HEAT

Confusion, Fire Element, Heart, Heat, Nausea, Summer, Temperature regulation, , , ,

Recently I planted out some flower seedlings in the front garden. I waited until 4pm when I thought it would be cool enough to work. But as I sweated away in oppressive heat for 45 minutes, I realised I’d been mistaken. Back in the house, I felt dizzy, head throbbing and slightly disoriented. It took time, cool drinks and splashing with cold water to come back to equilibrium. Such is the power of the climatic factor of heat. As our climate heats up, we need to be even more careful to protect ourselves from this pathogenic factor.

The Chinese character for this kind of summer heat is re. The three radicals comprising the character represent hand, ball and fire. It can combine with other characters to create meanings that are all resonances of the Fire Element:

Reqing enthusiastic, passionate

Renao: lively

Reai: to adore

Qinre: intimate, warm-hearted

The height of summer, which is where we in the southern hemisphere now find ourselves, is a season of extreme heat. The days are at their longest, giving the sun more hours to heat the atmosphere. This provides the final burst of sunlight to bring summer plants and crops to their fullness and maturity. It is a time for summer holidays when many people take their ease on beaches. ‘Sun worshippers’ are to be found packed onto strips of sand all along our coastlines. The great Aussie holiday at the beach is testament to many people’s love of the summer heat.

A particular craving for summer heat can be diagnostic of an imbalance in the Fire Element of a person. So too can a particular aversion to this climatic factor. Extremes of preference for any of the resonances of an Element can signal that the Element is wobbling and needs support. In this case, craving for or aversion to a hot climate can be a call for the Fire Element to be addressed.

Danger to health arises when the external pathogenic factor of heat enters the body, producing a rise in the body’s temperature, often mimicking symptoms of fever. There can be reddening in the face, hot skin, great thirst and profuse sweating which depletes the fluids of the body. Other symptoms can include a rapid pulse, dizziness, confusion, mental restlessness and fatigue. This is a yang condition which affects the upper body, especially the head, and diminishes yin.

Some are more prone to this exogenous pathogen than others. Older people are more prone as the fluids of an older body tend to be diminished. This is an expression of the Water Element failing to control the Fire Element across the ke or controlling cycle.

While this condition is more prevalent in summer, it is not confined to that season. It can occur whenever there is a heatwave, or even indoors in highly heated, poorly ventilated rooms.

The invasion of summer heat is similar to the condition of heatstroke or sunstroke in western medicine, and the treatment is the same:

Lie down in a cool, shaded place; slowly sip plenty of water (drinking too much too quickly can overwhelm the body); cool down with splashed water on the head, neck and wrists, or shower or bathe in cool water. If severe symptoms don’t ease within an hour, call the emergency number.

Chinese medicine also recognises that heat invasion penetrates to the organs. In particular, the heart, yin organ of the Five Element is most affected, which explains the mental confusion, disorientation and delirium that can result. (All mental disorders are considered disorders of the heart.) But the heat can invade other organs also. Heat can combine with damp which together transform to phlegm and may manifest as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, poor appetite, fatigue and tightness in the chest. Heat can also combine with wind. Wind-heat can affect the lungs and produce symptoms of the common cold: runny nose, sore throat, fever and joint pain

Ways to avoid the effects of the summer heat pathogen are to avoid the sun, seek shade, wear light, loose clothing and a hat, and drink plenty of water over time, sipping rather than gulping. Do not exercise in the heat. (I cringe when I see people jogging in the middle of a hot day.) Keep the house cool by closing blinds early in the day.

Acupressure Points can help rebalance

Large Intestine 11 is a classic point for clearing heat from the body. Located in a hollow at the end of the lateral elbow crease.

Heart Protector 6 is a calming and regulating point for the Fire Element. Located 2 cun above the inner wrist crease.

Triple Heater 5 regulates the body thermostat. Located 2 cun above the outer wrist crease.

Governor Vessel 14 treats excess yang, which is a characteristic of heat invasion. Located on the spine at the base of the neck, between vertebrae C7 and T1.

Other known points include Heart 7, 8; Heart Protector 3, 7, 8; Triple Heater 6;  Stomach 36, Spleen 6.

I’ll be back soon in the Late Summer for a look at the humid or damp climate. Enjoy the rest of the summer. Stay cool!

NOTE: I have been discussing summer heat as an external pathogen. Chinese medicine also recognises heat conditions that are internal and which are created primarily by inappropriate diet and emotional disturbances. TCM recognises a plethora of such heat and fire patterns that are beyond this discussion from the Five Element perspective, but which can be studied in Giovani Maciocia’s ‘The Foundations of Chinese Medicine”.

WIND

Agitation, Arm pain, Ear problems, Eye problems, Headache, Jaw, Neck pain, Shoulder pain, Throat, Wind invasion, , , ,

The other morning, I was woken at 5 am by a strong gusting wind swirling round the corners of the house, probing and rattling the eaves. I had gone to bed thinking about writing this blog about wind, so it felt as if I’d summoned it up, like some ghost or jinn. Indeed, wind is a curious creature, mysterious and intangible. We see the effects of the wind, rather than the wind itself. Yet we also feel its effects in the body as a disturbance in our field. Some people find this exciting, others troubling, while some are so distressed by it that they cannot leave the house.

These effects of wind are more common in the spring when the Wood Element, of which wind is a resonance, is in its ascendency. Any imbalance in this Element is more likely to be revealed in springtime when the Wood ‘tide’ is at its highest. Last month in South Australia we had 4 or 5 consecutive days of very strong, gusty winds, and I had numerous clients who felt very disturbed in themselves, couldn’t settle, and felt unusually agitated and irritable.

The Chinese character for wind is Feng (sounds like tongue).  The outer part of the character represents breath while inside is an insect. Ancient China was an agrarian economy, and damaging insects were abundant in spring when gusty winds were prevalent.

Feng suggests movement or motion, and wind conditions include those that produce shaking or jerking movements. According to the Ling Shu, its adverse influence is so great that “the sages avoided the winds like avoiding arrows and stones.” The Chinese practice of Fengshui (literally wind and water), recommends not living in a place where winds are strong as they are considered a malevolent force.

Pathogenic wind conditions are among the most numerous of diagnoses in Chinese medicine. This is largely because wind can act as a spearhead for other external climatic factors to penetrate the body. Thus, there are wind-cold, wind-heat, wind-damp and wind-dryness patterns. Of these, wind with cold is the most common. A person can be thus afflicted by being exposed to cold winds and rain, sleeping in a draught, or sitting in the flow of air conditioning.

Symptoms of wind-cold invasion include pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders, headache, running nose, cough, sneezing and fever, and an aversion to cold. The upper part of the Gall Bladder channel is particularly affected, as well as Bladder and Small Intestine channels where they pass through the neck and shoulders.

To complicate matters, there is also internal wind which is not caused by the external climatic factors. It is produced by blood or yin deficiency or internal heat, and primarily affects the Liver. Shaking or jerking conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s and restless leg syndrome are examples of internal wind. Conversely, paralysis and strokes are also thought to be the effects of internal wind. The 14th century physician Zhu Danxi coined the term windstroke, and in modern Chinese medicine, zhongfeng still means stroke.

If someone expresses an aversion to wind, or an unusual craving for it, this is considered to flag an imbalance in the Wood Element. While one would not diagnose a Wood imbalance solely on a person’s attitude to wind, if there are other Wood resonances present, this would be corroborating evidence. These might include issues with the organs of liver or gall bladder, the eyes, the tendons and ligaments, or signs and symptoms along the pathways of the Gall Bladder and Liver meridians. And certainly, a tendency to headaches and neck stiffness when in contact with wind, or a psychological disturbance when seeing the effects of wind outdoors, would lead one to a diagnosis of Wood imbalance.

Point names that include feng

Point names are very instructive as to their clinical uses, so anything with feng in the name is of interest here. There are six such points. All dispel wind from the body.

Gall Bladder 20FengchiWind Pool
Gall Bladder 31FengshiWind Market
Bladder 12FengmenWind Gate
Small Intestine 12BingfengGrasping the Wind
Triple Heater 17YifengWind Screen
Governor Vessel  16FengmenWind Palace

All these points are on yang channels, appropriate as wind is a yang pathogen. Most of them are in the neck and shoulder, in the yang half of the body, with only GB 31 in the leg as the exception. These points dispel wind, in particular from the part of the body where the pain or stiffness lodge: GB 20 and GV 16 at the occiput, TH 17 behind the ear, BL 12 and SI 12 in the shoulders.

GB 20 Wind Pool is located at the occiput, two fingers width lateral to the hollow at the base of the skull. Treats headaches and neck stiffness.

GB 31 Wind Market is located on the side of the leg where the tip of the middle finger lands when the arm is by the side. Treats pain the leg, sciatica, itching.

BL 12 Wind Gate is located in the upper back, two fingers width lateral to the midline at the level of the junction of the 2nd & 3rd thoracic vertebrae. Treats symptoms of common cold and fevers, neck and shoulder rigidity.

SI 12 Grasping the Wind is on the middle of the top of the scapula, in a depression found when the arm is raised. Benefits when there is difficulty raising the arm or turning the head. Treats pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders.

TH 17 Wind Screen is in the hollow behind the earlobe. Treats ear disorders, lockjaw, pain and swelling in the cheeks, toothache of the lower jaw.

GV 16 Wind Palace is in the middle of the occipital hollow at the base of the skull. Treats pain the head and neck, visual disturbances, shivering, sweating, loss of voice, high blood pressure. This is a powerful spirit point, calms the mind and spirit, regulates the nervous system, activates the vagus nerve.

Other points known to dispel wind include LU 10, LU 11, LI 11, LI 15, ST 6, ST 36, SP 6, BL 40, KI 2, HP 8, GB 30, GB 34, GB 38, LV 1, LV 2, LV 7, GV 20, GV 22, GV 26. Most of these points clear wind anywhere in the body, and in particular treat symptoms of wind in the local area of the point.

One final tip: sweating helps to eliminate wind. As the pores of the skin are considered to be the portals via which the wind enters the body, so too they can be the point of exit of the wind. Thererfore sweating can aid in the expulsion of wind. Just be careful not to sweat profusely while being exposed to wind.

Take care during the remainder of the spring. I’ll be back in the summer with a look at Heat.