By David Lee, L.Ac.
With today’s movement towards a healthy way of eating, some foods are touted as good medicine. Health benefits are revealed through scientific research on the biomolecular components and processes. Such are chicken, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginseng. In Asian medicine, we understand these are Warm foods. They improve the health of mind and body for a Lesser Yin constitution, which is of a Cold body type.
Chicken is considered the best low-fat high-protein meat, along with abundance of vitamins and minerals. Ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginseng are known to benefit the overall physiology, especially the immune system, brain function, and digestion. They also lower inflammation, arthritis, nausea, blood glucose, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, cholesterol, joint pain, and menstrual pain. Many people experience the increase in well-being and health in this scenario. Then what can go wrong?
Many things can go wrong if the wrong constitution consumes them in a significant amount. A regular consumption can cause disease rather than lead to the purported benefits. As a result, the health problems are unintentionally created. These Warm foods can lead to a syndrome called Stomach Fire. The most common manifestations are a reddening of face, dry-burning mouth, breath feeling hot, thirst uneasily quenched, irritability, being easily distracted, tinnitus, tension in neck muscle, and fatigue. More severe symptoms such as dry-hard stool, bad breath, and swollen-bleeding gums can occur. But all symptoms are not necessary to be Stomach Fire.
About 70% of males and 30% of females are Warm constitutions. These are significant numbers. And these constitutions never become Cool in their lifetime. The good news is that for most, consuming Warm foods in minimum amount and at a sporadic frequency is enough to be nutritious but not harmful. However, with today’s healthy diet movement is without a knowledge of constitutions. Consequently, people mistakenly consume wrong foods with only thinking a one-size-fits-all approach. A regular and high consumption becomes a bad medicine.
Wrong foods dangerously create chaos in the body. They inhibit a proper physiology. The weaker functions are compromised first. Discomfort is a subjective indicator that the condition can become severe if left unchecked. The physiology of organs and glands can be pushed far beyond its ability to spring back on its own. As a result, chronic disease and pain ensue. But the disease can resolve and the function can restore when the body is given a chance to recover.
Stomach Fire syndrome occurs in both Soyangin and Taeeumin constitutions because they both are Warm body types. Soyangin’s Warm is primary and Taeeumin’s Warm is secondary. Since they are not Cool, the Warm foods can harm the health if consumed too much.
I had a patient who had a Stomach Fire syndrome constantly for 5 months. All medical examinations came out normal. Medications were only palliative and did not significantly reduce symptoms. Once I diagnosed her body type as being Warm, she was instructed to reduce the Warm foods. Instead, she was to consume Cool foods daily. The amount was a smoothie every morning consisting of 8 ounces of aloe, 2 sticks of celery, 1 cucumber, and 1 cup of strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry mix. 4 short weeks later, the symptoms had subsided by 80%. This is how Asian medicine treats diseases that are undiagnosed by and stubborn with biomolecular medicine.
