Bao He Wan Pills often used to counteract the over eating at festive times
Well it is the day before summer in New Zealand here in sunny Hawkes Bay but I still need to wear a jacket to go outside. Let’s hope that I don’t at least have to put the heaters on at work this first week of December. It was a good lead up to summer with the first ever launch of World Acupuncture Awareness Week a couple of weeks back. I will be working through the Christmas and New Year period this year except taking off the usual statutory days.
This time of year is often associated with over eating and accompanying lack of exercise to compound the problem. The social interaction with friends and family may good for the soul but the end result is not always desirable.
In Chinese medicine we have a medical term called “Food Stagnation” which occurs as a result of overeating and in particular refers excessive intake of sweet, salty and greasy foods. When we overeat difficult to digest foods the stomach literally fills up and the spleen has an inability to process and digest the foods according to traditional Chinese medicine thought. When this happens we have symptoms of nausea, reflux, sour regurgitation, epigastric fullness and until we eventually reach a point we that even the idea of eating more food turns us off. The bowels can become loose with a bad smell, with tiredness and bloating making us feel even worse.
In China a herbal medicine formula Bao He Wan was developed centuries ago to try help with this scenario and is still commonly sought after today. It has herbs in it like dried mandarin peel and dried daikon radish seed that help promote digestion.
Of course prevention is always best so take care this Christmas and eat less.
