I Can Talk to the Internal Organs-Chapter 235 - 202: Food Is Better Than Medicine

In the first nine-day period, don't expose your hands; in the second and third, walk on the ice; in the fourth and fifth, watch the willows by the river; in the seventh, the river opens; in the eighth, the swallows return; at the ninth, everything returns to unity, and the poor turn their fortunes around.

The "Nine Songs" are traditional folk rhymes of Huaxia, also known as "Counting the Nines."

In Liang Dynasty, Zong Lin's "Jing Chu Su Shi Ji" states: "Traditionally, the winter solstice marks the beginning of counting the nines up to eighty-one days, when the cold ends."

The period of counting the nines begins from the winter solstice, counting every nine days as a unit of "nine," and ending with the ninth "nine" at eighty-one days when peach flowers bloom, and the weather becomes warm.

Today marks the fourth nine, which is also the Laba Festival.

However, this year's Five Elements and Six Qi have made the fourth nine not as cold as usual, not even a trace of snow, let alone ice.

Lu Jiu was still consulting until noon when Liu Mei carefully prepared a bowl of Laba porridge and delivered it to the clinic, reminding Lu Jiu to drink it while hot.

Eating Laba porridge during Laba Festival is one of the profound memories from Lu Jiu's childhood.

Every year, Liu Mei would prepare Laba porridge at this time, except during the years Lu Jiu was away at university and could hardly have any.

With a bowl of porridge consumed, his stomach felt warm and comfortable.

Lu Jiu opened the lunchbox and just took a bite of the meal when a thought crossed his mind.

Herbal tonics are inferior to dietary supplementation, dietary supplementation is inferior to Qi supplementation, and Qi supplementation is inferior to Shen supplementation.

This saying directly addresses the core of how to maintain health.

Though medicine is good, the effects of food are often greater for people.

In fact, with proper dietary supplementation, many illnesses can be addressed without medication.

Likewise, dietary supplementation is surpassed by Qi supplementation, which essentially means exercise.

The Daoist School discusses refining essence and transforming Qi, which is not at all mystical.

What is essence?

The essence of grain and nutrition!

It's the food you eat transformed into Qi and blood, with essence and blood sharing the same source.

Refining essence and transforming Qi means converting Qi and blood into strength during exercise, and this strength is not mere muscle strength.

It is righteous Qi.

The human body has four main Qi types: Yuan Qi, Zong Qi, Nutritive Qi, and Defensive Qi.

Yuan Qi, or innate Qi, arises from the innate essence, serving as the driving force for all bodily functions. It operates from below upward, dispersing in the chest and residing in the kidneys. Of course, Yuan Qi is not endless and must be continually generated through the spleen and stomach's assimilation and nurturing by the essence of grain and water.

Zong Qi, or acquired Qi, is formed from the essence of grain processed by the spleen and stomach, combined with natural clear Qi, and accumulates in the lower abdomen, distributed from above downward, residing in the lungs.

Nutritive Qi is the Qi traveling within the meridians, capable of generating blood, residing in the vessels, and able to propel blood circulation.

Defensive Qi is the Qi that travels outside the meridians, spread throughout the entire body, reaching the skin and internal organs, mainly serving to ward off external evil influences.

Together, these four Qi types constitute what we commonly refer to as righteous Qi.

When diagnosing patients, Lu Jiu often mentions a term called Qi deficiency, which essentially indicates issues with the four main types of Qi in the patient.

Take Defensive Qi, for example. It acts as the body's first line of defense; any cold or flu is invariably due to the Defensive Qi failing to repel pathogens from the skin.

There's also Nutritive Qi.

In the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, Spiritual Pivot, Nutritive and Defensive Qi section, it mentions, "The middle burner also merges in the stomach, emerges after the upper burner. What it accepts is the Qi, secreting dross, steaming essence into liquid, purifying and elevating to the lung vessels, then becoming blood to nourish the body, nothing is more precious, hence it is called Nutritive Qi."

This describes how the middle burner works within the stomach, after the upper burner, it accepts food and essence, digests, removes impurities, absorbs essence, transmutes upwards to the lungs, and subsequently becomes blood to nourish the body. There's nothing more precious, and thus it travels exclusively within the meridians, referred to as Nutritive Qi.

Nutritive Qi is akin to the nutrients of Qi, capable of transforming into blood, able to be separate from blood but inseparable.

When Nutritive Qi is weak, blood becomes weak. Many patients suffering from blood deficiency actually have an issue with Nutritive Qi, from a certain perspective.

Exercise surpasses dietary supplementation because exercise can refine the body's stored essence into righteous Qi; when righteous Qi is strong, diseases can't invade.

Furthermore, strong Qi can produce blood, and blood can produce more essence, creating a cycle.

Some people never exercise, resulting in insufficient Qi in the body; new blood can't replace old blood, waste remains in the body, and no new essence can form, so the whole cycle stagnates. How can the body possibly be healthy?

But why is Qi supplementation inferior to Shen supplementation?

Shen supplementation is essentially sleep.

Good sleep allows Shen to be replenished, enabling Shen to nourish the body and maintain stable emotions.

When the mind is calm, it can control the body.

In today's society, people always discuss freedom, but how can someone who can't control their bodily freedom truly achieve freedom?

This is why, despite society's advanced development, people's spiritual lives are still immensely unfulfilled.

Most people simply can't achieve Qi Refining and Divinity Transformation.

Refining essence and transforming Qi is active, helping the body raise Yang to ward off external pathogens.

Qi Refining and Divinity Transformation is tranquil, helping the body nourish Yin to combat inner ailments.

Is this mystical?

It's simply the way of nature, one Yin, one Yang, all perfectly logical.

Of course, Lu Jiu didn't intend to propagate these ideas to patients; instead, he suddenly thought of a plan to increase the hospital's revenue.

It's to add a dietary division.

Many people dislike taking Chinese medicine, which is simple - use food instead.

Dumplings, for instance, are a type of food supplement created by Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjing.

The famous "Winter Warmth Decoction" includes the term "Jiaoe," which is the original name of dumplings.

Lu Jiu also wanted to emulate the Medical Saint, utilizing the effects of dietary practices.

His envisioned dietary division would specialize in culinary medicine, resembling a small restaurant.

Patients could dine there, and the hospital could also provide recipes for them to prepare at home.

After all, there's no shortage of lazy people who'd rather spend money, making this an additional revenue stream for the hospital and a good guarantee for future development.

Moreover, Lu Jiu believed that once the dietary division is established, its effects would be astonishing.

Although some people might not believe in treating illnesses with traditional Chinese medicine, they undoubtedly trust its effectiveness in health maintenance.

Dietary practices perfectly showcase the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine.

Thinking about this, Lu Jiu decisively sent a message to Huang Fusheng.

After explaining his idea, within three minutes, Huang Fusheng replied with seven words.

"This suggestion is very good!!!"

The exclamation marks clearly showed Huang Fusheng's strong endorsement of establishing the dietary division.

Seeing Huang Fusheng's response, Lu Jiu felt very pleased.

Health exercises, dietary practices, treatment.

These approaches encompass the states before, during, and after illness, covering all situations a patient might encounter at the new hospital Lu Jiu intended to build.

Such model should be unique domestically. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

If this can actually be established and even gain a foothold in Jianghan and possibly expand.

Tutting... Lu Jiu couldn't even imagine what kind of scene that would be.

By then, could the happiness index of Jianghan's residents increase just because a hospital appeared?

...