Complexion and spots: Reflecting the secrets of the body

Usually, people may blush when they are shy, angry or happy. This is because mental excitement can cause excitement of the sympathetic nervous system, promote increased secretion of adrenaline, which in turn causes the heart to beat faster, blood vessels to dilate, congestion, increased blood circulation, and increased concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood.

Generally speaking, a rosy complexion is a sign of good health, and the right amount of red can make people feel energetic, happy and cheerful. But sometimes a flushed face is not necessarily a sign of health. For example, if middle-aged and elderly people have a flushed face for a long time, they should be alert to whether they have high blood pressure or heart disease. If middle-aged women have a flushed face, they should consider menopause.

Healthy red radiates from the inside out, while abnormal red is often too much or too little, or it is just the same red or in the wrong place.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that a red face is mostly a symptom of heat. When heat is abundant, blood circulates and the red color of the blood fills the facial features, so the face appears red. Heat syndrome can be divided into warm, hot, fire, and summer heat, and also into deficiency, excess, true, and false.

Excess heat is caused by strong heat evil. People with real heat syndrome have a bright red complexion that covers a wide area and lasts for a long time, which means their face is constantly red. The ancients described it as "the face is completely red" and "the face is red as if drunk." It is more common in new diseases, which are usually high fever diseases caused by infection, such as typhoid fever, malaria, pneumonia, etc. In this case, you must seek medical attention as soon as possible without delay.

Deficiency-heat syndrome

Deficiency-heat syndrome is caused by insufficient essence, blood, body fluids, which leads to endogenous deficiency-heat. Such patients generally have a light red complexion, which is limited to the cheekbones and cheeks. The fever does not last long and the attacks are regular, mostly in the afternoon or evening. It is often a low fever, mainly in the palms and soles of the feet, accompanied by heat in the heart, which is called "heat in the five hearts."

In addition, there is another type of heat syndrome called false heat syndrome, which is real cold and false heat. It is often seen in patients with long-term illness and serious illness. Their face is pale, and sometimes a delicate, bright red appears on the cheekbones and cheeks. Chinese medicine calls it "red face like makeup". The location of the disease is wandering, and it is accompanied by chills, listlessness, irritability, etc. It is a sign of a serious illness. If your face is dark red, it is a characteristic of rheumatic heart disease and mitral valve stenosis.

Pale, dead white, and dismal white all have no luster and are not mixed with blood. They are sickly white colors on the face. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that these white colors are closely related to qi deficiency and blood deficiency, and may be caused by anemia, accompanied by weakness and sweating.

If there is insufficient blood and it cannot nourish the face, the face will appear pale, because the production and circulation of blood depend on Qi. Chinese medicine says that Qi can produce blood. If Qi is deficient, the blood-producing function will be reduced, and the blood will not be able to nourish the face, so the face will naturally appear pale. There is another type of leucoderma that is caused by cold body. People in this type of leucoderma need to pay special attention to keeping warm.

People with a sallow or burnt complexion often have spleen deficiency or dampness in their body. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the spleen and stomach are the foundation of our constitution and the source of nutrients. If the spleen and stomach are weak, they cannot function normally and nutrients cannot reach the face, causing a yellow color to appear.

In addition to digesting nutrients, the spleen also metabolizes moisture. If dampness cannot be metabolized normally, nutrients will accumulate abnormally, which can also cause the complexion to appear abnormally yellow.

A dark complexion will make people look haggard and withered, and look several years older. A dark complexion is closely related to the kidneys. Patients with kidney deficiency often have a dark complexion, and the main symptoms are soreness in the waist and knees, abnormal urination, and sexual dysfunction. Dark circles under the eyes are also a type of dark complexion, which is caused by abnormal water metabolism due to kidney deficiency.

The blue color is often related to liver disease, qi stagnation and blood stasis. The liver can reflect a person's emotions. People with a bluish complexion generally have a strong liver fire and a bad temper, so they should be careful to prevent liver disease. A cyanotic complexion is often caused by blood stasis and tissue hypoxia. It may also be due to cold. We sometimes say "blue from the cold" because stagnation of Qi affects the circulation of Qi and blood.

In order to have a good complexion, in addition to eating less oil, less salt, less fat, and less animal offal, the five kinds of "sick complexion" each have their own conditioning methods:

1. People with pale complexion

You should eat more foods that replenish qi and nourish blood, such as black fungus, jujube, longan, pork liver, etc. Pay attention to rest at ordinary times and avoid overwork. If there is coldness in the body, you can boil an appropriate amount of peppercorns into water and then soak your feet in it, which is very effective in warming and dispersing the cold.

2. People with yellow complexion

Eat more foods that strengthen the spleen and eliminate dampness, such as lily, yam, bighead carp, yellow croaker, beef tripe, pork tripe, millet, ginseng, etc.

Foods that can remove dampness include coix seed, red bean, winter melon peel, lotus leaf, lotus seed, etc. Especially coix rice, which can strengthen the spleen and eliminate dampness.

3. People with red complexion

Eat more fruits and vegetables that have a cooling effect, such as mangosteen, grapefruit, lemon, pear, mung bean, watermelon, as well as vegetables such as cucumber, loofah, and wild rice stem.

Some yin-nourishing foods should not be missed, such as sesame, white fungus, glutinous rice, sea cucumber, jellyfish, milk, pig skin, etc., which can ease emotions and improve complexion.

4. People with dark complexion

Eat more foods that warm the yang and nourish the kidneys. The best of these is mutton, which can be cooked into soup with ginger and angelica. Venison, shrimp, leeks, fennel, etc. can also help restore Yang energy.

5. People with a green complexion

It is advisable to eat more hawthorn and shiitake mushrooms. Drinking tea made with roses and Chinese roses is very effective in improving qi stagnation, blood stasis and blue complexion in women. Men can eat more hawthorn, shiitake mushrooms, black beans, lotus root, etc.