Many female friends always ask the doctor: I am usually prone to sulking, acne, and can't sleep, but I don't have time to cook remedies, what should I do? In fact, there is a very convenient and easy-to-work treatment, and that is gua sha.
Gua sha is to dredge the local meridians and unblock the body's qi and blood to achieve the purpose of regulating diseases, but many friends have certain misunderstandings about gua sha, or may not understand the correct operation of gua sha and accidentally hurt themselves.
So today, I will share with you how to use gua sha to regulate common problems in women, and what are the precautions when gua sha.
The human body is an organic whole, and there is a close connection between the inside and outside of the body. The meridians are the main channels of qi and blood in the human body, and they are also the main channels for the transmission of physiological and pathological information in the human body. The imbalance of the qi and blood functions of our internal organs will also be manifested on our body surface.
Gua sha is a treatment technique in our traditional Chinese medicine, which stimulates the meridians and acupoints on the body surface to regulate the qi, dredge the meridians, and promote blood circulation and remove stasis.
Due to the special physiological state of "menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and lactation", women are often prone to the problem of qi stagnation and blood stasis, while gua sha has the characteristics of simplicity, convenience, low price, fast onset and so on, which is very suitable for family health care and our daily health care.
Therefore, if there are some problems in our body, gua sha can be used appropriately to relieve our discomfort.
01
What do we need to prepare before gua sha?
Gua sha board
First, we're going to prepare a gua sha board. You can choose a horn board or a copper plate, stone and jade can also be used, now there are many resin and silicone silicone boards, soup spoons that we commonly use in daily life, etc., and even bare hands can be scraped, as long as we choose a smooth shape, a certain hardness of the material to operate.
medium
Gua sha should avoid raw scraping without lubrication, which is easy to damage our skin, but makes us susceptible to infection, and the gains outweigh the losses. The medium of gua sha can not only prevent the gua sha board from scratching the skin, but also play a role in moisturizing the skin, opening pores, and invigorating blood and qi.
Generally, we can choose oils, such as tea oil, tea seed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, and even peanut oil and sesame oil, which can lubricate, protect and moisturize the skin; You can also choose medicated oils such as bruise oil and wind dispelling oil, which have the effect of invigorating blood and qi.
There are many essential oils on the market that can also be used, such as:
✔ Peppermint essential oil has the effect of clearing the head, clearing the throat, and refreshing the nose, which is suitable for people with nasal congestion, headache, red eyes, sore throat, and often feeling drowsy;
✔ Lavender essential oil, which has the effect of calming the nerves and helping sleep, anti-anxiety, is suitable for people with poor sleep conditions and uncomfortable heart;
✔ Curcuma oil, frankincense oil, myrrh oil (the name of Chinese herbal medicine - myrrh), has the effect of invigorating blood and qi, passing menstruation and relieving pain, and is suitable for people with severe heart stasis.
Operational precautions
When scraping, the angle of holding the scraping board should be tilted 30°~60° to the direction of scraping, and the strength should be light and not too hard. When scraping, each part of the selection should be scraped out, but it is not advisable to excessively scrape, some people have more serious stasis, and it may be very painful to scrape a little hard, so generally speaking, it is best to scrape yourself, and you can control the strength and degree of sha.
02
These gua sha methods are suitable for our daily operation
Sulking, premenstrual breast tenderness - scraping the chest and back
Many female friends usually sulk and have premenstrual breast tenderness, which is caused by liver qi stagnation. In addition to doing more chest expansion exercises, we can also choose to scrape the chest and back during gua sha to dredge our qi to achieve the effect of unobstructed qi.
● Scrape the sternum from top to bottom
● Scrape the inside of both arms from the inside out
● Scrape the armpits from top to bottom
● Scrape the shoulder blades from top to bottom
Calm the nerves, help sleep, prevent hair loss - shave the scalp
Some female friends are usually prone to poor sleep, or have more hair loss, so you can use our gua sha board to gently rub the scalp, pay attention to the massage force should be gentle, from front to back, press and rub the whole head. This technique can improve blood circulation to our scalp and relieve our stress.
Big breath, love acne - shave the calves
Many female friends who usually do not pay attention to their diet will have stomach fever, which is easy to manifest as bad breath, big temper, constipation, acne and so on. Regulating the spleen and stomach can stimulate the meridians, dredge qi and blood, and help qi and blood circulate smoothly, so as to harmonize the spleen and stomach. Zusanli, Upper Giant Void, Tiaokou, and Lower Giant Void, these are the four important acupuncture points of the stomach meridian in the calf area, and scraping the stomach meridian from top to bottom along these four acupuncture points can vent stomach heat.
Scrape from top to bottom along the four acupuncture points of the stomach meridian - Zusanli, Shangjuxu, Tiaokou, and Xiajuxu, scrape 10~20 times on each side, the strength should be gentle, not for the purpose of shaning, the speed should not be too fast, and you can also use the corners of the gua sha board to press and rub the four major acupoints.
Heart palpitations, chest tightness, shortness of breath – scraping the arms
Many female friends will have the problem of heart qi blockage, which is manifested as palpitations, chest tightness, shortness of breath, poor sleep, etc. At this time, we can use the method of scraping the hand and yin pericardial meridian to make these stagnant qi and blood unblocked.
Start at the joint of the shoulder and hand and scrape along the midpoint line of the elbow bend, through the palm of the hand, to the tip of the middle finger.
03
Precautions for gua sha
After the gua sha is over, we can judge what our current physique is by observing our sha color, and you can also remember it and compare it with your own situation.
Purple red: There is real fire, stasis, and blockage in the body
Bright red: There is a false fire in the body
The sha is light in color, and it does not even come out of the sha: the physique is very healthy
The skin is gray and yellowish after patting: the body is insufficient qi and blood, and the body is cold
At the same time, there are these things to pay attention to when gua sha, although gua sha is good, if it is not suitable, you should not force it.
Precautions for gua sha
1. It is normal to have slight pain and itching sensation in the local area 1~2 days after gua sha, but you should pay attention to it when scraping and not use too much force.
2. Do not take a cold bath 30 minutes after sha; In summer, avoid direct blowing by fans or air conditioners on the sha area; In winter, you should pay attention to keeping warm.
3. Patients with bleeding tendency, skin allergies, extreme weakness, and severe heart failure should be forbidden to scrape or scrape carefully.
4. The frequency of gua sha should be 1 time a week, not too frequent. If the sha does not completely subside after 1 week, it is advisable to wait for a few days to dissipate completely.
5. After scraping, you should drink warm water in time to help the body detoxify and drive away evil spirits. ■
[Source: Yan Yuhong Women's Health, Medical Guidance: Yan Yuhong, Chief Physician of the Department of Dermatology, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, MD, Postdoctoral Fellow]