Elderly people pay more attention to calcium supplementation in winter

　　From the perspective of Western medicine, osteoporosis is caused by the loss of calcium, so "bone repair" means supplementing calcium and vitamin D, vitamin C, estrogen, etc. that promote calcium absorption. But in traditional Chinese medicine, the situation is much more complicated. Bones healthy Whether it is or not is often closely related to the health of various organs.

　　The famous Chinese medicine book "Huangdi Neijing" written more than 2,000 years ago said: "If the kidney qi is hot, the waist and spine will not lift, the bones will become dry and the marrow will decrease, resulting in bone atrophy." The "bone dryness" mentioned here is related to the symptoms of osteoporosis such as back pain, shortened stature, hunchback, and fractures in modern medicine. clinical The performance is basically similar.

　　Therefore, traditional Chinese medicine believes that the root cause of osteoporosis is kidney essence deficiency. The kidney “maintains bone and generates marrow”, Kidney deficiency It will not be able to nourish the bones, which will lead to weak and weak bones. In other words, bone health and "kidneys" are closely related. To "replenish bones", we must first nourish the kidneys.

　　In addition, spleen deficiency will affect the gastrointestinal absorption of nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, trace elements, protein and amino acids. Qi stagnation and blood stasis are the precipitating factors. Blood stasis blocks the meridians, and qi, blood, and body fluids cannot nourish the muscles and bones.

　　This tells us that if the blood is not flowing smoothly, nutrients will not be transported to the bones in time. There is an old Chinese saying, "Running water does not rot, and door hinges do not become beetles." This also means the same thing in terms of bone health. Therefore, nourishing blood and strengthening the spleen are also the prerequisites for "bone repair".

　　Therefore, the treatment of osteoporosis should focus on "replenishing its deficiencies". Among them, yang-tonifying drugs are mainly those that nourish the kidneys, blood-tonifying drugs are mainly those that nourish the blood and spleen, and qi-tonifying drugs are mainly those that strengthen the spleen and qi. From this, we can derive the current medication rules for preventing and treating osteoporosis with traditional Chinese medicine:

　　The first one is based on prescriptions that nourish the kidney, strengthen the spleen and replenish qi. Commonly used Chinese medicines include Rehmannia glutinosa, Angelica sinensis, Astragalus membranaceus, Lycium barbarum, Antler gum, Turtle shell, Codonopsis root, White peony root, Cuscuta seed, Chinese yam, Eucommia ulmoides, Ligustrum lucidum, etc. The second is to use blood-activating and stasis-removing drugs as the main compatible drugs. Drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis are the most commonly used traditional Chinese medicines besides tonic drugs. Commonly used medicines include Achyranthes bidentata, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Corydalis Corydalis, peach kernel, pangolin, Millet Spatholobus, etc.

　　In addition, you should also pay more attention to some bad living habits that affect the effectiveness of bone repair. Such as avoiding excessive consumption of tea, coffee and other irritating things; try to drink less alcohol in winter to avoid lowering the body's resistance; do not eat foods containing a lot of oxalic acid (such as spinach, amaranth, lettuce) with high-calcium foods such as fish soup and bone soup to prevent oxalic acid and calcium from combining into calcium oxalate and affecting calcium absorption; eating less greasy and fried foods can also ensure the tonic effect.