Many people lead an unhealthy lifestyle by staying up late, eating highly processed foods, leading stressful lives, and doing little exercise. All of these bad habits lead to excessive fluid in the body. Some people are prone to illnesses, since excessive fluid in the body can reduce your immunity.
With excessive fluid, people may become bloated; in particular, the abdomen and ankles may become swollen. This is often accompanied by excessive sweating and frequent urination. Here are some immediate steps recommended by traditional Chinese medicine that you can take that may help rid your body of excessive fluid.
Push the belly to test for excessive fluid
Push the abdomen with your fingers or palms. Push down from beneath your heart to your lower abdomen. You may push for 5-10 minutes once every morning when getting up in the morning, and once again before going to sleep at night. When pushing, some people may hear water-bubbling sounds, which may indicate that excessive fluid has been accumulating in the abdomen for some time. After the passing of gas, you should feel more comfortable and may feel the need to urinate or pass a bowel movement.
Food therapy
Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), also known as adlay millet, taste lightly sweet and can be used to help remove excessive fluid in the body. It also helps strengthen the spleen and is a good treatment for diarrhea. The smaller the granules of Job’s tears, the better the medicinal effects. You can use Job’s tears with rice, a soup with ginseng, or a porridge.
Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), also known as adlay millet, is a tall grain-bearing perennial tropical plant of the family Poaceae (grass family). (Image: GNU FDL via Wikimedia Commons)
Red bean with Job’s tears porridge
Ingredients:
- 10 grams of Job’s tears seeds (Coix lacryma-jobi)
- 20 grams of red adzuki (Vigna angularis) or kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)
- 5 grams of medlar fruit (Mespilus germanica)
- 2 grams of Fructus lycii, also known as goji berry or wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L)
Method:
- Wash and soak the Job’s tears and red beans for 3 hours
- Put all the ingredients into a pot, add an appropriate amount of water, boil, and then simmer for 3 hours. The resulting porridge can be eaten with rock sugar according to your taste.
Above all, a healthy lifestyle is the best cure for excessive fluid. Plenty of rest at night, a high-fiber diet based upon whole foods, along with regular exercise and meditation, is the best long-term remedy for excessive fluid in the body.
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