Chapter 787: Drinking Too Little Water

Chapter 787: Chapter 787: Drinking Too Little Water

Li Xu scanned the audience below the stage. "You are all future doctors. If you encounter such complaints from parents, how do you explain it? How do you treat it?"

The students below fell into deep thought. This was indeed the most common dilemma in pediatrics. Western medicine often attributed it to low immunity and cross-infection.

"In fact, the answer to this kind of problem can already be found in the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor," Li Xu continued. "As long as you understand the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, you can grasp the most fundamental reason behind it and even find a way to cure it without medicine."

Li Xu smiled faintly and revealed the answer. "If you, as a doctor, carefully observe this type of child who suffers from recurrent fevers and pharyngitis, you’ll find that they are often very mischievous, active, and energetic. Moreover, if you ask them to open their mouth, you’ll see that the tip of their tongue is usually very red, presenting an excess heat symptom of ’fire flaming upward.’ What does this mean?"

He answered his own question. "This means that the child has heat inside their body, but this heat is largely because the child rarely drinks water.

"Think about it. Generally speaking, when children are at home, their parents and grandparents revolve around them, proactively asking and offering water anytime and anywhere. But after they start kindergarten, their water intake drops significantly.

"On one hand, children are playful. When they go crazy with play, they completely forget to ask for water. On the other hand, in kindergarten, there are dozens of children in a class. Teachers have limited energy and can rarely afford one-on-one proactive inquiries and water feeding. Instead, they have unified water-drinking times.

"Secondly, there’s a psychological factor. In front of their parents, children will unscrupulously demand water or food when they are thirsty or hungry. But in front of some strict teachers, newly enrolled children will be timid and dare not make requests. This not only leads to them drinking less water, but they might not even dare to ask for more food if they haven’t eaten their fill.

"Consequently, many children might not drink much water at all throughout the day after starting kindergarten. When water fails to control fire, internal heat arises. For children, who inherently have ’tender yin and yang’ and a vigorous vitality that easily transforms into heat, getting internal heat—which triggers pharyngitis and tonsillitis—becomes a very common occurrence.

"This brings us back to the quote I just mentioned from the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor: ’The proliferation of all diseases and premature deaths are all caused by dietary troubles.’

"Diet here doesn’t just mean eating the wrong things; it also refers to not eating and drinking adequately when you are supposed to. That is the root cause of the disease.

"When encountering this kind of child, no matter how many expensive heat-clearing and detoxifying medicines or antibiotics you prescribe, it’s not as effective as advising parents and teachers to find different ways to make the child drink a few more cups of warm water every day."

The students in the audience were struck with sudden realization, and thunderous applause erupted.

"The fragments of words in the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor may seem rigid, but they are actually extremely important and practical health-preserving secrets, much like the phrase ’regularity in daily life’..."

Drawing on the seemingly dry theoretical provisions of the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, Li Xu provided extremely vivid and grounded analyses and detailed explanations, combining them with rich clinical cases and modern lifestyle habits.

In fact, many things in the book weren’t too profound if one only looked at their literal meaning. However, the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor contained the simplest yet most profound principles of medical Dao. Understanding the literal meaning versus truly "comprehending the Dao" and applying it clinically were two completely different concepts and realms.

For instance, reciting the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor backward might seem like a mere showboating gimmick on the surface. It appeared useless, as one couldn’t rely on rote memorization to cure diseases. But in reality, all the top students present understood a truth: when you could fluently recite an ancient text of 180,000 words without thinking, to the point of being able to recite it backward or extract any section at will, it meant every word and sentence in that book was deeply etched into your bones. Your understanding of its contents, the logical corroboration of its context, and your conditional reflex speed in a clinical setting had definitely reached a terrifying height.

"Read a book a hundred times, and its meaning will naturally reveal itself."

Many old traditional Chinese medicine doctors did nothing else their entire lives but read classic medical books over and over again. With every read, as their life experience grew, they would gain new, subversive insights. And the young man on the stage had clearly absorbed this heavenly book of medicine thoroughly, condensing its essence before expanding upon it once more.

This was the strength that truly inspired fear and awe.

After speaking about the theories of the four seasons, the five elements, and the rise and fall of yin and yang, Li Xu’s gaze swept over the front rows of the lecture hall. He pointed a finger. "You there, junior. Please stand up."

In the area Li Xu pointed to, three male students sitting together looked at each other in dismay. They nudged each other with their elbows, unsure of who Li Xu was referring to.

"The one in the middle, the junior wearing the white T-shirt," Li Xu added.

The male student in the middle, wearing a white T-shirt and black-framed glasses, finally reacted and stood up somewhat nervously. He was an undergraduate who had stayed behind after class to attend the lecture, and he was a bit puzzled as to why this legendary senior would suddenly call him out of hundreds of people.

"Junior, have you often felt an inexplicable anxiety recently, tossing and turning at night unable to sleep, accompanied by a loss of appetite and indigestion?" Li Xu asked with a smile.

"Ah..." The male student froze for a moment. His previously bewildered face instantly showed shock as he subconsciously blurted out, "Y-yes, senior. How did you know?"

The main reason the student was so surprised was that he was sitting in the third row. Although it wasn’t too far, it was a lecture hall, so he was at least seven or eight meters away from the podium. To think that Li Xu could spot his problem at a glance from such a distance without even taking his pulse.

Li Xu didn’t answer directly. Instead, he carefully scrutinized the other’s face, pondered for a moment, and said, "If I’m not mistaken, this periodic anxiety of yours is mostly due to... money? Do you spend all your living expenses extravagantly at the beginning of every month, and then spend the rest of the month constantly worrying about your empty wallet, not knowing how to survive until the next month, which leads to your anxiety and insomnia?"

The male student was speechless.

The entire venue was silent for a second.

Immediately after—

"PFFT! Hahahaha!"

"Holy shit, he can even see that? Incredible."

"Can the Divine Physician also tell fortunes? This is simply a precision strike."

Seeing the male student’s expression—flushed red and unable to retort, looking as if he had seen a ghost—everyone naturally guessed that Li Xu was completely accurate.

The two roommates sitting next to him were even more dumbfounded. They slapped his shoulder while laughing wildly. "Haha, Third Bro, this is what happens when you blow your money on game skins at the start of the month! Now even the senior can tell you’re so broke you can’t sleep!"