​Teacher's Health Tips for Traditional Chinese Medicine in Summer

Health preservation is a favorite choice of many people. Health preservation is very helpful to all aspects of the body, and long-term health preservation can also prolong life. However, it should be noted that when maintaining health, it must be done correctly, so that it will not cause harm to the body. What are the common knowledge of Chinese medicine health preservation in summer? There are also many aspects, and health preservation in summer must be persisted.

Summer TCM health tips:

Among the four seasons, summer is the season with the strongest Yang energy. The climate is hot and full of vitality. For people, this is a period of active metabolism. The body's Yang energy is radiating outwards, while Yin is hidden inside. The circulation of Qi and blood also becomes correspondingly strong and active on the body's surface. In order to adapt to the hot climate, the pores of the skin open to allow sweat to be discharged. Through sweating, the body temperature is regulated and the body adapts to the hot climate. When talking about how to maintain health in summer, Wang Qishi pointed out in "Lixu Yuanjian": "Prevent heat in summer, and seek coolness due to heat, and prevent dampness in the long summer." The basic principles of health preservation in summer cannot be more clearly pointed out here: prevent heatstroke in midsummer; prevent dampness in the long summer; at the same time, pay attention to protecting the body's yang energy, and prevent excessive greed for coolness due to avoiding the heat, thereby damaging the yang energy in the body, which is the "nourishing yang in spring and summer" pointed out in "Huangdi Neijing". In other words, even in the hot summer, we still need to pay attention to protecting the body's yang energy.

Heat is the main air in summer, which is transformed from the hot air and only occurs in summer. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that heat is a yang evil, which is ascending and dispersing in nature and can easily consume qi and damage body fluids. This is its pathological characteristic. When summer heat invades the human body, it is common to see the pores open and excessive sweating. Excessive sweating leads to a decrease in body fluids, which is the key to damaging the body fluids. When the body fluids are damaged, symptoms such as thirst, dry lips and mouth, dry and hard stools, yellow urine, irritability, and depression will appear. If not treated in time and the discharge is excessive, the damage to body fluids can further develop, and exceeding the limit of physiological compensation will inevitably damage the vital energy. At this time, a series of symptoms of Yang Qi escape such as fatigue, shortness of breath, laziness may appear, and even sudden fainting, unconsciousness and death may occur. From this point of view, heatstroke prevention in summer should not be taken lightly.

Humidity is the main air of the long summer. In many places in my country, especially in the south, it is both hot and rainy. What people call damp diseases are more common in this season. The air is most humid during this season, and most people become ill due to exposure to dampness, sweat on clothes, wading in the rain, or living in a damp place.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that dampness is a yin evil that can harm the body's yang energy. Because of its heavy, turbid and sticky nature, it can easily block the flow of Qi, making diseases lingering and difficult to cure. This is the pathological characteristic of dampness. Not only that, dampness can also damage spleen yang, because the spleen likes dryness and hates dampness. Once spleen yang is suppressed by dampness, it may lead to the spleen's inability to function normally and qi stagnation. Clinically, symptoms include abdominal distension, loss of appetite, loose stools, and cold limbs. Especially when the spleen's function is out of balance, fluid is retained and edema often forms, with bags under the eyes.

Traditional Chinese medicine also believes that dampness is heavy and turbid, so after being infected by dampness, people often experience symptoms such as heaviness, fatigue, and a heaviness in the head. Because dampness is sticky, damage is often difficult to cause. If it invades the skin, tendons, and bones, it is often heavy and sore and fixed in one place, so it is called "zhebi". He said that generally speaking, diseases caused by dampness have a long course of illness, such as damp-heat disease, which often has clinical features that are difficult to distinguish like oil in flour. Rheumatism mixed with other diseases often causes recurring rheumatic arthritis that invades the skin and joints. The pathological products of internal dampness diseases are often foul and unclean, such as exudates from skin lesions and secretions from damp and hot areas, which are sticky and smelly. Therefore, people often call dampness "tangible evil" and its nature is foul and turbid.

Since the formation of dampness is often related to the evaporation of moisture from the ground, its harm to people often starts from the lower part. Clinically, lower limb ulcers, athlete's foot, leucorrhea and other symptoms are often related to dampness.

"Also prevent heat stroke and take coolness", this is to warn people that in the hot summer, people must pay attention to protecting the yang energy in the body, just as the "Huangdi Neijing" said: "Spring and summer nourish yang", so how to pay attention to protecting yang energy in summer?

The first point is that people should not only care about immediate comfort and avoid heat too much and seek coolness, such as spending the night outdoors in the cold, or drinking cold drinks excessively, which will cause internal deficiency of Qi, thus allowing summer heat and wind-cold evils to take advantage of the opportunity to enter. When enjoying the cool, special attention should be paid to covering the abdomen. In many rural areas, people like to wear "belly bands", which is in line with the principles of health preservation. The Book on Caring for the Elderly and Longevity of Parents points out, “In summer, the weather is hot and the ground is hot. Do not sit under the eaves or through gaps or broken windows to cool down, to prevent thieves from blowing the wind.” The Theory of Health Preservation also points out, “Do not sleep in the open air under the stars and the moon. Even if you fall asleep, ask someone to fan you to cool you down.” These are all valuable health-preserving experiences, and are in line with the spirit of “nourishing yang” in summer. In summer health preservation, the reason why the ancients proposed to maintain Yang energy is that the key is to let the summer heat evaporate outside, sweat is secreted, and the pores are open, making the body most vulnerable to the invasion of wind, cold and dampness.

Secondly, be careful to prevent air-conditioning disease: the so-called air-conditioning disease refers to a disease caused by people working and living in an environment with air-conditioning equipment for a long time. In mild cases, patients may suffer from facial neuralgia, lower limb soreness, fatigue, headache, back pain, susceptibility to colds and gastrointestinal diseases of varying degrees; in severe cases, patients may develop skin diseases and cardiovascular diseases. The various symptoms are more obvious in the elderly.

There are two reasons why air-conditioning disease occurs:

The first point is that since people go in and out of air-conditioned environments many times a day, the human body undergoes the conditioned reflex of cold adaptation many times, which prompts the sympathetic nerves to secrete a large amount of adrenaline, which invisibly increases the burden on the heart. In traditional Chinese medicine theory, it has long been said that it is best to nourish the heart in summer, because the five internal organs correspond to the five seasons, and specifically in summer the heart corresponds to it. In summer, people do more outdoor activities and the amount of activity is relatively increased. In addition, the days are long and the nights are short, and the weather is hot, so people sleep less than in other seasons. Therefore, the body consumes more energy, blood circulation speeds up, and more sweat is produced. It is obvious that the heart is under heavy burden in this season. If we do not pay attention to maintaining the heart, it is easy to cause damage to the heart. From the above, we can see that people repeatedly entering and exiting air-conditioned environments in the summer is not good for the heart, and the heart belongs to fire, so hurting the heart will hurt the yang energy.

The second point is that people who have been in an air-conditioned environment for a long time will experience a series of physiological reactions in their bodies once they enter a hot natural environment. In addition to the rapid rise in body temperature, the skin begins to sweat, and sweaty skin often sticks to many bacteria. When people return to the air-conditioned environment, their skin and blood vessels shrink immediately, and bacteria can easily enter the human body through the open pores and cause infection.

After understanding the basic knowledge of TCM health care in summer, you should pay attention to these when maintaining your health in summer. Moreover, you should also make reasonable arrangements for your movements during the process. Summer exercise is very helpful in digesting excess body fat and achieving good weight loss results. It is a good choice for people who want to lose weight.