How External Pathogens Affect Your Health
1. Wind: Wind is considered yang within the external pathogens because it is highly active and mobile. There are actually two types of wind: internal and external. Here we’re talking about the external wind. External wind usually affects the head first, causing headaches or an itchy throat, and moves through the body at the superficial level.
For instance, let’s say it’s a boiling hot summer day and the air conditioning is broken. You come in from outside, dripping with sweat. You switch on the electric fan and plop down right in front of it. Later that evening you feel like your head is a little stuffy or dizzy, and the next day you have an itch in your throat and you start sniffling. The Wind got you. Your body was especially susceptible because the sweating opened up all your skin pores, making it easy for the Wind to enter your body. Next time, wipe the sweat off with a towel, turn the fan on to circulate the air in the room, but don’t sit down right in the wind. Also be careful with air conditioning, because this combines Wind and Cold together for a double whammy. Besides potentially causing a head cold, this kind of sudden exposure to Wind and Cold combined with the moisture from your sweat is the perfect formula for joint pain, either immediately or down the road. Try not to shock your body with extreme temperature changes. 2. Cold: Cold is a yin pathogen and can cause a variety of things from the sniffles to irregular bowel movement to joint pain and cold limbs. It slows down the circulation of blood and qi in your body the way water gets stuck in frozen pipes in the winter. Cold is most prevalent, logically, in the winter. Of the external pathogens, cold is the one that is most closely associated with causing pain.
The easiest way to tell if Cold is the culprit is to apply heat. If heat makes it better, then Cold is to blame. For example, many menstrual problems are caused by excess cold or lack of warmth. At a time when a woman’s body should be processing and releasing blood smoothly, Cold can constrict vessels and block healthy flow, causing pain. Cramps are not always caused by Cold, but if putting a heat pack or hot water bottle on your lower back or abdomen helps ease the pain, you can try a few things to prepare your body before the next cycle. The week before and during your cycle, avoid eating and drinking cold things, like ice cream, ice water, and anything that comes directly out of the fridge or freezer. Stick to room-temperature or warm drinks and foods. During this time, you should also make sure you’re not exposed to cold drafts. Don’t underestimate the power of temperature as a tool to help keep you healthy.
3. Dampness/Moisture: Dampness is a yin pathogen because it is heavy and slows things down. It can cause poor digestion, diarrhea, bloating and swelling, and a general feeling of fatigue and lethargy. In contrast to Wind, which is a yang pathogen starting in the head, Dampness generally starts at the bottom of the body, at the feet and legs. In Shanghai, Dampness often strikes during the summer and, of course, during the rainy seasons.
If you’ve ever been to a hot, humid environment, you’ve probably experienced that heavy, lazy feeling where you can’t do anything besides sit and wish for a cool breeze. Or perhaps you’ve noticed that your limbs feel heavier and you move a little more slowly on rainy days. That, my friends, is the work of Dampness. Try adding a little spice to your food--hot chilies, cayenne, anything that puts a little tingle on your tongue will work. The spiciness can help dissipate Dampness. In fact, some say that’s why Sichuan (Szechuan) food is spicy. “Sichuan” literally means “four rivers”, and the environment is consistently quite humid. The spiciness of their food balances the dampness in their environment. 4. Dryness: Dryness is considered a yang in the external pathogens, though it is also possible to have cold dryness. It can cause chapped skin, decreased urine, constipation, and can make your mouth and nose feel dry. In China they say the dry season is Autumn, but this may vary depending on where you are in the world and the seasonal patterns in your area.
Dryness is most likely to harm the lungs. The lungs are a delicate organ made up of fragile tissue, plus they’re directly connected to the outside world through the nose and mouth. This makes the lungs particularly susceptible to external pathogens, so Dryness penetrates quickly and easily. Sometimes your throat feels parched in a way that water won’t quench, no matter how much you drink. In these cases, the best thing to do is to consult a trusted practitioner, who can then prescribe proper treatment and medication to solve the problem from the inside. If it’s just your mouth that feels dry, you can try eating something sour or sipping some water with lemon or lime juice to help beat the dryness.
5. Fire/Heat: Fire is a yang pathogen and can cause fever, thirst, dizziness, headache, and general irritation or edginess, among other symptoms. Like Wind, Fire also generally starts at the top of the body by affecting the head first. Fire is often seen in the summer or any time of year with higher temperatures.
The classic symptom of Fire is fever and, as you probably guessed, the remedy to heat is to cool the body. It is important, however, that the cooling is done appropriately. As we discussed in the Wind section, try not to shock your body with extreme temperature changes. If you or someone you know is running a high fever, you can use a cool (but not ice cold), moist face towel to wipe the skin and help the heat dissipate, especially on the inside of the forearms and the back of the neck, level with the shoulders. These two areas have meridians and points that are traditionally utilized for lowering fever, especially in children.
6. Summer Heat: This one is also a yang pathogen and can cause sudden, high fever, restlessness, and even fainting. You can think of it as heatstroke. The difference between this and Fire is basically that Summer Heat only occurs in summer and has a more specific set of symptoms, whereas Fire is more general and widely applicable.
In the oppressively hot Shanghai summers, locals battle Summer Heat in a variety of ways. Popular summer beverages and nibbles include honeysuckle and green teas, sweet mung bean soup, and jello-like snacks made from cooling grasses and herbs. Bitter melon is a popular vegetable dish because bitterness can disperse heat. Shanghai grandparents will carry handkerchiefs or face towels moistened with warm water to wipe their grandchildren’s sweat, because cold towels would shock the body and allow cold to enter the open pores, causing illness. Street life intensifies at night as people come out after sundown to shop and run errands, because it’s simply too hot to move during the day. You may have noticed that many of these external pathogens are basically just variations in temperature. Sometimes we underestimate the power of temperature unless we experience it in the extreme, but the truth is that your body is constantly adjusting to how hot or cold your environment is. As mammals, our bodies are good at regulating temperature so that we’re able to function within a certain range of climates. Maintaining function, however, takes work. So think about this: what happens when you’re not wearing enough clothing and it’s cold outside? Your body directs energy towards generating heat to warm itself (eg shivering), which leaves less energy for other important things like fighting off germs. And bam. That’s when it happens. Your body is “distracted” with keeping itself warm, so you’re in a more vulnerable state. Enter external pathogens. So help your body out by bundling up when you need to.
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