Nourishing Your Lungs: Homemade Tea and Foods for Autumn Health

February 5, 2024

Autumn is a season characterized by dry weather and significant changes in temperature, which can easily cause damage to the lungs. Therefore, the key to autumn health is to nourish the lungs. We need to pay extra attention to lung health and it is best to drink some lung-nourishing tea to alleviate discomfort such as dry throat and sore throat.
 


 

Homemade Lung-Nourishing Tea Recommendations for Autumn

1. Lo Han Guo Tea

   Method: Take 5-8g of Lo Han Guo, remove the shell and crush it. Brew it with boiling water and drink it after it cools down. It has the effect of clearing heat, detoxifying, resolving phlegm, stopping cough, and nourishing and moistening the lungs.

   Lo Han Guo is sweet and cool, and can clear the lungs, stop coughing, and moisten the intestines for smooth bowel movements. It should be noted that people with poor gastrointestinal function should not use it excessively.

2. Four Treasures Tea

   Method: Soak 10g of Ophiopogon japonicus, 6g of Platycodon grandiflorus, 10g of Honeysuckle, and 3g of Pteridium aquilinum in water. It can clear the lungs, moisten the throat, and produce saliva.

   This type of tea is relatively mild in nature and has no obvious side effects. There are no absolute contraindications in the general population.

3. Dendrobium Tea

   Method: Take 10g of Dendrobium every day to make tea. If conditions permit, it is recommended to boil it and take the water to maximize the medicinal effect.
 


 

Five Foods to Help Clear and Nourish the Lungs

1. Tremella

   It can be used in dishes or stewed, such as making a soup with Tremella, Lily, or cherries and rock sugar. It can moisturize the lungs, resolve phlegm, nourish yin, and produce saliva, and can treat symptoms such as lung dryness and thirst caused by yin deficiency and lung dryness.

2. Radish

   Eating it raw can treat symptoms such as thirst caused by fever and lung heat cough. If juiced with sugarcane, pear, lotus root, etc., the effect will be even better. It has the functions of clearing heat, resolving phlegm, producing saliva, stopping cough, nourishing the stomach, and promoting digestion.

3. Persimmon

   Eating fresh persimmons can improve symptoms such as coughing with excessive phlegm and lung deficiency coughing up blood. Ripe and soft persimmons can treat symptoms such as fever, thirst, dry lips, and internal heat. Persimmons have the effects of moisturizing the lungs, stopping cough, clearing heat, producing saliva, and resolving phlegm, and are suitable for consumption in winter.

4. Lily

   Cooked or brewed into soup, it has a certain effect on treating respiratory system diseases such as chronic cough, dry cough, and sore throat.

5. Chinese Water Chestnut

   Chinese water chestnut can be juiced together with lotus root and consumed. It has the effects of clearing heat, producing saliva, resolving dampness, resolving phlegm, cooling blood, and detoxifying. It can treat symptoms such as fever, thirst, dry mouth and throat, and lung heat cough.
 


 

Three Key Points for Lung Health in Autumn

1. Prevent Colds

   Colds are important triggers for acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. As the weather turns cooler in autumn, people who are weak are prone to colds. Elderly people with "old chronic bronchitis" are advised to quit smoking and drinking, keep warm, get enough sleep, and pay attention to opening windows for ventilation. Adjust clothing in a timely manner and avoid immediately removing clothes after sweating.

   To prevent colds, you can try: washing your face with cold water in the morning and soaking your feet with hot water in the evening; rubbing your palms in the morning, extending both hands, and rubbing the palms against each other 30 times, massaging the Yingxiang acupoint 10 times.

2. Exercise

   You can do physical activities that are within your physical condition and strength, such as gymnastics, Tai Chi, and walking. It is recommended that elderly people with emphysema do more simple breathing exercises to increase lung capacity.

   Stand or sit, place one hand in front of the chest and the other hand on the abdomen, when inhaling, try to raise the abdomen, when exhaling, blow out like blowing a whistle, and retract the abdomen. The purpose of doing this is to use the abdominal muscles instead of the diaphragm to increase the ventilation volume of the alveoli.

3. Moxibustion for Lung Health

   Autumn belongs to the metal element in the five elements, and the lungs in the human body also belong to the metal element. At this time, the lung meridian is in command and the lung meridian is at its strongest. Therefore, moxibustion on the lung meridian acupoints such as Lung Shu, He Gu, Tai Yuan, Shen Zhong, Qi Hai, etc., can regulate lung qi, nourish lung yin, reduce lung heat, and relieve lung dryness.

   It has a good effect on symptoms commonly seen in autumn, such as dry mouth and nose, dry cough with little phlegm, constipation, dry skin, weak speech, and colds.

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