During the diagnosis of Chinese practitioner, one of the important questions is about “sweat”.
For mostly first time visit patient, they will feel baffling. Wonder why the Chinese practitioner ask if I sweat much or not ?
In the subject of general internal medicine, there is a main topic on “sweat” or “perspiration”. The topic includes sweat or no sweat; sweating at daytime or night time; sweating at portion of the body; colour of sweat or odour etc. All the information collected to determine if the sickness is a light one or heavy sick, besides we can estimate the outcome or remedy for fixing the sickness.
There is a golden sentence in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), it says “Sweat is the fluid from the heart, the heart is the main organ to regulate blood, so both sweat and blood are essential resources of the body.”
There is a golden sentence among civilian, our earning income consist of “blood” and “sweat”.
Both sentences indicate the equal importance of sweat and blood. When one person sweat a lot, the blood depleted, as a consequences, it causes lack of energy (qi) and fluid loss.
The bible book of TCM has mentioned ”阳加于阴谓之汗”.
It means “Yang” is referred to internal energy which gives warmth to the body. “Yin” is referred to the fluid flowing in the body, including both water and blood circulation. Hence, during the process of energy flowing in the body, it pushes the fluid out through the pores on the skin, thus become sweat.
How do we differentiate physiological (healthy) and pathological (illness) sweat ?
The examples of Physiological sweat :
1. After some exercises or muscle motions.
2. Eat spicy food.
3. Tensed emotion.
4. Cover with thick clothes or blankets.
5. High temperature.
Physiological sweat is tuning the temperature of the body to balance the “Yang” and “Yin” of the body.
The examples of Pathological sweat :
- 1. Time should sweat but did not sweat.
- 2. Time should not sweat but have a heavy sweat.
- 3. Partly sweat on certain spot.
- 4. Odd sweat like yellow sweat tinted on the collar of the shirt.
We always say, the sweat smell bad, so what are the root causes for the bad smell sweat ?
We could categorize the sweat which is closely related to the organs in the body.
1. Bad smell sweat is related to liver.
When liver is heaty, it causes heat in the body. As a result, the functionality of the stomach affected, fluid started to stuck in the stomach and turning into heat after sometime. The heat radiates and emerges from the outer layer of the skin as the process of perspiration. When the heat rises, it turns into pungent smell.
Most people sense the strong smell from armpit, so it is related to liver and stomach issues.
When men encounter the issue of scrotal moisture or when women experience vaginal stink smell, it is mostly related to liver and stomach issues as well.
Suggestion: Bring up a good diet habit, less spicy food, less cold food, stop stay up late all night.
2. Heavy volume sweat is related to lung and heart.
Why does heavy volume sweat relate to lung and heart? When lung is weak, the pore on the skin is not controlled smoothly, thus sweating a lot. Besides, when one is found to be easily to catch flu, cough or asthma, it is related to lung issue. Simultaneously, heart circulates blood through the whole body. When heart is weak, one will sweat a lot too.
Suggestion: Stop let the air-conditioner or fan blowing directly to the body; do more exercise to strengthen our body.
3. Cold sweat is related to kidney.
If the body perspires cold sweat, we would firstly consider if it is related to kidney. Due to kidney is sort like “generator” of energy. When kidney is weak, it will not warm up the body and hence perspires cold sweat.
Suggestion: Moxibustion at below acupuncture points.
GV 4 Mingmen :
BL 23 Shenshu :
CV 4 Guanyuan :
KI 1 Yongquan :
Gentle Reminder :
Nowadays people like to go for spa steaming in the sauna room. Spa steaming actually brings perspiration by heating up the temperature in the sauna room. The temperature inside a steam room is generally around 100–110°F with a high humidity level. If the steaming is over did, it cause dehydration, hence, people are not encouraged to practice spa steaming frequently.
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