Hot & Cold

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One of the first things to consider in TCM is if the person or the condition is

Hot or Cold.

 

English words that have special meanings in TCM are capitalized.

 

Some of the possible symptoms of a Hot person is dislikes heat, craves cold

drinks, tongue color is red with a yellow coating, talks loudly and forcibly,

has rapid movements and may have trouble sitting still, reddish complexion,

urine output is scant and dark colored (dark yellow or even reddish or

brownish), and the person suffers from hard, dry constipation. Heat is drying in

action.

 

Some of the possible symptoms of a Cold person is dislikes cold, has an

adversion to drinking liquids except for hot soup, tongue color is pale with a

white coating, the voice is not strong, the person tends to be rather retiring

in mannerisms, the person doesn't move much, pale complexion, there is a lot of

urine and it has no discernable color or is very pale yellow, and the person

suffers from diarrhea.

 

I say possible symptoms because these are general guidelines. For example, there

are cases where Heat can be the cause of diarrhea, but in general these

guidelines will help beginners start to think in terms of Hot and Cold

individuals and problems.

 

In general, herbs with Warm and Hot energy are used to treat people and

conditions that are too Cold. Herbs with Cool and Cold energy are used to treat

people and conditions that are too Hot. What you're doing is to help the person

average out, much as you add hot water to bath water that is too cold or cold

water to bath water that is too hot. (There are other strategies of treatment in

TCM besides using the opposite, but this is a good concept for beginners to

start with. Warm Cold, and cool Hot.)

 

Herbs in TCM are classified according to their energy. Some have Cold energy,

some Cool, some Warm, some Hot, and some Neutral, neither on the Cool or Warm

side. Many Western herbalists also pay attention to the energy of herbs.

 

It is possible for a person to be too Cold overall but have Heat in a particular

meridian and/or organ. In fact, it's rather common. But when you're first

starting to learn TCM, don't worry about this. This is something you'll learn

about later when you have the basics down.

 

Later you also will be learning about True Cold, False Heat and True Heat, False

Cold syndromes. When these occur there are very mixed indicators. You'll learn

how to tell when these are occuring. This is a fairly advanced TCM concept.

 

One thing you also may run into is the person will feel hot in the upper part of

the body while feeling cold in the lower part of the body. When this occurs it

sometimes is a symptom of parasitic infection. The person has worms.

 

Victoria

 

 

 

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