Eight core words of traditional Chinese medicine health care

To get straight to the point, the eight core words recognized by the vast majority of clinical Chinese medicine practitioners and health practitioners are "in time, abstinence, nourishing Qi, and regulating the mind." I have consulted three senior Chinese medicine practitioners from different schools. One is good at using classic prescriptions to treat chronic diseases, one is from a Taoist medical family and provides health guidance, and another is rooted in the community and provides health management for the elderly. These eight words are a rare consensus when they talk about health care. But when it comes to practice, the differences between each doctor's opinions are quite big.

Don't tell me, I met a young man who worked in Internet operations before. He worked on a project for a week in the dog days of summer. During the day, the air conditioner in the office was turned on at 16 degrees, and he drank three glasses of ice cream a day. In winter, he listened to the health advice of Internet celebrities and ate ginger mutton to make up for it. As a result, the acne on his face could not be suppressed by erythromycin, and his hands and feet were as cold as a stone just taken out of the refrigerator. The first thing a teacher from the Jingfang sect said after taking the pulse was, "You've turned the clock upside down." What he said about following the time is actually not that many fancy rules. It doesn’t mean that you have to eat Internet celebrity health meals according to the 24 solar terms. The core is to follow the two "times": one is the big rhythm of the outside world. In summer, when you should sweat, don’t stay in an air-conditioned room. In winter, when you should hide, don’t go out and run a half-marathon and sweat all over. ； The other is the hourly rhythm of your body. If you are naturally afraid of heat, don’t force yourself to follow the trend of “treating winter diseases in the summer” and sunbathing to the point of heat stroke. If your spleen and stomach are weak, there is nothing wrong with eating less than a few bites of ice cream in the summer. Oh, by the way, some patients have raised objections before, saying that heating is available in the winter in the north. Does this count as reverse time? There are no such rigid rules. If you stay in a heated room and your mouth is dry, just drink two more sips of warm water. When you go out, just wrap up your hat tightly and avoid the cold wind. You can't deliberately freeze yourself just to keep the winter going. That's not called keeping in good health, it's called stupidity. As for what Taoist doctors say: "You should follow the movement of the heavenly stems and the earthly branches, don't stay up late on the first day of the lunar month or the fifteenth day of the lunar month, and rest at the spring and autumn equinoxes." This is quite controversial. I have seen an old man who has persisted for 20 years. He sleeps better when he is over 80 than a 20-year-old boy. Some people think it is metaphysics. There is no right or wrong in this kind of thing. If you try it and feel comfortable, do it. If it doesn't work, don't mess around.

When it comes to this, some people will definitely say that my work and rest completely follow the seasons and I don't eat blindly. Why do I still feel heavy and tired? Most likely they fell into the "abstinence" trap. Don’t get me wrong, desire here doesn’t just refer to lust, but to all excessive obsessions: the desire to watch short videos until your eyes sore and refuse to stop, the desire to cram two bites of dessert into your mouth even though you’ve had enough, the desire to compete with your old sisters every day for pensions and your grandson’s grades, these are all areas that require “moderation”. Teacher Zhang from the community hospital told me that he had seen too many retired aunts who did not do any heavy work, but whose blood pressure fluctuated and could not be controlled by taking antihypertensive drugs. They worried about trivial matters at home every day, such as their son’s job change, his granddaughter’s lack of clothes, and even the neighbor’s dog downstairs made her angry for a long time until she fell asleep. The first "prescription" he prescribes to these aunts is always to "mind their own business." Of course, there are also schools of thought that "abstinence" means complete abstinence from sex, not touching anything cold or spicy, looking at your cell phone less, and participating less in social interactions. I think it's really unnecessary. If we really follow this standard, what's the point of living? Abstinence means "moderateness", not "elimination". It's okay to eat one popsicle to satisfy your cravings on a hot day in the summer, but don't eat three popsicles a day. It's okay to stay up until 12 o'clock to catch up on a drama occasionally, but don't stay up every day. Many people develop anxiety disorders in order to maintain good health. They turn "abstinence" into "abstinence", which is not worth the gain.

I used to think that managing my daily routine and desires was enough, until I met a Taoist doctor, Mr. Li, who met a girl who had been practicing yoga for five years. She had a regular routine and a light diet. She hadn’t even had a sip of milk tea in half a year. She still felt tired all the time. She was out of breath after walking even two steps and couldn’t even do yoga poses. As soon as Teacher Li took a pulse, she said that her "Qi had been lost", which meant that she had not been able to "nurture Qi". The views on nourishing qi vary even more among schools: The Jingfang School believes that nourishing qi means don’t waste it in vain, don’t sweat profusely due to excessive exercise, just soak some astragalus water and drink it, and if you have severe qi deficiency, drink some Buzhong Yiqi Decoction ； Taoist doctors believe that to nourish qi, you need to "collect the mind", watch less short videos, watch less useless information, stand for ten minutes a day, collect the scattered mind, and the qi will naturally be sufficient. ； Some friends who engage in traditional Chinese medicine exercise rehabilitation said that it is not so troublesome. Just sit for two less hours a day and walk three or four kilometers more. It will naturally be enough to ventilate the qi and blood. There is no distinction between these methods. If you can sit still, stand still. If you can't sit still, walk more. Even if you take a few deep breaths, it will be useful. Don't sign up for a tens of thousands of spiritual training classes just to "nurture your energy". You will just pay the IQ tax.

No matter how well you do the first three, if you fail to pass the last level of "mind adjustment", your health maintenance will be in vain. I once had an aunt who had undergone breast cancer surgery. She ate strictly according to a healthy diet every day, and her schedule was accurate to the minute. She even had to calculate the temperature of an apple when she ate it. As a result, she still had insomnia every day. She couldn't sleep all night before the review. She always felt that she was going to relapse, and she took tranquilizers for almost half a year to no avail. Later, the teacher prescribed Xiaoyaosan for her and told her, "Don't stare at your own indicators every day. Go to the park to dance square dances when you have nothing to do. Chat as much as you like with people. Eat a few bites of whatever you like. Don't always think that you are a patient." My aunt has been dancing for three months. When she came for a check-up last time, her face was glowing. She said that now she sleeps with the pillow on her face, and her indicators are much more stable than before. There is no unified standard for regulating the mind. Confucianism says that you should have a straight mind and do less bad things to sleep soundly. ； Buddhism says to let go, don’t hold on to the past. ； When it comes to ordinary people like us, it actually means "it's rare to be confused". Don't take things too seriously and be less sulky, which is more effective than taking any tonic.

In fact, these eight words put it bluntly. They are either rules and regulations that must be observed, or principles of living passed down by our ancestors. I have seen an old man who smoked two puffs of cigarettes and drank two glasses of wine every day and lived for more than ninety years. I have also seen people who lived strictly according to health standards every day and became ill in their thirties and forties. Maintaining health is about "comfort", not "perfection". If you make yourself nervous and anxious every day in order to comply with these eight words, then you are putting the cart before the horse.