Do you know where the problem is?

"Getting heaty" is a term specific to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). When people experience symptoms such as a dry and painful throat, red eyes, hot nasal passages, dry mouth, tongue pain, cracked corners of the mouth, nosebleeds, or toothaches, this is what TCM refers to as "getting heaty." So, how does this "heat" develop?

Heart Fire: Can be either deficiency or excess. Deficiency fire shows symptoms such as low-grade fever, night sweats, irritability, and dry mouth; Excess fire manifests as recurrent oral ulcers, dry mouth, short and red urine, irritability, and anger.

Lung Fire: Mainly characterized by dry cough without phlegm, blood in sputum, sore throat with hoarseness, tidal fever, and night sweats.

Stomach Fire: Can also be divided into deficiency and excess types. Deficiency fire exhibits mild cough, reduced appetite, constipation, abdominal distension, red tongue, and less coating on the tongue; Excess fire presents with upper abdominal discomfort, dry and bitter mouth, hard stools.

Liver Fire: Manifests as headache, flushed face, red eyes, dry mouth and sore throat, pain under the ribs, yellow urine, constipation, and even vomiting blood.

Kidney Fire: Mainly shows symptoms such as dizziness, tinnitus, deafness, hair loss, loose teeth, sleep disturbance, five-heart heat (palms, soles, chest), emaciation, and soreness in the waist and legs.

Fire can be classified as real fire and deficient fire. Real fire refers to excessive yang-heat syndrome. Liver-gallbladder and gastrointestinal real fire are more commonly seen. Symptoms include high fever, headache, red eyes, preference for cold drinks, irritability, abdominal distension and pain, constipation, yellow urine, red tongue with yellow dry coating or spikes, rapid and forceful pulse, or even vomiting blood and nosebleeds. Treatment should adopt the principle and method of using bitter-cold to suppress fire, clearing heat and detoxifying, purging real fire. Deficient fire is often caused by internal injuries and overwork. For example, prolonged illness leading to depletion of essence and qi, or excessive labor causing imbalance in the organs, weakness, and generating internal heat, which then turns into deficient fire. Depending on the disease mechanism, deficient fire is further divided into yin-deficient fire exuberance and qi-deficient fire exuberance. Yin-deficient fire exuberance usually shows systemic tidal fever, night sweats, weight loss, dry mouth and throat, five-heart heat, restlessness, red tongue without coating, fine and rapid pulse. Treatment should focus on promoting body fluids, nourishing blood, replenishing yin and reducing fire. Qi-deficient fire exuberance shows systemic dry heat, worse before noon, fear of cold and wind, preference for warmth over cold, fatigue, shortness of breath, spontaneous sweating, clear urine, loose stools, large but weak pulse, pale tongue with thin coating. Treatment should follow the principle of tonifying middle energizer, strengthening kidney yang, and using sweet-warm herbs to remove heat.

Analyzing whether the heatiness is due to excess or deficiency, and targeting the appropriate medication is crucial. Additionally, some foods that reduce heatiness can be tried, but they must also be targeted appropriately. For instance, eating lotus seed soup reduces heart fire, eating pig liver reduces lung fire, drinking mung bean porridge reduces stomach fire, drinking pear water reduces liver fire, and eating pig kidneys reduces kidney fire.

"Reducing Heatiness": Choosing Medication Requires Attention

Common symptoms of getting heaty include "not being able to eat," "can't bear it," and "unable to defecate." Therefore, selecting medication to reduce heatiness should be symptom-specific.

"Not being able to eat" refers to heatiness in the upper energizer (heart and lungs), manifesting as dry mouth, tongue ulcers, cracked lips, red eyes, ear ringing, and slight cough. Adults can take Niu Huang Qing Xin Wan (pills), while children can take Zhu Huang San.

"Can't bear it" refers to heatiness in the middle energizer (spleen and stomach), showing symptoms of intermittent gastric fire hyperactivity, overeating, belching, and fullness in the abdomen, lack of appetite. It's advisable to use Zhi Zi Jin Hua Wan, Niu Huang Qing Wei Wan, Qing Wei Huang Lian Wan, Qing Wei San, and children can take Qi Zhen Dan.

"Unable to defecate" refers to heatiness in the lower energizer (liver, kidney, bladder, large and small intestines), manifesting as hard stools, scanty urination, yellowish-red urine, turbid and smelly, occasional itching in the genital area, increased vaginal discharge in women, or even yellowish discharge. Commonly used traditional Chinese medicine includes San Huang Pian, Dang Gui Long Hui Wan, Zhi Zi Jin Hua Wan, Long Dan Xie Gan Soft Capsules, etc.

Additionally, there is "deficient fire," which is heat due to yin deficiency, mainly manifested as emaciation, soreness and weakness in the waist and knees, dry throat, dizziness, tinnitus, forgetfulness, insomnia, or dry cough and shortness of breath, or blood-streaked sputum, dry mouth and throat, hoarseness, tidal fever, irritability, red tongue with little moisture, fine and rapid pulse. In this case, medications like Zhi Bai Di Huang Wan can be taken symptomatically.

Solutions for Heatiness Symptoms

When throat is dry and hoarse:

Drink lightly salted water; take honey pear syrup; drink orange peel sugar tea.

When throat is swollen and painful:

Eating raw pears regularly can prevent and treat mouth ulcers and sore throat; rinse your mouth with vinegar mixed with an equal amount of water to relieve pain; crush tender cucumbers to extract juice and frequently gargle; rinse your mouth with a spoonful of soy sauce for about one minute, spit it out after a minute, repeat 3-4 times for effect.

When there are blisters in the mouth:

Chewing a few slices of ginger can gradually eliminate the blisters; apply eye ointment on the painful areas of the lips before bedtime, the next day the pain will be reduced, continued application for several days can make the pain disappear.

When nose is blocked:

If the left nostril is blocked, lie down in a prone position or on the right side, support the back of the neck with your right hand, place the palm root near the earlobe, lift the head, face to the right, extend the elbow joint upward to the right, extend as far as possible. Due to the stretching effect of the meridians, it can take as little as a dozen seconds or as much as dozens of seconds to make the nostrils breathe. If the right nostril is blocked, you can do the opposite action. If both nostrils are blocked at the same time, you can alternate actions.

Cracked Lips

Recommendation: Cucumber Kiwi Juice

Ingredients: 200g cucumber, 30g kiwi, 200ml cool boiled water, two teaspoons of honey. Wash and de-seed the cucumber, keep the skin and cut it into small pieces, peel and cut the kiwi into chunks, put them all into a juicer, add cool boiled water and blend, pour it out and add honey to drink an hour before meals.

Comment:

Cucumber is sweet and cool, entering the spleen and stomach meridians, clearing heat and detoxifying, diuretic. It can treat fever, thirst, and sore throat. Kiwi is sweet and sour cold, entering the kidney and stomach meridians, functioning to relieve heat and quench thirst, so the combination of the two can moisten the lips. Other fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins can also be used, such as tomatoes and grapefruits. Reminder: Do not lick your lips with your tongue when they are dry, as this will only make them drier.

Dry and Itchy Skin

Recommendation: Sweet Potato Stir-Fried with Young Cucumbers

Ingredients: 300g sweet potato, 100g young cucumber, coriander leaves, chopped green onions, minced garlic. Cut the sweet potatoes and young cucumbers into chunks; when the oil is four-tenths hot, add minced garlic and chopped green onions, stir-fry the sweet potato chunks until half-cooked, then add the young cucumber and stir evenly, add an appropriate amount of water, salt, chicken essence, and simmer until the broth is almost gone.

Comment: Sweet potatoes contain various vitamins and calcium, phosphorus, and iron, their nature is sweet and neutral without toxicity, they can replenish deficiencies, strengthen the spleen, and invigorate the kidneys, and young cucumbers also contain a large amount of vitamins, so they have certain benefits for the skin. Reminder: Do not scratch vigorously when the skin itches, as scratching can easily lead to infection.

Dry Hair

Recommendation: Honey Date Walnut Porridge

Ingredients: 250g honey dates, 100g walnut kernels, an appropriate amount of sugar. Remove the pits from the honey dates, wash them, and drain the water; cook them together with walnut kernels and sugar on low heat; turn off the heat when the porridge becomes sticky and the walnuts become soft. This sweet soup nourishes the liver and kidneys, moistens the lungs, generates body fluids, enriches the blood, and nourishes the hair.

Comment:

Walnuts are sweet and warm, entering the kidney, liver, and lung meridians, they can lubricate the intestines and promote bowel movements, and can also replenish blood, darken beards and hair, long-term consumption can make the skin delicate and smooth. Honey dates can replenish the lungs and moisturize dryness, so they are beneficial for hair. In addition, other nuts, fish, and whole grains are also very beneficial for hair. Reminder: Avoid using a hairdryer as much as possible to avoid drying out the hair.

Sore Throat

Recommendation: Honey Pear Syrup

Method: Take fresh pears, use a juicer to extract pear juice, add an appropriate amount of honey, and simmer it into a syrup. A teaspoon daily can clear heat, reduce fire, generate body fluids, and moisten the throat. Comment: Honey is sweet and neutral, enters the lung, spleen, and large intestine meridians, can lubricate the intestines and promote bowel movements, replenish the lungs, moisten the throat, and detoxify. Pears are sweet and slightly sour and cool, enter the lung and spleen meridians, can treat thirst, cough, and constipation. Therefore, cooking them together into a syrup can play a role in moistening the throat. Fresh green leafy vegetables, cucumbers, oranges, green tea, pears, carrots also have good effects in reducing heat. Reminder: During the period of "getting heaty," avoid eating spicy foods, drinking alcohol, smoking, pay attention to maintaining oral hygiene, rinse your mouth frequently, and drink plenty of water.

Nosebleeds

Recommendation: Fruit Sago Dessert

Method: Wash the sago and pour it into boiling water; boil until the sago becomes semi-transparent, separate the sago from the hot water; boil another pot of boiling water, pour the semi-transparent sago into the boiling water and continue boiling until fully transparent, discard the boiling water; boil a small pot of milk and add a little sugar; pour the sago into the milk and boil until it boils again; let the cooked sago milk cool down, add fruit chunks, and it's ready to serve.

Comment:

Using cooling fruits like pears, tangerines, apples, kiwis, bananas to clear dry heat, plus the nourishment of sago and milk to tonify the spleen and stomach, is a good way to regulate during winter. Eating cold-natured foods such as radishes, lotus seeds, and preserved eggs can effectively alleviate symptoms. Reminder: Do not drink too much cold drinks at once to avoid injuring the stomach and intestines.

Other

1. Drinking tea can stimulate the central nervous system, eliminate fatigue, clear heat and reduce fire, moisten the throat and quench thirst, reduce sleep and improve thinking; drinking tea can supplement multiple vitamins and enhance human health; drinking tea can promote food absorption and metabolism, increase human mineral levels, adjust human sugar metabolism to treat diabetes; drinking tea can promote urination and enhance the excretion function of the kidneys; drinking tea can prevent aging and coronary heart disease; drinking tea can brighten the eyes, reduce inflammation, detoxify, reduce stomach fire, resist radiation damage, and have anti-cancer effects. Among these, Tieguanyin and green tea have the best effects.

2. Pomelo: Clear heat and reduce fire

3. Drink mung bean soup