Damp Heat, you MoFo.

there are 5 seasons in chinese medicine.

Fall, winter, spring, summer, and… summer heat.

Yup, that’s right.

This medicine gives what we northeasterners call August an entire season, and for good reason: many don’t do particularly well with it.

Hot? That’s uncomfortable.

Damp? That’s uncomfortable.

Combination of the two? That’s some real you-shut-your-mouth-when-you’re-talking-to-me energy.

So we have to define it, put boundaries around it, and understand the hell out of it so that we can be colonialists and conquer it. (Kidding! Kind of. I do think Air-Conditioning Culture and expecting Everything To Be Perfectly Temperate is a vestige of patriarchy, and if we learned to live in tune with nature more then we might be able to see how this aspect of convenience kind of works outside of our own self-interest BUT I DIGRESS.)

Rather than conquering the humidity, we’re going to understand our responses to it (like so many things in our adult lives) as the result of maladaptive coping mechanisms, and like the evolving humans we are, we’re gonna change our relationship to the humidity rather than deride it and try to find a way around it.

To be clear: this doesn’t mean shirking comfort! In fact, this is a an attempt to find more comfort in things. The more flexible you are with your definition of what it means to be physically comfortable, the more comfort you’re actually going to feel.

so. let’s start.

The point here is to look inward — to transform your own relationship to the accumulation of inner stuffs that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) calls Phlegm.

examples of inner stuffs:

• food choices — things that inflame you, causing digestive issues (acid reflux, diarrhea, etc)

• emotional stuckness and lack of expression

• things that trigger you — in particular things that you don’t deal with, even when they trigger you!

That way, when it’s phlegmy outside (eww — sorry for that visual), you’re not as put out. It’s not as uncomfortable. You feel better in your own skin, because that inner Phlegm just isn’t as strong in you, boo. When there’s not a lot of inner accumulation, the thickness of the air isn’t as oppressive.

Why not?

For something to make sense, it has to land. You need a kernel of something to foster understanding. So when there’s not a whole lotta Damp Heat inside of you, then the sticky and gross outside at least doesn’t feel so invasive. Being in swamp weather is different than you being swamp weather.

So the point here is to teach you how to handle it — the humidity, and your internal Damp Heat and Phlegm.

Because we can’t control the weather, but we can help to change our internal milieu to reduce the internal stickiness level.

Using the Soup That Is A New York August example, how can we go with the flow when there really is no flow to that stale, stagnant, thick air that August brings?

EAST ASIAN MEDICAL THEORY POSITS THAT WE ALL HAVE PATTERNS.

Being well versed in pattern-detecting and understanding how patterns work in TCM is what makes what your acupuncturist is doing seem magical. What we’re really doing, though (sadly, no: it’s not magic) is practicing the medicine for which we meticulously studied and trained.

Damp Heat is one of those diagnostic patterns we learn, and it’s a pattern that all humans (and animals, too!) can have.

A pattern can be constitutional: that means it’s something you’ve always kinda had.

A pattern can be brought on by external things, like your environment and lifestyle.

It can be internally formed, which in means that the way you feel about things and the emotions you have and the way you deal with all of that has an effect on your physical body.

For instance: my go-to pattern is Blood Deficiency, which I see through my family (I’m lookin at you, Tsakirises) and I also see how I perpetuate it through emotions, and I also keep it going through lifestyle choices.

Why??

Because it’s what I know and it’s comfortable for me.

Yeah, that’s right: even acupuncturists self-sabotage!

Blood Deficiency can translate to anemia, but the Traditional Chinese Medical view is more nuanced than needing more iron. (Which, incidentally, is why pattern diagnoses are Capitalized: I’m not actually deficient in blood, just like someone with Phlegm might not even have a stuffy nose).

But back to this example: when I eat a ton of sugar (yup… guilty): what that does is quite literally eat away at the building blocks of blood. This is a very clear A+B=C situation, where my food choice informs my pattern.

B vitamins are required to metabolize sugar, so even if I’m eating a good amount of Bs, I’m probably using them at a quicker clip than I’m taking them in. And being deficient in B vitamins informs several types of anemia.

This, my friends, is part of the mechanism of the pattern of Blood Deficiency which makes it part of what I’m constantly working on. Grounding myself with things like nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, supplements, retraining thought patterns, and behavioral changes are ways that I am constantly nourishing my Blood. Sometimes I’m not good at it. Sometimes I fall off the wagon. Sometimes I run out of supplements and just don’t order more. But the overarching theme is helping myself in this way.

DAMP HEAT and phlegm are also common patterns, ESPECIALLY FOR AMERICANS.

Because we like convenience.

And Damp Heat and the resultant Phlegm are like, the quintessential side effects of convenience.

This concept of Damp/Phlegm is reasoned to be the side effect of a sluggish metabolism — for whatever reason. Diet, lack of appropriate exercise, too much inappropriate exercise (yes, you can overwork yourself into this), genetic predisposition… and often, a combination of a few things.

So when your ability to take things in slows — and when I say take things in, I mean both food and mental/emotional things in your environment — then there’s a buildup.

Overwhelmed with paperwork? Well then it just might pile up. Eating food that doesn’t digest well for you? You may accumulate.

but i thought convenience was a good thing?

To a certain extent, convenience is helpful — but it’s not without consequences.

Convenience strips of our overall energy the need to kick up our let’s-break-this-thing-down-to-metabolize-it fire. (To give you a visual: imagine putting pasta in unboiled water.) So to break down Phlegm and ultimately transform it, we need to show our work.

Yup, part of the way through and out of Phlegm is acknowledging that there is no easy way, the maintenance work needs to be done, and it can be boring and laborious.

Because the truth of it is that even if it is convenient, we still need to break it down, and engaging in convenience at every turn weakens our power of synthesis which makes breaking things down — even simple things — much harder than it needs to be.

So we get kinda lazy (our systems! You, I know, are not lazy!). And it all becomes overwhelming. And then it piles up.

Think of the antidote to Damp Heat like you might think of exercise: exercise can be hard, but you know it’s good for you. And yes, you look for every shortcut possible, including those gadgets that work your muscles for you (even though I’m low-key curious if those work at all??), but at the end of the day, you just have to put in the work.

And then you feel better.

This, too, is how it is with working through Damp Heat.

Ready for another visual? Just imagine that aforementioned pile up of things we’ve lazily metabolized, and then make it hot with no windows, no air circulation, no ventilation, no nothin’.

Just writing that sentence, I feel claustrophobic. No wonder we crave perfectly temperate external environments.

WHAT CAN I DO TO CHANGE THE WAY THAT I INTERACT WITH THE MISERY OF AUGUST?

First and foremost I’m going to ask you to drink more water.

A hallmark of experiencing Damp and Phlegm is actually having a lack of desire to drink water, so when that happens, chug-a-lug, my dear friend. If it needs to be sweetened or otherwise flavored to get the party started, and that’s not harmful to you, and it’s not soda, then by all means, add a little somethin’ somethin’ to your water. But the hope is to get you to be able to drink just water, and plenty of it.

According to TCM food theory, Watermelon drains Damp Heat, so don’t skimp on that delicious summer snack.

Keep it around, and make sure you eat the parts closest to the rind: it helps the most in draining the icky stickies out of you! Make smoothies, have watermelon eating contests, whatever you need to do to make this fruit a staple in your summer diet.

Move your body.

Go swimming. Go for a walk. That desire to lounge on the couch because you feel so defeated? Try to counter that with the idea that a walk around the block will get your metabolism going and you’ll be able to better tolerate the heat better because of it.

Do the work.

Yeah, you know what I mean. Those things that bother you? Experiment with what healthily talking about them looks like. Be curious. Shine light on what you hide in the corners. I don’t know what it is for because it’s different for everyone, but those things that build and pile up, those emotional things? Think about them. Look for them in how your body responds to things with brain fog, confusion, fatigue, weight gain, and sluggish digestion. If you begin noticing a pattern with the symptoms of Damp Heat, you might be able to backwards-investigate your way to a culprit, and properly processing it goes a long way for your health. Synthesis is, after all, the antidote we’re looking for here.

Get acupuncture.

Acupuncture teaches your body how to better act when you’re maybe not feeling like you’re living your best life, and simply put: it helps you make better decisions. Why? Because you feel better when you get acupuncture. Don’t believe me? See what people have to say about acupuncture at Well Collab.

It also goes a great way in magically helping you synthesize some unprocessed things, which in turn unburdens you, which in turn frees you up to take better care of yourself.