Steam bath recipe to relieve cold

The steam bath recipe uses familiar and easy-to-find leaves and roots.

When to steam? When you are “infected with water”, your body feels achy, afraid of wind, afraid of cold, accompanied by a runny nose, sneezing or fever without sweating, then you should steam.

What to use for steaming? Use some fresh leaves - herbs, wash, boil, use the heat to steam. Steaming leaves include the following main groups:

- Leaves have a cooling effect such as: bamboo, elm, star gooseberry...

- Leaves have antibacterial effects: onions, garlic leaves or bulbs, papaya, mango, mugwort...

Steam bath recipe to relieve cold

- Leaves containing essential oils: pentaphyllum, perilla, lemongrass, lemon, grapefruit, eucalyptus, mint, basil, betel, ginger leaves or roots...

Depending on the conditions of each place, it is not necessary to have all the leaves according to the recipe; just a few types such as: bamboo leaves, grapefruit leaves (or lemon), papaya leaves, lemongrass, betel, mugwort and fresh ginger are enough to have a pot of steaming.

How to cook the leaves for steaming? Fill the pot 2/3 with water, put the leaves that have a cooling effect first. When the water is almost boiling, put the leaves that have an antibacterial effect and finally put in the essential oil leaves. Do not put all the leaves in to cook at the same time, the essential oil evaporates easily and this will reduce the treatment effect. You need to keep the heat at a moderate level, cover the pot tightly, when the water boils again for 2-3 minutes, take it off the heat and steam immediately.

How to steam:The steam room needs to be sufficiently sealed. When the steam pot is about to boil, have the patient take off their outer clothes. The patient sits on a flat surface, cross-legged or with legs to one side, head raised, tilted to one side to avoid the hot steam blowing strongly on the face, place the steam pot in front of them, cover with a blanket, then slowly open the lid of the pot to let the steam escape, so that the heat is at a tolerable level. Breathe strongly and deeply so that the essential oil scent goes deep into the alveoli. The steaming time is about 10 - 15 minutes. When finished, open the blanket, wipe off sweat with a clean dry towel. You can decant 1 cup of clear water from the steam pot (about 50ml) for the patient to drink and add warm water to the steam pot to reach 37 - 380C, then bathe in a room that is windproof, dry the body, and wear clean clothes. For elderly patients, patients with chronic diseases, physical weakness... there must be an attendant sitting behind to hold the patient's shoulders to prevent them from falling.

After steaming, you need a bowl of cold-relieving porridge; by cooking white porridge, scooping it into a bowl, adding perilla, onion, thinly sliced ​​garlic, pepper, spices to taste, adding beaten egg yolk, eating it hot will help the sick person recover quickly.

Some notes when steaming: The method of boiling leaves for steaming helps the patient recover quickly, but steaming cannot be done at all times. Steaming should only be done during the first 1-2 days of illness. At this time, toxic gases and wind are under the surface, so the steaming method will help open the way for the toxic gases to escape. If the cold has spread deep into the body, steaming should not be done at that time and other appropriate treatment methods must be used.

This therapy should not be used by people who sweat a lot, are dehydrated, have lost a lot of blood, are dizzy, are elderly or confused, have skin diseases, are seriously ill and have just recovered from illness, have high blood pressure or heart disease, are pregnant, or are children under 12 years old.

During the steaming process, if you experience difficulty breathing, chest tightness, dizziness, weakness... you need to stop immediately. In case of severe shock, you must be taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. If the patient has a high fever, convulsions due to infection (such as sore throat, cough, trauma, infection...), you should not steam yourself but should go to a medical facility for examination.

According to health and life