How to understand dampness and spleen?
According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, a year is divided into five seasons, and a "long summer" is drawn between late summer and early autumn. Time specifically refers to the four solar terms, namely, Daxia, beginning of autumn, Chushu and Bailu. After beginning of autumn, the climate also has "autumn tiger", which is regarded as an extension of summer, so it is called long summer. Humidity is the characteristic of long summer climate, which is particularly easy to damage people's spleen and stomach function and infringe on skin and bones. Therefore, experts stressed that long summer health, pay attention to dehumidification and spleen. 1 How to understand dampness evil According to the five elements theory of traditional Chinese medicine, dampness evil in midsummer corresponds to the spleen in the five internal organs of human body. Therefore, we should guard against the invasion of "damp evil" in disease prevention and pay attention to dehumidification and spleen strengthening in health preservation. What is pathogenic dampness? Traditional Chinese medicine believes that wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness and fire are six different climate changes in nature, which are called "six qi". When the climate change is abnormal, beyond the adaptability of human body, or the human body is not healthy enough to adapt to climate change, the six qi becomes the pathogenic factor and becomes the "six yin". Six evils are mostly related to seasons, and long summer corresponds to wet evil. Moisture has the characteristics of heavy turbidity, viscosity and descending, and it is most likely to hurt spleen soil. At the turn of summer and autumn, moist heat fumigation, rising water vapor, the most abundant water, so summer is often wet. Diseases caused by dampness often manifest as heavy feelings. The so-called wet and turbid, just like the common summer-damp cold. In addition to the common cold symptoms, patients will also have symptoms such as dizziness and heavy limbs. The so-called wet sticky, wet disease symptoms are not only stagnation, but also slow onset, lingering course, typical eczema, often repeated attacks, not easy to cure. The so-called wet trend often hurts the lower part of the human body, such as edema and eczema, and the lower limbs are more common. Health warning: summer is sultry and humid, so special attention should be paid to diet and daily life, and humidity can be prevented and avoided from the aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation. Clothing: change clothes in time after sweating or getting wet; If the clothes are not completely dry, don't rush to collect the clothes in the cupboard. Underwear, clothes for the elderly and children should be thoroughly dried in a ventilated and sunny place to avoid getting wet. What is the relationship between spleen and dampness? Dampness is closely related to spleen. Spleen is one of the five internal organs of TCM, and the five elements belong to soil, and spleen and soil correspond to long summer. Transporting food and water is an important function of the spleen. Spleen is characterized by dryness and dampness. If external dampness invades the human body, it will affect the transport and transformation function of the spleen. The sultry weather makes people prone to abdominal distension, loss of appetite and burnout, which is caused by "wet spleen". On the other hand, if the spleen is weak and the function of transporting body fluid is abnormal, it will lead to stagnation of body fluid in the body and produce pathological products such as water dampness and phlegm turbidity, which is called "spleen dampness". It is generally believed that dampness gathers in water, water stops at drinking, and drinking condenses into phlegm. Shi Shui Tanyin refers to the product of abnormal water-liquid metabolism in human body, that is, disorder of water-liquid metabolism in human body. Once produced, phlegm can cause different parts of the whole body with the flow of qi, which can occur all year round, and slowly hurt people in a subtle way, causing numbness of limbs, hemiplegia, chest tightness, heartache, dizziness and other symptoms. Because of its diverse clinical symptoms, there is a saying that "all diseases are due to phlegm". Health advice food: the diet should be light and easy to digest; Don't eat too much fat and greasy food and eat less sweets; White gourd, coix seed, crucian carp, adzuki bean, etc. Conducive to resolving damp heat in the body, so you can eat more appropriately; In the rain or water, you can drink some brown sugar and Jiang Shui to help drive away the moisture and cold in your body; Eating too many cold foods, such as watermelon and bitter gourd, and eating too many cold drinks will hurt the spleen and stomach, affect its transport function, promote internal dampness and be harmful to health. 3. Dampness pathogen is divided into cold dampness and damp heat, which is manifested as dampness resistance, cold dampness or damp heat. If it is steamed in a high temperature and high humidity environment, or in hot weather in summer, it is mostly caused by damp heat; Or live in a cold and humid place, which is caused by eating cold, mostly cold and wet. Anyone with white face and yang deficiency will become cold and wet once he feels wet evil; People with red face and yin deficiency will become damp and hot once they feel damp evil. People with weak spleen and stomach often feel cold and wet; Usually, those who accumulate heat in their stomachs will feel more heat and humidity. Cold products are used too much, and dampness is easy to be cold; Excessive use of heat-drying agent can easily lead to the warming of dampness. Cold and dampness injure spleen yang, while damp and heat injure stomach yin. In clinical manifestations, there are more patients with cold and dampness than patients with damp and heat. Health advice: open the window less in foggy or sauna days; When the sun is shining, take out the wet bedding to dry; You can use the dehumidification function of the air conditioner to dry the living room environment, but you should blow the air conditioner less and don't set the temperature too low; Don't sit on wet stools, stones and grass; Dry the water as soon as possible after bathing, and let your hair dry naturally or completely before going to bed. 4 Eliminating dampness, transporting spleen and strengthening body resistance to treat this disease, one is eliminating dampness, and the other is transporting spleen. Eliminating dampness means eliminating pathogenic factors, eliminating the causes of stagnation of spleen and stomach, and transporting spleen means restoring the function of trapped spleen and stomach. Eliminating dampness helps to transport the spleen, and transporting the spleen also helps to remove dampness. Wind medicine can overcome dampness, dry medicine can dispel dampness, and weak medicine can permeate dampness. Damp-heat syndrome, bitter cold is dry; Syndrome of cold and dampness, acrimony and dryness and heat. Dampness of spleen and stomach: if the symptoms are drowsiness, heavy limbs, or heavy head, chest tightness, abdominal distension, loss of appetite, sticky and tasteless mouth, loose stool, etc. Aromatization wet method should be adopted. Prescription: Huoxiang Zhengqi Powder. Damp-heat stagnation: if you have abdominal pain, uncomfortable stool, bitter and sticky mouth, thirst, heavy limbs, etc. In other words, patients with hot colds often have symptoms such as poor sweating, sweating due to heat, and should clear away heat and dry dampness. Gardenia, Faxia, Magnolia Officinalis, Acorus gramineus, Rhizoma Phragmitis and Douchi. Dampness due to spleen deficiency: If the limbs are sleepy, abdominal distension is full, you like rubbing, loose stool, fatigue, anorexia and greasy, you should strengthen the spleen and eliminate dampness. Prescription: Xiangsha Liujunzi Decoction, etc. Health warning: Proper exercise and sweating are beneficial to the discharge of moisture in the body. Walking, jogging, yoga, playing Tai Ji Chuan and other sports can make people sweat slightly without sweating, which is a good way for the human body to dehumidify in the long summer.