Way to Tonic is to Balance

To tonic, means to take foods or drugs that have the effect of tonic or regulate the balance of Yin and Yang in the body, so as to achieve the purpose of strengthening the physique, preventing diseases, curing diseases, and prolonging life.

Traditional Chinese medicine has accumulated a wealth of experience in how to use food and medicine to regulate the human body. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the human body, like everything in the universe, is always in a relatively dynamic balance. Once this balance is disrupted, the balance between Yin and Yang will lose its balance, and the body will become more or less prosperous, and disease will appear in the human body. At this time, it is necessary to use various appropriate means, including taking some drugs, food, and other means to restore the dynamic balance between Yin and Yang. The "Yellow Emperor's Canon of Medicine (黃帝內經)" puts forward: "Whoever wants to diagnose a disease must ask about food and housing", "Healing must be on the basis", "Medicine to cure, and food to follow", "People are based on five grains", "Heaven provides man with the five smells, and earth provides man with the five flavors" and so on. The above quotation clearly points out that foods (including grains, vegetables, fruits, etc.), like medicines, play an important role in treating and preventing diseases and maintaining the dynamic balance of Yin and Yang in the human body.

People's age, gender, and physical fitness are different in specific situations, and the time for tonic and supplement is also different. For people who usually have yin deficiency, they should eat foods and medicines that nourish and soften yin, clear heat and reduce fire, such as rehmannia, coasiaI gIehnia root and polygonatum odoratum, and should eat food with cold attribute with caution. For people who has stronger yang constitution, they should eat food with warm attribute with caution. Infants and young children are "infant yang bodies", and tend to be yang-heat, so they should be careful in eating warming and tonic food. Most women suffer from loss of qi and blood after childbirth, so they should timely replenish their qi and nourish their blood. Most elderly people have kidney deficiency, so they need to timely invigorate the kidney.

In short, when people use food or medicine to tonic or supplement their bodies, they must consider the problem as a whole. In order to adjust the body's yin and yang and restore the dynamic balance, they should consider the characteristics of the season, the person's physique and the nature and taste of the food and medicine. If this principle is violated, it will not only be useless to the body, fail to achieve the purpose of regulating and supplementing, but will post damage to health.

Written by: Cheung Yung, the founder of SYT Wellness, a registered Chinese physician, has won the trust and support of celebrities, specialized in pain and urban diseases.
Column: Celebrity Doctor

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