01 What are Coldness and Dampness?

In traditional herbal medicine, coldness and dampness are two of the six evil spirits (harmful pathogenic factors) from the external environment that can cause serious diseases in the human body. But what exactly are coldness and dampness?

02 Manifestations of Coldness

01 The Reason for Coldness to Move Upward in the Elderly

A patient with coronary heart disease once visited Dr. Guo Yaning with a question. He had previously seen another herbal medicine doctor who diagnosed his condition as a cold syndrome. However, Dr. Guo had mentioned in her podcast that the upper body was hot, leading to the patient’s confusion.

The patient experienced angina pectoris every morning, and severe pain would cause him to sweat profusely, soaking the bed sheets. After examining him, Dr. Guo agreed with the previous doctor’s diagnosis—it was indeed a cold syndrome.

Dr. Guo explained that while the upper body is generally hot, this is not always the case for patients with serious conditions like coronary heart disease and cerebral stroke. When too much coldness accumulates in the body, it moves upward, similar to water filling a bucket and eventually overflowing.

The human body is like this bucket, with coldness accumulating over decades. If not discharged in time, it overflows from the lower to the upper body, causing many diseases in the elderly.

A few years ago, Mr. Li Ke, a master of traditional herbal medicine and director of the Lingshi County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Shanxi Province, stated that for most elderly, difficult, and chronic diseases are cold syndromes, with less than one percent being hot syndromes.

As practitioners of life cultivation for health revitalization, we should pay more attention to coldness and dampness.

02 Examples of Cold Diseases

These diseases rarely have hot syndromes and are primarily caused by coldness and dampness. For instance, patients with angina pectoris describe their pain as if their heart is being grabbed and squeezed tightly. In severe cases, the left half of the body throbs with pain, indicating a cold syndrome.

Coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction, and stroke are serious cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Stroke patients often lie down with contracted muscles, indicating a cold syndrome. The sequelae of cerebral infarction include muscle contraction, causing joints to curl up.

Some people cannot straighten their arms, described as carrying a basket. Their fingers bend like chicken feet, and joints cannot straighten due to tendon contraction, a specific manifestation of cold syndrome. Traditional herbal medicine calls it “cold causes contraction.”

For example, when a strong cold wind blows, people instinctively hug their arms and turn their backs to the wind. This reaction shows that coldness causes muscles and tendons to contract.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have deformed joints in the late stage due to tendon contraction. Joints, knees, fingers, and toes cannot straighten, and bones press together tightly, causing deformities. This makes it difficult for patients to hold utensils or take care of themselves.

In addition to rheumatism and coronary heart disease, many other diseases are caused by coldness. For example, coldness causes vessels in the body to shrink and narrow, leading to blockages. Blood vessels shrink and narrow due to coldness, causing issues like dysmenorrhea in women, which can be relieved by drinking hot water and warming the stomach.

Varicose veins, stomach cramps, and spasms are also caused by coldness.

03 More Phenomena of Coldness

Some people have cold limbs even in summer, known as “cold limbs and fear of cold,” indicating heavy coldness. Others are afraid of heat, sweating when they move, feeling irritable, and unable to sit or lie down comfortably.

Fear of heat is also caused by coldness. When coldness is inside the body, the vital yuanqi tries to expel it, causing heat to disperse from the body, making a person feel hot and uneasy. This is referred to as “heat in the five hearts” in traditional herbal medicine, affecting the centers of the palms, soles, and heart.

Dr. Guo Yaning once had a patient with these symptoms. She suggested using Wu-xing-jian-pi-san to strengthen the spleen and stomach and build up vital yuanqi. However, the patient’s symptoms worsened before using the prescription, leading him to stop the treatment. Unfortunately, he later suffered a serious heart attack.

04 The Herbal Medicine Explanation

The cause and progression of this disease can be explained using the Theory of Vital Yuanqi Circulation by Huang Yuanyu. Coldness and dampness accumulate at the heart and lungs, unable to descend to the kidneys, and continue to dissipate outward, causing “heat in the five hearts.” Early treatment with hot medicine may worsen dryness and heat symptoms.

Using hot medicine to drive away coldness treats the root cause. As the contracted channels open, more vital yuanqi gather, and symptoms improve. Persisting with treatment can prevent heart issues like myocardial infarction.

Fear of cold or heat indicates invasion by coldness. Those afraid of heat have stronger vital yuanqi fighting the coldness, while those afraid of cold have been overrun by it. Rheumatism patients, for example, do not sweat much and wear warmer clothes year-round, indicating severe coldness invasion.

(To be continued)