After autumn, the air humidity drops and the wind becomes stronger. Many people will feel that their bodies are dry everywhere. This phenomenon is often referred to as "autumn dryness". Many people think that "autumn dryness" is a disease, but it is not. It's just the physical discomfort that comes with the changing seasons. If you want to relieve autumn dryness, you must not be sloppy with your daily hydration work.
In dry weather, many people will have this experience: just after drinking water, their mouth will become dry soon, their lips will be peeled, the corners of the mouth will be chapped, and even oral ulcers will appear. These are very typical signs of autumn dryness. From the perspective of modern medicine, the decrease in humidity in autumn will cause the loss of moisture in the respiratory mucosa, weaken the skin barrier function, and change the secretion of digestive juices. The body will produce a series of seasonal reactions, such as dry throat and dry skin.
If drinking water is not replenished in time, the body will enter a state of hidden dehydration. When blood volume decreases, blood components such as red blood cells, platelets, and lipids are relatively concentrated, and blood viscosity increases. Blood flow slows down and platelets are more likely to aggregate, which increases the risk of blood clots.
Feng Xingzhong, Vice President of Yuquan Hospital of Tsinghua University: Water replenishment should be provided in small amounts, multiple times, and at a uniform rate. If you wait until you are thirsty to drink water, your body will actually be dehydrated. It is recommended to drink 100 to 150 ml of water every hour, and the total amount throughout the day should be maintained at 1,500 to 2,000 ml. Patients with heart failure must strictly abide by the doctor's instructions regarding the amount of water they drink. Drinking large amounts of water in a short period of time will increase the capacity load on the heart. Warm water is the best choice for hydration. Do not use sugary drinks, strong tea or coffee as a substitute for drinking water.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, autumn dryness is divided into two types: warm dryness and cool dryness. The conditioning ideas of the two are completely different. If the conditioning direction is wrong, it will aggravate the physical discomfort.
Warm and dry weather mostly occurs in early autumn. The residual heat of late summer has not dissipated yet, and the evil of dryness is surrounding the evil of heat. The main symptoms are dry mouth and tongue, always wanting to drink cold water; dry cough with little phlegm, sore throat; dry stool, and a feeling of heat on the skin. Observe the tongue, the tongue is reddish, and the tongue coating is thin and yellow.
Cool and dry conditions are more common in late autumn. The temperature dropped significantly, and dryness evil was mixed with cold evil. You will feel dry mouth, but do not want to drink cold water, preferring warm drinks; accompanied by dry cough, nasal congestion, fear of cold; dry skin, cold hands and feet, and thin white tongue coating.
Feng Xingzhong, Vice President of Tsinghua University Yuquan Hospital:
To treat warm dryness, you can remove the core of snow pears, add a little rock sugar and cook them. It can clear away heat and moisturize the lungs. Half a day is enough. Try to add as little sugar as possible to Tremella, Lily and Lotus Seed Soup, and eat it in small amounts after dinner. You can also make light soup with white radish and winter melon to help clear away the residual heat in the body.
To treat coldness and dryness, you can take a small amount of almonds and cook porridge with japonica rice, which is warm and moisturizing and suitable for consumption in the morning. Drinking honey with warm water can moisten dryness and dispel cold. Be careful that the brewing water temperature does not exceed 60°C. Yams can be steamed or cooked into porridge to strengthen the spleen and warm the stomach without placing an excessive burden on the gastrointestinal tract.
I would like to remind everyone that tongue symptoms are only a simple reference at home. If you cannot distinguish the type of dryness, do not blindly treat yourself with food.
After autumn, many people develop dry coughs, and their first reaction is to moisturize the dryness. However, moisturizing also requires methods. There are several common misunderstandings that we need to pay attention to.
Misunderstanding 1: Drink herbal tea and eat cold food if you have dry mouth and cough.
If the discomfort is caused by coldness and dryness, drinking herbal tea will damage the spleen and stomach yang, making people more sensitive to cold and diarrhea, and the symptoms will aggravate.
Misunderstanding 2: Take cough medicine when you have a cough.
Dry coughs caused by autumn dryness are mostly caused by dryness and irritation of mucous membranes, and there is no sputum. Blindly taking antitussive drugs will make the throat drier. Prioritize moisturizing and hydrating the throat instead of directly relieving the cough.
Misunderstanding 3: You think you should eat more sweets and drink more sugar water to moisturize your skin.
Sweet foods tend to produce phlegm. If there is too much sugar in rock sugar, snow pear, and white fungus soup, it will aggravate the sticky discomfort in the throat. The moisturizing diet must be light and low in sugar.
Feng Xingzhong, Vice President of Yuquan Hospital of Tsinghua University: There are still some signals that cannot be simply classified as autumn dryness. A dry cough that lasts for more than two weeks is accompanied by chest pain, low-grade fever, and blood in the sputum. The dry mouth is very severe and cannot be relieved by drinking a lot of water. There are also symptoms such as polyuria and weight loss. You must seek medical treatment in time to investigate the cause and do not delay the condition.
