Summer Health According to Chinese Medicine
Published on Sakara S LIFE MAG • September 13, 2016
The typical reaction to summer heat involves a lot of cooling down with ice and AC. The reason summertime common colds are so common might have a lot more to do with these habits than the late nights and the seasonal alcohol intake. In fact, the way we respond to heat in the summer may have something to do with why we get weak, sick and fatigued in the winter time also.
On an intuitive level, cold should get rid of hot, right? Ice and AC do stop us from overheating in the same way that ice would put out a fire. But that’s exactly it, cold constrains heat, often in such an unnatural way that it can create imbalance in our health. In Chinese Medicine, we consider the energetic of ‘yang’ as a hot, firey, masculine energy that is just as crucial to our existence as its counterpart, ‘yin’, and both must be supported as the foundation of all energy in the body. According to Taoist principles, when the heat of summer is telling us to be more yang, we shouldn’t be obstructing and constricting this seasonal flow, but rather working with it.
Maybe there’s a reason we see populations with some of the hottest climates like India drinking tea all day, instead of iced coffees. Back to that ice extinguishing a fire image: if your stomach is your internal fire — digesting and metabolizing everything you eat — shouldn’t you keep it burning? Traditional systems like Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda believe these cold extremes in our diet and environment are the culprit of weak digestion, weight gain, impaired immunity, nutrient absorption and circulation and disturbed bowel function. Taking your drinks warm or at room temperature will even cool you down more quickly since less energy is needed to bring you back into homeostasis.
The same goes for food. Since the stomach is most active each morning between 7-9am according to the TCM 24 hour clock, you might consider skipping the frozen smoothies and starting your day with something more warming. A little ginger tea is your best friend on summer mornings, when yang energy is at its peak. Evening is the time when you can use cooler foods to nourish your ‘yin’ energy. Chinese theory proposes cooler foods like daikon radish and asparagus as the sun goes down, to follow the cooling of the day.
And as for the part that nobody wants to hear: turn down the AC. The all too frequent and quick transitions we make from outdoor heat to blasting air conditioning pose a shock to the body in many ways. The blood vessels begin to constrict at lightening speed, causing a strain on the heart — the organ that rules in the summertime (when heart-attacks most commonly occur for this reason). The lungs suffer from the contrasting air temperature they are breathing in, which eventually promotes the notorious summertime cold, made worse by immune-suppressing quantities of drinking and summer festivities. Finally, when the warm weather is opening your pores, stepping into an air-conditioned room blocks them and locks cold energy into the body. It’s all going against the flow of energy, which wants to go up and outwardIn Chinese Medicine, a little sweating is considered natural and healthy in the summer, as it means the body is detoxifying. Let it do its thing.
This awareness and honor of the natural seasons is a foundational concept in Classical Chinese Medicine. It is understood that the root of illness in any season is often caused by how you treated your body the season before that. If we use natural healing as a tool to work with nature’s yang energy in the summer, the body benefits year round. The transition into Autumn — the season ruling the lungs and respiratory system in TCM — will allow us to maintain our health easily amongst seasonal bugs, with just a little preventative care.
September 13, 2016