Adult

A recently released national survey on reading among Chinese citizens showed a steady rise in reading as a habit in China. The overall reading habit level among Chinese adults stood at 81.9 percent in 2023, a slight increase from 2022 and a 12.2-percentage-point growth from 2008, according to the latest national reading survey published by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication at the third National Conference on Reading that began on April 23, World Book Day. The survey indicated that the habit of reading books among Chinese adults was at 59.8 percent in 2023, up 10.5 percentage points from 2008. Chinese adults read an average of 4.75 printed books and 3.4 digital books per capita last year. A train staff member shares books with students during a reading activity on train 5634, which travels from Xichang city to Mianning county in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Zhou Zeping) An average adult spent an average of 23.38 minutes reading printed books last year, the survey showed. Moreover, 80.3 percent of Chinese adults had experience with digital reading, such as reading on computers, mobile phones, or other handheld devices, in 2023, reflecting a 0.2-percentage-point increase from the previous…

Water is the most fundamental and important component of the human body, the source of life. In a healthy adult, 50% to 70% of body weight is water, and all life and metabolic activities depend on water. Therefore, we often hear people say drink more water when you have a cold, drink more water when you have a cough, drink more water for constipation, or just drink more water in general... But is drinking 8 glasses of water (about 2000 ml) every day really good for health? Dr. Liu Yu, Director of the Spleen and Stomach Diseases Department at the Jiangjin District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Chongqing, explains whether drinking large amounts of water is beneficial to health. What diseases can occur from drinking too much water? Dr. Liu Yu says that according to traditional Chinese medicine theory, the metabolism of fluids is completed through the coordinated action of the digestive system, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and bladder. When water enters the stomach, especially when cold water enters our 37°C body, it requires the transformation of spleen yang and warming of kidney yang. At the same time, under the regulation of lung function, it participates in the body's metabolism. If…