With the increase of age, various functions of the human body decline. People are also surrounded by various drugs. However, we all know that medicine has its side effects, so people are paying more and more attention to medicinal diets for health.
Chronic bronchitis in the elderly (referred to as chronic bronchitis) refers to chronic nonspecific inflammation of the trachea, bronchial mucosa, and surrounding tissues. It is characterized by cough, sputum production, or chronic recurrent episodes with wheezing. The disease progresses slowly and often complicates with obstructive pulmonary emphysema, and even pulmonary arterial hypertension and cor pulmonale. It is a common disease that seriously endangers people's health, especially in the elderly.
The diagnosis can be made based on cough, sputum production or wheezing, lasting for 3 months each year for two consecutive years or more, and excluding other heart and lung diseases (such as pulmonary tuberculosis, pneumoconiosis, asthma, bronchiectasis, lung cancer, heart disease, heart failure, etc.). If the disease lasts for less than 3 months each year, but there is clear objective evidence (such as X-rays, respiratory function, etc.), a diagnosis can also be made.
1. Principles of Medicinal Diet
(1) The diet should be light, nutritious, and avoid spicy foods.
(2) Medicinal diets should primarily consist of foods with cough-relieving, phlegm-clearing, lung-nourishing, spleen-invigorating, qi-reducing, and asthma-relieving, and kidney-nourishing effects.
2. Dietary Restrictions
(1) It is advisable to eat fresh vegetables, such as Chinese cabbage, spinach, rape, radish, carrot, tomato, soybeans and soy products, to replenish various vitamins, inorganic salts, and protein.
(2) It is advisable to eat oranges, pears, lotus seeds, lilies, walnuts, ginkgo nuts, and kumquat cakes, which have cough-relieving, phlegm-clearing, spleen-invigorating, and kidney-nourishing effects.
(3) Avoid seafood, oily and greasy foods such as yellow croaker, hairtail, shrimp, crab, fatty meat, and fried foods.
(4) Avoid smoking and drinking (except for those with therapeutic and health benefits). It is not advisable to eat too much spicy and stimulating foods such as chili, pepper, garlic, and chives. The seasoning of dishes should not be too salty or too sweet, and the temperature should be moderate.
Now, let's introduce some home remedies:
Home Remedy 1: Ginger Juice Beef Lung Glutinous Rice
Ingredients: 150-200g beef lung, 10-15ml ginger juice, appropriate amount of glutinous rice.
Method: Cut the beef lung into pieces, cook it with glutinous rice on low heat, and add ginger juice when it is cooked.
Efficacy: Relieves phlegm, nourishes the lungs, and warms the spleen and stomach.
Indications: Suitable for elderly patients with long-term chronic bronchitis accompanied by cold-induced cough.
Notes: Not suitable for patients with thick and dry sputum and nonproductive cough.
Home Remedy 2: Astragalus Chicken
Ingredients: 1 mother chicken (weighing over 1000g), 50g honey-cooked astragalus, 10g Fangfeng (Saposhnikoviae Radix), 10g Fuzi (Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata), 10g honey-cooked Mahuang (Ephedrae Herba).
Method: After slaughtering and plucking the chicken, remove the internal organs, wash and drain them, place the chicken in a ceramic bowl with the back facing down and the abdomen facing up, add half a cup of water. Put the four Chinese herbs in a gauze bag, tie it, and stuff it into the chicken's abdomen. Wash the chicken's internal organs, place them on the medicine bag, pour 2 spoonfuls of yellow wine, cover the bowl without the lid, and steam over high heat for 4 hours, until the chicken meat is tender. Remove the medicine bag from the chicken's abdomen, squeeze out the juice, pour it into the chicken's abdomen, and discard the residue.
Efficacy: Warms yang, tonifies qi, stabilizes the exterior, and relieves asthma.
Indications: Suitable for elderly patients with chronic bronchitis that worsens in winter and improves in summer.
Home Remedy 3: Ganoderma Powder Steamed Meat Cake
Ingredients: 3g Ganoderma, 100g lean pork.
Method: Grind Ganoderma into powder. Chop the pork into minced meat, mix it with Ganoderma powder, season with soy sauce, and steam until cooked. Serve as a side dish.
Efficacy: Tonifies qi, nourishes yin, and calms the mind.
Indications: Suitable for elderly patients with chronic bronchitis, chronic gastritis, and poor digestion.
Home Remedy 4: Ginseng Almond Porridge
Ingredients: 15g bitter almonds, 10 jujubes, 15g ginseng, 15g mulberry bark, 10g ginger, 100g rice.
Method: Cook the bitter almonds, jujubes, ginseng, mulberry bark, and ginger on low heat for 30 minutes, remove the residue and take the juice, add rice and cook into porridge.
Efficacy: Tonifies lung qi, transforms phlegm, and relieves cough.
Indications: Suitable for elderly patients with chronic bronchitis, low and weak cough, clear and watery sputum, shortness of breath, chest tightness, fatigue, and weakness.
