Transcript for:
Phlegm vs Dampness in Chinese Medicine

I just asked this question all the time Clara  what's the difference between phlegm and dampness?  well today I'm going to shed some light  to help you understand those two entities   and how we view them in Chinese medicine. hi I'm Clara, if it's your first time here   I create Chinese medicine content for acupuncture  students and practitioners making it easy to grasp   and fun to learn! if you haven't subscribed  yet go ahead and do it and click the Bell so   you don't miss out on any future videos. okay so  the phlegm/dampness thing in Chinese medicine what   so I'm not sure what to do with it a lot of my  students always ask that okay so no matter what   phlegm and dampness or accumulation of fluids.  Phlegm is thicker, dampness is a little bit less   thick more fluid... remember that in Chinese  medicine body fluids or thick fluids and thin   fluids right the thin fluids could be urination  tears wall or sweat the thick fluid is more   um organs, the brain, the marrow, that is very  much more thicker. So, that's the normal stuff   let's talk about excess dampness and excess phlegm  which are not easy to get rid of unfortunately!   excess dampness will show up with symptoms of  water retention like bloating edema swelling   that's excess dampness! Having excess saliva in  the mouth. Having excess vaginal discharge for   women that is abnormal like a lot of vaginal  discharge that is abnormal having tendency to   have very loose stools or diarrhea that is all  damp! having tendency to have post nasal drip   right our nose is dripping all the time that is  excess dampness. Let's look at excess phlegm:   excess phlegm is going to be coughing phlegm  right the word phlegm we coughing phlegm,   phlegm can be due to a cyst so cysts are made  of phlegm but also blood stasis as well so cysts   are going to be phlegmy. it doesn't matter  if it's a ganglion or an ovarian cyst this   is phlegm make sense okay! phlegm is going to be  something that is going to be very crystallized   as well so for patients that have rheumatoid  arthritis and they start have deformity in   their joints and the joint starts to puff up  really bad with crystals that is phlegm as well!  now what's interesting I found in TCM is  that phlegm & damp have the same tongue   and pulse! slippery pulse and greasy tongue  coating they also have tendency to have easy   nausea that is for both of them right if you  have greasy skin or greasy hair greasy scalp   that could be excess dampness or excess phlegm. How do we differentiate and can someone have both?   yes! Someone can have dampness and phlegm, not  easy to treat however to differentiate there's   one thing that you can differentiate when you  go to look at symptoms is the bowel movement!  If there is dampness as the main bad guy  we're gonna have loose tools or diarrhea.   If there is phlegm we will have formed tools  but sticky tools... It means we need a lot   of toilet paper papers to clean it up! that's  sticky! but it will be formed stools. so formed   tools with sticky stools versus dampness  which is more diarrhea or loose stools.  that's the difference when it comes to treatment  if you're not sure when it comes to acupuncture if   your patient has more Damp, more phlegm you can do  both points Spleen 9 is best point for dampness,   stomach 40 best point for phlegm okay! those two together can work really well!  However one more point when there is  phlegm compared to dampness there is   also invisible phlegm we have visible phlegm  like the cyst and coughing phlegm and having   um you know excess excess phlegm in the  body uh works as thick mucus I should say   but there is invisible phlegm invisible phlegm  affects the mental health the brain and that   can cause things from depression to Alzheimer's  disease which in TCM we say is phlegm it could   be do it could be causing manic behavior bipolar  a lot of anxiety a lot of mental health issues   in TCM we said there is phlegm misting the mind  or misting the brain or misting the area so that   is phlegm and it affects the mind and stomach 40  still works specifically for anxiety depression   all those but obviously we have to dig a little  bit deeper when the mind is affected by phlegm   because it's very difficult to treat when  it comes to food we want to avoid all mucus   forming food so for phlegm and for dampness  Dairy no no sugar no no processed food no no   so those things are not great right beer alcohol  not great neither unless it's hard liquor I guess   um so in general we want to have food that is  going to be more healthy full of vegetables things   that get rid of dampness asparagus really great  for dagness dandelion great for dampness lemon   ginger those are great to dry dampness some are  worms some are hot depending if you know we have   tendency to be more warm or hot when it comes to  phlegm Ginger is great for phlegm as well turmeric   is great for that as well so there is a lot of  food that can help but it's really important to   stop eating the food that promotes it that makes  sense so I just wanted to go on quickly today to   make this video because I get this question all  all the time I hope I was able to shed some light   on the difference between phlegm and deafness  and if you want to check out my books my three   books you welcome to they're also available  in digital uh version as well you can go on   my website acuproacademy.com and check them all  out they are very popular and the feedback on   all of them has been very very positive I'm so  happy and so proud that they're helping so many   people no matter what you're doing keep rocking it  using TCM and I wish you a great rest of your day