Chinese medicine believes that the most important thing is to take care of health is to follow the nature and the nature, so Chinese medicine pays attention to the four seasons of health, the five organs correspond to the five seasons, namely “spring nourish the liver, summer nourish the heart, autumn nourish the lungs, winter nourish the kidneys, the four seasons nourish the spleen and stomach. From the perspective of summer, we should not only take care of the heart and yin, but also pay attention to the spleen and stomach, because.
First, in terms of seasonal characteristics, we all know that summer is hot, but there is also a feature that is ignored, that is, wet, more rain in the summer, a rain on the evaporation of diffusion into the air, so that people feel stuffy, breathless, no appetite for food, etc., which may be the result of wet injury to the spleen and stomach. On the other hand, the hot, humid weather, many foods are prone to spoil and produce toxins; bacteria are also prone to multiply and grow, so summer diarrhea and other diseases are very common. These are what Chinese medicine calls “invasion of external evil”.
Second, summer heat and dampness trap the spleen, resulting in a weaker spleen and stomach function compared to other seasons. If the spleen and stomach are dysfunctional, they cannot transport water and dampness well, causing “internal dampness” to stagnate, which further affects the function of the spleen and stomach.
Third, people are easily irritable in hot and muggy weather, and irritability will affect the ability of the spleen and stomach to transport and transform. As Chinese medicine says, “When you see the disease of the liver, you know that the liver transmits the spleen”.
Fourthly, “if the spleen and stomach are injured, all diseases will be born”, so people with poor health or patients with other chronic diseases need to pay special attention to protect the spleen and stomach, for example, those with basic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are prone to accidents in summer.
What is “spleen and stomach”? What does the spleen and stomach mean in Chinese medicine? What is its role in the human body?
The Spleen and Stomach in Chinese medicine actually refers to the entire digestive system of the human body. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine says, “The Spleen and Stomach is the origin of the latter day, the source of Qi and blood biochemistry”. On the contrary, the spleen and stomach injury is the birth of all diseases, many diseases, such as face bag, or indigestion is ultimately because the spleen and stomach problems.
There is a report that proves that about 60% of diseases are caused by lifestyle, and the biggest lifestyle is diet, emotion and rest, which are the three aspects most related to the spleen and stomach, and the problems in these three aspects are also the most prominent in summer.
In fact, if the spleen and stomach do not transport well, in addition to not being able to absorb the nutrients in food, they will also produce internal dampness. According to Chinese medicine, dampness may change if not removed in time, cold into cold dampness, heat into damp heat, for example, damp heat, dampness will turn into heat if left in the body for a long time, so it is very common for dampness and heat to exist at the same time. General damp-heat is divided into two categories, heat over damp or damp over heat. If heat is heavier than damp, the heat symptoms are more obvious, showing a yellow, greasy tongue, dry mouth, bitter and sticky mouth, yellow urine, and even swollen and painful gums, dry stools and other symptoms, treatment is based on clearing heat; if damp is heavier than heat, the damp symptoms are more obvious, with a heavy head and light feet, bitter and sticky mouth and other manifestations. Clinically, a comprehensive judgment of the spleen and stomach function is also needed through TCM examination and diagnosis.
Why is it important to prevent and remove dampness in the summer to nourish the spleen and stomach?
The dampness in summer weather is what Chinese medicine calls external dampness, and in addition, dampness has internal dampness. Generally speaking, external dampness is a product of seasonal environmental changes, while internal dampness is a pathological product, and Chinese medicine believes that internal dampness is often related to the function of the spleen and stomach.
The spleen is responsible for transport and transformation, including “transporting water and grain essence” and “transporting water and dampness”, and internal dampness will damage the function of the spleen and stomach, while malfunction of the spleen and stomach will also produce internal dampness, and the two are mutually influential. In terms of diet, if a person eats too much cold food, has poor digestion or overeats, eats too much greasy and sweet food, and drinks too much alcohol, the spleen will not be able to “transport and transform” well, and the food eaten and drunk cannot be transformed into nutrients to supply the various departments of the body, and if these excess things are not discharged in time, then there will certainly be a possibility of “turbidity” in the body. “turbid” substances exist, which results in “internal dampness”.
In terms of emotions, many people have this experience, angry bored do not want to eat, or an angry want to eat, which is an indication of the spleen and stomach malfunction. Eating more means that the stomach has heat, and not wanting to eat means that the spleen and stomach are weak and the qi is stagnant. Once the spleen and stomach function is out of order, it will affect its transport function, but also easy to produce internal dampness.
What are the things that are most likely to hurt the spleen and stomach in summer?
1, eat cold drinks
Once the summer, cold drinks will enter the hot period. Some people eat up without restraint, and cold into the body. Yang Li pointed out that the cold injury to the spleen, a common manifestation is the white tongue, light abdominal pain, diarrhea, heavy nausea and vomiting.
The way to relieve the discomfort is to drink some ginger soup, if nausea and vomiting, you can also drink some patchouli water. Experts suggest that it is best to eat cold drinks in the mouth for a while to reduce the stimulation of the spleen and stomach.
2, blowing air conditioning
The cold air blowing out of the air conditioner is external cold, also bad for the spleen and stomach. Many people in the air conditioning, electric fan environment, prone to cold stomach pain, and even diarrhea, and external cold invasion of the spleen and stomach related. Nowadays, many white-collar workers wear thick coats in air-conditioned rooms, which is firstly very unfriendly, and secondly, the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor is too great, which makes it easy to catch a cold.
Replace the air conditioner with a traditional hand fan, the healthiest. Before work, the air conditioning temperature should be turned up or turned off early, to adapt to the environment after work.
3, wear clothes to show the waist and abdomen
Summer streets, many fashionable girls wearing open-neck dresses, the cost of catching up is the spleen and stomach injury. Yang Li said that the navel is a very important acupuncture point, named “Shen Que point”, and behind it there is the life of the door point. The naked waist and abdomen will make these two important points attacked by cold evil, not only hurt the spleen and stomach, but also the kidneys and bones. When sleeping at night, this part must also be covered.
4, drink too much herbal tea
Authentic herbal tea contains cool herbal ingredients, such as chrysanthemum, honeysuckle, lotus leaves, etc., have the effect of removing fire, internal heat, fire people can drink some appropriate. But for people whose spleen and stomach are already cold, drinking too much herbal tea is “adding insult to injury”. Experts recommend that herbal tea should not be long-term drinking, menstruating women, mothers-to-be, maternity, young children should not drink more.
5, do not eat the main food
Once in the summer, many people have a bad appetite, do not like to eat staple foods. Chinese medicine says “grains for nourishment”, do not eat staple foods, the spleen and stomach will become increasingly weak.
If you have a poor appetite, you can eat appropriate appetizing food, such as Sichuan kimchi, or boil some health porridge, such as mung beans and barley porridge, yam and lentils rice porridge, sweet potato and oatmeal porridge are good choices.
6, vegetables only eat raw, not cooked
Hot days in the kitchen cooking is a kind of torment, so many people choose not to fire the cold dishes or eat directly raw. But cold dishes are cold, raw food is not easy to digest and hurt the spleen and stomach. Experts believe that there must be a day of cooking hot dishes, melons, beans rich in nutrients, summer can be appropriate to eat more.
7, addicted to spicy heavy taste
Summer night on the streets, spicy crawfish, spicy hot and other heavy snacks are the favorite of many people. Summer dampness is heavy, eat some spicy food to help dehumidify, appetite and wake up the spleen, but eat too much will stimulate the mucous membrane of the mouth, esophagus and stomach, easy to cause stomach fire, long mouth sores, when you can drink some mung bean soup or eat some watermelon to clear the fire.
8, stay up late
Summer days are long, coupled with the heat, many people are used to sleeping late. Staying up late hurts yin, easily caused by yin deficiency, qi deficiency, not only hurt the spleen and stomach, the five organs are very injured. To maintain health, you must sleep well “meridian sleep”, that is, sleep at night can not be later than 11:00, and then sleep for half an hour at noon, only beneficial to health.
9, hungry meal full meal
The spleen and stomach like a regular life, regular rationing, chew slowly, is the key to maintaining the spleen and stomach. If you are often hungry a full meal, eating while walking or eating in the talk, over time will inevitably lead to a weak spleen and stomach, prone to gastritis, gastric ulcer and other diseases.
10, a lot of alcohol
Alcohol will also stimulate the gastric mucosa, and will increase the burden on the liver, which is extremely detrimental to the spleen and stomach.
How should I take care of my health in summer, from diet and emotions?
The key to summer health is to nourish the spleen and stomach, so that the spleen and stomach can function within normal limits, transporting water and dampness out and absorbing nutrients in. Therefore, we should start with the factors that affect the function of the spleen and stomach.
In terms of diet, we should pay attention to the following aspects.
1. Emphasis on removing dampness and nourishing the stomach
It is advisable to eat a light diet, less greasy, spicy food, appropriate choice of summer, damp, spleen food, such as mung beans, barley, winter melon, yam, etc., of which barley can be said to be the best food to eliminate summer heat and dampness, you may want to put some porridge, or boil some barley water, take a bottle when you go out, as a drink to drink. Beware of misconceptions: drinking beer in the summer is the most pleasant, the weather is hot, drink a few glasses of beer down, that is a cool. People generally believe that beer is the main raw material with barley malt and rice, can be nourishing stomach. However, drinking too much beer not only does not nourish the stomach, but also hurts the stomach, especially cold beer. Beer itself contains alcohol, alcohol hurts the stomach, no doubt, and the body’s alcohol concentration is high, the body produces heat, not only will not relieve the symptoms of heat, but also aggravate sweating, dry mouth, etc.
2, the diet should be regular
Generally speaking is, breakfast eat well, Chinese food eat full, dinner eat less, eat regular, each meal eat seven or eight minutes full, otherwise too much food is easy to increase the digestive burden, so that the spleen and stomach’s ability to transport. After the meal, you should eat some fruits such as hawthorn, umeboshi and papaya to strengthen the spleen and eliminate food. As the saying goes, eating “bitter” in hot weather is better than taking tonic, so we often eat bitter melon soup or bitter melon dishes, which can harmonize the spleen and stomach, clear fatigue, wake up the brain and refresh the mind, and have a certain preventive effect on heat stroke and gastrointestinal diseases. The summer heat can also be appropriate to drink some cool drinks, such as sour plum soup, chrysanthemum tea, etc.. However, cold drinks should be moderate, not cold and cold products, the spleen and stomach cold condensation is stagnant, such as a large number of ice cream, ice water, etc., because the spleen is the main summer, addicted to cold products will damage the spleen Yang and affect the transport function of the spleen and stomach, resulting in food and water transportation malfunction and morbidity. In addition, eat some vinegar, which can not only promote the appetite, but also inhibit and kill germs to prevent gastrointestinal diseases. Daily supplement more water, warm boiled water is good.
3.Pay attention to dietary hygiene
Summer is the high incidence of bacterial dysentery, acute gastroenteritis, food poisoning and other gastrointestinal diseases, so the prevention of gastrointestinal diseases is particularly important. First of all, we should pay attention to dietary hygiene, strictly do a good job of cooking utensils, eating utensils and food hygiene, raw and cooked food should be separated, cold dishes can add more raw garlic sterilization; secondly, try not to eat spoiled leftovers, leftovers, food should be fully heated, placed too long should not eat again. In addition, brussel sprouts are more popular dishes in summer, if the people who do brussel sprouts do not pay attention to hygiene, the people who eat them will be easily infected with germs, so it is recommended to buy brussel sprouts and other cooked food from regular supermarkets or restaurants.
4, the emotional aspect, emphasizing the regulation of emotions
The weather is getting hot, people are inevitably irritable. Chinese medicine believes that irritation and depression, resulting in qi depression and liver, liver loss, cross-reverse offense stomach, there will be a loss of appetite, bloating pain, diarrhea or constipation alternately and other digestive system symptoms. So daily work and study, to respond to the characteristics of the long day and short night in summer, timely adjustment of their plans and rhythm of life. In your spare time, listen to music, think about the good things, or go for a walk in the park, outings, as far as possible, so that the body and spirit to get full relaxation, as the saying goes: “the heart is quiet and naturally cool”.
5, exercise for the stomach
Although the summer is hot, but we better ensure that every morning or evening half an hour to an hour or so of slow exercise. Because appropriate physical exercise can enhance gastrointestinal function, so that the secretion of digestive juices increase, promote the digestion of food and nutrient absorption, and can improve blood circulation in the gastrointestinal tract, promote metabolism, delay the aging of the digestive system, such as swimming, walking, yoga and other “light exercise” are good alternatives. In addition, taijiquan is a combination of static and dynamic, rigid and flexible, undulating, and in line with the natural summer law of Yin and Yang, can be the best summer health exercise.