TCM liver care: Six lifestyle habits to help you protect your liver

The liver is the largest metabolic organ in the human body, so we must protect the health of the liver. The main functions of the liver, in addition to secreting bile, storing animal starch, and regulating the metabolism of protein, fat and carbohydrates, are detoxification, hematopoiesis and coagulation. Therefore, it is very important to learn how to nourish and protect the liver. Here we will introduce you to the knowledge of nourishing the liver in traditional Chinese medicine.

1. Drink more water

Drinking more water can replenish body fluids, enhance blood circulation, and promote metabolism. Drinking more water can also promote the secretion of glands, especially digestive glands, pancreatic juice, and bile, to facilitate digestion, absorption and waste elimination, and reduce damage to the liver by metabolic products and toxins.

If you want to have a healthy liver, you must first learn to control your anger. Even if you are angry, do not exceed 3 minutes. Try your best to be calm, optimistic, cheerful and worry-free, so that the liver fire can be extinguished and the liver qi can be generated normally and smoothly. If this natural law is violated, the liver qi will be damaged. Therefore, keeping a cheerful mood can protect your liver.

The diet should be balanced, and the protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, etc. in the food should be kept in corresponding proportions; at the same time, the five flavors should be kept balanced, and spicy dishes should be eaten as little as possible. A proper diet and balanced nutrition are also beneficial to protecting the liver and avoiding liver damage caused by excessive drinking at social events.

Strengthen exercise to improve your immunity. Chinese medicine experts point out that exercise can prevent fatty liver and consume excess fat in the body. People who already suffer from fatty liver should insist on physical exercise and do some aerobic exercises such as jogging, brisk walking, and cycling. These can consume calories in the body and control weight gain.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the liver cannot be nourished, as nourishing it will cause internal heat. The liver can be nourished by nourishing the spleen and kidneys. For people with spleen deficiency, take ginseng spleen-strengthening pills, coix seed, yam, and water chestnut to make porridge. People with kidney deficiency can take Liuwei Dihuang Pills and stew chicken with wolfberry and Gastrodia elata. People with excessive liver fire can take Danzhi Xiaoyao Pills or make chrysanthemum tea to protect the liver.

The secret to drinking alcohol is to eat before drinking. Drinking less will naturally cause less harm. If you must drink and want to take some preventive measures, you should try to eat more food to fill your stomach. After the food is eaten, it can form a protective film on the gastric mucosa and intestinal mucosa, which not only protects the stomach and intestines, but also prevents some alcohol from entering the blood, reducing the degree of drunkenness.