Is the Dragon Boat Festival the earliest “Health and Epidemic Prevention Day” in China?

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Traditional customs such as eating zongzi, hanging mugwort leaves, mulan soup, and drinking realgar wine are indispensable for the Dragon Boat Festival. The full sense of ritual contains many ways of keeping health. These ancient customs of the Dragon Boat Festival were first used by the ancients to expel diseases and maintain health, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the earliest “Health and Epidemic Prevention Day” in China.

The Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, and Chinese medicine experts from Beijing Longfu Hospital will give readers a detailed explanation of the health and wellness knowledge behind traditional customs.

Climbing the boat

Invigorating Qi and blood, dispelling dampness and turbidity

During the Dragon Boat Festival, the yang qi is strong, and the dampness and turbidity are poisoned. Through various ways to remove dampness, remove turbidity and avoid filth is the main point of health care in this season. Exercise makes the pores open and drains the turbidity. Climbing and rowing are all good ways.


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“The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine” says: “Xia Sanyue, this is called Fanxiu, heaven and earth are in harmony, all things are in full bloom, lie down at night and get up early, never tire of the sun, make ambition without anger, make Huaying become a show, make anger vent, if What you love is outside, this is the answer to summer qi, and the way to nurture longevity. If you don’t go against it, you will be sad, autumn will be a malaria, those who receive it will be discordant, and the winter solstice will be seriously ill.” The principle of health preservation contained in it: in the three months of summer, all things flourish, heaven and earth When the qi is intertwined, it is advisable to go to bed late and get up early, do not get tired of the long days, regulate emotions and not get angry, use the ventilation to make the look full and beautiful, the turbid qi can be vented, and conform to the weather. If the summer does not follow the laws of nature, but still converge and hide, it is easy to cause various diseases.

The first rule of the Dragon Boat Festival: exercise properly, sweat, and don’t hold back. Drink warm water after exercising, not cold after sweating, so as to provide a way out for turbid evil.

Boiled Garlic

Clear summer dampness, benefit the heart and spleen

Midsummer is Duanyang, the summer heat is in season, and the attributes rise and disperse, which is easy to consume Qi and damage the body, disturbing the mind, especially the elderly, who are more fatigued after the summer. And summer heat often coexists with dampness, which is easy to cause diarrhea due to summer heat.

Midsummer health should strengthen the spleen and stomach, nourish the heart, clear the summer heat and remove dampness. The custom of the Dragon Boat Festival profoundly reflects the Chinese culture of “harmony”. Zongzi, with zong leaf and lotus leaf on the outside to clear heat and relieve heat, and inside with glutinous rice and jujube to nourish the heart and spleen, has the power of “clearing heat and nourishing qi”.

Brown sugar garlic soup is also one of the Dragon Boat Festival diets. Garlic detoxifies and removes dampness. Brown sugar is boiled to warm the spleen and stomach, nourish qi and activate blood. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that fumigation in summer is hot and humid, and it will consume gas for a long time. Zongzi and brown sugar garlic soup not only clear the heat and dampness, but also strengthen the yang and uplift the body.

Dragon Boat Festival Health Article 2: The diet is mainly light, and vegetables are added, and spicy food is less, such as garlic fried red amaranth and other seasonal vegetables. Garlic is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, and inhibits tumor cell activity. When cooking in summer, garlic is also good for preventing gastrointestinal diseases. It is worth noting that, do not drink cold, eat too cold, gastrointestinal injury, internal dampness, easily lead to the occurrence of gastrointestinal diseases.

bath orchid hanging ai

Avoid evil, prevent bites

As the saying goes, during the Dragon Boat Festival, the five poisons come out. As the temperature rises, various mosquitoes begin to appear frequently. If the body is hot and humid, skin lesions are prone to appear before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, and dermatitis is easily induced after mosquito bites.

Dragon Boat Festival Health Article 3: Keep the environment hygienic, clean the residence, and prevent pests. Folk customs include hanging mugwort leaves, calamus and garlic on the doors and windows, and instilling atractylodes in the house to drive away the five poisons and prevent mosquitoes. Wearing a sachet on the body and boiling water with calamus argyi leaves for a bath, in order to remove dampness and detoxify, is also feasible for some skin diseases with excessive dampness and toxicity. Maintaining a clean and hygienic living environment is of great benefit to maintaining health.

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