winter melon, loofah, cucumber, etc., these foods are sweet and cool, suitable for eating in summer, and some bitter vegetables, such as bitter gourd, we can also eat a little in moderation, because a small amount of bitterness can strengthen the stomach and dampness; Foods such as pumpkin and corn have a certain effect of invigorating qi and strengthening the spleen, and we can also eat them as both vegetables and staple foods in the hot summer to replenish the consumption of qi and yin.
From the perspective of dietary taboos, in the summer season, the weather is hot, sweating more, and the yang energy floating out is relatively weak, and because people want to cool down, they often overeat raw and cold, so special attention should be paid not to covet a moment of coolness and overeat cold, which can easily cause the evil of cold and dampness to hurt the spleen and stomach; In addition, hot food is easy to spoil in summer, so pay attention to eating fresh and clean food.
Which organs are particularly related to the maintenance of the summer solar term? What are the traditional Chinese medicine health preservation methods?
△ Professor Lu Yi of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
We should pay special attention to the maintenance of two internal organs, one is the heart and the other is the spleen.
In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the heart is the official of the monarch, the sex belongs to fire, and its qi is in the summer. In the summer, when the yang energy is high, our heart qi is also easy to be overpowered, so it is easy to be irritable and even sleep poorly. Especially for some elderly people with underlying cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, these conditions are more common. For such people, we recommend that in the summer, especially in the summer season, you can reduce excessive physical exertion and be more static and less active. At the same time, we also need to avoid excessive worry, distraction and draining our hearts.
In addition, during the summer season, excessive sweating often hurts the heart yin, so people experience symptoms such as chest tightness, dry mouth, and shortness of breath, accompanied by fatigue. If this phenomenon occurs, especially for the frail people, if this phenomenon occurs, you can take something like Shengmai Drink or American Ginseng Tea to improve these symptoms.
In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the spleen belongs to the earth, likes dryness and dislikes dampness, and in terms of seasonal correspondence, it is through the long summer season. The physiological characteristics of the spleen are mainly transported, the main body is lightly turbid, and after the food enters the body, it must be transported by the spleen and stomach to be able to metamorphose qi and blood and nourish the whole body. In the long summer season, dampness is easy to trap the spleen, causing abnormal spleen and stomach function, such as digestive disorders, bloating, and even decreased appetite and diarrhea.
Therefore, we can consciously take more spleen-strengthening foods, such as barley, yam, tangerine peel, etc. In addition, we should avoid overeating cold foods. Very cold food often hurts the spleen and yang, resulting in cold and dampness.
Hot weather can easily trigger mood swings, how can we adjust our mood and maintain emotional stability?
△ Professor Lu Yi of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
In hot weather, emotions are indeed very prone to fluctuations, and people are easily irritable. In the summer, especially in the summer season, we must maintain a happy and calm mood, avoid excessive physical exertion, and avoid some vigorous sweating activities in high temperatures, because sweating hurts the yang, especially the heart yang, which is easy to cause palpitations, palpitations, and chest tightness.
In addition, it is recommended that when the climate is mild, such as morning or evening, you can choose some activities that are not so physically exertional, such as walking or playing Baduanjin, to help the circulation of qi and blood. In short, the first piece of advice in summer is to minimize physical exertion to ensure mental health.
The second point is to take a nap to calm your mind. During the year, the most energetic season of the year is the summer, and the most intense time of the day is noon. At noon in the summer, our TCM health regimen is to recommend that everyone be able to take a short nap, which we call "meridian sleep". Because during the noon period, from 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock, noon is the time of the Heart Sutra, and it is also the time when yang energy turns from yang to yin. During this time, if we are able to take short breaks, it can help to calm the mind. If we don't have the conditions to take a nap, we can meditate, meditate, or close our eyes to recuperate, all of which can help us to gather our minds and make us calm.
The third suggestion can be adjusted with the help of acupoint kneading or food nutrition. In the summer, when the weather is very hot, the mood is very irritable, and even when you feel flustered, we can rub two more commonly used acupuncture points, one is the Lao Gong acupoint, we can half-clench the fist, the middle finger refers to the palm depression, rub the place with a feeling of soreness, that is, the Lao Gong acupoint. Another acupuncture point is the Neiguan acupoint, which is two inches above the horizontal stripe of the palm, that is, the place of the three fingers, in the depression in the middle of the tendon. These two acupuncture points have the effect of clearing the heart and calming the nerves, nourishing the heart and calming the nerves, so we can calm the mind by kneading the acupuncture points.
In addition, you can improve your mood by brewing some medicinal tea or eating medicinal food. For example, during the summer heat, we can use some tea drinks with the same origin of medicine and food and have the effect of soothing the liver and relieving depression, such as jasmine and mint. If the heart fire is relatively high, such as always being particularly irritable, and accompanied by sores and dry mouth, we can also make some medicinal teas that clear the heart, such as bamboo leaves and lotus seed hearts. If we feel very tired and can't lift our spirits all the time, and we don't sleep well, we might as well cook porridge with wheat and longan meat to help invigorate qi and strengthen the spleen and relieve the phenomenon of lack of energy.
In short, in the summer season, we can choose a health regimen that suits us according to the characteristics of our physique to help us get through the summer season.