How to maintain health in early autumn Adjust your diet to prevent autumn dryness
In the midst of the soggy summer heat, the summer heat season has arrived without you realizing it. “As the name implies, the summer holidays are almost over. This is the time when the three volt days have passed or are nearing their end, so it is said that “the summer heat has stopped here”. Although the summer heat gradually recede, but the weather has not yet appeared in the true sense of the autumn cool, at this time the sunny afternoon heat is no less than the summer season, which also reminds people that it is time to start autumn health.
In autumn, the temperature begins to drop, the rainfall decreases, the relative reduction in air humidity, the climate is on the dry side, the dry climate at this time of year is easy to damage the lung yin, resulting in dry mouth and throat, dry cough and less phlegm, dry skin, constipation and other symptoms, therefore, the key to autumn health is to prevent dryness.
1, “eventful autumn” to adjust sleep
Autumn is the season of alternating heat and cold, there is often “autumn without heat and cold, a rain will become winter” climate. At this time, if you are not careful, it is easy to catch a cold, many old diseases are also prone to recurrence, it is called “eventful autumn”. If you do not pay attention to health care, you will suffer from a variety of diseases, affecting health.
The Huangdi Nei Jing, the “Four Qi Tuning Shen Da Lun” chapter says “in March …… early to sleep and get up early, with the chicken.” The early sleep, in order to comply with the collection of Yin essence, in order to nourish the “collection” of Qi. The early rise, in order to comply with the Yang Qi Shu long, so that the lung gas can be stretched. In autumn, the air in the morning has a high oxygen content, the elderly should get up early to exhale the old and the new; autumn night, the temperature turns cool, the elderly should sleep early to nourish the soul, which helps to store the yin essence within the body, to maintain the harmony of yin and yang.
Recent studies have shown that getting up early in autumn can reduce the chance of thrombosis; it is also important to prevent thrombosis by lazing in bed for a few minutes and stretching the whole body before getting up. The incidence of these diseases is very high in late autumn and early winter, and the onset of the disease is mostly in the late stage of long sleep, which is because the blood flow in the cerebral blood vessels slows down during sleep and blood clots are easily formed.
Modern medical research divides sleep into 4 stages: 1. sleep-in period, 2. light sleep period, 3. medium deep sleep period, and 4. deep sleep period. When you enter stage 1 and 2 is in a hazy state, easy to be woken up, stage 3 and 4 is in a mature sleep state, generally speaking, it is not easy to be woken up when asleep. The reason why autumn health care emphasizes ensuring sleep time is because sleep has a very good health care effect. Without normal sleep, you cannot maintain normal life activities well. If you can normally enter the sleep 4 period, your brain will be able to get a good rest, to ensure the next day’s best mental state, is also one of the important methods of autumn health. Insomniacs all have the experience of not being able to sleep at night and feeling uninspired during the day. This not only affects work, study and life, but also causes other diseases, which is not good for health. Therefore, insomniacs should not rely on sleeping pills, but should strengthen self-conditioning.
First of all, it is important to understand your own sleep cycle. Everyone has their own specific sleep cycle, choose the most appropriate sleep time and way to develop a regular physiological clock.
Second, do the right amount of exercise every day, but not at night. Moderate exercise can moderate the sympathetic nervous system and is a good recipe for improving sleep disorders.
Again, choose the right food for dinner. Dinner should be more light food, such as fresh vegetables and fruits, and less stimulating food. Drinking a glass of milk with honey before going to bed also helps to sleep well. In addition, if you have the conditions, take a hot bath every night before going to bed to help you establish a regular sleep cycle. Massage can also promote sleep. Massage the solar plexus, the hundred points several times a day, and comb your hair with a health care wooden comb for 5 minutes, thus keeping your mood relaxed, relieving your worries and eliminating your thoughts and concerns. Insomniacs can lie in bed and relax their bodies.
Also note the following taboos.
(1) avoid eating before going to bed: If you eat before going to bed, the gastrointestinal and other busy, which increases their burden, the rest of the body can not get a good rest, not only affect sleep, but also harm health.
(2) avoid excessive brain before going to bed: before going to bed is to do something more relaxed, so that the brain relaxed, so it is easy to fall asleep. Otherwise, the brain is in a state of excitement, even lying in bed is difficult to sleep, over time, but also easy to insomnia.
(3) avoid emotional excitement before bed: people’s happiness and sadness are likely to cause excitement or disorder in the nerve center, making it difficult to fall asleep, and even cause insomnia.
(4) avoid talking before going to bed: because talking is easy to make the brain excitement, active thoughts, which affects sleep.
(5) avoid drinking strong tea, coffee before bed: strong tea, coffee is a stimulating drink, containing substances such as caffeine that can make people mentally in a hyperactive state. Drinking before bedtime is likely to cause difficulty in falling asleep.
Now research has confirmed that food and sleep have a certain relationship.
(1) milk: milk contains tryptophan, an essential amino acid. Drink a glass of milk before going to bed, the amount of tryptophan in it is enough to play a sleeping effect. The warm feeling of satiety from drinking milk also increases the hypnotic effect.
(2) Walnuts: Walnuts are a nourishing and strong product that can cure nervous weakness, forgetfulness, insomnia, dreaminess and poor diet. Eat some walnuts every morning and evening, beneficial to sleep.
(3) cinnamon: sweet and warm in nature, non-toxic. Cinnamon meat benefits the heart and spleen, nourishes blood and calms the mind, and can be used to treat insomnia and forgetfulness, neurasthenia, etc. Chinese medicine treatment of heart and spleen deficiency, insomnia and other dreams of the formula “gui spleen pill” on the cinnamon meat.
(4) lotus seeds: lotus seeds have the effect of nourishing the heart and tranquilizing the mind, the heart can be used for insomnia with a lotus seeds heart with a little salt, water decoction, every night before bedtime.
2, the spirit of tranquility to protect Rong Ping
Autumn sunshine reduced, flowers and trees withered, often make people touch the scene, the heart of the bleak, melancholy, irritable and other emotional changes, the elderly, especially prone to cause the feeling of dying. Therefore, there is “autumn wind and autumn rain worry people” said. This is because at the bottom of the human brain, there is a gland called pineal gland, can secrete a “melatonin”, this hormone can induce people to sleep, so that people will be depressed, depressed and unhappy. Adequate sunlight can inhibit the secretion of melatonin. But after autumn, light time reduced, especially when encountering rainy, pineal gland secrete melatonin relatively more, thyroxine, adrenaline secretion will be inhibited, the body cells will be “slack and lazy”, people’s mood is also low negative, depressed spirit.
How to prevent autumn worry? Thyroid hormone and adrenaline are the hormones that stimulate the cells to work, so on a sunny day, you should do more outdoor activities and receive the sunshine. Secondly, it is important to eat more high-protein foods such as milk, eggs, pork, mutton and beans, which can make the human brain produce some special chemicals to eliminate depression. Therefore, autumn health care to cultivate optimism, keep the spirit of tranquility, in order to avoid the sanguine gas, convergence of the spirit. At this time, going out for a trip or looking at the heights can make people feel relaxed and happy, which is a good agent to regulate bad emotions. Usually should pay attention to maintain optimism, often to the fresh air to go for a walk, exhale the old and new, in order to collect “Shen Qi”, so that the lung gas is not attacked by dryness.
3, exercise in a manner to collect qi and blood
As the saying goes: “medicine is better than food, food is better than exercise.” After experiencing the summer heat and humidity, ushered in the cool and comfortable autumn. The pleasant autumn is also the golden season for exercise, but autumn health care can not leave the principle of “collection, nourishment”, to maintain the body’s Yang Qi as the first task. Exercise should also be in line with this principle, that is, the amount of exercise should not be too much, it is advisable to choose a relaxed and gentle project. Especially the elderly, children and the weak, to prevent excessive sweating, Yang Qi depletion. However, if the usual exercise has been vegetarian, there is no need to stick to the rules, must change the usual large amount of exercise into a small amount of exercise can not.
The autumn season is hot at noon and cool in the morning and evening, although it is said that “spring covers autumn freezing”, but when you are older, you may not be able to afford to “freeze”. Therefore, when you go out in the morning to wear more clothes, practice hot, you can properly reduce some clothes. When resting, you should put on outer clothing to prevent catching a cold. If you plan to wash your face with cold water or take a cold bath in winter, you should also start at the beginning of autumn and stick to it every day without interruption; once interrupted, it will be a bit of a struggle to stick to it again.
Suitable for the autumn exercise to aerobic training is good, such as jogging, walking, hiking, etc.. The duration of the exercise to be more than half an hour is appropriate. In addition, especially good finishing exercise, it is conducive to convergence of movement outward dissipation of qi and blood. Autumn exercise recommended climbing, climbing is a good choice for outdoor exercise after autumn, it can enhance the human body’s respiratory and blood circulation function, so that people’s lung capacity and heart contraction force increases, asthma and other diseases can also play an auxiliary therapeutic role, and can reduce blood sugar, increase the number of hemoglobin and red blood cells in patients with anemia. Climbing when the temperature change is more obvious, can make people’s thermoregulatory mechanism is constantly in a state of tension, thus improving the body’s ability to adapt to environmental changes. In addition, after autumn excursions climbing can make people absorb more negative oxygen ions in the air, the human nervous system has a good nutrition and regulation of the pacifying effect.
However, it should be noted that climbing is a weight-bearing exercise, the knee joint bears the weight of the entire body, especially in the case of ascending a step joint has not been straightened, and continue to ascend another step, the knee joint has been in a half-flexed state, which will cause a greater burden on the joint. Patients with osteoarthritis are not suitable for this exercise. For the old and frail, also can not emphasize the health effects of climbing, hypertension, coronary heart disease and other patients should act according to their ability, in order to prevent unpredictable.
4, adjust the diet to prevent autumn dryness
Once the “autumn tiger” comes, it will be hot during the day. This is because the “autumn” when the three volt days have not yet reached the end, the summer heat has not yet disappeared. So, at the beginning of autumn, the weather is still very hot, people still need to prevent heat and cool down first.
Don’t remove all the food at once to clear the heat. This kind of diet can not only eliminate summer heat and sweat, but also improve appetite. Usually drink some green bean soup, or eat some lotus seed porridge, lily porridge and mint porridge is very beneficial. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, both to meet the body’s nutritional needs, but also to replenish the potassium lost by sweating. At the same time, as the weather turns cooler, cold diet should be reduced, such as watermelon, cucumber to eat less. After a summer, people’s bodies are greatly depleted, especially some elderly people, most of whom have a cold spleen and stomach. Therefore, in the choice of food, should not be too cold, such as watermelon, pear, cucumber, etc., its cold taste, eat more may hurt the spleen and stomach, so to eat less.
Chinese medicine believes that autumn “dry” gas when the order, “dry” excessive, then become dry evil, dry easy to hurt Jin, Jin Qi deficiency, dry symptoms, such as dry mouth, dry nose, dry skin, etc.. How to prevent autumn dryness? The diet should be light, and it is advisable to make up for it, not to make up for it.
First: drink more water. Drink more water has become a necessary means for us to deal with “autumn dryness”. However, if we just drink plain water, can not completely resist the negative effects brought to us by autumn dryness. After entering the body, the water will soon be evaporated or excreted out of the body, so ancient Chinese medical practitioners have provided us with the best dietary recipe to deal with autumn dryness: “salt water every day, honey soup at night.” In other words, drink plain water, water is easy to lose, if you add a little salt in plain water, the situation is very different, then it is not so easy to lose. This method, and our modern medicine to the sick supplemental saline is a reason. This is a good way to replenish the body’s moisture, but it is also a good way to prevent constipation caused by autumn dryness, which is a triple win.
Honey is a precious gift from nature to us humans, it is rich in nutrients, the main ingredient is glucose and fructose, the content of both up to 70%, in addition, also contains protein, amino acids, vitamin a, vitamin c, vitamin d, etc.. Honey has a strong body, improve intelligence, increase hemoglobin, improve heart muscle and other effects, long time to take can prolong life. The Compendium of Materia Medica states, “Honey has five functions: clearing heat, tonic, detoxifying, moistening, and relieving pain.” Modern medicine also proves that honey has curative effects on neurasthenia, hypertension, coronary artery sclerosis, lung disease, etc. Taking honey regularly in autumn is not only good for the recovery of these diseases, but also prevents the damage of autumn dryness for the human body and plays a role in moistening and nourishing the lungs. This will lead to a long and healthy life.
Second: Do not eat or eat less spicy barbecue and other foods, chili, onion, ginger, garlic, pepper and other hot and dry products, eat less fried, fatty food to prevent aggravating the symptoms of autumn dryness. These foods are hot, and lose a lot of water in cooking, easy to get on fire after eating, and aggravate the harm of autumn dryness on our body. Of course, a small amount of onion, ginger, chili as a condiment, the problem is not too big, but do not eat more. For example, ginger, which contains volatile oil, can accelerate blood circulation; at the same time contains curcumin, with the function of stimulating gastric juice secretion, excitement intestinal tract, promote digestion; ginger also contains gingerol, can reduce the occurrence of gallstones. So it has both advantages and disadvantages, but not eat more. Especially in autumn, it is best not to eat, because the dry climate in autumn, dryness hurts the lungs, plus eat spicy ginger, more likely to harm the lungs, exacerbate the body’s water loss, dryness. In ancient medical books also appeared in this “warning”: “within a year, autumn not eat ginger; within a day, not eat ginger at night.” It seems that autumn not to eat or eat less ginger and other spicy food, has long attracted the attention of the ancients, which is reasonable.
Third: according to the principle of “dry is moist”, autumn should eat more fruits and vegetables. You can properly eat more sour fruits and vegetables, eat acid to collect the. Eat more radish, lotus root, water chestnuts, pears and other moisten the lungs, nourish Yin and clear dry food. Fruits in the first push the pear, pear has a thirst, cough and phlegm, clear heat to reduce fire, moisten the lung to dry and other functions, very suitable for internal heat, lung heat cough, dry throat, dry stool people eat. Pumpkin is the most popular vegetable. With the arrival of autumn, pumpkin is in demand because autumn is a good season to eat pumpkin. The climate is dry in autumn, increase the food rich in vitamin A, vitamin E, can enhance the body’s immunity, to improve the symptoms of autumn dryness is very beneficial. Pumpkin is rich in vitamin E. The beta carotene contained in pumpkin can be absorbed by the body and converted into vitamin A. The combination of vitamin A and protein can form optoprotein, which plays an important role in vision, and the lack of carotene can lead to night blindness or even total blindness, which is more obvious in children. Chen Xiuyuan, a famous doctor of the Qing Dynasty, said, “Pumpkin is a wonderful blood tonic.” Eating pumpkin regularly can make bowel movements smooth and skin plump, especially for women, with beauty effects. There are many ways to eat pumpkin, you can cook porridge, steam food, boil, cook rice, etc. Use 200 grams of pumpkin, 150 grams of black rice, 60 grams of jujube, can make pumpkin black rice porridge, wash the pumpkin to remove the stalk and cut, take out the seeds and slice, wash the black rice, jujube, put them together in a pot, add water 1000 ml, first boil with a fierce fire, then change to a gentle fire, cook until the rice is rotten. You can also steam 150 grams of pumpkin, add 40 grams of sugar, 250 ml of milk and 1 egg in turn, and cook it into a pumpkin paste suitable for children. Do not eat pumpkin in excess. If you eat too much pumpkin and consume too much beta-carotene, the beta-carotene will be deposited in the cuticle of the epidermis, so the skin will turn into a lemon-yellow color like the nose, middle of the human body, forehead, palms, feet, around the eyes, next to the nails, around the joints, or places with more epidermal folds, which looks like jaundice, a condition known as carotenoid xanthosis. However, carotenoid xanthosis is formed because of elevated beta-carotene, and this yellow does not color the sclera. Therefore, it is sufficient to consume pumpkin, not more than one main meal per day.
Fourth: Heavy food therapy to moisten the lungs. According to Chinese medicine, dryness is an autumn evil, easy to hurt the lung and damage the lung, depleting lung yin, so autumn should pay attention to food therapy to moisten the lung. Nourishing Yin and moistening dryness is an effective way to properly consume lily, silver fungus, yam, sweet apricot, Ren Bai Guo, Luo Han Guo, honey, rock sugar, etc. Drink more porridge, “a bowl of porridge for breakfast, a bowl of soup for dinner” is also essential. Ice sugar silver ear soup, snow pear cream, lily lotus seed soup, yam lotus seed soup, gravy yam soup, etc. have a role in nourishing Yin and moistening the lungs.
Now a few examples of porridge treatment formula as follows.
Pear porridge: 2 pears, washed and chopped with core, add 100g of round-grained rice, and water to cook porridge. Because the pear has a good moistening effect, used for cooking porridge, can be used as a health food in autumn.
Chestnut porridge: 50g of chestnut, 100g of round-grained rice, add water and cook into porridge. Because chestnut has good nourishing stomach and spleen, strengthen the kidneys and tendons, blood circulation and stop bleeding, especially for the elderly back and leg pain, joint pain, etc..
Sesame porridge: 50g of sesame, 100g of japonica rice, first sesame seeds are sautéed and finely grounded, and when the japonica rice is cooked, mix in sesame seeds and eat together. Suitable for constipation, dry lung and cough, dizziness and dizziness.
Carrot porridge: Stir-fry carrot with veggie oil, add 100g of round-grained rice and water to cook the porridge. Because carrots contain carotene, the body can be converted into vitamin A after intake, suitable for people with dry skin and dry lips.
Chrysanthemum porridge: 60g of chrysanthemum, 100g of round-grained rice, first decoct the chrysanthemum soup, then cook the porridge together. Because it has the effect of dispersing wind-heat, clearing liver fire and brightening eyes, it is good for treating wind-heat colds, irritable heart and throat, red eyes and swelling pain in autumn. It also has a good effect on cardiovascular diseases.
Fifth: Note that autumn tonic should be treated according to the person and the evidence, so as to be more relevant.
1, depending on the physical condition. Such as blood deficiency patients should use more blood food, such as dates, peanuts; Yin deficiency patients should eat more wolfberry, lily of the valley, maitake, etc.. This can play the role of health care drugs.
2, depending on the work environment. If the workplace is in a dry and ventilated environment, such as outdoor or air-conditioned rooms, the body is prone to dry fire, you need to take some food with lung moistening effect. However, if you work in a cold and humid environment for a long time, it is not suitable if you then carry out the treatment of diarrhea and nourishment.
3.Depends on age. People’s age and size are different, there should be differences when taking tonic. Children are delicate, so they should not choose drugs that are cold and hot; elderly people have liver and kidney deficiencies, so they should not use warm and dry drugs; pregnant women should not use blood-lubricating drugs because they should not move the fetal energy. This is what you should pay attention to when taking tonic.
4.Depends on the region. Different regions, climate conditions, people’s habits have certain differences, human physiological activities and pathological changes will be different. For example, if it is humid, the diet is more warm and dry and spicy; if it is cold, the diet is more hot and nourishing. The same reasoning should be followed when applying food.