What can I eat to remove dampness and toxins from the body?

Generally, to eliminate dampness and toxins, one can appropriately consume foods such as red beans, coix seed, winter melon, mung beans, and poria, as well as medications such as Huoxiang Zhengqi Water, Shenling Baizhu Pills, Shidu Qing Capsules, Xiangsha Pingwei Pills, and Longdan Xiegan Pills. Detailed explanations are as follows:

I. Foods

1. Red Beans: These have the function of strengthening the spleen and eliminating dampness, promoting the removal of dampness and moisture from the body and helping alleviate symptoms such as edema and thick greasy tongue coating caused by dampness and toxins. They can be cooked into red bean soup or consumed with other ingredients.

2. Coix Seed: It promotes diuresis, reduces edema, and strengthens the spleen, helping to expel dampness and toxins through urine. It improves symptoms such as bodily heaviness and loose stools caused by dampness. It is suitable for boiling in water or making porridge, but should be consumed in moderation.

3. Winter Melon: High in water content and with a cooling nature, it clears heat and promotes diuresis, accelerating the elimination of dampness and toxins. Its dietary fiber also promotes intestinal motility. It is suitable for making soup or stir-frying and is a common ingredient for removing dampness and toxins.

4. Mung Beans: These have functions of clearing heat, detoxifying, and promoting urination, helping eliminate dampness and toxins in the body. They are especially suitable for individuals with a damp-heat constitution. Drinking mung bean soup is also effective for heatstroke relief during summer.

5. Poria: As a dual-purpose ingredient for food and medicine, it strengthens the spleen and removes dampness by enhancing spleen function to eliminate dampness and toxins. It can be used for porridge, soups, or made into pastries and is suitable for long-term moderate consumption.

II. Medications

1. Huoxiang Zhengqi Water: Contains ingredients such as agastache and perilla, which relieve exterior syndromes, resolve dampness, regulate qi, and harmonize the middle jiao. It is suitable for dampness and toxin-related symptoms such as heavy-headed headache, chest tightness, and epigastric fullness caused by external contraction of cold and internal damage from dampness retention.

2. Shenling Baizhu Pills: Composed of ginseng, poria, atractylodes, and other ingredients, these pills strengthen the spleen, benefit qi, and remove dampness. They are used for symptoms caused by spleen and stomach weakness, such as poor appetite, loose stools, shortness of breath, cough, and fatigue, helping eliminate dampness and toxins by strengthening the spleen.

3. Shidu Qing Capsules: Containing ingredients like rehmannia, angelica, and dictamnus bark, they nourish blood, moisturize dryness, resolve dampness, detoxify, dispel wind, and relieve itching. They are suitable for skin itching associated with blood deficiency and dampness accumulation in the skin, helping to clear dampness and toxins from the body.

4. Xiangsha Pingwei Pills: Composed of atractylodes, magnolia bark, tangerine peel, and others, these pills strengthen the spleen and dry dampness. They are used for epigastric distension and pain and improve discomfort caused by dampness obstruction in the middle jiao, thus promoting the elimination of dampness and toxins.

5. Longdan Xiegan Pills: Containing ingredients such as gentiana, bupleurum, and scutellaria, they clear damp-heat from the liver and gallbladder, treating symptoms such as dizziness, red eyes, tinnitus, deafness, ear pain, hypochondriac pain, and bitter taste in the mouth caused by liver and gallbladder damp-heat, thus clearing dampness and toxins from the liver and gallbladder.

Eliminating dampness and toxins requires a combination of diet and medication. Foods can be used for daily regulation, while medications should be used according to individual symptoms under a doctor's guidance. It is also important to avoid damp environments, exercise moderately to promote qi and blood circulation, and assist in expelling dampness and toxins. Do not take medications for prolonged periods without medical advice.