Get up. Foot bath seems to be addictive, and many people have listed it as an indispensable part of their lives. Dr. Xu Yonggang from the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion of Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine specially reminded: Not everyone can soak their feet, and if the method of soaking their feet is improper, it will lead to other diseases.
Principle of foot bath fitness
Chinese medicine believes that "foot is the root of essence". Foot bath therapy is a kind of therapy to treat diseases by boiling soup and soaking feet with drugs. In the process of soaking, besides the buoyancy effect of water and the friction effect of liquid particle movement of water on the foot, it is mainly the warming effect of water, the external treatment of drugs and the reflection area of the foot.
Foot bath has three functions: warming foot bath, external treatment with drugs and stimulation of foot reflex zone, which can influence each other. Warm drugs are easily absorbed from skin, acupoints and respiratory tract, and play a therapeutic role. Foot bath can be used as a treatment for internal diseases and external treatment, and also as a bath for various skin diseases. With the help of medicinal properties and heat, the meridians are dredged and qi and blood are reconciled to achieve the purpose of eliminating evil. Modern medicine believes that the warmth of water during foot bath can promote blood circulation and metabolism, and drugs can be absorbed from sweat glands and sebaceous glands on the skin, thus playing a therapeutic role. Therefore, the water temperature in the foot bath is very important, the choice of medicine is very important, and the massage technique is also very important.
Commonly used drugs for foot bath
To the foot bath room, there are often many kinds of foot bath liquids for you to choose from, such as "rose foot bath", "milk foot bath" and "algae mud foot bath". In fact, it has no practical significance to choose the medicine for soaking feet from the aspects of roses, milk or algae mud. The key is to see what traditional Chinese medicine ingredients are contained in the medicine. Foot-bath therapy is mostly used for dredging channels and collaterals, inducing resuscitation and penetrating bones, and expelling toxin and evil spirits. Such as asarum, angelica dahurica, mugwort leaf, pangolin, cinnamon, clove, pepper, musk and the like. The drugs used for foot bath must have a strong smell, and sometimes even some powerful and toxic products are used, and more are used. Such as Pinellia ternata, aconite, kusnezoff monkshood, Nanxing, etc. Hot medicine is also used to soak feet to promote blood circulation. In order to make the drugs reach the disease site directly and make the drugs targeted and effective, some auxiliary drugs, such as wine and ginger, can also be selected for blending.
The temperature of foot bath is particular.
The water temperature of foot bath is mostly between 36 and 43 degrees Celsius, but generally it should not exceed 45 degrees Celsius. The minimum is not less than 36 degrees Celsius. The water temperature also depends on individual differences. For people who soak their feet for the first time, the water temperature can be lower and gradually increase. The water temperature of foot bath for health care can be lower, and the water temperature of foot bath for treatment such as arthralgia, apoplexy sequelae and cold limbs is higher. For children, patients with hypertension, patients with skin insensitivity and patients with stroke sequelae, special care should be given to prevent skin damage.
What diseases can foot bath treat?
Foot bath has a wide range of indications, which is suitable for the treatment of many diseases in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology and dermatology, and can also be used for health care, longevity, beauty and skin cleaning. Foot bath can promote blood circulation and metabolism of feet and whole body, promote blood circulation and dredge collaterals, so it is suitable for joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis, apoplexy sequelae, limb syncope, thromboangiitis obliterans, amenorrhea, polio sequelae, etc. Foot bath can also obviously eliminate fatigue, improve sleep and treat neurosis. It also has unique curative effect on pediatric and gynecological diseases. Foot bath can promote the blood circulation and metabolism of the whole body, and has an auxiliary treatment effect on various cervical spondylosis. Patients who are prone to cervical spondylosis after long-term work can also often soak their feet to prevent cervical spondylosis.
Foot bath is taboo.
People with severe heart failure, myocardial infarction, skin injury or skin infection should not take foot bath.
30 minutes before and after meals is not suitable for soaking feet. Due to the expansion of blood vessels in the foot, the blood volume increases during foot bath, which reduces the blood in the gastrointestinal tract and viscera and affects the digestive function of the gastrointestinal tract. Soaking feet before meals may inhibit the secretion of gastric juice, which is not conducive to digestion. Foot bath immediately after meals will reduce the blood volume of gastrointestinal tract and affect digestion.
Foot bath is effective through the synergistic effect of medicine and heat. The liquid medicine should be kept at a proper temperature, and the liquid medicine should be changed if it is slightly cold. Dry the water on your feet immediately after bathing and put on warm clothes to avoid catching a cold.
When soaking feet, patients may feel dizzy because the blood vessels in the feet are heated and expanded, and the blood supply to the head is reduced. At this time, the foot bath should be suspended, and the symptoms can disappear after the patient lies flat for a period of time. You can also give patients cold water to wash their feet, so that the blood vessels in the feet can contract and relieve symptoms.
If the drugs used in foot bath cause skin allergy, foot bath treatment should be stopped immediately. You can go to the hospital for treatment if necessary.
Principle of foot massage
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the distribution of plantar reflex zone is a manifestation of the whole body shrinking and projecting to the foot, and it is a local reflection of the whole body. When the internal organs of the human body are diseased, the corresponding reflex zone of the foot will be tender, so this part is the pathological reflex zone, and these reflex zones will be the focus of treatment. When doing foot massage, you can press and knead the reflection area with the rib surface of your thumb and the interphalangeal joints of your index finger and middle finger, or you can stimulate the reflection area with some smooth plastic sticks. Foot massage generally focuses on the parts with strong tenderness reaction, and is treated in the order of first left foot and then right foot, first main area and then important area.
There are more than 60 reflection points on human feet, corresponding to the main organs of the human body. The greater the massage, the better. Some people mistakenly think that the more painful it is, the more effective it is. If you hold back, it will lead to foot injuries. A professionally trained masseur can achieve the desired effect if he massages properly. On the contrary, it will bring many disadvantages.
Matters needing attention in foot massage
Soak feet with hot water 15 minutes before foot massage, or scrub with hot towel, which can increase the curative effect.
Female patients, during menstruation, can not stimulate the gonad reflex zone.
Patients with bleeding tendency or hematological diseases may cause local tissue bleeding when they massage their feet.
When doing foot massage, you should avoid the reflection area with less bony processes and subcutaneous tissue, so as not to crush the periosteum and cause unnecessary damage.
Patients should drink 300 ~ 500ml warm water within half an hour after massage.
Patients who receive foot massage for a long time often feel dull foot pain. Soaking feet with normal saline for half an hour can enhance the sensitivity to pain and improve the therapeutic effect.