In March, as the weather warms up, ladies who love to be beautiful change into lightweight knits. Some friends even wear short skirts and shorts. While these silhouettes are graceful, neglecting warmth can lead to a condition known as "uterine coldness" for women.
What is uterine coldness? As the name suggests, it refers to a deficiency of Yang energy in women. When the uterus lacks this vital warmth, a series of symptoms may appear, such as a heavy or painful lower abdomen that eases with heat, abnormal vaginal discharge, painful menstruation, and irregular cycles. "Uterine coldness" is a diagnosis from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and cannot be directly matched to a specific Western medical disease name. However, some common acute and chronic gynecological inflammatory conditions in Western clinical practice, such as cervicitis, endometritis, and salpingitis, can be effectively treated using the TCM pattern differentiation of "uterine coldness," and has shown good results in clinical applications.
【Shanxi】Astragalus Chicken Soup
What's good for preventing and treating uterine coldness?
For women with insufficient Yang energy and a cold uterus, it is advisable to consume "hot-natured" foods. These include beef, dog meat, lamb, walnuts, melon seeds, red dates, chestnuts, longans, lychees, and cherries. During winter and spring, you can drink more nourishing soups, such as lamb and radish soup. This helps to supplement the body's innate deficiencies with high-energy acquired nourishment. There's no need to worry about "internal heat" (上火), as a "uterine coldness" constitution lacks fire energy and is unlikely to show symptoms of excessive heat. Office ladies should pay more attention to incorporating these warming foods into their lunches. However, the core of TCM wellness is balance. Hot-natured foods should not be consumed excessively, or they can have the opposite effect.
In addition to hot-natured foods, you can also eat more foods that nourish kidney Qi and blood. These include red dates, black-bone chicken, animal blood, lotus root, liver, and various red meats. For women, bird's nest and donkey-hide gelatin are unparalleled choices for regulating the body. Goji berries have a strong warming effect, so people with colds, fevers, inflammation, or diarrhea should avoid them. Generally, healthy adults should consume about 20 grams of goji berries per day; do not overdo it.
Medicinal Food Introduction
Red Date and Astragalus Chicken Soup
Ingredients: 1 black-bone chicken, 6g each of Angelica sinensis (Dang Gui), Astragalus root (Huang Qi), and red dates (Hong Zao).
Method: Pluck and clean the black-bone chicken, removing its internal organs. Place the cleaned medicinal herbs into the chicken's abdominal cavity. Simmer in a clay pot for 2 hours. Remove the herb residue, add seasonings, and eat the meat while drinking the soup. Consume in 2-3 servings. Take one dose daily before menstruation for 3-5 consecutive days.
Effects: Tonifies Qi and blood, strengthens the body. Suitable for conditions caused by insufficient Qi and blood, such as scanty, light-colored menstruation, dizziness, blurred vision, heart palpitations, a sallow complexion, a sensation of emptiness in the lower abdomen, pale red tongue, and a thready pulse.
Chive, Ginger, and Milk Pudding
Ingredients: 300g of chives, 30g of ginger, 250ml of milk.
Method: Clean the chives and chop them. Peel and clean the ginger. Put the chives and ginger into a juicer and extract the juice, setting it aside. Pour the chive and ginger juice into a pot, add the milk, and heat over low flame until it comes to a boil. It is ready to eat.
Effects: Chives nourish the stomach and kidneys. This pudding warms the middle to dispel cold, strengthens the spleen and stomach, and alleviates the sensation of emptiness in the lower abdomen and back pain.
Indulging in Raw and Cold Foods is Detrimental
As women age, their innate Yang energy gradually diminishes, their spleen and stomach functions weaken, and the uterus loses its protection. If at this time one indulges too much in raw and cold foods, cold energy will accumulate in the body and be difficult to dispel, ultimately affecting the health of the reproductive system. In summer, let food taken from the fridge sit for a while before eating. In autumn and winter, avoid raw foods and cold drinks. If you must eat something cold, have something warm first; the order cannot be reversed.
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