Eliminate annoying edema! 4 ingredients have good effects

By Zhong Bifang

There are many foods that have been popular for a long time for reducing edema. Do they really have such effects? How to cook? How to eat? In fact, there is a lot of knowledge involved. Understanding your constitution and finding a solution, while using the same ingredients together, will have a multiplier effect on eliminating edema. From now on, quickly follow a Chinese medicine practitioner to find out what type of edema you have, prescribe the right medicine, and embrace a firmer life.

Chinese medicine practitioner Liao Qianhui pointed out that from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the causes of edema are closely related to constitution and habits. It is possible that the habit is formed first, which leads to the subsequent edema constitution. Furthermore, women have weak lung qi and are more likely to suffer from edema. Taiwan’s humid climate is especially conducive to aggravating edema caused by spleen deficiency and phlegm dampness.

4 major types of edema

Liao Qianhui proposed four common types of edema in outpatient clinics, and arranged them according to the severity of symptoms as follows:

【Lung deficiency and weak qi】

Causes: poor blood circulation, poor cardiopulmonary function, and lack of exercise.

Symptoms: This type of person is prone to fatigue on a daily basis. They are not only too lazy to move but also too lazy to talk. When they speak, their breath is weak and their dantian is insufficient. They are a little afraid of cold and do not sweat easily.

Solution: Increase exercise and train your cardiopulmonary function.

【Spleen deficiency and phlegm dampness】

Cause: Love to eat strong-tasting foods, especially sweets, snacks, ice cream and cold drinks, etc. It may also be caused by living in a too humid place, or even due to long-term fatigue or after a serious illness that damages the spleen yang.

Symptoms: They often experience weakness in the limbs, bloating, and frequent indigestion. They are particularly prone to lower limb edema. When the seasons change or the weather changes, they may also have skin diseases such as eczema and dyshidrotic eczema.

Solution: It is best to change your eating habits, quit the above-mentioned foods that are likely to cause spleen deficiency and phlegm and dampness, and instead eat spleen-strengthening and dampness-removing foods such as coix seed, Si Shen soup, red beans, etc. In addition, you can also place a dehumidifier in your residence to ensure that clothes and bedding are dry and fresh, and control the ambient humidity at around 50-60%.

【Kidney deficiency and phlegm】

Causes: Mostly due to hormonal changes after pregnancy resulting in edema, or due to excessive sexual intercourse, a love of eating raw and cold food and ice cream leading to symptoms of cold constitution, irregular work and rest schedule, often staying up late, and some are caused by damage to kidney yang after a serious illness.

Symptoms: Often feel inexplicable back pain, muscle and bone pain, very afraid of cold, menstrual disorder or even amenorrhea. This type of people are prone to infertility and are more likely to gain weight. The skin appears edematous, tight and lacks elasticity, and obvious depressions appear when pressed with the hand.

Solution: Be sure to change your eating habits and eat more foods that warm the kidneys and remove dampness, such as ginger, cinnamon, water chestnuts, etc. In addition, you should also change your lifestyle, increase sleep time, and limit the number of sexual intercourses. Liao Qianhui reminds that compared with the first two types, people with kidney deficiency and phlegm are best to find a Chinese medicine practitioner to adjust their physical condition in order to fundamentally solve the problem of edema.

Blood stasis

Cause: Edema due to knife wounds or surgery that caused poor local blood and lymphatic return, or due to long-term incorrect posture and scoliosis that caused blood stagnation, or due to foreign body compression (such as malignant tumors).

Symptoms: Edema may occur at the specific site of injury.

Solution: Strengthen treatment at the injured or surgical site, which can be carried out through rehabilitation, acupuncture, massage, etc. to promote tissue repair and normal blood and lymph circulation. Alternatively, assistive devices can be used to correct improper posture, actively identify the cause of the disease, and remove tumors and foreign bodies that compress circulation.

4 popular types of anti-edema ingredients

【Job's tears】

Job's tears can promote diuresis and eliminate dampness, and can also strengthen the spleen and reduce swelling. It is especially useful for people with spleen deficiency and phlegm and dampness. Because coix seed has a mild effect in reducing edema, it requires a relatively large dosage to be effective. However, it also contains a lot of starch, which is indeed a dilemma for many people who want to reduce swelling but are afraid of getting fat. The best way is to replace white rice with coix seed. You can cook it into coix seed porridge or coix seed rice and eat it as a daily meal; or just drinking coix seed water can also effectively reduce swelling.

remind:

Since coix seed has a cool nature, it is recorded in ancient times that it has the effect of inducing abortion and promoting uterine contraction. Therefore, it is not recommended for pregnant women with edema to eat it. There are large coix seeds and small coix seeds on the market. Small coix seeds are actually so-called barley, and their diuretic effect is not as good as that of large coix seeds. If your constitution is already cold, you should not eat too much. For example, it is not recommended for people with allergic rhinitis or those who are easily afraid of cold.

Similar ingredients available: black beans, mung beans, etc.

【Winter melon】

The most effective part of winter melon for reducing edema is the skin, but because the skin is very hard and difficult to chew, it is usually peeled off when cooking, which is a pity. If you want to use winter melon to reduce edema, you can use a knife to peel off a thin layer of the winter melon skin. This can also avoid pesticide residues. Never peel off the entire layer of skin to retain the effect of reducing edema.

remind:

Winter melon is cold in nature, and eating it in summer can relieve summer heat and clear away heat, making it very suitable for people who suffer from acute heatstroke in summer. However, people with a cold constitution should not eat too much, especially those with kidney deficiency and phlegm syndrome. Eating too much winter melon will make their constitution colder and the edema more serious. Therefore, it is recommended to add a few slices of ginger when cooking to reduce the coldness of winter melon.

Similar ingredients available: watermelon, cucumber, etc.

【red beans】

The diuretic and anti-edema functions of red beans are well known. They are rich in fiber and are especially suitable for women with edema in the lower body during menstruation. You can drink red bean soup with a little sugar, which can supplement iron and reduce edema. It has many benefits.

However, it is widely circulated on the Internet that if you want to achieve the effect of reducing edema, red beans should not be cooked too soft. Liao Qianhui said that red beans contain starch, so it is recommended to just drink red bean water. If the red beans have not been soaked, it is not easy to cook them until the shells break. It is recommended to cook them on low heat for 20 minutes. This will only release a small amount of starch, which is very suitable as a breakfast drink.

remind:

It is best to cook red bean soup yourself. Most red bean soups sold on the market contain excessive amounts of sugar and are not low in calories. Instead, they can easily increase the burden on the body and make you more susceptible to obesity.

Corn silk

Corn silk is sweet and mild in nature, and contains sufficient fiber. It can protect the stomach and intestines, promote peristalsis, enhance the body's metabolism, and adjust the function of the nervous system. It contains many vitamins, can cool blood, relieve heat, remove moisture from the body, and achieve the effects of diuresis and swelling.

It is recommended to boil corn silk into water for drinking, because corn silk is light in weight and a small amount can be boiled into a large pot. You can take 6 grams to boil 2000cc of water and use it as drinking water for the day.

remind:

When handling corn silk, one must be careful about the problem of pesticide residues. Because corn is nutritious and sweet, it is a favorite of cabbage loopers, and pests are especially serious in the summer. It is recommended to buy corn shoots in shells that have not been sprayed with pesticides. After peeling the corn shoots, pick out the corn silk and boil water. The corn shoots can be used as an ingredient for dinner, killing two birds with one stone.

Drink tea and coffee to reduce edema, drink less if you have a bad stomach

There are many foods that are said to be diuretic, such as coconut water, coffee, tea, etc. Liao Qianhui said that coconut water is only for cooling down and cannot be used for diuresis. Coffee and tea are also good at eliminating edema, but because they contain caffeine, people with poor stomachs should not drink too much.

[For the full content, please see Changchun Monthly Issue 376]