Article 25: Taboos of Sexual Intercourse and the Wisdom of Maintaining Smooth Bowel Movements

II. Taboos in sexual intercourse

Traditional Chinese medicine places great emphasis on taboos regarding sexual activity.

This means that sexual intercourse should be prohibited in certain situations. Violating this taboo can damage health and cause many diseases.

In sexual relations, the key is "harmony," meaning that both partners should choose to have intercourse when they are in a good state.

A person's physiological state is directly affected by changes in emotions, illness, and lifestyle habits. Women also have physiological characteristics such as pregnancy, childbirth, menstruation, and childbirth. If these factors are not taken into account, having sex under certain circumstances can lead to adverse consequences.

(I) Sexual intercourse is prohibited after drinking or while intoxicated.

Alcohol is a pungent and hot substance with the effect of promoting upward movement and dispersing, which can promote sexual arousal to a certain extent. Hence the saying that "alcohol is the matchmaker for lust".

Do not engage in sexual activity after drinking excessively or becoming intoxicated, and never use alcohol to stimulate sexual desire, as this can cause many harms.

As stated in the "Suwen·Shanggu Tianzhen Lun": "They take wine as their drink, take recklessness as their norm, enter the bedroom drunk, exhaust their essence with desire, and dissipate their true energy. They do not know how to maintain fullness, nor how to control their spirit. They only seek to please their hearts, go against the joy of life, and have no moderation in their daily life. Therefore, they decline at the age of fifty."

Li Pengfei of the Yuan Dynasty also said in his "Sanyuan Yanshou Canzan Shu": "Entering the bedroom while heavily drunk will exhaust one's energy and damage one's liver."

The husband will experience decreased semen production and impotence; the woman will experience weakened menstruation and retention of menstrual blood.

Clearly, entering a room while intoxicated has countless harmful consequences.

Modern research suggests that because ethanol can damage sperm and egg cells, frequent drinking or sexual activity while intoxicated can have a significant impact on offspring.

(II) Sexual activity is prohibited when one is suffering from emotional distress or overexertion.

When a person's emotions undergo drastic changes, it often leads to abnormal Qi flow and dysfunction of the internal organs. Under such circumstances, one should not seek psychological balance through sexual activity, otherwise it may not only cause one's own illness, but also affect the growth and development of the fetus if a young or middle-aged person conceives.

In addition, it is advisable to rest and recuperate in time when you are overworked, so as to restore your physiological balance as soon as possible. If you then engage in sexual activity to deplete your essence and blood, it will inevitably cause damage to the entire body's organs and cause various diseases.

The "Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces - Sexual Health" states: "When a person is angry, their qi and blood are not settled. If they engage in sexual intercourse, it can cause boils and carbuncles... If a person is tired from a long journey and then enters into sexual intercourse, it will cause the five types of fatigue and weakness, resulting in fewer children."

Sexual life can only be perfect and harmonious, and can it not harm physical and mental health, when both men and women are in a good mood and have plenty of energy.

(III) Sexual intercourse is prohibited during illness.

During illness, the body's vital energy fights against pathogenic factors with all its might. If sexual activity is performed while ill, it will inevitably damage the vital energy, worsen the condition, and lead to adverse consequences.

As proven in practice, sexual intercourse should be avoided while suffering from conjunctivitis, otherwise it may lead to optic nerve atrophy and blindness.

For some patients with chronic diseases, such as tuberculosis, liver disease, and kidney disease, excessive sexual activity can cause the disease to relapse or worsen.

Therefore, those with severe illness and weak constitution should strictly abstain from sex.

During the recovery phase of an illness, one is often weak and lacks energy, and urgently needs to rest and recuperate.

If sexual intercourse occurs at this time, it will deplete the body's vital energy, making it even more difficult to recover. In mild cases, old illnesses may relapse, and in severe cases, it may even lead to death.

The "Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces - Typhoid Fever and Relapse" states: "If a patient has just recovered from an illness and has not yet recovered for a hundred days, and has not yet regained his strength, and then engages in sexual intercourse, almost all of them will die... Recently, there was a scholar who had a minor case of typhoid fever. He had recovered for more than ten days and was able to ride a horse. He thought he had recovered completely. However, after engaging in sexual intercourse, he experienced severe abdominal pain, and his hands and feet became cramped, and he died."

This illustrates the serious harm of engaging in sexual activity after illness.

Bowel and bladder function are normal.

The two urinary tracts are the main forms by which the human body eliminates metabolic waste.

Whether bowel movements and urination are normal or not directly affects the flow of Qi in the body's internal organs.

Therefore, developing good bowel and bladder hygiene habits is of great significance for health and longevity.

1. Regular bowel movements

(I) The significance of regular bowel movements

Whether bowel movements are normal or not reflects whether the body's internal organs are functioning properly and whether the spleen and stomach are healthy.

Maintaining regular bowel movements is an important aspect of ensuring good health and longevity.

Constipation can lead to the upward disturbance of turbid qi, disorder of qi flow, and dysfunction of the internal organs, causing or inducing various diseases, such as headaches, toothaches, anorectal diseases, colon cancer, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and cerebrovascular accidents.

As Wang Chong of the Han Dynasty said in his "Lunheng", "To achieve longevity, one must keep one's intestines clean; to achieve immortality, one must keep one's intestines free of waste." Zhu Danxi, a physician of the Yuan Dynasty, said in his "Gezhi Yulun" that "When the five flavors enter the mouth, they enter the stomach, leaving toxins that do not dissipate. If they accumulate for a long time, they will damage the balance of the body and cause various diseases."

(II) Methods to maintain regular bowel movements

There are many ways to maintain regular bowel movements; specifically, you should do the following four things:

1. Regular bowel movements

Having a bowel movement at a relatively fixed time helps to develop good bowel habits and establish a good conditioned reflex, which in turn facilitates the normal generation of the urge to defecate and promotes smooth bowel movements.

Some people, due to the stress of life and work, or the time constraints in the morning, have to hold back their urge to defecate even when they feel the urge.

Holding in bowel movements inhibits the defecation reflex, disrupts the defecation mechanism, and dulls the sensation of stool in the intestines, which can eventually lead to constipation.

2. Let bowel movements occur naturally.

The book "Lao Lao Heng Yan" states when discussing defecation: "The essence of health preservation lies in valuing naturalness." One should not force oneself to defecate when one has it, nor should one force oneself to defecate when one does not.

Both "enduring" and "struggling" can easily damage the body's vital energy, leading to diseases such as hemorrhoids.

From a Western medical perspective, holding in one's bowel movements allows some of the toxins in the feces to be absorbed by the intestinal mucosa, harming the body.

Straining during defecation can excessively increase intra-abdominal pressure, leading to a rise in blood pressure. This is particularly detrimental to patients with hypertension, coronary heart disease, and arteriosclerosis, and can easily trigger diseases such as stroke and myocardial infarction.

In addition, due to increased intra-abdominal pressure and congestion of hemorrhoidal veins, it can easily lead to diseases such as hemorrhoids and anal fistulas.

3. Exercise and massage can help relieve constipation.

Exercise and massage can help to improve blood circulation, enhance gastrointestinal digestion and excretion, strengthen the peristalsis of the large and small intestines, and facilitate bowel movements.

Traditional health exercises can be used regularly, such as Tai Chi, Qigong, and abdominal massage.

This article introduces a simple and effective massage exercise that can effectively prevent and relieve constipation.

First, rub your palms together to generate heat. Place your left palm on the back of your right hand and your right palm on your upper abdomen, around your heart. Massage in a circular motion from left to right 15 times, then from right to left 15 times. Repeat this process on your navel area, massaging in a circular motion 15 times to the left and 15 times to the right. Then, massage your lower abdomen in the same circular motion 15 times to the left and 15 times to the right.

After massaging the upper, middle, and lower abdomen, push down from the solar plexus to the pubic symphysis, repeating about 20 times.

This method is generally performed after going to bed at night and before getting up in the morning, but it can also be performed at other free times.

4. Dietary regulation to promote bowel movement

Diet and regular bowel movements are closely related.

As people's living standards improve, there is an increasing amount of meat and refined food. These foods are not conducive to gastrointestinal motility and can easily cause constipation.

Therefore, in our daily lives, we should have a diverse diet, with whole grains as the staple food, vegetables and fruits as side dishes, and meat and eggs as supplementary foods. We should eat more vegetables and less meat, combining refined and whole grains to achieve a balanced diet.

Because vegetables and fruits contain a lot of dietary fiber, which can stimulate the intestinal wall and accelerate peristalsis, it is especially important to eat more vegetables and fruits.