How to correctly view TCM health preservation

Traditional Chinese medicine health care must focus on two aspects: one is scientificity, and the other is timeliness.

Some people now overemphasize ancient health-preserving methods, which are not scientific in the true sense. For example, too much emphasis is placed on being a vegetarian. In fact, being a vegetarian does not cure all diseases. The human body still needs a reasonable nutritional structure. Both hypocholesterolemia and hypercholesterolemia are harmful to health, and hypocholesterolemia is even more harmful to health, because in our life metabolism process, many basic substances, such as vitamin D3, sex hormones, etc., are synthesized with cholesterol as raw material, and scientific research in recent years has found that appropriate cholesterol content in the blood has a certain "anti-cancer function".

From the perspective of timeliness, there are many outdated things in traditional Chinese medicine that should be updated. Ancient China has a profound health-preserving culture, but many health-preserving methods have their own special historical background, just like people's speech has a special "context". Same. For example, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, people from the Han Dynasty said the phrase "Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of his country", which was not coined until the Ming Dynasty. This is inappropriate.

The ancient health-preserving method is to hibernate in winter, move less, go out less, avoid sweating, and avoid taking a bath. This is closely related to the limited food and insufficient warmth of people in ancient times. In the cold winter, all things wither and there is less food. Less activity means less consumption, which can reduce physical expenditure. At the same time, people in ancient times wore thin clothes, not as particular as they do now. They just wore a single piece of clothing inside and a large cotton-padded jacket outside. They moved a lot, sweated, and had cold bodies. They were prone to catching a cold when the cold wind blew. When they caught a cold, there was a lack of medical care and medicine, so many people's lungs were likely to be infected, and if the lung infection was not treated properly, it could easily lead to death. Similarly, the ancients said that you cannot take a bath in winter because of the limited living conditions at the time and the cold weather.

There is a lack of heating facilities, and it is very easy to catch a cold when taking a bath. If a cold is not treated in time, it is easy to get other diseases... Just like in our country before the 1970s and 1980s, people had to go to a large bathhouse to take a bath, and they went there once or twice a month. At that time, people did not wear as complete clothes as they do now. They wore a single piece of clothing inside and a large cotton-padded jacket outside. If you were not careful when taking a bath, you would easily catch a cold by catching a cold or a breeze.

But the situation is very different now. Taking a bath and changing clothes frequently are very good hygiene habits. After our country's reform and opening up, people's living standards have greatly improved, and a type of disease has been significantly reduced compared with the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Infectious skin diseases such as carbuncles, sores, swellings, and boils have almost disappeared. These are the benefits of paying attention to personal hygiene, taking frequent baths and changing clothes.

So we still have to pay attention to science. Some people mislead ordinary people: "Don't sweat in winter, don't take a bath in winter." As a result, many people come to ask me. I say that when we inherit the health experience and traditions of the ancients, we must emphasize scientificity.

In addition, many people overemphasize the absolute efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine when talking about health care. The author believes that both Chinese and Western medicine have their own health-care characteristics. It depends on how we use them. The practice of blindly following the old ways and copying them blindly is not advisable. When we emphasize health care, no matter whether it is Chinese medicine knowledge or Western medicine knowledge, as long as it is beneficial to the health of the people, we should make comprehensive use of them to serve the health of the Chinese people together.

For example, Chinese medicine pays attention to the excess or deficiency of medicines when treating diseases, and uses them to correct the excess or deficiency of the human body. The bodies of middle-aged and elderly people also have their ups and downs. When seeing a patient, doctors often have to determine whether the patient needs to replenish yin or yang. Western medicine says that middle-aged and elderly people should pay attention to calcium supplementation for health care. That’s because middle-aged and elderly people have osteoporosis and are prone to degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis. After a recent survey, some people in the Shanghai medical community believe that China has entered an aging society, with the number of people over 60 years old accounting for 13% to 14% of the total population. Reasonable calcium supplementation can effectively slow down the onset of osteoporosis and bone and joint diseases in middle-aged and elderly friends and improve cardiovascular and cerebrovascular function. Therefore, our middle-aged and elderly friends can also supplement calcium while supplementing yin or yang.

Therefore, Chinese medicine health care must abandon some outdated theories, combine it with modern medicine, and combine Chinese medicine with Western medicine.

Among the traditional cultures of the world, only China has a very complete health culture. The ancient health culture left to us by our ancestors has subtly influenced the words and deeds of the Chinese people. Therefore, although our country's per capita investment in health care ranks 114th in the world, the average life expectancy of Chinese people is almost close to the level of developed countries in the world, with an average of 73 years old, and many big cities are close to 80 years old. This is undoubtedly due to the deep-rooted health culture among the Chinese people.

"Blessing", "Prosperity" and "Shou" are the best states of life pursued by our Chinese ancestors. However, among these three, the last and most satisfactory ending is "Shou". This is enough to show how much the Chinese people love health and life from ancient times to the present.

Nowadays, the principles of health preservation are contained in every move of ordinary people's lives. You see, in the park in the morning, people are doing their favorite sports, they are full of energy and contented. In the vegetable market, people buy not only a combination of meat and vegetables, but also a combination of red, yellow, green, purple, black and white vegetables and fruits. Everyone knows that buying some bitter herbs and shepherd's purse in spring can reduce heat and promote diuresis; eat some green onions and garlic to prevent colds, avoid crowded places to reduce the spread of influenza (flu); drink some mung bean soup in summer to dispel heat; when the weather is cold, people go out less, and even if they go out, they know to wear hats and scarves to prevent the cold from stimulating the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems.

These are the continuation of the ancients' excellent health culture of "Three months of spring, go to bed late and get up early...", "Five grains for nourishment, five fruits for assistance, five animals for benefit, and five vegetables for filling", and are also a manifestation of the continuous development and progress of our health concepts.