TCM Basics 101: What exactly is “Pu Zua” (Dialect term for Heatiness)
Now because I’m a home grown Singaporean, the older generations will always say one is ‘pu zua’ (a dialect term we like to gel into our mixture of unique Singapore language aka Singlish) when a person is getting heaty in the body, with symptoms of sore throat, mild feverish feeling, thirstiness, acne, pimples etc.
But is ‘pu zua’ really just pure heatiness from eating fried heaty foods?
The answer is NO.
Because this concept of ‘pu zua’ comes from Traditional Chinese Medicine and I’m going to help you understand ‘pu zua’, the right way.
Now we know that we are a constitute of Yin and Yang. And simply put, heatiness can come from 2 mechanisms. Let me show you with a scientific graphic diagram:
Scenario 1:
This is the common understanding of most people when it comes to being heaty. Basically, you may have taken too much food that is warming or hot in nature such as fried foods, spicy foods or have been in an environment that is too heated for a long period of time. Thus naturally the body takes in the heat from these external sources and the Yang part of the body will increase. As such, the body will go into a mode of heatiness should these extra heat or Yang energy not be removed in time. Presentations? Sore throat, feverish, headaches, acne, pimples are just some examples.
Scenario 2:
This scenario is the one that few people know or even recognize, even some TCM doctors are not aware of this mechanism for causing the ‘pu zua’ (heatiness) condition. In this mechanism, the Yin energy is exhausted and drops RELATIVE to Yang energy. In this scenario, Yang energy did not rise, but Yin energy drops and Yang energy is RELATIVELY more than Yin (do note that the keyword is RELATIVE).
On the outside, the presentations such as sore throat, acne, body heatiness are almost similar to that of scenario 1. However they are similar but not identical. A wise TCM physician should be able to identify that.
This mechanism is due to internal factors that exhaust the Yin energy in the body. Internal factors can be stress, poor sleep, extreme emotions and many others. It is like the body is eating up its own reserves so much that it tilts the balance, causing Yang to be more prominent because Yin has dropped while Yang remains the same.