Why do we use aged mugwort for moxibustion?

Now more and more friends are interested in moxibustion, and this ancient method of treating diseases is gaining more and more attention. Indeed, despite the development of medical science and technology, there are still quite a few diseases or physical symptoms that cannot be explained by current medical technology, but can be effectively treated. When using moxibustion for treatment, aged mugwort leaves are often chosen. Some friends may not be familiar with this kind of aged mugwort leaves, so let me introduce it to you below.

Indeed, the renewal of moxa will have a significant impact on the efficacy of moxibustion. Li Shizhen wrote in Compendium of Materia Medica: "When using mugwort, you must use those that have been aged for a long time and processed until they are soft and fine. This is called cooked mugwort. If it is raw mugwort, the moxibustion fire will easily damage human muscles and veins." Therefore, the best material for the moxa wool or moxa sticks used for moxibustion is aged mugwort, and the older the better. Therefore, after the moxa wool or moxa sticks are made, they should be dried and stored for a period of time before they can be used. Because new mugwort contains more volatile oil than old mugwort, it burns quickly and with strong fire, and is difficult to extinguish after burning, causing burning pain. In addition, the mugwort ash is easy to fall off, which can easily cause burns and blisters. In addition, the smoke produced after burning new mugwort is relatively large and very irritating. On the contrary, old mugwort contains less volatile oil, is easy to flammable and extinguish, burns relatively slowly, and has a gentle fire, which greatly reduces the burning sensation during the moxibustion process, and produces less smoke and is not easy to drop ash. This is the reason why old mugwort is used instead of new mugwort for moxibustion.

Some people believe that there must be a disease-eliminating reaction after moxibustion, otherwise there will be no effect. In fact, this is not absolute. First of all, the disease-eliminating reaction after moxibustion is mainly manifested as a series of symptoms of pathogenic evil expulsion such as sweating, rash, blisters, diarrhea, frequent urination, menstruation, leucorrhea, phlegm, runny nose, tears and so on. However, these often occur when the disease course is long and the symptoms are severe, especially when there is excessive moisture and water vapor in the body.

Through the above introduction, friends have a certain understanding of why moxibustion needs to use old moxa leaves. Here it should be emphasized that moxibustion is not as simple as choosing pure moxa leaves. There are also many issues that need attention. For example, we cannot do moxibustion when we have a fever, we cannot do moxibustion when we feel hungry, and we cannot do moxibustion before the inflammation in the body is eliminated.