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submissions to | Home > Newsletters > April 2007 > Ask the Doctor |
Points - Ask the Doctor |
 Q: I know all about the different problems caused by dampness but I am finding it difficult to understand this term. Can you help? What I am interested in is how dampness produces its various manifestations and why they occur. I would be grateful for any insight you could give me. A: If you want the biomedical mechanisms, they are too numerous to really define. But if you're okay with the TCM explanation, I can take a shot at it. When the digestion is inefficient for whatever reason, it gives rise to a substance in the body called dampness. When a car's engine is not efficient it gives off more exhaust fumes, the combustion isn't so great and so much of the unburned fuel is expelled as fumes. The body's digestion is the same thing, sometimes the dampness will come out with the feces in the form of sticky stools or full-on diarrhea. Both are liquidy and damp in their own way. The damp can manifest in either of two categories. One is kind of a humidity where the dampness doesn't really collect as a fluid, but just slows things down. One common symptom of this kind of dampness is a foggy or heavy feeling in the head. The other kind if a collection of water or liquid that really shouldn't be there. That would be the variety of edema conditions that we see such as fluid accumulating in the ankles. Damp, left untreated can lead to a condition that we call phlegm. Phlegm, like dampness can exist in two states. One is substantial, like the edema and the other is insubstantial which is like humidity. The substantial kind can show up as phlegm from the lungs, lymph node inflammations, or any fat deposit that you can feel beneath the skin. Some endometriosis and fibroid tissues are considered phlegm accumulations too. As for the insubstantial kind of phlegm, this can give rise to bizarre diseases such as dementia states or strokes. (They really do say in TCM that "strange" diseases are due to phlegm.) Hope that helps to answer your question. Be well. About our Doctors
Al Stone, L.Ac. |
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