Very often patients say to me, “I’ve tried everything but the bulge wont budge”. From a Chinese medical perspective, we are prone to dampness in the body. When there is dampness the digestive energy or power behind the digestion is struggling, similar to a car chugging to get up a hill when in the wrong gear.
So what does it mean to have a struggling digestion?
A car struggling to get up the hill needs to either change down a gear and/or increase the revs. The damp in the body is the weight of the car (heaviness).
The digestive energy is responsible for clearing damp in the body. Damp manifests as heaviness, tiredness, lethargy, the feeling of ‘can’t be bothered’, mussy headiness, aching limbs, feeling like you’re walking through treacle and (but not limited to) craving sweet foods.
Sure, we may all have days of feeling the above but why do some more than most? Well, in short it comes down to the types of food we eat and the strength of our digestion. I’m certainly not on my soap box here as I have damp days too. I know why I have them and have learnt to identify the signs as they manifest. Most importantly I know how to do something about it before it escalates to many days of feeling heavy and succumbing to the feeling of, I’ll do it tomorrow.
So does damp cause laziness?
Yes
Does damp make you feel heavy and tired?
Yes
Does damp cloud your thinking?
Yes
How do I know if I’m damp?
Well, if you identify with this post so far and have read until now, chances are you’re damp. Other manifestations of damp can include; sticky/ clammy skin, women’s yeast problems and a swollen tongue with curvy edges,
What can I do about it?
Start having some awareness about the foods you eat, when you eat them, cut back on the raw foods (salads) and lay off the dairy (cheese, milk and cream). Start eating well (slow) cooked foods (casseroles, soups, stews etc). Give your digestive energy time to recover and allow it to process the damp in your body. There are many foods to avoid and foods that are beneficial, please email me for a pamphlet if you would like to know more (Bryan@BChealthcare.co.uk)
The downward spiral that needs to be broken
When there is damp in your body, your digestion wants to concentrate on clearing damp but is sluggish due to the damp. Eating more damp foods will add to the damp and further weaken your digestion (the car going up the hill is about to stall). Eating raw foods will further weaken the digestion and certainly not help with clearing damp.
I often find patients need a little bit of a kick start to facilitate the damp draining process and from a treatment they seem to instantly feel less heavy/ mussy etc. Adding a little dietary advice for the next few days will often help to get the damp clearing in the body and start to rebuild the revs of the digestive energy.
The focus is to strengthen the digestive energy and clear damp
How will knowing this stuff help me loose weight?
With a healthy digestive energy and elimination of damp in the body, the digestion will function properly and start clearing up all the various swellings, transform damp into fluids, loose the puffiness in the body and most importantly, you’ll be bothered to get up and move about.
This post was intended to educate and help those out there that are suffering from damp and didn’t even know it!
How could I help you?
Acupuncture is an ideal start to breaking the cycle of damp in the body, I often give patients a brochure of self education detailing how to combat damp in the body. I have also found patients with (FMS) fibromyalga complaining of a ‘fibro’ day, benefit too, from a little bit of damp clearing. What they thought was a bad fibro day seems to be a damp day.
Wishing you a dry sunny day 🙂
Bryan