The advantages and disadvantages of eating betel nut

Benefits of eating betel nut

[Warning] Betel nut is a Class 1 carcinogen on the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer list of carcinogens. Chewing betel nut can increase the risk of oral cancer.

Betel nut is a plant of the palm family and one of the four major southern medicines in my country. Betel nut fruit contains a variety of nutrients and beneficial substances needed by the human body, such as fat, betel nut oil, alkaloids, catechins, choline and other ingredients. Betel nut has a unique function of preventing malaria. It is a medicinal fruit used by doctors of all dynasties to treat diseases. It is also known as "Malaria-Washing Pill". Because malaria symptoms are generally related to irregular diet and stagnation of qi, while betel nut can reduce qi, digest food and eliminate phlegm, it has attracted widespread attention for its medicinal properties. Even poets and writers have a special liking for betel nut. Su Dongpo, one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties, once wrote the famous sentence "Red tide on the cheeks, drunken betel nut". Fresh betel nut has a wonderful effect of "hunger can make people full, fullness can make people hungry". When eaten on an empty stomach, the qi is full as if full, and it is easy to digest after a meal. It can be said to be a fairy fruit on earth. Medical scientist Li Shizhen recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica that betel nut can "reduce edema, open joints, strengthen the spleen and regulate the middle, and treat heartache accumulation" and many other diseases. In addition, betel nut can also treat glaucoma, high blood pressure, and deworming. Betel nut contains alkaloids such as arecaine and arecoline. Betel nut fruit contains concentrated tannins (proanthocyanidins), which have not yet been proven to have anti-aging "free radical" effects. Chewing the fruit is slightly addictive, and the extract has been proven to have anti-depressant (antidepressant) effects. Arecoline has been used to treat parasites (tapeworms, hookworms, roundworms, roundworms, ginger worms, etc.).

Betel nut therapeutic effects:

Betel nut tastes bitter, spicy and warm in nature; it enters the spleen, stomach and large intestine meridians; it is heavy and sinking.

It has the effects of expelling parasites, eliminating stagnation, lowering qi, promoting water circulation, reducing swelling, and stopping malaria;

It is mainly used to treat worm-induced malnutrition, indigestion, abdominal distension and pain, heaviness after diarrhea, constipation, hernia, athlete's foot, edema, and malaria.

Betel nut practice instructions:

1. For children with abdominal pain caused by worms, it can be used together with Artemisia selengensis, neem root, etc.

2. For patients with abdominal pain caused by parasites and indigestion, it can be used in combination with Shenqu, malt, and Quisqualis chinensis.

3. For those with emotional disorders, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and loss of appetite, grind agarwood, lindera strychnifolia, and ginseng into juice and drink it.

4. For patients with severe water retention, with symptoms of edema all over the body, shortness of breath, and difficulty in defecation and urination, it can be used in combination with Notopterygium wilfordii, Zexie, and Rhizoma Coptidis.

5. For patients who often suffer from malaria due to cold, dampness, phlegm and fluid, it can be used together with Dichroa serrata and Amomum villosum.

Disadvantages of eating betel nut

1. What are the effects on human health?

Tartar is formed in the mouth due to lime and betel nut juice. Long-term and vigorous chewing can wear away the tooth texture and even cause the teeth to crack or break.

2. Impact on the temporomandibular joint:

Due to the wear of tooth texture and the abrasion of the temporomandibular joint surface, the occlusion changes, temporomandibular joint pain and lesions occur, which makes the mouth open and close with noise and causes joint pain. It is not only extremely painful but also very difficult to treat.

3. Impact on periodontal tissue:

Since betel nut fibers are quite hard, they can injure the gums or clog the gaps between teeth, causing compression and inflammation of the interdental papillae. Chewing hard can also damage the periodontal membrane, causing inflammation, swelling and pain around the tooth roots.

On the other hand, due to the accumulation of lime and betel nut residues, the calculus becomes thicker and thicker, causing gum damage, swelling, suppuration, exposed tooth roots, etc., resulting in periodontal disease, and eventually the teeth fall out one by one or have to be extracted.

4. Effects on oral mucosa:

Betel nut chewing can cause oral submucous fibrosis and leukoplakia, which are precursors of oral cancer. Clinical symptoms include difficulty opening the mouth, pain, numbness, whitening of the oral mucosa, and ulcers.

5. Impact on the digestive system:

Betel nut juice stains the black lips, teeth and cheeks, affecting appearance, damaging taste nerves and saliva secretion, hindering digestive function. Betel nut residue irritates the stomach wall, causing inflammation or even perforation of the gastric mucosa, affecting nutrient absorption and causing malnutrition.