Dietary Management of Vaginal Discharge in Women
Daixia ("belt discharge") refers to a white or yellowish-white mucous discharge often issuing from the vagina in women. The folk saying "nine in ten women have daixia" expresses how common a complaint it is. A healthy woman may occasionally pass a small amount of clear mucus — what is ordinarily called baidai (white discharge); this is a physiological secretion, not a pathological state. But when the discharge is excessive, white and thin or yellow-red and viscous, sometimes with a fishy odor, and accompanied by lower-abdominal pain, that is daixia bing (vaginal-discharge disorder).
The cause is most often damp evil settling downward — though with sub-patterns: combined with cold, combined with heat, leaning to deficiency, or leaning to excess. The deficient-cold type comes from spleen-and-kidney yang vacuity, with cold-damp lodged within. In dietary care: avoid raw, cold, melon-and-fruit foods, cold drinks, and hard, hard-to-digest foods. One may regularly eat lean meat, eggs, liver, lychee, longan, Chinese yam, candied tangerine and similar tonifying foods. The damp-heat type usually comes from liver-spleen disharmony, with damp brewing into heat: in general, eat bland foods — coix seed, adzuki bean, winter melon, loofah, and the like — and avoid heavy, rich tonifying foods.
Common dietary measures for daixia are introduced below.
1. Cold-damp (deficiency) discharge: white discharge in large amount, thin and watery; weak lower back and legs; lower abdomen cold and at times distended, or with dull pain; sallow complexion; lassitude; cool hands and feet, or loose stool; tongue coating thin, white, slippery; tongue body pale-red; pulse slow and weak. Use foods that strengthen the spleen and warm yang, dispel damp and check discharge.
1. Qianshi (Euryale-seed) porridge: 30 g qianshi (Euryale seed, "chicken-head rice"), 15 g crushed walnut meat, 5 pitted red dates, 30 g polished rice, white sugar to taste. First boil the qianshi and rice; when half-cooked, add walnut and dates and cook until soft; sweeten with sugar; eat at breakfast.
2. Mutton soup: 50–100 g mutton, finely cut; one red carrot, thinly sliced; 3 g caoguo; 3 g aged tangerine peel; 3 g liangjiang; 3 g bibo; 3 g pepper; 3 inches of scallion stem; salt and wheat flour to taste. Wrap caoguo and the other spices in gauze; simmer with the mutton and carrot into a broth; add scallion and salt; thicken with flour into a soup. As an alternative, clear the broth and cook with rice into porridge.
3. Yam-longan soup: 100 g fresh Chinese yam, peeled and chopped; 15 g longan meat; 3–5 lychee meats (fresh are best); 3 g wuweizi; rock sugar to taste. Simmer yam and the rest into a soup, sweeten with rock sugar, take in the morning or before bed.
4. Ginkgo–winter-melon-seed drink: 10 ginkgo nuts; 30 g winter-melon seed; 15 g lotus-seed meat; 3 g pepper; a little white sugar. Boil, strain, sweeten; drink two or three times a day, a small cup each time.
5. Twin-seed drink: 10–15 g lychee seed; 10–15 g tangerine seed; brown sugar to taste. Simmer for a tea-substitute; sweeten with brown sugar when taken.
2. Damp-heat discharge: discharge yellow-white or yellow-red, viscous and foul-smelling, in large amount; lower abdomen distended and painful, sometimes with a sense of heat, or with vaginal itching; bitter mouth, nausea, poor appetite; tongue coating yellow and greasy; tongue body red; pulse slippery and rapid. Use foods that clear heat, drain damp, and check discharge.
1. Adzuki-bean porridge: 30 g adzuki bean; 15 g white rice; white sugar to taste. First boil the adzuki until soft, then add rice and cook into porridge; sweeten. Take at breakfast or as a late snack.
2. Coix-seed porridge: 30 g coix seed; a little starch; granulated sugar and osmanthus to taste. First cook coix into porridge; when soft, add starch; then sugar and osmanthus. Take at breakfast or as a late snack.
3. Day-lily drink: 30 g day-lily (fresh is best); simmer in water; strain; drink in one go.
4. Winter-melon-seed drink: 30 g winter-melon seed, crushed; add a little white sugar; infuse in boiling water.
5. Hyacinth-bean drink: 20–30 g hyacinth bean; decoct and drink as a tea-substitute, at any time.
6. Fuling–plantain drink: 20 g baifuling; 10 g plantain seed (in a cloth bag); decoct and drink as tea-substitute, at any time.
For damp-heat discharge, though bland-cooked dishes are best, raw and cold foods must still be avoided.