This paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, the basic principle of Chinese medicine is introduced, that is, why ginger and foot bath work, then the function and specific usage of ginger are introduced, and finally the importance and related problems of foot bath are introduced.
For thousands of years, the essence of Chinese medicine in treating diseases and preventing diseases is to replenish qi and blood and dredge meridians. Just as massage, massage and moxibustion are all based on the meridian theory invented by the ancients, dietotherapy is based on the attributes, effects and taboos of various foods summarized by the ancients.
Let's start with qi and blood. Chinese medicine believes that the standard of a person's health is sufficient blood. The organs of the human body, like people, are full and energetic when working. And blood is the "meal" of organs.
When various organs of the body can eat a big bowl of dry rice every day, they are full of enthusiasm and do a good job. When the total blood volume of the human body is not enough, that is, when the food intake of organs is reduced, although it is still running, it is easy to be tired, weak and resistant to decline because it is not full, which is often called "sub-health". Over time, due to insufficient blood supply to various organs, various diseases will lead to the upper body.
For example, if the brain is not full, it will cause dizziness and memory loss. In severe cases, cerebral ischemia and cerebral infarction will occur. After a long time, the brain will become "thin", and brain atrophy and Alzheimer's disease will also occur.
What is qi? "Blood is the mother of qi, and qi is the handsome blood". Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) explains that qi consists of innate essence, essence of water valley and inhaled natural clear gas. Qi has a strong vitality and keeps moving. Traditional Chinese medicine uses the movement of qi to explain life activities. The main functions of qi are: rising, warming, maintaining, consolidating and gasifying, that is, promoting the generation and operation of blood and body fluids and promoting various physiological activities of viscera and tissues.
The manifestation of water in our human body is blood, which nourishes our whole body. When the temperature drops, the blood flow slows down, leading to stagnation and stagnation. If the temperature drops further, blood will coagulate and people will face death. The driving force of blood flow is temperature, which makes blood circulate throughout our body, maintains the physiological activities of various organs and ensures life.
Congenital essence actually represents the "kidney" of congenital foundation. The kidney is yang, just like the fire in the human body, which warms the whole body. The reason why children are called "the body of pure yang" is because the kidney is full of qi, which means that the fire is flourishing and the metabolism is vigorous, and they are always in a state of growth and development. However, when the kidney-qi of the elderly is weak, the body temperature is low, the fire is insufficient, the circulatory metabolism slows down, and the body gradually weakens. As the Huangdi Neijing said, "If the sun and the moon are out of position, they will die", which means: "The sun is like the sun in the sky, giving light and being warmer than nature. Without it, everything can't survive. If there is no yang in the human body, the body will lose the vitality of metabolism and it will be dark. In this way, life stops. "
Invigorating qi means tonifying kidney, warming kidney, keeping warm and dispelling cold. Sufficient qi and blood means sufficient blood, high quality, sufficient kidney qi, high basal body temperature, normal function of various organs, vigorous metabolism and unobstructed blood vessels. Deficiency of both qi and blood refers to deficiency of qi and blood in the body, poor quality, deficiency of kidney qi, low basal body temperature, low organ function, slow metabolism and poor blood circulation. Therefore, the purpose of invigorating qi is to keep the body at a suitable temperature, plus the ancestral spirit, that is, the fresh air inhaled by people in nature. Only in this way can people stand between heaven and earth vividly.
After talking about "invigorating qi and blood", let's talk about "dredging meridians". Meridian is the natural medicine storehouse of human body. To control this godsend, it is enough to understand the operation principle of 12 meridian, which is the element of the whole meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine (as for the specific 12 meridian, people interested in traditional Chinese medicine should find it themselves). 12 There are more than 300 acupoints on the meridian, so you don't need to remember them all. When Chinese medicine massages the meridians, there is a saying that "pain can relieve pain", that is to say, the painful part is the acupoints for massage. For example, if you know that you have a heart disease, you can slowly press the corresponding heart meridian and pericardium meridian along the meridians to feel the feelings everywhere in the meridians. If some places are sore, some places are tingling, some places are numb, and some places are sore, then the focus of your massage is on the most painful parts, grinding away the lesions, and even cupping, moxibustion and beating. The more obvious the pain, the more persistent it is to stimulate here, so that the disease of the body will soon get better. If you just memorize all the acupoints, but ignore the most painful points, the treatment effect will never be good.
The health care method of ginger has a long history. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius had the habit of staying with ginger all the year round. There is a saying in Hunan: "Don't eat ginger, don't eat much". Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty said in Notes on the Analects of Confucius: "Ginger can enlighten the gods, eliminate disasters and help them." In the earliest extant monograph of traditional Chinese medicine "Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing", there is also a record about ginger: "Dried ginger, pungent and warm, full of chest, anti-qi to stop cough, warm in the middle to stop bleeding, sweating and expelling wind; Warming the spleen and diarrhea. " In Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen also praised the wonderful use of ginger: "Ginger, pungent and effortless, can be cooked, reconciled, fruitful and medicinal." The soup boiled with ginger also has a name called "Resurrection Soup". In Su Dongpo's Miscellaneous Syndrome, an 80-year-old monk in Jingci Temple, Qiantang, who looked like a boy, was also recorded. He asked him why he was "dressed in ginger for forty years, so he was not old." (the color is like a boy! Sister who loves beauty, can't you move yet? ! There are also folk sayings that "three slices of ginger in the morning don't need to be opened", "ginger in winter is not afraid of wind and frost", "radish in winter and ginger in summer don't bother the doctor to open it" and "minor ailments don't panic". Ginger is warm, and its unique "gingerol" can stimulate gastrointestinal mucosa, make gastrointestinal congestion and enhance digestion. Can effectively treat abdominal distension, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by eating too much cold food.
People will get hot after eating ginger. This is because it can dilate blood vessels, accelerate blood circulation and promote pore opening. This will not only take away the extra tropical zone, but also bring out the germs and cold in the body. Therefore, when the body eats cold things, gets wet in the rain, or stays in an air-conditioned room for a long time, eating ginger can eliminate the cold in time and eliminate all kinds of discomfort caused by heavy cold.
Here are some common diseases to introduce the different uses of ginger:
Cold: Boil water with 3 ~ 4 slices of ginger and half a spoonful of brown sugar, 2 ~ 3 times a day.
Cold with cough: 3 ~ 4 slices of ginger, 7 ~ 8 petals of garlic and half a spoonful of brown sugar are cooked together, 2 ~ 3 times a day.
Cold with fever: ginger and brown sugar water 1 scallion, 2 ~ 3 times each time.
Abdominal distension after eating: You can directly take ginger slices or drink Jiang Shui, which can be relieved in a short time.
Diarrhea caused by catching cold: Wash eggs with boiled ginger water 2 ~ 3 times a day, and they will get better soon. Drink it for another day after diarrhea stops to consolidate the curative effect and warm the gastrointestinal tract.
Staying in an air-conditioned room for a long time, your whole body is tense and your hair is swollen: whenever you have ginger slices in your mouth or soak 2 ~ 3 slices of ginger in water every day, your discomfort will be eliminated immediately.
Oral ulcer, periodontitis, bad breath and itchy throat: You can cure it by drinking ginger slices or cooking Jiang Shui, and you won't relapse as long as you don't eat cold food in the future.
Sore throat: hot ginger water with a little salt to make tea.
Vomiting during pregnancy: A piece of ginger can be treated and prevented frequently.
Spit milk for children: use 1 ~ 2 slices of ginger to boil water to feed.
Indigestion, loss of appetite: Ginger and red dates (sliced) are boiled together and drunk twice a day, which can stimulate appetite.
Joint pain: Eating a few slices of ginger or boiled ginger jujube water three times a day after getting up every morning can obviously relieve joint pain.
Dysmenorrhea: Add 2 ~ 3 capsules of hawthorn in ginger brown sugar water, 2 ~ 3 times a day.
Headache and dizziness after drinking: It can be immediately relieved by boiling water with ginger.
Hands and feet are frostbitten but not broken: you can soak your hands and feet with ginger.
Long prickly heat: Rub it with ginger, and the prickly heat will disappear soon. It is suitable for adults and children.
Dandruff and alopecia: often wash your hair with ginger water, and the effect is good. Just try it.
Body odor: Rub it with ginger several times a day, which can obviously reduce the odor.
In addition, ginger also has the function of detoxification. If you eat poison, you will feel numb, nausea and vomiting. The best way is to chew ginger quickly and even eat a few slices. If you are afraid of eating spicy food, you will cut more slices of ginger and boil water to drink, and drink it several times until the symptoms disappear completely. In severe cases, it will cause unconsciousness and coma. After being sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, after the patient's condition is stable, Jiang Shui can be given to the patient to drive away the poison faster.
Middle-aged men are prone to hypertension, which is caused by heavy cold and dampness in the body and poor blood stasis in the meridians. Ginger can be added to the water for soaking feet every night, which helps to drive away cold and lower blood pressure. At the same time, ginger is a product that helps yang. Since ancient times, Chinese medicine has said that "men can't live without ginger for a hundred days". Soaking feet with Jiang Shui can not only dispel cold without getting angry, but also reduce blood pressure and tonify kidney, and can also treat male prostatitis and other diseases.
The only disadvantage of ginger is that it can cause liver fire if eaten frequently, so under normal circumstances, patients with hepatitis should avoid eating it, and patients with dry mouth, constipation and hemorrhoids should also eat less.
Restrain the anger caused by eating ginger. You can also mix it with some foods that soothe the liver and regulate qi, such as hawthorn and chrysanthemum, to make tea, which can eliminate the dryness and heat caused by ginger without hurting your body.
Foot massage is very popular now. It can indeed treat many diseases, because the foot is the root of human beings, and the effect of dredging on the root is of course the best. But have you ever thought about it the other way around? Massage the soles of your feet is like building a stove. There is a lot of coal in the stove, so the fire is not easy to burn vigorously and thoroughly. As long as you poke it under the stove and let it have a little gap and looseness, the whole fire of the stove will ignite. However, the stove has burned very vigorously, and you are still banging on the bottom of the bucket repeatedly, which can only consume a lot of coal and waste energy. And after a long time, the fire in the stove will lose confidence, the burning speed will slow down, and there is a danger of extinction.
Foot massage is the same as poking the bottom of the furnace. Many people think the effect is very obvious when they first start doing it, because it is really effective in dredging meridians. But after a long time, people get tired easily, especially in winter, which is the season to store energy. If you are still doing foot massage and keep poking at the bottom of the pot, you will consume a lot of energy. It is conceivable that your body will become weaker and weaker.
Therefore, foot massage is a very good method to treat diseases and health care. As long as it is used correctly, it can help you get rid of illness and strengthen your body. Can be used too frequently, regardless of season and physique, and the effect is often counterproductive. Try not to rub your feet or do less in winter. If you have to do it, once every half month is enough. While doing foot massage, the dietotherapy of tonifying blood and kidney must keep up. People who are weak had better do less. If you want to do it, don't do a full foot massage. Choose one or two reflex zones according to the degree of discomfort. The massage time should not be too long, just a few minutes.
Foot massage can't be done every day, but it's best to soak your feet with hot water every day. Soaking feet with hot water every night can send the truest care to all organs after a hard day's work. At the same time, people who soak their feet will sleep soundly and improve their immunity. At present, because of the convenience of bathing, many people never soak their feet alone, but bathing and bathing dilate the whole body's blood vessels, and most of the blood flows to limbs, viscera and brain, which is prone to ischemic symptoms. Therefore, when people are overtired and weak, they are prone to dizziness, palpitation and fatigue.
Soak your feet in a high bucket and relax the meridians on your feet and calves through heat, thus speeding up blood circulation and improving blood supply to organs such as the heart and brain. With the continuous increase of heat, you will sweat slightly, which can dredge meridians, discharge cold and waste in the body, regulate body temperature and reduce virtual fire. In addition, the improvement of blood circulation has a very obvious two-way adjustment effect on blood pressure. Therefore, I suggest that friends must spend half an hour relaxing and adjusting their bodies after a busy day. Don't underestimate this half hour. As long as you stick to it every day and just soak your feet, you can live more 10 years.
Soak your feet in the bucket. Although the wooden barrel has good insulation effect, it is too heavy and expensive to use. You can buy a higher plastic bucket in the supermarket instead and heat the water while soaking. There are many electric footbath now. It would be better if they could be made higher and as deep as buckets.
Most people will choose to soak their feet before going to bed, which is convenient and conducive to sleep. But if you have enough time, especially the elderly, you can soak your feet around 4 ~ 5 pm, that is, when the bladder and kidney meridians are the most vigorous, the effect of tonifying the kidney is the best.
Every time I soak my feet, I usually feel hot all over my body and sweat slightly. Even if you soak your feet, drink plenty of water and replenish water in time. It is best to drink warm water or ginger brown sugar water while soaking feet, so that more heat can be generated inside the body, and cold and dampness can be eliminated in time through sweating.
Children soak their feet mostly in winter or when they catch a cold, and they should also soak their feet and sweat when they catch a cold.
According to everyone's specific heat resistance, the temperature can be lower at first, then slowly add hot water and keep heating until the whole body is hot.
People who have been soaking their feet for many years do not have this problem. Only people who have just started soaking their feet will have this situation. The reason is that the body is cold and wet. As long as you persist in soaking your feet and slowly eliminate the cold and dampness in your body, it is easy to sweat.
Some people will feel chest tightness and dizziness after soaking their feet for a long time. Because the water temperature is too high, the blood vessels in both feet are excessively expanded, and human blood flows more to the lower limbs, resulting in insufficient blood supply to important organs such as the heart, brain and kidney. People with this situation are basically patients with deficiency of both qi and blood. Such people will not only feel uncomfortable because of soaking their feet, but also because of foot washing. Because there is less blood in the body, there is more blood flowing to the feet and the main organs are ischemic. When I meet this kind of patients, I will tell them to spend less time soaking their feet, and at the same time pay attention to diet therapy, eat more foods that enrich blood and tonify kidney, and fundamentally change the ischemic situation. After listening to my instructions, the patient cooperated with foot soaking while increasing nutrition, and persisted for half a month to one month, so that chest tightness and dizziness would not occur after foot soaking again. At this time, the time and temperature of soaking feet will be gradually increased until they sweat slightly all over.
It's best not to add anything to the water for soaking feet, because the drugs used for soaking feet are easily absorbed due to the action of heat. When the body is cold, you can add mugwort leaves to soak together, but you can't add them every day. Add 1 ~ 2 times a week, and add a handful of mugwort leaves. Remember, don't always add salt to the water for soaking feet, which will hurt the kidneys and easily cause edema all over the body. Many of my patients are recommended to soak their feet with salt water because they read some healthy newspapers, which leads to edema, endocrine disorder and aggravation of the original kidney disease.
People with severe beriberi can add vinegar to the water that soaks their feet, which can sterilize and relieve itching.
Keeping warm water to soak your feet all year round is a very good health care method. Don't always think about adding all kinds of Chinese medicines. If it is not suitable for your physical condition, it will be counterproductive.
Putting pebbles on the bucket to soak feet, while soaking, stepping on pebbles to massage, the effect is naturally good, but it is only suitable for young people, the elderly and patients.
When the elderly and patients soak their feet, because the body is mainly deficient in both qi and blood, under the action of heat, the more they massage their feet, the more they can draw blood down, while the massage of ears, head and arms can draw blood up, improve the blocked cardiovascular and cerebrovascular vessels and promote blood circulation.
For people with poor cervical vertebra, soaking their feet and hands together is very beneficial to the treatment of cervical spondylosis.
When you soak your feet until your body is hot, you will feel very relaxed and comfortable by taking advantage of the hot air to exercise your cervical spine, shoulders and back. When you sleep, you will sleep comfortably. After a long time, your body's immunity and resistance will gradually recover or even increase.