The Use of Flowers in the Treatment of Women's Diseases
You often lose hair, your scalp is oily and prone to dandruff, and your skin easily develops petechiae or ecchymoses. Sometimes your gums bleed, and at the same time you feel restless, thirsty, constipated, and have heavy menstrual flow. All of these are what traditional Chinese medicine calls blood-heat symptoms.
What you need: health-promoting flowers that cool the blood and stop bleeding
Chinese rose: sweet in taste and warm in nature. It can invigorate the blood and regulate menstruation, reduce swelling and resolve toxins, and is a commonly used medicine for amenorrhea, abdominal pain, and irregular menstruation. For daily use, take 10 grams of Chinese rose and decoct it as a tea substitute.
Sophora flower: cool in nature, bitter in taste, with the effects of clearing heat and cooling the blood, and clearing liver fire. Ready-made sophora flower honey is available on the market; it can reduce liver fire and calm anger. It is most suitable for girls who are prone to anger with liver qi stagnation.
Camellia: After picking unopened camellia flowers, remove the root and stem and let the petals spread open. Place them in a teacup, pour boiling water over them, and cover the cup tightly. Steep for 10 to 15 minutes; when drunk it is fragrant and pleasant. It has the effects of cooling the blood and stopping bleeding, and dispersing blood stasis and reducing swelling.
Snow lotus: Stewing a chicken with 6 grams of snow lotus can nourish yin and tonify the kidney.
You look a little haggard. Your hair color is dry and yellow, your complexion is dull, your skin lacks radiance, and sometimes your skin itches for no apparent reason. Your sleep is also poor, so you are somewhat listless, and even the most delicious food tastes bland.
What you need: health-promoting flowers that nourish the blood and calm the mind
Peach blossom: Pick the peach blossoms, wash them clean, add honey. Mix well with white liquor, seal for one week. Take 5 g on an empty stomach in the morning and evening; it can have the effects of nourishing the skin and beautifying the face, and brightening the complexion and preserving youth.
Flowers and the Treatment of Women's Diseases
You often lose hair, your scalp is oily and prone to dandruff, and your skin easily develops petechiae or ecchymoses. Sometimes your gums bleed, and at the same time you feel restless, thirsty, constipated, and have heavy menstrual flow. All of these are what traditional Chinese medicine calls blood-heat symptoms.
What you need: health-promoting flowers that cool the blood and stop bleeding
Chinese rose: sweet in taste and warm in nature. It can invigorate the blood and regulate menstruation, reduce swelling and resolve toxins, and is a commonly used medicine for amenorrhea, abdominal pain, and irregular menstruation. For daily use, take 10 grams of Chinese rose and decoct it as a tea substitute.
Sophora flower: cool in nature, bitter in taste, with the effects of clearing heat and cooling the blood, and clearing liver fire. Ready-made sophora flower honey is available on the market; it can reduce liver fire and calm anger. It is most suitable for girls who are prone to anger with liver qi stagnation.
Camellia: After picking unopened camellia flowers, remove the root and stem and let the petals spread open. Place them in a teacup, pour boiling water over them, and cover the cup tightly. Steep for 10 to 15 minutes; when drunk it is fragrant and pleasant. It has the effects of cooling the blood and stopping bleeding, and dispersing blood stasis and reducing swelling.
Snow lotus: Stewing a chicken with 6 grams of snow lotus can nourish yin and tonify the kidney.
You look a little haggard. Your hair color is dry and yellow, your complexion is dull, your skin lacks radiance, and sometimes your skin itches for no apparent reason. Your sleep is also poor, so you are somewhat listless, and even the most delicious food tastes bland.
What you need: health-promoting flowers that nourish the blood and calm the mind
Peach blossom: Pick the peach blossoms, wash them clean, add honey. Mix well with white liquor, seal for one week. Take 5 g on an empty stomach in the morning and evening; it can have the effects of nourishing the skin and beautifying the face, and brightening the complexion and preserving youth.
Jasmine: Add jasmine to green tea and steep to drink; it has the effects of clearing heat and resolving toxins, and calming and soothing the mind.
Peony: Peony is one of the "treasures" in "Eight-Treasure Chicken Soup," and this soup is most suitable for those with deficiency of both qi and blood, sallow complexion and emaciation, poor appetite, and weakness of the limbs. The eight treasures are: prepared rehmannia and angelica 15 grams each, codonopsis, poria, stir-fried white atractylodes, and white peony 10 grams each, prepared licorice 6 grams. Chuanxiong 7.5 grams. Put them in a gauze bag and stew with a chicken to make soup.
Silk tree flower: 50 g fresh silk tree flowers (30 g dried), 50 g japonica rice, an appropriate amount of brown sugar, add water and place together in a clay pot to make porridge. Take it warm on an empty stomach 1 hour before bed each night. It is especially good for pregnant women. It has a relatively good effect of strengthening the body, calming, and soothing the mind.
Menstruation is sometimes irregular and sometimes painful, accompanied by symptoms such as: negative emotions, fatigue and irritability, drowsiness and abdominal bloating; dull complexion, spots, breast distension and pain, nausea and vomiting, and general edema.
What you need: health-promoting flowers that regulate menstruation and stop abnormal vaginal discharge
Safflower: It can invigorate the blood and remove blood stasis, unblock menstruation and stop pain, and nourish the blood and calm the mind. Usually, safflower, Chinese rose, salvia, and angelica are ground together into a fine powder. Put it in a white gauze bag, place it in a clean vessel, add rice wine and soak for 7 days before opening. Remove the medicine bag, and drink after it has clarified.
Tree peony: The tree peony is not only national beauty, but also a delicacy and a good medicine. Make porridge with fresh tree peony petals, then add brown sugar for seasoning before eating; it has the effect of invigorating the blood and regulating menstruation.
Trumpet creeper: According to the ancient medical book "Xu's Formulas for Pregnancy and Childbirth." Grind trumpet creeper into a fine powder, and take 6 grams with wine before each meal; it can treat amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea.
Cockscomb: Wash 200 g of cockscomb, cook it, then cut it into thin slices. Add seasonings and mix well into a cold dish. It can also be stir-fried or used in soup; it has the effects of cooling the blood and stopping bleeding. And nourishing yin and blood.
Winter Health Preservation and Indoor Flowers
According to traditional Chinese folk custom, "Start of Winter" represents the beginning of winter. "In winter, heaven and earth close and store; water freezes and the earth cracks." In nature, yin flourishes and yang wanes, vegetation withers, and ice freezes and insects hide; it is the season when all things in nature close and store, and people's yin qi should also be hidden within, waiting for the coming spring. Therefore, the basic principle of winter health preservation should also speak of "storing." Because after the body's yang qi is closed and stored, the body's metabolism is correspondingly lower, so it must rely on the source power of life - the "kidney" - to play its role, in order to ensure life activities and adapt to changes in nature. Therefore, a very important principle of winter health preservation is "nourishing the kidney and preventing cold." The main methods of nourishing the kidney are: dietary supplementation, strengthening exercise, and mental cultivation.I. Dietary Supplementation and Nourishment
As the saying goes: "Tonify in the third nine-day period of winter, and you will be free of illness and pain in the coming year." Winter is a good time for tonifying, but one must not blindly "tonify." It should be suited to the individual; people differ as male and female, the body has distinctions of deficiency, excess, cold, and heat, and foods are divided into grains, meat, fruits, and vegetables. The principles of traditional Chinese medicine health preservation: youth emphasize nourishment, middle age emphasizes regulation, old age emphasizes protection, and extreme old age emphasizes prolongation. Therefore, "winter tonifying" should, according to actual circumstances, choose clear tonification, warm tonification, small tonification, or large tonification in a targeted way, and must never blindly "tonify."
① Greatly warm and greatly hot tonics: beef, mutton, dog meat, etc.
② Clear-tonifying and sweet-warm items: chicken, duck, fish.
③ Sweet and moistening, fluid-promoting items: fruits, vegetables, rock sugar.
The basic principle of winter dietary health preservation should be based mainly on "storing heat," while also following the principle of "eating less salty and more bitter." Winter is the time when the kidney meridian and liver are flourishing, and the kidney governs saltiness while the heart governs bitterness. When too much salty flavor is eaten, the already relatively hyperactive kidney water becomes even more hyperactive, thereby weakening the power of heart yang. Therefore, one should eat more bitter-flavored foods to help heart yang. In winter diet, avoid sticky, hard, raw, and cold foods, as such foods easily damage the yang of the spleen and stomach.
II. Reasonably Supplementing with Fruits
In addition to dietary supplementation, one can also supplement by eating fruits. Eating some fruits can not only nourish yin and nourish the lungs, moisten the throat and remove dryness, but also allow you to take in sufficient nutrients, so that you eat your way to health and eat your way to beauty.
① Pear. Pear is the first choice among winter fruits. Pear has the functions of moistening the throat and promoting fluid production, moistening the lungs and stopping cough, nourishing the stomach and intestines, clearing heat and calming, lowering blood pressure, and preventing and treating constipation. Because pear is cold in nature, those with deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach should not eat too much.
② Walnut. Walnut is also called the longevity fruit. It has the effects of strengthening the body and brain, nourishing the face and beautifying, moisturizing the skin, and delaying aging. Walnut is rich in vitamin E and unsaturated fatty acids, and can treat neurasthenia and bodily weakness and fatigue.
③ Red date. Jujube is an excellent tonic in traditional Chinese medicine. The vitamin content in red dates ranks first among a hundred fruits, and they are known as "living vitamin pills" and have the fine reputation of "youth hormone." The vitamin C, E, and A in red dates can activate and regulate the growth of epidermal cells and have antioxidant and free radical-scavenging effects. As the saying goes: "Eat two dates a day, and you will never look old."
④ Kiwifruit is a fruit with extremely high nutritional value. Eating it can prevent osteoporosis, inhibit cholesterol deposition, prevent and treat arteriosclerosis, improve myocardial function, regulate body functions, and enhance resistance.
⑤ Raisins. Raisins are rich in nutrition. Eating them or making porridge with them can tonify the kidney and strengthen the waist, nourish the spirit and benefit the blood, lower blood pressure, and stimulate the appetite. They can also prevent and treat neurasthenia, stomach pain and abdominal bloating, and cardiovascular diseases.
III. Emphasis on Exercise and Health Care
As the saying goes: "Move a little in winter, and you will have one less illness; be lazy in winter, and you will drink one more bowl of medicine," which shows the importance of physical exercise to health. In winter, because the nights are long and the days are short and the weather is cold, people's amount of activity is greatly reduced. Health-care exercise refers to moderate fitness activity with a daily activity time of more than 30 minutes. According to the 2002 Chinese Residents' Health Survey, the proportion of adults in our country who exercised was 15.1%, the proportion who exercised occasionally was 6.5%, and those who did not exercise were 78.4%. For men, 14.9% exercised, and the proportion who exercised occasionally was 7.5%; for women, the proportion who regularly exercised was 15.1%, and the proportion who exercised occasionally was 5.9%. The proportion participating in exercise rises with increasing age. The survey shows: the longer the sedentary lifestyle time, the greater the body mass index, the higher the blood pressure, and the significant rise in blood lipids and blood sugar as well.
Facts prove that participating more in outdoor activities in winter, so that the body receives appropriate cold stimulation, can make the heart beat faster, breathing deepen, metabolism strengthen, and the heat produced by the body increase, which is beneficial to health and longevity.
IV. Indoor Flowers and Health Care
In winter, it is necessary to prevent the occurrence of seasonal affective disorder. Seasonal affective disorder is the phenomenon in which people in winter have depressed mood, laziness and drowsiness, and a muddled, groggy state. The way to prevent it is to get more sun exposure and to display and appreciate flowers indoors, so that the indoor air is fresh and full of variety, and everywhere presents a scene of poetic charm, full of vitality, and full of vigor. This makes people feel relaxed and happy in a beautiful environment.
1. Dwarf lilyturf: Evergreen through the four seasons, likes semi-shade, and is relatively cold-tolerant; it is a good potted winter foliage plant. Its tuberous root is the commonly used Chinese medicine "dwarf lilyturf root," which can nourish yin and strengthen yang, nourish yin and moisten the lungs, and clear the heart and benefit the stomach. It can be planted in flower borders, beside walls, in front of steps, in greening environment color schemes, and for rockery decoration, etc. It has a relatively strong ability to absorb toxins.
2. Spider plant: Evergreen through the four seasons, likes warmth and humidity, and likes a semi-shade environment. Varieties include variegated spider plant, eight-leaf plant, and hard-leaf spider plant. It has a very strong ability to absorb dust and toxins, and is often praised as a natural vacuum cleaner. Spider plant root can clear heat and remove blood stasis, and reduce swelling and resolve toxins. It is very elegant when often placed at the bedside or beside a desk.
3. Asparagus fern: It is a perennial herb. It is shade-tolerant and likes moisture. The branches and leaf-like branches are slender, clustered, arranged horizontally, upright and elegant, and are loved by men of letters. It is mainly grown in pots for foliage. The whole plant has the function of clearing heat and stopping bleeding, and promoting diuresis and treating strangury.
4. Aloe: Suitable for potted ornamental display, and in winter it must not go below 5°C; during the dormant period it should be kept dry, likes light, and has extremely strong drought tolerance. Placed indoors, it has a very strong function of absorbing toxins and absorbing electromagnetic radiation. It releases oxygen day and night, and has a good preventive effect against gas pollution.
V. Display and Appreciation of Flowers:
① The placement of flowers should coordinate with the room; it is not that more is more beautiful.
② The display of flowers should coordinate with the furniture. Generally, upright flowers are suitable for viewing at eye level; drooping flowers are suitable for viewing from below; low-growing flowers are suitable for viewing from above; works meant to be viewed from all sides are suitable for placing on a tabletop; flowers meant to be viewed from one side are mostly placed in corners.
③ The display of flowers should coordinate with the colors of the environment. Generally, clean, tranquil, light, and unadorned is better. The background should not be over-embellished, so as to bring out the beauty within stillness.
④ The mood of the flowers should coordinate with the display environment. The study should mainly feature asparagus fern, French marigold, and small flowers, and should create a fresh and quiet atmosphere; the living room should mainly feature bamboo palm, clivia, and money tree, creating a warm and lively atmosphere; the dining room should mainly feature chrysanthemums, Chinese roses, and ornamental-fruit flowers to stimulate appetite; the bedroom should mainly feature calla lily and carnation, with simple elegance, lightness, and softness being best.