The so-called "small summer heat, big summer heat, steaming and cooking." Hot summer is hot, and a little hot summer is not the hottest. "After the slight summer heat, it is three minutes hot every day", because before and after the early summer, the air humidity gradually increases, and the weather turns from hot to sultry. "Plum blossom" and "Fu" are the key words of summer solar terms.
The "dog days" appear in the middle of the summer heat and the summer heat, which is the highest and wettest day of the year. During this period, the human body sweats a lot, consumes a lot, and is prone to fatigue. In summer, the human body will be in a state of internal deficiency, upper heat and lower cold, so the storage and maintenance of human yang is particularly important.
Summer is a season that should be hot enough to sweat. When the body is very hot, if you take a cold bath or drink a cold drink, the blood vessels will contract rapidly, and cold pathogens such as air conditioners and fans can easily invade the body. The ancients always thought that cold was the biggest source of diseases, especially in summer, when cold damaged the yang, people would feel lack of energy. The body can't adapt to the natural state of vigorous hair growth in summer, which brings hidden dangers to health.
When we go from high temperature to cold air, it's like from hot summer to cold winter. Our bodies are not machines and need a process of adaptation. Frequent contact with the environment with large temperature difference will lead to the disorder of the body's defense system. When this change can't keep up, cold, fever, rhinitis and other air-conditioning diseases come.
Affected by summer heat and dampness, the human body is prone to the symptoms of "internal damp heat and external typhoid fever", which leads to a cold with external cold and internal heat.
The main way to cool the human body is sweating, and heat has more advantages than cold, so that excess heat can leave the human body through sweating. In dog days, the evil of damp and heat is at work, and the most effective way to get rid of dampness is sweating. If you don't avoid sweating, moderate sweating can expel the evil of cold and dampness in the body, especially physical weakness, fear of cold, partial dampness, deficiency of both qi and blood, easy to catch a cold, cold hands and feet, nasal sensitivity, rhinitis and so on. In particular, most women belong to cold constitution and need to be "warmed up". When the temperature is too high, you should avoid strenuous exercise and excessive sweating, and replenish water appropriately to avoid damaging body fluids and consuming yang. Exercise should be carried out in the early morning or evening when it is relatively cool, and it is suitable for relaxing exercise such as walking, jogging and Tai Ji Chuan. Reading, listening to music, drinking tea and writing are all elegant leisure ways, which can adjust the mentality, strengthen the body and make the heart quiet and peaceful.
After the light summer, it is about to enter the night. At this time, people have the custom of eating "three treasures"-Monopterus albus, honey lotus root and mung bean sprouts.
As the saying goes, "Little Summer Eels compete for ginseng". Monopterus albus grows in mud holes on the seashore, and the most nourishing and delicious is the summer eel one month before and after the heat. At this time, nourishing with Monopterus albus can play a more important role in tonifying the middle energizer, liver and spleen, expelling wind and dampness, and strengthening bones and muscles.
The second treasure is lotus root, which is rich in nutrition and relieves summer heat. Eating lotus root often can cool blood, nourish yin and clear heat, and solving the trouble of nosebleeds can be said to be a piece of cake. For the elderly, lotus root is a good ingredient to nourish the spleen and stomach in summer.
The third treasure is mung bean sprouts, which can clear away heat and toxic materials, induce diuresis and remove dampness. At the same time, mung bean sprouts are low in calories and high in water and cellulose, which can promote intestinal peristalsis and have a laxative effect. It is recognized as a good summer slimming product and a healthy vegetable for constipation patients. In addition, mung bean sprouts are cold, so they should be cooked with shredded ginger or Chili, or with some warm coriander and leek.
"Fresh in summer", the content of protein, vitamins and various trace elements in new rice is obviously higher than that in old rice, and it is rich in nutrition. According to the traditional custom, we should eat new rice and drink new wine in summer.
Autumn will come soon after the little summer. It's hot and wet. When attacked by "damp evil", symptoms such as general weakness, dizziness, depression, chest tightness, disharmony between spleen and stomach, nausea and sweating, edema of hands and feet are prone to occur, and digestive tract diseases are more frequent. In terms of diet, you should not be too cold, otherwise it will damage the yang of the spleen and stomach, and cold and dampness will lead to abdominal pain and diarrhea. Diet should be light, eat more foods with heat-clearing and dampness-promoting effects, such as white gourd, white radish, tomatoes, etc., which can dispel dampness and dredge silt, help improve gastrointestinal function, and eat less red meat, spicy and fried foods.
Chinese medicine believes that "the urgency is the palliative, and the delay is the cure." In summer, the human body is full of yang. Treating some cold diseases can make maximum use of summer heat to restrain cold, adjust the balance of yin and yang, improve chronic diseases, and achieve the effect of treating both symptoms and root causes. For example, respiratory diseases are prone to attack in winter, and the lower the temperature, the more serious the symptoms. If the maintenance work is done well in summer, the possibility of respiratory diseases in winter will be reduced. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes "nourishing yang in spring and summer", and the Chinese medicine therapy of "treating winter diseases in summer", which has been circulated for thousands of years, is the best way to prevent and treat summer diseases, including moxibustion and acupuncture.
"Winter disease" refers to a disease that is easy to attack or aggravate in winter, and this disease can often be treated in the remission period in summer. For example, patients with repeated colds, chronic respiratory diseases, digestive system diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, etc.
? A winning trick: warm moxibustion at three volts
Q: Who is suitable for moxibustion in dog days? Who is not suitable?
A: As long as it is not extremely deficient in kidney essence and liver blood, the deficiency of these two polarities is generally manifested as weakness and emaciation, and the menstrual flow of women is very small.
Q: Just for health preservation, is there a universally applicable dog moxibustion point?
A: Dog days moxibustion focuses on generating yang, eliminating dampness and dispelling cold, and nourishing the spleen and stomach. Commonly used acupoints are Zhongwan, Zusanli, Bajiao, Yangchi or Xiajuxu.
Q: Is it necessary to have moxibustion every day in dog days?
A: No, it depends on one's physical fitness. Continuous moxibustion or interval moxibustion depends on the need. The key is what to drink after warm moxibustion. Never drink cold water, herbal tea or chrysanthemum tea. This is a very wrong practice, because it is not called fire and water ji ji, it is called fire and water hedging, so this kind of thing is absolutely not allowed.
Pulse warm moxibustion plays the role of warming meridians and dredging collaterals, dispelling cold and removing arthralgia through warm stimulation of meridian points. Moxibustion in the hottest "dog days" will get twice the result with half the effort, solve various problems such as stasis, pain and pigmentation caused by long-term cold coagulation, and achieve the purpose of nourishing yin in autumn and winter and treating winter diseases in summer.