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Damp-Heat
Manifestations
Body heat not rising, worsening in the afternoon; sweating without relief; abdominal distension and heaviness, with a greasy mouth and poor appetite; abdominal pain with yellow, foul-smelling, sticky stools, or mixed with mucus; heaviness in the head and body; yellow, short urine, or swelling in the limbs. Women may experience yellow vaginal discharge. The tongue is red, with a yellow, greasy, or slippery coating, and the pulse is slippery and rapid.
Detailed Explanation
Body heat not rising, worsening in the afternoon: Body heat not rising means that the body feels warm, but when you place your hand on the skin, it doesn’t feel very hot at first. However, after a while, it becomes quite hot, like a slow heat seeping out, referred to as body heat not rising.
The key issue is the coexistence of dampness and heat; the dampness wraps the heat inside the body, making it difficult for the heat to escape quickly. The heat wrapped inside can only slowly seep out from within.
Why does it worsen in the afternoon?
In the morning, Yang energy is strong, while in the evening, Yin energy is strong. Damp-heat, where heat belongs to Yang and dampness belongs to Yin, sees the Yin evil gradually increasing after noon, meaning the weight of dampness is slowly increasing. As the weight of dampness increases, the heat trapped inside becomes more intense, which in TCM is referred to as ‘stagnation transforming into heat.’
In other words, the heat in the morning is easier to escape, while the heat after noon, due to the increased weight of dampness, is wrapped inside by the dampness, making it difficult to escape, hence it generally worsens in the afternoon.
Abdominal pain with yellow, foul-smelling, sticky stools indicates heat, while stickiness indicates dampness. Heaviness in the head and body is due to dampness, and yellow, short urine indicates heat.
Swelling in the limbs is due to dampness, and yellow vaginal discharge in women indicates heat.
A red tongue indicates heat, a yellow coating indicates heat, a greasy coating indicates dampness, a slippery pulse indicates dampness, and a rapid pulse indicates heat.