With the first heat wave of the year upcoming, what is the best way to mitigate the outdoor climate and not get overheated?
Fundamentals of Chinese medicine 101: Our bodies’ “yang qi,” or warming and excitatory chemicals and substances, are responsible for metabolizing fluids and foods and warming the body, but it is our “yin fluids,” or cooling and inhibitory chemicals and substances (think estrogen, serotonin, oxytocin), whose responsibility it is to keep our minds sane, naturally bring down fevers when we’re sick, and of course combat the heat waves of summer.
The more “Yin” one has, the more equipped they are to tolerate heat, hence why women who either just gave birth or are embarking on menopause tend more to hot flashes, night sweats, and/or a preference for strong air conditioning.
Unfortunately, cold band-aids such as cold drinks or foods might temporarily cool us off, but they do so at the expense of harming our functional gastric acids and gases, thereby impairing the body’s long term ability to manufacture healthy yin substances in the gut. This doesn’t mean don’t ever enjoy a cold drink or ice cream in the summer months—just to respect these indulgences enough to use and enjoy them sparingly instead of as your daily intake of default.
Beyond a balanced diet, exercise, and sleep habits, yin is nourished through the internal biochemistry induced by sweet and savory, bitter and sour flavors, therefore it is important to keep in mind the logic that any (empirical) substance that generates yin, be it food or herbs, may also generate dampness in the body. Duck and pork meat, eggs and butter might be exactly what the doctor ordered for people who are particularly thin, have a dry, red tongue with many cracks in it, and are sensitive to heat. These people tend to pee a lot, poop a little, and have ravenous appetites for food and cold drink. However, for those who have more fluid retention, poop a lot and are never thirsty, summertime recommendations might need to be more tactful and/or in smaller doses. They’ll do better with sauteed kale with lemon, unsweetened lemonade, (hot) green tea with lemon, dark chocolate, eggs, and more steaming of foods instead of cooking with butter.
You can’t go too wrong having a nightly cup of peppermint (Bo He) and/or chrysanthemum (Ju Hua) tea (with small amounts of honey), both of which are very mild Chinese herbs that have a tropism for clearing heat from the upper portions of the body, as with heat-induced headaches, dizziness, sinus congestion, or mild conditions of the eyes.
For more serious patterns of summer heat, the best classical formula I know of, whether prophylactically or in response to symptoms, is Mai Men Dong Tang (Ophiopogonis Decoction). It contains ophiopogonis root, ginseng, white rice, red dates, and licorice, all of which generate metabolic fluids, but then crushed pinellia root to mitigate this effect, improve digestion, and dry out residual pathogenic fluids.
Each patient’s pattern will determine the dose of each ingredient. For example, if you are someone who has to remind themself to drink water the pinellia will be much higher than for someone who is ravenously thirsty all the time, for whom we might remove or replace the pinellia altogether, lest we would not be practicing holistic medicine. If you or someone you know might benefit from Mai Men Dong Tang this summer or this coming heat wave please reach out to learn how we can modify and customize according to your specific body type!
