I’ve been finding this long, hot London summer a bit challenging ! 🥵
There is something about prolonged heat that can become quite wearing. You may feel restless or agitated, find it harder to sleep, lose your appetite, or simply feel as though you can’t quite settle. Even when you’re doing all the obvious things to keep cool, the heat can begin to feel as though it has got under your skin.
From a Chinese medicine perspective, this is not particularly surprising.
Summer and Heat in Chinese Medicine
In Chinese medicine, summer is associated with the element of Fire and with Heat. A certain amount of warmth is natural and necessary, but prolonged exposure to very hot weather can place a considerable demand on the body.
This is particularly noticeable when hot weather continues for weeks rather than days.
You might notice thirst, sweating, tiredness, poor sleep, irritability or a feeling of restlessness. You may also find yourself craving cold drinks and cooling foods.
Chinese medicine has traditionally paid close attention to the way that different seasons affect the body. Rather than treating every symptom in isolation, it asks how we can adapt our habits and diet to the environment around us.
Cooling Foods Can Help — But They Aren’t the Whole Answer
One of the simplest ways of doing this in summer is through food.
Foods such as watermelon 🍉, cucumber 🥒, melon 🍈, lettuce 🥬, lemon 🍋 and some other water-rich fruits and vegetables are traditionally considered cooling. Watermelon in particular has a long history of use in Chinese medicine for helping to clear Summer Heat and generate fluids.
I’ve certainly been eating plenty of watermelon myself this summer.
But there is a limit to what food alone can do.
If you’re spending hours in a hot environment, not sleeping well and becoming dehydrated, eating cooling foods isn’t necessarily going to solve the underlying problem.
Liang Cha (涼茶) Tea
Sometimes, rather than more food, a cup of Liang Cha (涼茶) — a traditional slightly bitter herbal “cold tea”, often made with chrysanthemum flower 🌼 and other cooling herbs — can be a simple way to help the body feel a little more settled. It can be found in Chinese herbal shops and many Asian supermarkets, and is also easy to make at home by gently simmering cooling herbs such as chrysanthemum, honeysuckle flower and licorice root, then straining and drinking it warm or chilled. If you can’t find, or do not wish to take these somewhat bitter herbs, you can also purchase readymate Aloe drinks in Asian supermarkets – Aloe is also a cooling herb in Chinese Medicine.
With all Cooling herbs though, there is a risk of gastrointestinal disturbance if one exceeds a certain dose – what is that dose? One has to work it out by trial and error. Even watermelon 🍉 can upset the stomach if consumed in excess.
There is an interesting Western parallel in the old tradition of dandelion and burdock. Like Liang Cha, it is a bitter herbal drink that was traditionally consumed not simply as a refreshing beverage, but as something thought to have a beneficial effect on the body. Both Dandelion and Burdock are used in Chinese Medicine as Cooling herbs, and unlike most Chinese herbs, they are currently growing in abundance in the English countryside and even in towns !
These are simple and manageable home versions of professionally prescribed Cooling formulas, which are not necessarily for mild cases of seasonal discomfort.
What About Iced Drinks?
When it is extremely hot, there is an understandable temptation to fill a glass with ice and drink it as quickly as possible.
Chinese medicine takes a slightly different view.
Very cold food and drink can be refreshing, but traditionally it is thought that excessive consumption of cold can make digestion more difficult for some people. This is particularly relevant if you already tend towards bloating, loose stools, poor appetite or digestive discomfort.
That doesn’t mean you need to avoid cold drinks altogether in a heatwave. Staying properly hydrated is far more important.
But you don’t necessarily need everything you consume to be ice cold either.
Heat Isn’t Always the Same
There is also an important distinction between the ordinary experience of being hot and what a Chinese medicine practitioner means when they talk about a Heat pattern.
Feeling hot on a very hot day does not automatically mean that you have an excess Heat condition.
In practice, I would look at the whole picture: thirst, sweating, sleep, digestion, energy, mood and other symptoms, as well as the person’s constitution.
For example, feeling unusually restless or agitated can occur alongside Heat, but it can also simply be the result of poor sleep, dehydration or the physical strain of being too hot for too long.
This is one reason why Chinese medicine tends to look at the individual rather than simply matching one symptom with one treatment.
When the Heat Becomes Too Much
There is a point at which this stops being a question of Chinese medicine and becomes a straightforward health and safety issue.
If you become confused, faint, severely weak, unusually drowsy, develop a very high temperature, or are unable to keep yourself hydrated, you should seek appropriate medical help. Heat exhaustion and heatstroke can be serious.
Chinese medicine can offer an interesting way of thinking about how we adapt to summer, but it should complement — not replace — sensible precautions in extreme heat.
Living With the Season
One of the things I like about the traditional Chinese medicine approach is that it encourages us to notice the relationship between ourselves and our environment.
Summer isn’t simply a season that happens around us. Our sleep, appetite, energy, mood and activity can all change with the weather.
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