What does it mean in Chinese medicine to be "wet"?
- Thread starter erina320
- Start date
anotherone
Registered User
My very rudimentary understanding of Chinese medicine:
In Chinese medicine, things are often divided into hot / cold, and dry / damp. Both food / drinks and a person's health condition / inherent nature can be so categorised. "Hot" and "cold" however have nothing to do with temperature, and likewise "dry" and "damp" have nothing to do with humidity. The main aim of Chinese medicine is to achieve a balance somewhere along the spectrums.
A "hot" person (such as myself - nothing to do with attractiveness, sadly) would be advised to take cold food from time to time to balance out the hotness, and someone with a lot of "dampness" in her would be advised to consume less of "damp" or "cold" food. Examples of "damp" food include soya-based food, dairy, melons. Food that can help dispel "dampness" include rye, turnip, most kinds of beans, vinegar, spices. But the key thing is to strive for a balance.
I know a lot of people would think this is total boll*cks, but it has worked pretty well for me so far. Whenever I feel that (or get told that) there is too much "hotness" in me and if I refuse to cut down on the amount of "hot" food that I consume, a raging fever would always appear within a day or two. Likewise when I'm having a bad sore throat or a phlegmy cough, if I behave and cut down on the "hot" food, I would recover much quicker than when I don't.
In Chinese medicine, things are often divided into hot / cold, and dry / damp. Both food / drinks and a person's health condition / inherent nature can be so categorised. "Hot" and "cold" however have nothing to do with temperature, and likewise "dry" and "damp" have nothing to do with humidity. The main aim of Chinese medicine is to achieve a balance somewhere along the spectrums.
A "hot" person (such as myself - nothing to do with attractiveness, sadly) would be advised to take cold food from time to time to balance out the hotness, and someone with a lot of "dampness" in her would be advised to consume less of "damp" or "cold" food. Examples of "damp" food include soya-based food, dairy, melons. Food that can help dispel "dampness" include rye, turnip, most kinds of beans, vinegar, spices. But the key thing is to strive for a balance.
I know a lot of people would think this is total boll*cks, but it has worked pretty well for me so far. Whenever I feel that (or get told that) there is too much "hotness" in me and if I refuse to cut down on the amount of "hot" food that I consume, a raging fever would always appear within a day or two. Likewise when I'm having a bad sore throat or a phlegmy cough, if I behave and cut down on the "hot" food, I would recover much quicker than when I don't.
erina320
Registered User
Thank you Anotherone. Ironically, these are the kinds of foods we eat a lot in our family and I almost never it the others you mentioned, soya, dairy, melon. She also asked me if I drink a lot of cold drinks with ice, which again I almost never drink. My two drinks of choice are almost exclusively room temperature water (literally from a bottel sitting on the kitchen counter) and coffee... Lots and lots of coffee!
solidstars
Registered User
i would go to a registered chinese doctor for these labels, instead of a masseuse! i find that sometimes chinese masseuses gets me wrong...
anotherone
Registered User
I would second going to a good Chinese doctor - I have used Troy Sing in Central before, and he's much better at dealing with expat clients than the average old-grumpy-man type Chinese doctor. (And just a bit more amateurish advice from me: Chinese medicine sees "harsh" substance like coffee as very harmful to one's digestive system - so maybe that's what causing the dampness?)