Stress, staying up late and sweating a lot can all lead to a lack of stomach yin. The weather is heating up, and it is also important to prevent the stomach from getting cold and not to overindulge in cold drinks. In today’s stressful work and fast-paced life, having a good stomach and eating three meals a day comfortably seems to have become a luxury for many people. Stomach pain, bloating, nausea, belching, can not eat …… various light or heavy gastrointestinal symptoms, has long accompanied the life of many modern urbanites as a shadow.
In the huge number of chronic gastric disease patients, a considerable number of patients are actually the root of the disease is stomach yin deficiency. According to Chinese medicine, the stomach is an organ that “likes to moisten and is not dry”. Many urbanites often stay up late, sleep poorly, coupled with long-term mental tension, usually too hot diet, and these will unknowingly deplete the body’s stomach yin.
Case.
Mr. Wang, in his 40s, is the backbone of an academic research institution and often stays up late writing articles. Although he has no major illnesses, but in recent years, he always feels uncomfortable stomach, often vaguely painful. Sometimes he feels hungry, but he can’t eat anything.
When Mr. Wang went to the Department of Gastroenterology of the Second Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province for medical treatment, the doctor found that his tongue was red with little moss, which was an obvious deficiency of stomach yin. Since the gastroscopy showed that he only had chronic superficial gastritis, the doctor decided to regulate him with Chinese medicine only. After about a month of drinking “Yiku Tang”, Mr. Wang’s stomach discomfort disappeared.
A. Know the “stomach”
Characteristic 1: Stomach is a “dry earth”, “like to moisten the evil dry”
Reminder: stay up late, stress can hurt the stomach Yin
”Nowadays, urban people work under great pressure, from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, whether it is often stay up late, sleep quality is not high, or the spirit of long-term tension, may lead to the human stomach yin deficiency,” explained Professor Ge Yan, director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Guangdong Second Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, from the five elements, the stomach is “dry earth”, “like moistening and evil dryness”, “like dry land, want to have water to moisten”.
From the aspect of sleep, “thick sleep is the method of nourishing Yin” is a famous saying in Chinese medicine, “a deep, sweet sleep can nourish the Yin of the whole body”, explained Goyan, if the quality of sleep is not high, it is easy to “secretly deplete Yin liquid “. The sweat also belongs to the “yin liquid”, “many people can not eat in the hot summer, and sweating, damage to the yin liquid also has a lot to do with”.
At the same time, Chinese medicine believes that the relationship between the liver and the stomach is also very close, the spleen and stomach transport function depends on the draining of liver qi, “and tension, anxiety, depression, irritation and other emotions are prone to liver injury, resulting in liver qi is not draining, spleen loss of transport, easy to appear a series of digestive symptoms, such as no appetite, bloating, stomach pain, vomiting, belching, etc.”.
Characteristic 2: The stomach is the “official of the granary”, the main “receiving”, “decomposition”
Reminder: over-eating is easy to block the digestive “channel”
The spleen and stomach doctrine occupies a very important position in the entire academic system of Chinese medicine, “Chinese medicine believes that the spleen and stomach is the origin of the latter, the source of biochemistry of qi and blood”. The stomach is considered to be the “official of the granary”, which is like the granary of the human body, and is responsible for “accepting and decomposing”, not only receiving food, but also grinding it. The spleen, on the other hand, is responsible for transporting and transforming food. Only when the spleen and stomach work together to “transport and transform water and grain essence” can qi and blood be formed.
”In terms of function, the stomach ‘to pass for use, to descend for smooth’,” explained Goyan, as food into the small intestine of the passage, the stomach can only function if it is smooth. If you eat too much, food in the stomach “traffic jam”, the channel will be blocked, can not play the role of grinding, digestion, transmission; and if you lie down immediately after the meal, no moderate activity, food is not easy to “descend” to the small intestine, the body can not be truly Digestion and absorption, “when the food is retained in the stomach, naturally easy to cause vomiting, flatulence or belching.
Stomach Yin deficiency
Symptoms: vague pain in the stomach, want to eat, can not eat
”Many patients who come to the clinic say they feel like a balloon or a big stone in their stomach, but there is nothing there when they feel it. But there is nothing there when you feel it.”
”Dry mouth and desire to drink are also common sensations in these patients,” she said, noting that because of the lack of stomach yin to digest and absorb, these patients often feel they don’t want to eat or can’t eat much, and are hungry for food.
”Stomach yin deficiency has another symptom, that is, the tongue is red, less moss”, Go Yan analysis said, Chinese medicine, the tongue moss is only from the stomach up steam, “the normal tongue should be thin white moss, a thin layer covering the tongue, and more moist, if the stomach yin deficiency, then less moss, less fluid, dry mouth “.
Food therapy: Dendrobium stewed meatloaf, lily stewed with rock sugar
For people with insufficient stomach yin, what are the simple ways to nourish “stomach yin”? Go Yan said, dendrobium, lily, Huai Shan, yucca are all herbs that can nourish stomach yin, the public can choose a single herb or two with the soup according to their tastes, such as fresh lily crystal sugar water, Huai Shan lean meat soup, dendrobium stewed meat cake, etc.
For people with insufficient stomach yin and dry stools, you can also use chicken with yucca, “to nourish stomach yin while playing a laxative role”; for people with insufficient stomach yin and loose stools, it is better to use Huai Shan soup, which also has the effect of strengthening the spleen and stopping diarrhea.
The Chinese medicine formula for nourishing stomach yin, “Yixing Stomach Soup”, consists of 15 grams of sage, 15 grams of dendrobium, 15 grams of maitake, 15 grams of yucca and 15 grams of rock sugar, which can be added or subtracted according to different patients’ conditions.
Reminder: Patients with stomach cold should eat less cold melons and fruits
Recently, the temperature in Guangzhou has exceeded 30 degrees Celsius for many days, making people feel that the footsteps of the hot summer are approaching. Goyan reminded the public, in the prevention of heat, must pay attention to prevent the stomach cold, “if greedy cold drink cold, drink too much iced drinks, or eat too much ice cream or blowing air conditioning fan, even if the time did not cause discomfort, a long time, easy to leave the root of the cold guest stomach disease”.
In addition, the plain stomach cold and damp patients, in the summer, but also special attention, do not eat too much Sydney, watermelon, peach and other cold melons and fruits. Herbal tea is also only suitable for people who have fire is fire-heat evidence, and is not suitable for people with a cold spleen and stomach.
”Too cold, too hot, too acidic, too spicy, too greasy food is not good for the stomach,” reminded Goyan, wine is also a very strong food for stomach irritation, people with stomach problems should drink less, otherwise it is like pouring oil on the fire.
Three: protect the “stomach”
Experts say you know: four “enemies” how to hurt the stomach
Enemy 1: do not eat on time
Consequences: the stomach “digest themselves”
Typical stomach disease: peptic ulcer
Go Yan said, the human body is a biological clock, stomach acid will also be secreted with the biological clock. “When it’s time to eat, the secretion of gastric acid will become relatively more, at this time we should eat, so that the stomach acid to play a normal role in digesting food”.
She explained that if there is no food for our stomach to digest at this time, it will “do nothing” and start to “digest itself”, “it will be used to protect their own stomach wall, gastric mucosa are digested, and over time It will cause peptic ulcers”.
Enemy 2: overeating
Consequences: food in the stomach “traffic jam”
Typical stomach problems: stomach bloating, vomiting
The stomach is a hollow sac-like organ, to have a certain space, in order to peristaltic movement, if you eat too much at once, the food is blocked in the stomach, it will be like a “traffic jam”, can not move.
”Although the food to the stomach, but can not pass through the pylorus, can not continue to transport down to the small intestine, and the small intestine is the real absorption of nutrients place. If food is trapped in the stomach, it will easily cause bloating, vomiting and belching.
Enemy 3: swallowed in one gulp
Consequences: the stomach works too hard
Typical gastric disease: atrophic gastritis
”Many patients who come to the clinic with atrophic gastritis, ask them about their eating habits and find that most have the characteristics of eating too fast”, said Goyan, the human pylorus is the gateway to the stomach, eat food into the stomach only to be ground into 1 to 3 millimeters of celiac disease, in order to enter the small intestine through the pylorus. Although the stomach has the function of grinding food, the chewing of the teeth and the digestive enzymes in saliva play an equally important role in digesting food. “If the teeth can hold the first gate, chew slowly when eating, it can greatly reduce the burden on the stomach. Otherwise, the stomach works too hard, the glands inside are constantly destroyed, and eventually gastric atrophy will occur.”
Enemy 4: mental stress
Consequences: sympathetic excitement
Typical stomach disease: irritable bowel syndrome
Stress, depression or irritation is also a major “enemy” of the stomach, “more and more research has found that there are centers in the brain that affect the function of the stomach and intestines,” said Goyan, when people are too nervous, can cause sympathetic excitement, which triggering contraction and spasm of the stomach wall muscles, or impaired blood supply to the stomach wall, causing pain. Chinese medicine believes that depressed anger hurts the liver and liver qi offends the stomach, which can cause stomach problems, bloating or belching.
”For example, some patients with irritable bowel syndrome, a nervous to go to the toilet; there are also candidates who have stomach pain when it comes to the exam, in fact, there is no inflammation, often after the exam, relaxed mood does not hurt.”