What are the traditional Chinese medicines for removing dampness?

Most people have varying degrees of moisture in their bodies, especially in the south, where the humidity is heavy during the rainy season, making it easier for the human body to inhale moisture. People often feel tired, and heavy dampness can damage the body's yang energy. This will cause the body's physical condition to deteriorate and make it easy to develop various diseases. Most people will use traditional Chinese medicine to regulate their bodies and eliminate moisture, so let us now learn about several methods of using traditional Chinese medicine to eliminate moisture.

Drink barley and red bean porridge (made with a soy milk maker):

Job's tears, called "Coix seed" in traditional Chinese medicine, is listed as a top-grade medicine in "Shennong's Herbal Classic". It can cure dampness and arthritis, benefit the intestines and stomach, eliminate edema, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and long-term use can make the body lighter and benefit the qi.

Red beans are red in color, and red enters the heart, so they can also nourish the heart and blood. Ancient books record that "long-term consumption makes people thin", which means that eating red beans regularly can also help lose weight. It also has obvious effects of promoting diuresis, reducing swelling, and strengthening the spleen and stomach. Modern people are under great mental stress and have weak heart qi; they have irregular diets, little exercise, and weak spleen and excessive dampness. If you want to remove dampness, nourish the heart, and strengthen the spleen and stomach, then the best solutions are coix seed and red bean. Boiling it into porridge is intended to allow its effective ingredients to be fully absorbed by the human body while not causing much burden to the spleen and stomach. Summer is the time when the heat is unbearable, and it makes people wet inside and outside. These two medicines can nourish the blood and remove dampness.

The "de-swelling" effect of coix seed and red bean is also very interesting. We must not think that swelling is edema. At least five or six out of ten people around me are overweight, which is also swelling, called obesity. In traditional Chinese medicine, obesity or edema means that there is dampness in the body. The water cannot flow with the blood and is retained between body cells, causing the body to swell rapidly. The same is true for edema and obesity, the only difference is the degree. Drugs or foods with strong dehumidifying properties can remove the water retained in the human body and reduce swelling. Therefore, red beans must be used to treat edema. Practice has proved that barley and red bean porridge has good weight-loss effects. It can lose weight without hurting the body. Especially for obesity in middle-aged and elderly people, the effect is particularly good.

People often think they are smart: "When I was cooking barley and red bean porridge, I added a handful of rice, and the porridge became thicker and tasted delicious!"

I said: "Don't add rice into it!" Why? Because rice grows in water, contains moisture, and moisture is sticky, so the rice will become thick once it is boiled. Red beans and coix seeds can both remove moisture, and they do not contain moisture themselves, so no matter how you cook them, the soup will not be thick and will be very clear. Traditional Chinese medicine uses its cleansing properties to remove moisture from the human body. Once rice is added, moisture is added, so the whole porridge becomes thick. Although the taste is better, it is not good for health. Because of that handful of rice, all the red beans and coix seeds are wasted and have no effect.

Can everyone drink barley and red bean soup? Are there any contraindications? In fact, this soup is a good health product and has no side effects, but for different people, some additions and subtractions can be made appropriately.

Some people have a cold constitution, so they can add some warming food, such as longan and jujube; some people suffer from insomnia and feel obviously damp inside their body, so they can add some lotus seeds and lilies; if female friends have dysmenorrhea, they can remove the coix seeds and boil some red bean soup, add some ginger slices, jujube, and brown sugar, drink it to warm the lower abdomen and relieve pain. For joint pain, add some raw white peony root and raw licorice, which can transform the acid and sweet into yin, nourish the blood and eliminate numbness.

People who are often worried, overworked and have little exercise often have pale faces, lack of energy, and even palpitations, drowsiness, a heavy feeling in the head, and emptiness in the heart. This is a sign of dampness in the body and insufficient heart qi. You can add some longan to the coix seed and red bean soup and cook it together. Longan is sweet and warm, and can stimulate appetite, strengthen the spleen, calm the nerves and replenish blood. It can invigorate the heart yang, warm and nourish the heart qi, making people full of energy and full of vitality. Moreover, the taste of the barley and red bean soup alone is very ordinary. After adding longan, it becomes sweet. The light sweetness not only dispels the moisture in our body, but also brings vitality and warmth to our hearts. Let's call it Job's tears, red bean and longan porridge. It is especially suitable for heavy manual laborers and also for middle-aged and elderly people.

The above are detailed introductions to several Chinese medicine methods for removing dampness. For people with heavy dampness, it may be advisable to go to a regular Chinese medicine hospital to get some Chinese medicine to regulate the body. Thereby removing moisture. But it should be noted that we should develop good habits in daily life and try not to eat raw or cold food. You should not face the air conditioner or cold wind directly in the summer.