Heatiness is a unique Traditional Chinese Medicine concept that is used to describe the body being in a state of excessive heat, when the person may experience symptoms such as increase in body temperature, feeling feverish, having dry mouth or sore throat.

Many people think that when they are experiencing heatiness, they should douse their body with a lot of cooling foods or drinks such as the iced cold water, cooling foods such as watermelon, cucumber to bring the heatiness down. This is a misconception.

The reason is for heatiness, there are generally 2 kinds in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

One is called the Yang excessive heatiness, another is called the Yin deficient heatiness. You can read more about Yin deficient heatiness here in my previous blog on What is Pu Zua.

Yang Excessive Heatiness

This is the more common concept that many people believe when they experience heatiness.

Causes of Yang Excessive Heatiness

1. External environment

Hot weather is usually a factor that can cause more Yang excessive heat to be transmitted into the body. If a person does not take the necessary measures to cool the body down such as drinking enough water or continue to stay in the hot environment for too long, the Yang excessive heat will build up in the body and result in the person experiencing the heatiness symptoms.

2. Intake of Heaty Food

Spicy food, fried food, red meat, spices are considered heaty in nature. Overconsumption of such foods can result in more Yang excessive heat to accumulate within the body.

3. Anxiety and Stress

Anxiety and stress cause the mind to be overly active and if not released or managed properly can increase heatiness in the body.

4. Suppressed Emotions

Emotions such as worry, grief, fear that are negative in nature are also considered toxic. When such emotions are suppressed and remained in the body for long, it can cause heat to build up in the body which can result in Yang excessive heatiness.

Yin Deficient Heatiness

Another kind of heatiness that many people are unaware of is Yin Deficient Heatiness.

The Yin side of the body is related to nourishing and grounding. Yin deficient heatiness is when the Yin side of our body drops relative to Yang and the presentations of all the symptoms are heatiness but with subtle differences as compared to Yang excessive heatiness.

Causes of Yin Deficient Heatiness

1. Chronic Poor Sleep or Insomnia

Sleep is required to nourish Yin in our body. Prolong lack of good sleep can hurt the Yin part of our body and result in Yin deficient heatiness as explained above.

2. Prolonged Stress and Anxiety and Suppression of Negative Emotions

As mentioned above, stress and anxiety keeps the mind overly active and therefore are heaty in nature. Prolong experience of these can burn the body out. Suppression of negative emotions accumulates and forms heatiness which will sap the Yin part of the body out as well. These can result in Yin deficient heatiness to be experienced. Read more about Why Emotional Release is Important here.

3. Prolonged Consumption of Western Medicine

Prolonged consumption of Western medicine chemical drugs can damage the gut, digestive system and burden the liver and kidney for detoxification of the chemicals. When the internal organs are overworked to clear the chemicals in the body, it can hurt the Yin and result in Yin deficient heatiness.

Symptoms of Heatiness

The heatiness experienced from Yang excessiveness and Yin deficiency are quite similar but not exactly the same. This is the work of professional TCM doctors to identify which through vigorous diagnosis so as to prescribe the right kind of treatment and herbs. Here I have listed some symptoms of Yang excessive heatiness and Yin deficient heatiness.

Symptoms of Yang Excessive Heatiness:

-Sore throat

-Swollen gums

-Bad breath

-Red eyes

-Dry nose and nose bleeds

-Constipation or dry stools

-Irritability

-Frequent hunger pangs

-Frequent ulcers

Symptoms of Yin Deficient Heatiness:

-Low grade fever

-heat concentrated in the hands, feet and heart

-dry mouth

-night sweat

-dry tongue

Treatment of Heatiness

Acupuncture & Herbal Medicines

Food therapy, acupuncture and herbs are the three main ways to clear heatiness from the body. But depending on which kind of heatiness, we will have different acupoints and techniques for acupuncture and different concoctions of herbs to clear the heatiness out which I will not elaborate here but would recommend you to seek out the professional help.

Food Therapy

Taking the right kind of food can help to manage the heatiness but it is not a full fledge solution. Always remember to seek out the professional help to get fully treated.

Here are some suggestions for food to take for the 2 main forms of heatiness.

Foods to help clear Yang Excessive Heatiness

Chrysanthemum, white radishes, China barley, tomato, bamboo shoots

Foods to help clear Yin Deficient Heatiness

White fungus, lotus root, bird’s nest, dried lily bulbs, goji berries

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Further Reading:

Everything you need to know about Dampness

Weight Gain from Digestion Induced Dampness

What is Wind

What is Dryness

Ovarian Cysts and Dampness