Can I drink dandelion if I have heavy dampness?

Among Chinese medicinal herbs, dandelion is one of the most common ones and can be seen everywhere in the wild. Every year, many people go to dig dandelions and make tea with them. In traditional Chinese medicine, it has the effect of clearing away heat and detoxifying. People with heavy dampness will also use it to flush water, but can people with heavy dampness drink dandelions? According to relevant Chinese medicine practitioners, dandelion is often used in prescriptions and is also effective in removing dampness.

Analysis of the medicinal properties of dandelion

Dandelion tastes bitter and sweet. Cold in nature. It enters the liver and stomach meridians; it can clear away heat and detoxify, reduce swelling and resolve stagnation, and promote diuresis and relieve stranguria. It is used for carbuncle, breast abscess, scrofula, red eyes, sore throat, lung abscess, intestinal abscess, damp-heat jaundice, and painful stranguria caused by heat.

Dandelion Tea

The medicinal herb dandelion is bitter and cold in nature, so it can clear away heat and detoxify. At the same time, dandelion has a strong diuretic effect. Therefore, it is very suitable for people with damp-heat constitution, especially those with damp-heat in the liver and gallbladder, and damp-heat in the bladder. It can clear away heat and detoxify, and act as a diuretic and remove dampness. But at the same time, because of the bitter and cold nature of dandelion, people with yang deficiency, qi deficiency, and weak spleen and stomach should not eat it. Eating it will damage the yang energy and further aggravate the spleen deficiency. If the spleen is weak, it will be unable to expel moisture, resulting in spleen deficiency and dampness.

In a word, dandelions are suitable for people with damp-heat constitution; people with damp-cold constitution generally have yang deficiency, and people with phlegm-dampness generally have qi deficiency. These two types of people cannot eat dandelions. Not only will eating them fail to eliminate dampness, but will aggravate the dampness!

How to distinguish damp-heat, cold-dampness, and phlegm-dampness?

Symptoms of damp-heat: fever but not rising body heat, heavy headache, heaviness and pain in the body, bitter taste in the mouth, chest tightness, yellow and scanty urine, red tongue, and yellow and greasy tongue coating.

Symptoms of cold and dampness: white tongue coating, cold sweat, frequent abdominal pain, diarrhea, cold hands and feet, fear of cold, sore joints in the limbs, back pain, etc.

Symptoms of phlegm-dampness: obesity, full and soft abdomen, pale and dark complexion, enlarged tongue, sticky mouth, cold hands and feet, chest tightness, excessive phlegm, and easy drowsiness.

Daily conditioning of damp-heat, cold-dampness, and phlegm-dampness

These three conditions are all manifestations of heavy dampness. In daily life, we should pay attention to the following aspects:

1. Eat more foods that strengthen the spleen and promote diuresis, such as red beans, coix seeds, water chestnuts, winter melon, coix seeds, mung beans, and watermelon rind. It is suitable to insist on using soup or tea made from red beans, coix seeds and Euryale ferox for conditioning. It is suitable for damp-heat, cold-dampness and phlegm-dampness.

2. Keep the air circulating in the house. If the humidity in the room is very high, it is recommended to keep the air circulating more to let the air carry away the moisture. If the floor is wet, mop it immediately to avoid moisture retention.

3. Eat less sweet and greasy food. Sweetness enters the spleen and has a nourishing effect on the spleen, but sweetness can also retain moisture, so you should eat less sweets in a humid environment.

3. Avoid eating raw or cold food. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that raw and cold foods, ice cream, or cool vegetables and fruits can damage the spleen and stomach and cause spleen deficiency. This is the same reason why people with spleen deficiency cannot eat dandelions. 4. Keep your body and clothes dry. Do not wear damp clothes or cover yourself with a damp blanket. Be sure to dry and blow dry thoroughly after taking a shower or washing your hair.