Common sense of TCM: Why do you need to raise yang when the sun is strongest in summer?

"Nourishing yang in spring and summer, nourishing yang in autumn and winter" is a health preserving method proposed in Huangdi Neijing. This method of keeping in good health mainly teaches us to keep in good health according to the four seasons, but many people don't understand that summer is the season with the highest yang, so why should we keep yang? How to raise yang in summer?

Why raise yang in summer?

Generally speaking, summer should be a time when the yang is relatively strong. There is a saying in Chinese medicine that "Yang is flourishing and Yin is flourishing". Many people will ask, then why raise Yang at this time instead of "adding fuel to the fire"?

In fact, in summer, people tend to sweat. "Yang is added to Yin, which means sweat." Sweating is inseparable from yin and yang. The reason why people can sweat is because the yang is behind and the yin is pushed out of the body. This is called sweating. So sweating too much will not only hurt the yin, but also "both qi and yin" at first, and "both yin and yang" after a long time. Sometimes after sweating, people will feel very tired, which is actually a sign of impaired yang.

In addition, when it is hot, people's instinctive reaction is to seek cooling, but if the temperature drops too much, it will also hurt the sun. For example, if the air conditioning temperature is too low, it will easily hurt the sun for a long time, which will easily lead to some "air conditioning diseases". For another example, eating or drinking is too cold, drinking cold beer is not enough, and adding ice cubes will also hurt the yang.

Many viewpoints in Huangdi Neijing are a bit contradictory at first glance, but when you think about it, it is actually a dialectics. What we are talking about today is a dialectical concept. For example, some people say that you can't eat mutton after beginning of spring because it is too hot, but this is not contradictory to the concept of "nourishing yang in spring and summer". If your yang is never empty and you don't have a chance to catch cold, there is no problem of supplementing yang, but some people who have been afraid of cold for many years should pay attention to raising yang in summer.

Women and the elderly are most prone to yang deficiency.

Many people's hands and feet are still cold even in hot summer, which is a sign of yang deficiency. I once saw a particularly serious patient, a woman in her forties, who came to Beijing from Hebei to see a doctor on a hot day. She is still wearing a thick down jacket, wiping her sweat with a towel and saying that she is afraid of the cold. This patient belongs to yang deficiency. In Treatise on Febrile Diseases, it is said that "Yin and Yang are incompatible". When yin and yang are incompatible, hands and feet will be cold. Of course, there may be many reasons, and the most common one is yang deficiency.

The most common manifestation of yang deficiency is, first of all, fear of cold; From the perspective of the tongue, it is generally fat and light in color, or white or light; In addition, there is a regular expression that tears, runny nose and saliva are easy to flow out, and women may also show more menstrual flow and urinary incontinence. After laughing or sneezing, the urine will come out, because it is easy to be solid and weak after yang deficiency.

From the perspective of viscera, yang deficiency can be divided into heart yang deficiency, spleen yang deficiency and kidney yang deficiency. So, how to identify what kind of yang deficiency you belong to? For example, heart-yang deficiency, Zhang Zhongjing has a saying that "people intervene at their own risk", a little chest tightness, palpitations, breath holding and fear of cold are all manifestations of heart-yang deficiency; Spleen yang deficiency is mainly a problem of digestion and absorption, manifested as loose stool and abdominal distension; Kidney-yang deficiency, as we all know, the most common problem is soreness of waist and knees; And the hands and feet mentioned above are afraid of the cold. The most common cause is deficiency of spleen and kidney yang. In addition, there is liver, but we don't say "liver yang deficiency". We call it "cold pathogen entering the liver" and "cold stagnation of liver pulse". The most common manifestation is cold abdomen, and men even involve scrotum.

When it comes to people who are prone to yang deficiency, from the age point of view, women are more than men, and the elderly are mostly. Its performance is not only cold hands and feet, but also cold back. There are many women who are afraid of cold in their stomachs, or cold in their legs and feet below the waist. Some women have irregular menstruation, congestion, dark color and fear of cold. Although the parts are different, there is a cold problem inside.

The effect of tonifying yang in summer is good.

External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine is a good embodiment of treating winter diseases in summer. In fact, it also contains a preventive thought of traditional Chinese medicine. It means don't wait until winter is cold and yang deficiency is aggravated, but pay more attention to it at ordinary times, even in hot summer, pay attention to prevention and warm yang in advance.

The treatment method of traditional Chinese medicine is called "guiding according to the situation" In summer, warming yang and strengthening yang are actually based on the weather. Just at this time, the yang is strong, and the effect is better than in winter. This is the reason why dog stickers are posted in summer and diseases in winter are treated in summer. Some people once questioned the three-volt patch of traditional Chinese medicine and were skeptical about it. But what I want to say is that health preservation itself is a process of correcting physical fitness, and the effect will definitely be slow. Don't expect many health preserving methods of TCM to be amazing. Persistence is the last word. The Beijing Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine has a project to observe whether the three-day patch is effective. The first year has little effect, and the second year makes no difference. Obviously, the effect began to take effect in the third year.

The so-called "three-volt sticker" is more suitable for people with yang deficiency and cannot be abused at will. For example, people who belong to the fiery constitution will definitely not have a good result if they stick stickers on the dog days. Another point is to see where it is posted. Some acupoints are suitable for everyone, such as Zusanli, which is a strong acupoint, and can be pasted by men, women and children, but some acupoints cannot be pasted casually. Therefore, whether it is a three-volt patch or a tonic, if abused, it may be ineffective or even counterproductive. In the final analysis, it is not only the problem of TCM theory, but also the patient's own problems.

Stay in the air-conditioned room for a long time, make a cup of dried ginger black tea.

People often say, "Eat radish in winter and ginger in summer without a doctor's prescription". Ginger is hot, no matter what ginger is hot, ginger is good, dried ginger is good, and soaked ginger is good, but the degree of heat is different. Ginger is a very good summer tonic. Eating ginger in summer can not only replenish and warm yang, but also activate yang. Whether it is tonifying qi, blood, yin and yang, Chinese medicine pays attention to not staying and supplementing, and must "communicate" at the same time, otherwise it will make a person abnormal. Recommend a kind of dietotherapy-dried ginger black tea, that is, boil the dried ginger first and make black tea with boiling water.

Ginger can be used for external use in addition to oral administration. The word "moxibustion" in the external treatment of "acupuncture" has a word "long" above it and a word "fire" below it. All Chinese medicine words with fire are hot. Therefore, moxibustion is most suitable for people who are afraid of cold due to yang deficiency. Ginger itself is hot, and using it as ginger-separated moxibustion can increase the effect of external treatment. The so-called ginger moxibustion is to take a piece of fresh ginger, cut it 0.2 ~ 0.3 cm thick along the longitudinal direction of ginger fiber, and puncture several holes in the middle. When moxibustion is applied, it is first placed on the back, around the navel and other acupoint areas, and then the moxa cone is placed on it to ignite. When there is a burning sensation in the local area, simply mention the ginger slices, or change the moxa cone and moxibustion. Generally, each moxibustion is 6 ~ 9 strong, and the local flushing of the skin does not blister.

In addition, some cooking spices can also be used to nourish yang, such as cinnamon, cassia twig, thirteen spices, fennel and so on. These are all hot and help to replenish the yang. I used to treat irregular menstruation with hot things like cassia twig and fennel and a little blood-activating things.

Why raise yang in summer? The above article introduces everyone, and also introduces the symptoms of yang deficiency in summer and the methods of supplementing yang in summer. You can try three-volt stickers in summer. Of course, you can't see the effect once or twice, you have to stick to it for several years.