Traditional Chinese Medicine Remedies for Heat-related Ailments
How to Beat the Chicago Summer Heat—TCM Style
Acupuncture and TCM in Downtown Chicago to Cure What Ails You This Season
The recent heat wave in Chicago has been off the charts lately! It’s even been making a lot of people sick, including some of our practitioners and patients. When we think of “sick” in this case, it’s the opposite of “a cold.” We’re actually talking about “a heat!”
What’s “a heat” in TCM?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), “a heat” is a common diagnosis that we refer to as a summer-heat pathogen or summer-heat. Summer-heat has a seasonal relationship with the summer months, and we only see it during the period between the summer solstice and the beginning of autumn. It commonly affects those who undertake long trips or engage in intense physical labor outside on days of intense summer heat (like those we’ve been having lately in downtown Chicago), but anyone can be susceptible during intense heat waves.
Summer Pathogens: Causes and Symptoms
The Foundation of TCM lies in maintaining homeostasis, or balance, in the body. When the weather is excessively hot, it can disrupt normal body temperature and physiology, causing an imbalance. Your body then tries to return to balance by opening your pores, allowing you to sweat, vent the heat, and cool down. Your pores act as gatekeepers that allow external and internal factors to enter and exit the body in order for it to maintain homeostasis.
Although your pores do a good job at helping you to release excess heat during the summer, they can also let other external pathogens into your body, causing imbalances. For example, let’s say you walk to work for 30 minutes in 90-degree heat. By the time you arrive, you are sweating profusely. You decide to find the nearest air conditioner and stand in front of it for 15 minutes allowing the freezing cold air to blow on the back of your neck. Then, you drink a large glass of ice cold water. Later that evening, it begins to rain, and you leave to walk home in the heat and drizzle. Any of these common summer scenarios sound familiar? Turns out, each one of these events can permit external pathogens to enter the body.
Since your pores opened, allowing heat to exit your body via sweat, they also may have let the freezing wind and cold from the air conditioner into your body. When pathogenic wind and cold enter the body, they often manifest in chills, a fever, body aches, and stiff muscles. This commonly happens when we fall asleep with a fan blowing cold air on us all night. The cold contracts your muscles making them stiff.
Likewise, during your walk home in the rain, your pores open again allowing heat to exit your body, but also may let that dampness inside. Dampness often manifests in heavy or fatigued limbs, nausea, vomiting, loose stools, and thirst—but little desire to drink.
The jug of ice cold water you drank leads to excess cold and water in your stomach causing you to feel nauseated, vomit, or have loose stools.
Top 5 Ways to Beat the Summer Heat
Eat “cool” foods. Watermelon, lemon, apple, pineapple, summer squash, radish, zucchini, spinach, and cucumber are the top “cooling” foods in TCM.
Avoid warm or damp foods. This list includes any hot, spicy, greasy, or overly oily foods. Additionally, over-consumption of alcohol, coffee, or sugars can contribute to heat imbalances in the summer months.
Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of cool water during the day. Dehydration can set in before you know it. If it does and you start to feel dizzy or nauseous, you can either add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to help replace electrolytes and minerals or grab a sports drink to help.
Wear lightweight clothing. Lightweight clothing is light in color and fabric—both of which will help keep you cool when the sun is blazing hot.
Avoid sunburn. If you need or would like to be in the sun, protect yourself with sunblock. If you get burned, a rural remedy to soothe it and relieve pain is to dilute one part tea tree oil with ten parts olive oil or coconut oil and spread over the affected areas.
Need an immunity boost this summer? We’ve got you. At Herb + Ōhm, we can identify and treat the root cause of the issue in order to help you achieve long-term results. We provide acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine modalities with specific protocols that are designed to treat discomfort in summer and all year round. You can book your consultation today!