Taking Care of Your Lungs: Summer Tips and Lung-Nourishing Tea Drinks

We often talk about taking care of our stomach, but rarely do we hear about taking care of our lungs. However, it is equally important to take care of our lungs as it is to take care of our stomach. In the hot and dry climate of summer, it is easy for lung diseases to occur. Therefore, summer is an important time to nourish our lungs. Below, I will introduce several lung-nourishing tea drinks!

Methods of Nourishing the Lungs

1. Hydrate to Nourish the Lungs

The lungs are an open system, and the moisture in the lungs can be lost along with the air we breathe. Dry air is more likely to take away moisture, causing damage to the lung mucosa and respiratory tract. Therefore, timely hydration is an important measure to take care of our lungs during summer.

2. Massage to Nourish the Lungs

Sit on a chair before bedtime, inhale deeply into the chest, and form hollow fists with both hands. Gently tap the acupoint Shen Zhong on the chest several times. Then, use the palms of your hands to lightly pat and massage the sides of the spine on your back from bottom to top for about 10 minutes. This massage can help to promote smooth airflow in the chest and have the effect of nourishing and nurturing the lungs.

3. Diet to Nourish the Lungs

Foods such as sugarcane, autumn pear, lily, honey, radish, black sesame, soy milk, tofu, walnuts, and pine nuts have the function of nourishing and moisturizing the lungs. Therefore, lung nourishment can be achieved through dietary therapy and medicinal food.

4. Medication to Nourish the Lungs

Chinese herbs such as Nan Sha Shen, Bei Sha Shen, Mai Dong, Wu Wei Zi, Dong Chong Xia Cao, and Yan Wo have the function of nourishing the lungs. They can be used under the guidance of a doctor.

Lung-Nourishing Tea Drinks

1. Honey and Pomelo Tea

Pomelo can enhance the immune system and has the effects of clearing heat, relieving cough, and transforming phlegm. Honey has the function of nourishing the middle, moisturizing dryness, and nourishing the lungs. Making a drink with pomelo and honey is an excellent health supplement.

2. Mulberry Leaf and Loquat Leaf Tea

Take 5 grams of mulberry leaves and 5 grams of loquat leaves, place them in a tea bag, and brew with 500 milliliters of hot water. Let it steep for about 10 minutes, then add honey to taste. Mulberry leaves can moisturize the lungs and relieve cough, loquat leaves can clear the lungs and transform phlegm, and honey can moisturize dryness and improve constipation.

3. Monk Fruit and Red Date Tea

Take a small piece of monk fruit, 5 roses, 5 red dates, and 10 wolfberries. Brew them with hot water and drink it twice a day, in the morning and evening. This tea can moisten the throat, quench thirst, tonify qi and nourish blood, nourish the liver and kidneys, and promote blood circulation and regulate menstruation.

4. Lotus Root and Lily Tea

Take 30 grams of fresh lotus root, 15 grams of Chinese yam, 10 grams of lily, 10 grams of Poria, 5 jujubes, and an appropriate amount of rock sugar. Slice the fresh lotus root and remove the pits from the jujubes. Cook all the ingredients together until they turn into a thick paste. This tea has the functions of tonifying the spleen, nourishing the lungs, relieving cough, and calming the blood.

These Chinese Herbs Can Also Nourish the Lungs

1. Sandalwood

Sandalwood can nourish yin, moisturize the lungs, invigorate the stomach, and generate fluids. It is suitable for dry cough with little phlegm, dryness in the throat, and other symptoms caused by lung dryness or lung yin deficiency. It can be used to cook porridge with sandalwood and Mai Dong, which has the effects of invigorating qi, nourishing yin, moistening the lungs, generating fluids, transforming phlegm, and relieving cough.

2. Ophiopogon

Ophiopogon can nourish yin, generate fluids, moisturize the lungs, and clear the heart. It is good at nourishing the yin of both the lungs and stomach, and can also clear the heat of the heart meridian. It is a nourishing and clearing medicine that can be made into pills, powders, decoctions, or tea.

3. Lily

Lily can nourish yin, moisturize the lungs, and clear the heart. It is mainly used for the treatment of chronic cough due to yin deficiency, blood-streaked sputum, residual heat after a fever, restlessness, palpitations, insomnia, dreaminess, mental confusion, and abscesses or damp sores.

4. Fritillaria

Fritillaria has the effects of clearing heat, moistening the lungs, transforming phlegm, relieving cough, and dispersing lumps. It is often used to relieve dry cough caused by lung dryness and yin deficiency with blood in the phlegm. To relieve such symptoms, take 3 grams of Fritillaria with an appropriate amount of rock sugar and water, and simmer over low heat for 1 hour before taking it.