🌿 Folk Prescriptions

As a doctor for many years, I’ve often witnessed my wife and daughter wanting to take medicine, but I always refused. Eventually, they bought medicine themselves and secretly took it behind my back. Actually, many people share this mindset—liking to take medicine—but I firmly believe: “All medicine carries toxicity, even if relying on food therapy, it’s still unwise.” In daily life, simply adjusting your diet to seize benefits and avoid harm is enough.
I’ve long studied tongue diagnosis, habitually observing different people’s tongue appearances to assess their health status. A healthy person should have a thin, white tongue coating and a light red tongue body. However, among 5,000 so-called “normal” individuals we surveyed earlier, fewer than one-third had normal tongues—most showed various sub-health conditions. In southern China, the most common issue is “dampness”—a greasy, thick tongue coating resembling a layer of cheese, accompanied by frequent upper abdominal fullness, sluggish limbs, and sometimes dizziness.
Facial appearance can also reveal health problems. I’ve noticed that nearly one-third of young women have dark pigment deposits around the eyes, especially a brownish or purplish hue under the lower eyelids. These women often feel fatigued, frequently constipated, and experience dry mouth at night—TCM considers this a pattern of qi and yin deficiency. Observing facial signs allows one to detect illness early.
When feeling unwell, I examine my own tongue coating and facial appearance, then adjust accordingly following TCM principles: warm cold conditions, cool heat conditions, supplement deficiencies, and purge excesses. Ten years ago, my ultrasound revealed obvious fatty liver and a small gallstone. I started taking Jin Dan Pian (a Chinese patent medicine), originally prescribed as five tablets three times daily. But based on my condition, I reduced it to one tablet daily. Recently, rechecking confirmed the gallstone had nearly disappeared. As age advances, blood pressure tends to rise—especially during winter months, when mine occasionally increases. Though many students recommended sustained-release medications, I manage with Zhenju Hypotensive Tablets, taking one or two tablets daily, which effectively controls my blood pressure.
Throughout the year, our family drinks nutritious porridge suited to the season—such as mung bean and lotus seed porridge, silver ear and lotus seed porridge. Yet I rarely use astragalus or ginseng for dietary therapy, believing it unnecessary. For middle-aged and elderly people, dietary control is essential. Over the past five years, our entire family adjusted our diet to manage weight—transforming dinner from a hearty meal into vegetables and soup. Initially, everyone struggled with the change, but now I clearly benefit—the waistline dropped from 3 chi (about 96 cm) to 2.8 chi (about 89 cm). In fact, the body’s digestive and absorptive capacity peaks at night, so moderating dinner after age 40–50 is quite feasible. At 57, I traveled to Tibet—many younger people suffered altitude sickness, but I experienced no shortness of breath or palpitations. They were envious.
My favorite exercise is cycling—wherever I go, I ride. My office is on the fifth floor, and I go up and down multiple times daily. I truly enjoy this moderate activity. For someone my age, jumping into fitness routines like aerobics is clearly unsuitable. Instead, I’ve chosen post-meal walking as a substitute.