The temperature and humidity of the climate fluctuates from season to season, day to day and during the day night cycle. It is also markedly different according to which geographical region we live in. Despite all of these fluctuations, the body must maintain its own balance between extremes of heat and cold on the one hand and dampness and dryness on the other. Temperature and fluid balance profoundly affects flow.

Temperature: Heat and Cold

Did you know that you can hear the difference between hot and cold water? Try it out, in a blind test, have a friend pour hot water into a cup and cold water into a cup and ask you which is which, ten times out of ten you will give the right answer. This is something that we know but we don’t know we know! It is a knowing we aren’t necessarily aware we have. But why do they sound different? They sound different because temperature affects the viscosity or ‘thickness’ of the water. At low temperatures, water is more viscous and flows slower and less freely. At higher temperatures it is less viscous and flows faster and more freely. This is easier to see in a thicker substance like honey.

Our blood is a fluid and it obeys these same principles. If our body fails to maintain a warm enough temperature, the Chinese observed that ‘flow’ or circulation of fluids start to ‘congeal’ and flow less smoothly. If the solution to inflammation is promotion of flow, then restoring this flow is key. If the fluids of the body are cold, then quite simply, we need to warm them up. One of the first herbs we will go to when blood is not flowing due to cold is Cinnamon. Cinnamon is spicy sweet and warm. It also has an amazing ability to promote flow out towards the limbs and extremities. The spiciness invigorates the flow of blood and the sweet flavour harmonises.

If there is chronic stagnation of flow in the blood from cold over a period time, this can lead to a more entrenched stagnation. One might think of how a river can start to get silted up and blocked over time. When the water stands still, it stagnates. In this kind of situation, we need something not only to warm the flow and invigorate the blood, but also to go a little deeper and stir up the metaphorical silt sitting at the bottom.

And now we get to solve ‘the turmeric paradox’. Turmeric is spicy and warm, but it is also bitter. The warmth and spiciness, like Cinnamon, warms and invigorates the blood. However, the bitterness drives the effect deeper and has a ‘dredging’ effect. In the Chinese materia medica it is said to have the ability to disperse clumping in the circulation. So, turmeric powerfully restores flow and through this helps reduce inflammation. In the right circumstances, it does this in the best way. Instead of suppressing the natural inflammatory healing response, it assists it and makes it more efficient.

Chronic blood stagnation is one of the most common effects of ageing. As we age, our constitutions weaken and so does our circulation. Over time, the circulation of blood stagnates, so much so that it can be visible to the eye, for example with varicose veins. This makes turmeric an ideal tea for the elderly.

Turmeric actually came later on to the Chinese pharmacopeia, with its origins in Central Asia and long being used by Ayurveda and Middle-Eastern medicine traditions. However, when it arrived, brought to China along the Silk Road, the Chinese embraced it, classified it and it quickly became a frequently used herb within the medicine.

Too much heat in the blood can also affect circulation. Heat can cause the blood to move ‘recklessly’ and to flow outside of the vessels. It can also dry the body out and cause dehydration. For this reason, Chinese medicine also uses cooling herbs to treat flow. However, we are warm-blooded mammals with a necessity to keep our body temperature elevated against the forces of nature. Consequently, we must always be careful not to cool the body down too much and lose the root of our energy. For this reason, Chinese medical practitioners prescribe herbal formulae and balance the temperature by combining both warming and cooling herbs.

Fluid Balance: Dampness and Dryness

We probably all know someone who had terrible chronic aches and pains in the body and then they went on holiday and they all disappeared. The UK has a damp climate. Excessive dampness obstructs flow. If someone suffers from pain caused by excessive dampness and they go to a hot dry country, perhaps to a desert environment, the climate becomes the cure. In Chinese medicine, there are countless different ways we can deal with damp in the body: we can give herbs to transform it; to dry it; to leach it out through the urine; to take it out through the bowel; to disperse it; or even in some cases, to sweat it out. By getting diagnosed from a well-trained practitioner, they can make a nuanced decision in choosing the correct strategy to deal with the damp in the body.

Even though there are many different herbs and strategies to deal with damp, there is one which is used in everyday cooking in China that is very safe, very effective and has a wide variety of applications. Its Chinese name is Yi Yi Ren and it is variously called Job’s Tears, Coix seed or Chinese pearl barley in English. It has a bland taste. Bland foods sometimes have the ability to ‘leach’ damp out through the urination. You can cook with it and put it in your food or you can boil it in water and drink it as a tea. The Chinese consider it particularly effective in treating damp that lodges in the joints. One of its great benefits is that it not only drains damp, but also clears stagnant heat while at the same time having a nourishing quality. This gives it a very balanced effect. It is a medicinal which is very often found in damp type pain conditions.

Dryness causes the blood flow to stagnate, just as water lacks the power to flow when there is insufficient amounts. For dryness, we can use the sweet flavour to moisten and the sour flavour to astringe and help retain the fluid we have. A classic Chinese medicine combination for pain is to bring together the sweetness of licorice root with the sour, bitter, cool but nourishing quality of white peony root. These two herbs combined are one of the most famous two herb combinations for pain, particularly when the cause is lack of fluids.

Just getting started… This is a brief introduction to Chinese medicine thinking on how herbs influence flow but there are so many more factors that Chinese medicine practitioners consider.