Nourish Blood and Detoxify to Create the Perfect Woman
Introduction: For a woman to be beautiful, the most important things are nourishing the blood and maintaining regular bowel movements. If one only focuses on external skincare while neglecting the internal regulation of qi and blood, all efforts will ultimately be in vain!
I. Nourishing Blood
Women are天生 (naturally) subjected to physiological "ordeals"—menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. During these times, there is a characteristic of blood consumption and loss. "Blood is the foundation of a person." Excessive blood loss or insufficient blood replenishment can easily lead to anemia, which is a major enemy to women's health and beauty.
When women are anemic, they not only experience dizziness, blurred vision, palpitations, tinnitus, insomnia with many dreams, and memory loss, but their complexion also fades, their face becomes sallow, their lips and nails turn pale, their skin becomes dry and dull, and they may even develop premature wrinkles, hair loss, and pigmentation.
Therefore, women's beauty often requires nourishing the blood to promptly correct the state of anemia, ensuring that qi and blood are abundant, resulting in a radiant appearance and physical and mental well-being.
For women to nourish their blood, they can choose from patent medicines such as Danggui Yangxu Gao (Angelica Blood-Nourishing Paste), Yimucao Gao (Motherwort Paste), Yangxue Bazhen Wan (Eight-Treasure Nourishing Blood Pill), Guipi Wan (Spleen-Regulating Pill), or Tiaojing Pi (Menstrual Regulation Formula), based on their individual conditions. They can also select blood-nourishing food remedies such as black fungus and red date soup, Astragalus and longan congee, goji berry and red date tea, or Angelica and black chicken stew.
Additionally, women should maintain a cheerful mood, live a regular life, exercise actively, eat a balanced diet, ensure balanced nutrition, and avoid cold foods during menstruation. Only by doing so can they enhance their body's blood production function and ensure a healthy, beautiful figure and a radiant complexion.
Classic Chinese Herbal Formula for Blood Nourishment: Si Wu Tang (Four-Substance Decoction)
Si Wu Tang is a classic formula for nourishing and tonifying the blood, and it is the most commonly used prescription in gynecology. In the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is a household name, as famous as thunder.
Even more remarkably, by adding or subtracting these four herbs, a series of "sub-formulas" and "grand-sub-formulas" have been derived. According to incomplete statistics, there are over 800 variations of Si Wu Tang, truly a "family full of descendants," making it the undisputed "patriarch" of all formulas.
Si Wu Tang was first recorded in the "Xian Shou Li Shang Xu Duan Mi Fang" (Secret Formula for Treating Injuries and Fractures) by Lin Daoren of the late Tang Dynasty. It was later improved by the famous Eastern Han physician Zhang Zhongjing into the famous Jiao Ai Si Wu Tang in his "Jin Gui Yao Lue" (Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet)—later revered as the primary formula for nourishing blood and regulating menstruation, specifically used to treat gynecological blood disorders, and later called by later physicians the "First Formula for Gynecology."
Si Wu Tang is composed of four Chinese herbs: Danggui (Angelica sinensis), Chuanxiong (Ligusticum wallichii), Baishao (White Peony Root), and Shudihuang (Rehmannia root), among which Danggui and Shudihuang are the main herbs.
Shudihuang contains components such as mannitol and vitamin A. When paired with Danggui, it can increase the content of ferulic acid, the main component of Danggui, thereby enhancing its blood-nourishing and blood-activating effects. It can address women's pale complexion, dizziness, menstrual irregularities, light flow, or amenorrhea.
Longan and Red Date Soup
Longan and Red Date Soup is a rich, sweet, and mellow soup that replenishes qi, nourishes blood, and calms the mind. Longan pulp is warm in nature and sweet in taste, benefiting the heart and spleen, and replenishing qi and blood. It not only strengthens the spleen and secures qi but also preserves blood without depletion. Red dates are rich in protein, carotene, vitamins, and minerals such as phosphorus, calcium, and iron. They are sweet and warm in nature, with the effects of tonifying the middle jiao, replenishing qi, nourishing blood, and calming the mind. Red beans are rich in vitamins B1 and B2, protein, and various minerals, with the effects of nourishing and strengthening the body, strengthening the spleen, and nourishing the stomach. Longan and Red Date Soup can promote urination to remove dampness, clear heat and detoxify, nourish blood and benefit the spleen, and calm the mind and heart, possessing excellent nourishing properties.
Ingredients: 30g dried longan, 50g red dates, 150g red beans, 1500g water.
1. Wash the red beans with clear water and soak for 2 hours.
2. Peel the longan and keep the pulp.
3. Place the soaked red beans, red dates, and water in a pot and bring to a boil.
4. Add the longan.
5. Once it boils again, reduce the heat and simmer for 60 minutes.
II. Promoting Bowel Movements
Traditional Chinese Medicine observed long ago that people who often have difficulty with dry, hard stools are prone to premature skin aging. The great Tang dynasty physician Sun Simiao recorded in his "Qian Jin Yao Fang" (Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies): "Those who have difficulty with bowel movements often have a dull complexion." Modern medical research also proves that people with chronic constipation will inevitably "lose their youthful bloom."
As is well known, the human body produces unusable waste in the intestines every day. This waste continuously accumulates and becomes "fecal matter."
The accumulation of fecal matter in the intestines not only causes symptoms like bloating, bad breath, dizziness, loss of appetite, and fatigue, but also, due to the action of bacteria, this stagnant fecal matter continuously ferments and rots, producing harmful toxic gases that are absorbed into the blood. These irritate and poison the skin, causing skin problems such as facial freckles, acne, pustules, bumps, and rough skin.
Therefore, for women's beauty, it is also necessary to maintain regular bowel movements. The fundamental measures to keep bowel movements regular include drinking enough water, eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and whole wheat foods, and getting adequate exercise.
In summary, nourishing the blood and promoting bowel movements are the basic principles that women must follow for skincare. Otherwise, even if one spends a fortune on high-end cosmetics, it will be difficult to maintain a youthful and beautiful complexion.
Experts recommend a diet plan for treating female constipation, which mainly includes the following four foods:
1. Seaweed and Sesame Rice.
Finely chop 100g of roasted seaweed. Grind 120g of black sesame seeds and 120g of white sesame seeds with a rolling pin. Mix these three ingredients together and store them in a jar. Take one or two spoonfuls with each meal and mix with rice. Teacher Fuze explains that seaweed is rich in nutrients like carotene, calcium, potassium, and iron, which can promote gastrointestinal motility. Sesame seeds contain a large amount of amino acids, dietary fiber, and minerals, which can promote bowel movements.
2. Cabbage Salad with Vinegar.
Method: Blanch 500g of cabbage in boiling water with a little salt. After blanching, let the cabbage cool, squeeze out the water, and cut it into pieces. Mix one cup of vinegar, 1/2 cup of broth, two tablespoons of wine, and 1/2 tablespoon of salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil to make the dressing. Let the dressing cool, then pour it over the cabbage in a sealed jar and let it marinate for one day before eating. Cabbage is rich in various vitamins and dietary fiber, which can enhance intestinal peristalsis.
3. Vinegar-Marinated Lotus Root.
Blanch the lotus root. According to personal taste, mix in an appropriate amount of sugar, salt, vinegar, and sesame oil. Store the mixed lotus root in a sealed jar and take some out daily as a side dish with meals. Teacher Fuze says that lotus root can remove intestinal waste, prevent stool from becoming hard, and stimulate the intestinal wall to prevent constipation.
4. Stir-fried Kelp and Beans.
Shred 300g of kelp and blanch it in boiling water. Boil 100g of soybeans until cooked. Let the kelp and soybeans cool, drain the water, and then mix in salt, soy sauce, MSG, and chopped green onions. Kelp is rich in dietary fiber, which can promote intestinal peristalsis and increase the amount of stool. The unsaturated fatty acids in soybeans can promote bowel movements, and the rich dietary fiber can absorb moisture in the intestines, increasing stool volume.