Many friends ask me about edema. This edema seems trivial, but if you think about it carefully, you will find that many diseases have the shadow of edema. For example, ascites will appear in liver cirrhosis in serious illness, and edema will appear in kidney disease. Heart failure will cause edema; and mild physical disorders may occasionally cause edema. For example, some people do not have a good rest and sleep less, and eyelids will swell.
Some elderly people are out of balance and have long-term edema. For example, there is a pit on the shin bone of the leg, which is a kind of edema.
So, what exactly is edema?
In general, excessive fluid retention (zhū) in the interstitial spaces or body cavities is called edema, however, what we usually call edema refers to the increase of fluid in the interstitial spaces. Increased fluid in the body cavity is called effusion. Edema can be localized or systemic. Serous cavity effusions, such as ascites, pleural effusion, and pericardial effusion, are often accompanied by generalized edema.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that edema is a type of disease characterized by water retention in the body, flooding the skin, and edema of the head, face, eyelids, limbs, abdomen, and even the whole body.
So, how does edema appear?
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that if the lung, spleen, kidney, and bladder are dysfunctional due to exogenous wind, cold, damp heat, soaking in water, soaking in sores, fatigue, chronic illness, etc. Water retention, flooding the skin can cause edema.
As early as in the "Huangdi Neijing", the state of edema was described: "The water starts to rise, the eyes are slightly swollen, like a new lying up, the neck is pulsating, coughing from time to time, the genitals are cold, the feet and shins are swollen, The abdomen is large, and the water has already formed. Press the abdomen with your hands, and it will rise up with your hands, as if wrapped in water, this is the waiting time." Zhang Zhongjing called the disease "water vapor" in "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber", according to The etiology and syndrome are divided into five categories: Feng Shui, Pi Shui, Zheng Shui, Shi Shui, and Yellow Sweat. The treatment of edema in later generations was mostly developed on the basis of this.
How to treat edema
So, once edema occurs, how to regulate it?
In ancient times, edema was a disease that seriously threatened people's health, so Chinese medicine has summed up a lot of experience in the conditioning and treatment of edema. In almost every doctor's book, edema is a very important chapter. Therefore, the treatment of edema There are many ways. If someone around us has edema, you can go to the hospital and ask a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine to use specific prescriptions for conditioning according to the actual situation.
Today, we are introducing a recipe that serves as a dietary aid, Chixiaodou Carp Soup.
The red bean in the prescription has the functions of diuresis and dehumidification, blood and pus drainage, swelling and detoxification. Traditional Chinese medicine is used to treat edema, beriberi, jaundice, diarrhea, blood in the stool, and carbuncle. Regarding the function of Chixiaodou, I once wrote a special article. It is a medicine with the same origin as medicine and food. In "Shen Nong's Materia Medica", its function was recorded, and it was believed that it "mainly drains water and expels carbuncle, pus and blood." Today, many of us still use barley and red beans to boil water to drink when we are removing dampness.
Carp, on the other hand, is a food that can dispel dampness and invigorate the spleen, which is probably something that everyone did not expect.
The ancients had many imaginations about carp, from its ability to leap over the dragon's gate to the characteristics of its scales. In short, they wanted to find out the basis for its water benefits. In fact, I don’t think it’s important. Maybe it’s different from other fish. Future research will make it clear. We just need to use it according to the experience of the ancients.
The ancients believed that carp has the functions of benefiting water, reducing swelling, lowering Qi and promoting milk. It can be used to treat edema and fullness, beriberi, jaundice, cough and gas reversal, and milk blockage and other diseases. Among them, the most used one is the effect of carp to eliminate edema. For example, in "Replenishing the Back of the Elbow", it is recorded: "The soldiers are swollen and full, and their bodies are huge: one big carp, three liters of alcohol. Boil it until the wine is dry, and eat it. Do not use vinegar, salt, or soy sauce. Other things." In the "Summary of Medical Prescriptions", it is recorded: "Treatment of water and swelling: one catty of red-tailed carp. Break open, no water and salt, five coins of raw alum, ground into powder, into the abdomen. Wrapped in fire paper, outside Wrap it with loess mud, simmer in the stove, take it out, remove the paper mud, and eat it as porridge, and use it up in a day.” Wait, when we read ancient books, we will find that many of the prescriptions for treating edema use carp of.
The red bean and carp soup has the functions of invigorating the spleen and kidney, diuresis and swelling. It has a certain effect on the edema of facial muscles, abdominal muscles and limb muscles caused by water condensation, premenstrual edema, edema in pregnant women, and even some serious diseases, such as liver cirrhosis and ascites.
As for the specific method, the Tang Dynasty's "Waitai Miyao" records: "Take one carp, and if it is very large, remove the head, tail and bones, only take the meat, use two buckets of water, one liter of red beans, and cook with the fish. More than two liters of juice, wring out the dregs with raw cloth. Take it all at once, if it can’t be used up, divide it into two servings. Take it afterward to warm it up, and after taking it, it will benefit, and the benefit will be exhausted.” The way to take it here is to drink it all at once, and then you will have a slight diarrhea. After the diarrhea is over, the disease will be cured.
What we do today is to use a carp, remove the viscera and scales, and then use 200 grams of red beans to cook soup with the carp, without seasoning, especially without salt, and then the soup is ready to drink. When drinking, you don't need to drink it all at once like the ancients, but drink one bowl at a time, three times a day, and drink for a few days.
This prescription is relatively mild, but strictly discussed, it is still more effective for damp-heat edema.
There are many examples of using this prescription to remove edema, so I won’t go into details. This prescription should be the most effective and mild among the dietary prescriptions for removing edema. However, we must remember that after the edema is eliminated, we must consider why there is edema. Therefore, nourishing the spleen and strengthening the kidney must be carried out for a long time. Many people feel that everything will be fine once the edema is eliminated. This is not right. Through tonics, we can make us full of righteousness. This is the ultimate thing to do.
