I Can Talk to the Internal Organs-Chapter 102 - 83: Can Hunger Train Gastric Qi?
"Uncle, do you usually feel thirsty?"
"Thirsty."
"Do you prefer to drink hot or cold?"
"Cold. Hot... I can’t drink."
"Are your bowel movements smooth?"
"Both... not really."
"In what way are they not, could you be more specific? For example, is it incomplete urination, or short and quick?"
"It’s like... stops after a little while."
"What color is it?"
"Yellow, with some foam."
"And bowel movements?"
"Oh my, I haven’t gone for three... four days."
"Does your stomach feel bloated?"
"Yes, after meals... it lasts a long time."
"Okay, stick out your tongue so I can see, right, stick it out more..."
The tongue is red with a yellow coating.
Observing this uncle’s face, it’s red, and there’s bad breath, with slightly swollen gums, and there’s an occasional hiccup sound.
This is clearly an upward reversal of stomach fire.
To regulate this illness is easy to resolve; just need to clear fire and reverse it, harmonize the stomach to stop it.
The prescription is Bamboo Leaf Plaster Decoction, a recipe from Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Warm Pathogenic Diseases.
It uses seven traditional Chinese medicines in total: Light Bamboo Leaf, Plaster, Pinellia, Ophiopogon, ginseng, baked licorice, Japonica Rice.
Of course, Lu Jiu didn’t copy the prescription, still letting patients choose by themselves from the book, those with smartphones could take a photo, those without could use paper and pen to copy it, and those who are illiterate could find someone to transcribe it for them.
In short, Lu Jiu is very meticulous, not giving anyone a chance to grasp any fault.
Who knows if there’s someone among the crowd recording with a phone, right.
"Uncle, drink less alcohol in the future, also eat less greasy and rich food, or else even if this problem is resolved now, it’ll come back later, and if you don’t change your dietary habits, it’ll directly harm your gastric qi. If that’s damaged, then I can only congratulate you, you can go to the big hospital for VIP services, and by then you’ll be their most loyal member," Lu Jiu said.
The uncle was stunned, "No... it’s not that exaggerated, right."
"Exaggerated?" Lu Jiu glanced around, "Everyone think back, for the elderly in your family who have passed away, didn’t they all stop eating before they passed?"
Among the onlookers, several older men and women in their forties and fifties nodded repeatedly.
"Yes, yes, yes, when my mom passed, she couldn’t eat for two or three days."
"My dad too, a week before he passed, he could only eat half a bowl of porridge a day, then two or three days later, he couldn’t eat anything. At that time, we felt dad couldn’t hold on."
"Dr. Lu, what’s the reason for this?"
"..."
The uncle looked at Lu Jiu curiously, like everyone else.
Lu Jiu said, "Traditional Chinese medicine values gastric qi highly, we say with gastric qi you live, without gastric qi you die. Simply put, gastric qi is equivalent to appetite. Being able to eat indicates our bodies can still absorb nutrients. At such a time, whether we eat or take medicine, the body can digest them. But once there’s no appetite, and you can’t eat anything, or whatever you eat can’t be digested, if illness strikes, it’s very hard to treat."
Spleen deficiency leads to a myriad of diseases, while stomach failure makes all medicine ineffective.
Why?
If you can’t even assimilate foods with minimal medicinal properties, how can you handle traditional Chinese medicine?
Traditional Chinese medicine isn’t effective just by consumption; it has to be transformed by the spleen and stomach to circulate.
This is why many traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, when treating acute and severe conditions, don’t bother about the specific illness but ask if the patient can eat. If not, they adjust until the patient can eat. If, after various adjustments, the patient still can’t eat, many practitioners will stop treatment.
Because when someone can’t eat, the five viscera and six bowels lose nutritional supply, and at that point, they’re beyond saving.
Habitual consumption of rich, greasy food in excess constantly strains our gastric qi.
These actions are undoubtedly self-destructive!
"But... Dr. Lu, I have a good appetite... uh." The uncle said.
Lu Jiu laughed, "A good appetite doesn’t mean you can eat carelessly. Your stomach fire is due to eating too much spicy and greasy food. If your stomach fire reverses upwards, it will drag your gastric qi with it over time. Then see if your appetite is still good."
"Well, I can’t not eat anything, can I? I see some people eat like this... aren’t they fine?" The uncle would hiccup several times with each sentence.
Lu Jiu laughed, "That’s why I said everyone’s physique is different, and besides, living in the plains, it’s not suitable for eating such things all year round. If you were in the Chuanshi Basin, I wouldn’t say anything, but in Jianghan, you can’t eat like this."
"Is there such a saying?" The uncle was very curious.
"Hey, you didn’t know that? As the saying goes, different waters and soils raise different people. Each place’s customs and habits have their reason," someone said.
"Exactly, we’re born and raised here. Our bodies are long accustomed to the climate and geography, and so are our spleen and stomach. Although living conditions have improved now, with off-season fruits and vegetables and long-stored frozen foods—something only the privileged could enjoy in the past—now we can eat whatever we want as long as we have money. However, if we don’t pay attention and control ourselves, indulging all day, then illnesses will come," Lu Jiu said.
"Dr. Lu, so you’re saying if a person has no appetite, it indicates their gastric qi is damaged?" someone asked.
Hmm?
Following the voice, Lu Jiu saw that the person was wearing a white coat, clearly a doctor.
