Sweating

[Guest guest]

A great deal of attention is paid in TCM to patterns of perspiration.

 

This is a very abbreviated guide to things to notice. The main things to

know at this stage is that spontaneous sweating during the day usually is a

sign of Qi Deficiency, and sweating at night while sleeping usually is a

sign of Yin Deficiency. Spontaneous perspiration means that neither the

outside temperature or the activity of the person should be enough to cause

sweating.

 

The Chinese call daytime sweating " evaporation from the muscles " . Night

sweating is called " evaporation from the bones " . Night sweating also is

called " rob sweating " or " thief sweating " . The Yin nutritive essences come

out in sweat at night.

 

Daytime sweating also can be due to Yang Deficiency. And it's not unusual

for a person to be both Qi and Yang Deficiency. (Fatigue will be very

marked in these cases.) Both Protective Qi (Wei Qi) Deficiency and Yang

Deficiency can be marked by aversion to cold. In cases of Protective Qi

Deficiency, the pulse will tend to be weak while in cases of Yang Deficiency

it will tend to be sinking (can be felt easiest with the most pressure on

the wrist). In cases where both Protective Qi Deficiency and Yang

Deficiency are present, the pulse may tend to be both weak and sinking. You

have trouble feeling the pulse even with a lot of pressure on the wrist. In

addition, a person who is Protective Qi Deficient will tend to catch a lot

of infections and be very weather sensitive.

 

If perspiration is oily - looks like beads that don't flow - this is a

critical sign of Yin and Yang Collapsing, especially Yang. There is danger

of imminent death.

 

There are some other possible causes of abonormal sweating: Excess of Yang

(Heat or Fire) and Damp Heat. Damp Heat sweat will tend to be yellow.

 

Maciocia gives some guidelines for diagnosis. He says note the time of day

the sweat occurs, the area of the body it occurs on, and the conditions and

quality of the sweat.

 

" a) area of body:

 

" _Only on head: Heat in the Stomach or Damp Heat " (Or, Heat in Upper Burner.

Or, risng of Yang can also cause perspiration on the face and head.)

" _Oily sweat on forehead: collapse of Yang

" _Only on arms and legs: Stomach and Spleen deficiency

" _Only on hands: Lung Qi deficiency or nerves

" _Whole body: Lung Qi deficiency

" _On palms, soles and chest: Yin deficiency (called 5-palm sweat)

 

" b) Time of day

 

" _In day=time: Yang deficiency " (Can also be Qi Deficiency)

" _At night-time: Yin deficiency (in some cases it can also be from Damp-Heat

 

" c) Condition of illness:

 

" _Profuse cold sweat during a severe illness: collapse of Yang

" _Oily sweat on forehead, like pearls, not flowing: collapse of Yang, danger

of imminent death.

 

" Quality of sweat:

 

" _Oily: severe Yang deficiency

" _Yellow: Damp-Heat "

 

(Foundations, p. 155)

 

Wicke says that if " in acute feverish conditions: if perspiration followed

by cooling of body temperature, but pulse is still rapid " that the " Evil

still remains in Interior. " (vol.1, p.178) In other words, just because the

fever breaks, this does not mean that the person is out of danger or well.

 

The main thing to remember at this point is that spontaneous sweating during

the day often is due to Qi Deficiency (and/or Yang Deficiency), and sweating

at night often is due to Yin Deficiency. Sweating due to Damp Heat usually

is yellow-colored.

 

Victoria

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Victoria: Recently, I began waking in the middle of the night and in

the morning with muscle cramps in the legs and feet.

 

Atti: Why were you walking in the night, do you have insomnia? I ask

because sweating, apart from being Yin, is related to Heart Blood.

 

Victoria: My Spleen still is not entirely recovered, and it once was

in very, very bad shape.

 

Atti: The spleen Qi deficiency you mentioned would of course relate

to the heart blood deficinecy aswell and the sweating along with the

muscle cramps.

 

Just a thought.

 

Attilio

[Guest guest]

> Atti: Why were you walking in the night, do you have insomnia? I

ask

> because sweating, apart from being Yin, is related to Heart Blood.

 

The leg and foot cramps were waking me up. Also, for some times I

have been waking during the night having to go to the bathroom.

 

I usually don't have trouble falling asleep or getting back to sleep

after waking. But I usually can't sleep more than 6 hours at a time.

I require an afternoon nap.

 

During the time I was having the cramps I also was having vivid and

long dreams. That stopped too when I upped the magnesium.

 

I'm also no longer waking up at night needing to go to the bathroom.

That really surprised me. I didn't realize that frequent urination

and incontinence could be related to magnesium deficiency. But it

makes sense when you think about it. Muscles use calcium to contract

and Mg to relax. When there is a shortage of Mg, muscles tend to

stay over-contracted. This not only can trigger muscle spasms, tics,

cramps, etc., it is extremely fatigueing. The lower back pain also

has decreased considerably since upping the Mg. All muscles are

affected by Mg deficiency - be it back muscles, the muscles in the

calves and feet, the muscles in the lower abdomen, etc.

 

> Atti: The spleen Qi deficiency you mentioned would of course relate

> to the heart blood deficinecy aswell and the sweating along with

the

> muscle cramps.

 

For those new to TCM, the Spleen plays a key role in making Blood.

The Kidneys also play a role in making Blood, but the Spleen plays

the main role. Any time there is Spleen Qi Deficiency and/or Kidney

Qi (or Kidney Essense Deficiency), if it's left untreated, eventually

Blood Deficiency will develop.

 

The Heart " Governs " the Blood. This is a concept that I need to

learn more about. Even though my primary problem when it comes to

Blood Deficiency is Liver Blood Deficiency (yep, sides of my tongue

are slightly orange-colored), knowledge of the role of the Heart in

governing Blood may enable me to finetune treatment even more.

 

A reminder to those new to TCM: The concept of Blood is not

equivalent to blood. Part of the TCM definition of Blood is that it

moistens and nourishes the tissues of the body. When you look at

Blood (instead of just looking at blood), there is a reason why Mg

may relieve certain symptoms. Mg is a part of over 300 enzyme

reactions in the body. This includes things having to do with

digestion and respiration. For example, it takes Mg to be able to

absorb and utilize Mg. Mg also is needed for the body to be able to

absorb and use potassium. Etc. Mg also plays a role in energy at the

cellular level. Mg is responsible for stabilizing the structure of

ATP. All this falls under the concept of " nourishing " .

 

Victoria

[Guest guest]

Victoria:

 

> The Heart " Governs " the Blood. This is a concept that I need to

> learn more about. Even though my primary problem when it comes to

> Blood Deficiency is Liver Blood Deficiency (yep, sides of my tongue

> are slightly orange-colored), knowledge of the role of the Heart in

> governing Blood may enable me to finetune treatment even more.

 

Atti:

 

hi Victoria. you said your tongue is orange on the sides but isn't

that more heat, like Liver Yang rising (although you seem very calm

in your emails), as a blood deficinecy would be more pale, no?

 

Attilio

[Guest guest]

> hi Victoria. you said your tongue is orange on the sides but isn't

> that more heat, like Liver Yang rising (although you seem very calm

> in your emails), as a blood deficinecy would be more pale, no?

 

I have a " knotty problem " (complex) scenario that went on for years

(actually at least over two decades, probably longer) before I

started getting the help I needed. My primary problem was Kidney

Yang Deficiency. Shiny pale complexion and pale tongue but thick

white coat. (The paleness of Blood Deficiency is a dull pale

complexion. I'm going into some detail here for the readers on the

list who are new to TCM.) Deficiency usually results in a thinner

than normal coat; Excess is associated with a thick tongue coating.

By the time I saw a TCM healer, my problems had gone on so long that

I had no resistance to External Excess Cold (in addition to suffering

from Deficiency Cold due to the Yang Deficiency). I also had

Dampness problems. (Damp is classified as an Excess condition

because any Dampness is too much.) (I also managed to have Dryness

problems at the same time I had Damp problems. It was a complex

scenario.)

 

I believe orangy-toned tongue tissue on the sides is rather specific

to Liver Blood Deficiency. (Professionals help me out here if there

are other imbalances where you see an ornage-colored tone in the

tissue of the sides of the tongue.) Even when my tongue was very

pale, I had that orangy-tone in the sides.

 

The tip of my tongue was and is red. There is Heat in the Heart and

Lungs. (For those new to TCM, a red tongue tip indicates Heat in the

Upper Burner (Lungs and Heart). The problems with herbs is that even

when mixed with Yang tonic and warming herbs, I run into problems

that if I treat the Heat in the Upper Burner, I aggravate the Cold

problems. So I use acupressure to drain some of the Heat from the

Upper Burner. Taking care of the colonic inertia problem (a type of

constipation characterized by a lack of peritalsis in the intestines)

helped with the Heat in the Lungs problem as one way to drain Heat

from the Lungs is to increase bowel movement. I would go for a week

or longer without a bowel movement. Both the Yang tonic herbs and

the Mg supplementation helped that problem.

 

My nails are brittle and split easily. This is a symptom of Liver

and/or Gall Bladder problems. You'll frequently see the brittle

nails in cases of Liver Blood Deficiency. The nail problem has

improved with treatment, though the improvement is not uniform in all

nails.

 

You're also trend to see dry, brittle hair in Liver Blood

Deficiency. I had oily hair that was dry on the ends. And I tended

to get a lot of split ends. My hair is not as oily as it once was,

and it doesn't split as badly as it once did.

 

There were a few, isolated dry spots on my skin. Those have cleared

up.

 

I had some major problems with blood volume. Health care

professionals had a lot of trouble getting blood samples from me.

One finally taught me the trick of tanking up on water right before a

blood test so they could find a vein. (Liquids tended to run through

me because of that Kidney Yang Deficiency problem, and there was the

added Kidney Yang Deficiency (and Dampness) problem of having an

aversion to drinking anything (besides hot soups). Even room

temperature water cooled me down too much.

 

When I didn't stay hydrated (which was often), my skin would wrinkle.

 

Usually one gets a dry tongue with Blood Deficiency. Mine didn't get

dry until there was overall improvement. The weird thing is that

today it only gets dry after I lie down. It's never dry when I'm

upright. Only after I lie down. That's also usually the only time I

get dizzy these days. As I lay down. (For those new to TCM, the

Liver stores Blood. When a person is at rest, Blood returns to the

Liver. As a person gets active the Liver sends out Blood to the

muscles. Remember, TCM Organs are collections of functions, not

necessarily the anatomical organ.

 

The calmness probably comes from all the meditation I used to do. I

do have a temper, but I don't block emotions or pretend I'm not

angry, sad, happy, etc. I acknowledge it. I've learned not to waste

energy telling myself that I shouldn't be feeling angry, sad, etc.

when I do. That never works. Just pushing the emotion deeper acts

like a pressure cooker where it gets stronger and stronger. I

acknowledge to myself that I'm feeling it, and then I ask why? Then

I'm ok.

 

Victoria