What to nourish in spring, summer, autumn and winter according to traditional Chinese medicine

According to the core logic of traditional Chinese medicine’s four-season health care, the main care points of the four seasons correspond to nourishing the liver in spring, nourishing the heart in summer, nourishing the lungs in autumn, and nourishing the kidneys in winter. There are also many schools that separate the long summer with the highest humidity at the turn of summer and autumn as supporting the spleen. This is a basic framework generally recognized by most clinical workers of traditional Chinese medicine and senior health practitioners.

I myself followed the health clinic of a traditional Chinese medicine hospital for almost three years. At first, I was obsessed with the solar terms and ate various Internet celebrity recipes. After going through many pitfalls, I realized that this correspondence is never a rigid formula and must be combined with my own physique. Let’s just say that last spring, I read on the Internet that spring should soothe the liver. I made rose tea every day and followed the trend and took Xiaoyao Pills. I have a body with strong liver fire. After drinking it for half a month, my mouth was blistered and even my temples hurt suddenly. After I went to the doctor for treatment, I found out that the core of nourishing the liver in spring is to follow the rise of Yang Qi. To get more energy, people who sit for a long time can stretch more and go for a walk in the park to loosen the stagnation of liver qi. If you have excessive liver yang, you will easily blush and have a headache. Instead, you should eat less spicy food and eat more moist bean sprouts such as shepherd's purse and spring bamboo shoots to suppress the irritation. Don't take supplements blindly. By the way, many people now question the idea that the liver must be nourished in spring, saying that they don’t pay attention to anything in spring and don’t feel uncomfortable. In fact, people with a normal physique don’t need to deliberately join in the fun, as long as they don’t stay up late to exercise their bodies.

Summer is even more interesting. I always thought that nourishing the heart in summer was a mystery. Who wouldn’t be irritated in the summer? It wasn’t until last year when I ran for business all afternoon in the dog days of summer and rushed into the office with a sweat on my face that I drank half a glass of iced Coke. Of course, there are a lot of popular science saying that you can eat ice in the summer. I have tried it myself and I feel that as long as I don’t drink it hard when I’m sweating profusely, it’s okay to eat one or two popsicles on a hot day without making myself uncomfortable. Everyone’s tolerance level is different. My mother-in-law has a strong spleen and stomach, and there’s nothing wrong with eating iced watermelon every day in the summer. My mother would have a stomachache if she took one bite.

I think everyone has encountered more pitfalls when it comes to nourishing the lungs after autumn. My mother had a cough for almost half a month last autumn. She ate it every day after watching people stew rock sugar snow pears, but the cough did not go away and her stomach suffered acid reflux for several days. Later, she went to the doctor and said she had a cold spleen and stomach. In fact, the core of nourishing the lungs in autumn is to prevent dryness. It is not just about eating. When the wind is strong, wear a mask to prevent the dry and cold air from directly choking your throat. Don't stay up late at night to consume body fluids. This is more effective than any amount of lung nourishing supplements you take.

As for nourishing the kidneys in winter, the most pitfall I have seen is blind supplementation. Last winter, my colleague followed the trend and bought several thousand yuan of donkey-hide gelatin and red ginseng, thinking that taking supplements in winter would prevent her from getting sick in the coming year. As a result, she has a body with heavy phlegm and dampness. After taking it for half a month, she gained three pounds in weight. She felt groggy all day long and even had a lot of bad breath. It took almost a month for her to recover. In the past two years, I rarely take any supplements in the winter. I just pay attention not to sweat profusely. I try to lie down before ten o'clock at night. If my feet are cold, I soak my feet. I rarely catch a cold throughout the winter, and it is much more effective than buying supplements indiscriminately before. Of course, some people say that you should take supplements in winter. This is also for people who are weak in qi and blood and are afraid of the cold. If they are prone to getting angry and constipated, they should eat more radishes in winter to clear away internal heat, and don’t just take supplements.

To be honest, many researchers in modern medicine now feel that this correspondence between the four seasons and the five internal organs has no clear evidence-based basis, and is more a summary of the life experience passed down by our ancestors. My own feeling is that you don’t have to stick to the rules of "you must nourish the liver in spring and the kidneys in winter". You can adjust your life rhythm according to the changes in the climate. If your body is comfortable, it will be more effective than any health care method.