Five points to check if your spleen and stomach are healthy

Perhaps, you don’t have much knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, nor have you ever seen any traditional Chinese medicine doctor seriously, but you can find out whether you have spleen dampness or spleen deficiency through the following simple self-test. Because the five manifestations listed below are typical symptoms unique to people with spleen dampness.

Come and test whether you have "spleen dampness"?

1. When washing up in the morning, check your complexion and tongue coating - Do your eyelids swell in the morning? Do you have bags under your eyes? When looking in the mirror, do you find that your tongue is fat or has obvious tooth marks on the edge of your tongue? Do you have a thick and greasy tongue coating?

TCM comment: The most accurate way to confirm whether the spleen is damp is to look at the shape of the tongue. Healthy people can develop the habit of regularly observing their tongue images, and by comparing them with some pictures of Chinese medicine tongue diagnosis, they can find clues to their health problems. In summer, people with damp spleen often feel sticky in the mouth and have a dull and yellow complexion.

2. When eating, look at your appetite - when it's time to eat, do you not feel hungry and don't want to eat anything? Do you feel bloated after eating a little? Do you feel vaguely nauseous during the meal, as if the food you eat is pushing up on its own?

TCM comment: According to TCM's Five Elements Theory, the spleen has the characteristic of "earth", and earth easily absorbs water, so when moisture enters the body, it is most likely to damage the spleen. By self-checking your spleen and stomach function, you can find out whether you have spleen dampness. The main function of the spleen is to digest and absorb the various foods and water we take into the body, converting these substances into nutrients that can be used by the human body and providing energy for cell metabolism. Most people will experience a decrease in appetite and digestive function in the hot and humid environment of summer. However, there are also some people whose appetite is not affected. They have a strong sense of hunger, but they feel full immediately after eating. This is a manifestation of a strong stomach and a weak spleen, and is also a sign of spleen dampness.

3. When working, observe your mental state - do you feel chest tightness and want to take a long breath to feel comfortable? Do you feel heavy limbs or body or even sore all over? Do you feel particularly tired and lazy to move? Do your joints feel tight and inflexible when you move? Do you feel dizzy and unclear? Do you feel sleepy and sometimes have memory loss?

TCM comment: The ancients said, "Once the spleen qi is weak, the lung qi will be exhausted first," which shows that the functions of the spleen and lungs are interrelated and influence each other. When the spleen qi is weak to a certain degree, the lung metal is not nourished, and it is easy to experience shortness of breath, laziness to speak, shortness of breath when moving and other symptoms of lung qi deficiency.

4. Feel your body shape - your diet and daily routine are the same as before, but you have gained weight? Joint stiffness, body aches when you get up? Lower limb edema?

TCM comment: People with heavy dampness may also experience significant weight gain in the short term and show signs of puffiness. More serious cases may also develop problems such as lower limb edema.

5. When you go to the toilet, look at your stool: Is it loose and unformed? Is it basically formed but soft, and after you poop, there is always some stuck to the toilet and it is difficult to flush it down? Do you always feel like you can't finish your stool?

TCM comment: One of the most convenient ways to confirm whether you have spleen dampness is to look at your stool. Normal stool is a banana-shaped strip with moderate hardness and softness. If the stool is soft, rotten and sticky like an overripe banana, it is a sign of spleen dampness, indicating that the body's digestive function is abnormal. When there is too much moisture in the body, urination is often manifested as little urine, or even very little urine or incomplete urine. Some women have excessive vaginal discharge, which is also a sign of dampness.

What symptoms are easily confused with spleen dampness

Spleen dampness can be divided into cold dampness and damp heat. Among them, cold-dampness obstructing the spleen refers to the accumulation of cold-dampness in the body, which obstructs the spleen yang and causes the spleen to lose its warm function, with symptoms of cold-dampness such as poor appetite, abdominal distension, loose stools, and heaviness as the main manifestations. Its clinical manifestations include abdominal distension, greasy mouth, poor appetite, nausea, bland mouth without thirst, abdominal pain and loose stools, heaviness in the head and body, or oliguria, swollen limbs, or yellow body and eyes, dull complexion, or excessive vaginal discharge in women, pale and fat tongue, white and slippery or greasy tongue coating, and soft and slow pulse or deep and fine pulse. Damp-heat accumulation in the spleen refers to internal accumulation of dampness and heat, with spleen dampness functioning vigorously, and a damp-heat syndrome with abdominal distension, poor appetite, fever, heaviness, and loose and uncomfortable stools as the main manifestations. Its clinical manifestations include abdominal distension, nausea, sticky mouth, thirst without drinking much, loose stools, short yellow urine, heavy limbs, or fever without sweating, bright yellow face, or itchy skin and red tongue.