Damp Conditions

Feeling murky, soggy, boggy or mired down?

You may be dealing with damp or fighting phlegm. These are sticky patterns that can be acute, caused by an exterior pathogen, or chronic in nature arising from internal disharmonies of organs.

In this blog, we will begin to wade through dampness - which can be a complex pattern that takes time to get under control. Ideally, we want to address all pathologies by relieving the symptoms (the branches) while addressing the cause (the root) of the pathology. Working with a knowledgeable practitioner for proper assessment, effective treatment, and lifestyle recommendations often gives you the best results and support but there is always something that you can do now. This is especially true of dampness, which takes diligence and commitment to truly tackle. Without dragging you through a 16 hour lecture, I want to give you a quick overview and steps that you can start addressing these gooey patterns.

Let’s clear things up.

What is dampness?

Each of the 5 Seasons in Asian medicine (Chinese medicine) has a climatic nature that corresponds with its season. These climates are simply the nature of the season which can invade the body and manifest in patterns and or complaints. Summer corresponds to heat, Autumn to dryness, Winter to cold, Spring to wind, and Late Summer (the transition of seasons) relates to dampness. By understanding these climatic conditions and how they affect the body, we can treat both symptom and root of the disease, and educate clients in what they can do to treat and prevent disharmonies.

I cover the Earth element, Stomach and Spleen in my blogs Late Summer’s Energetics and Late Summer - Eating With The Seasons, so I won’t go into detail here. For now, know that Earth is about our center, our digestive system, it’s our core and body integrity. The proper transformation of food into vital essences is the foundation of all health and healing - and Earth loathes damp. To effectively treat dampness we must address the diet.

Dampness describes any condition in the body where foods and fluids are not being properly transformed and transported. Just as rivers and streams in nature need abundant fluids and clear paths to flow, the flow of Qi, Blood, and fluids in the body needs to be abundant and clear. If they are blocked with pollution or debris, or lack adequate flow they stagnate and become murky and swamp like.

Dampness bogs us down making us slow and sluggish and unable to focus. It promotes excess weight gain, digestive and sugar imbalances. It softens the muscles, threatening the very integrity of our structure. It depletes the immune system and cools the digestive fire, allowing more fluids to build up. It’s a sticky, slow, gooey pathology. It can reside in one area or be systemic throughout the body. For example, I have a wind damp in my right thumb, which I broke when I was in the 6th grade. While the injury healed fine from a western perspective, the injury left the bone and joint a little weaker and allowed for wind and damp to invade - aka, arthritis. For the most part it doesn’t bother me. Every now and then I will feel a dull ache in the thumb, especially if the weather changes or I’ve been overindulging in damp forming foods. A quick adjustment of my herbs or teas, keeping my hands warm and use of topical clears it right up. Yes, my hands receive the benefit of liniments that I use on my clients during Amma treatments.

Symptoms of damp

How much time do you have? Dampness can be minor and hanging out on in one area like the facial edema and puffiness you get with congestion due to cold, or it can systemic lingering in the muscles, joints, and channels as we see in arthritic conditions, chronic fatigue, and chronic sinusitis. Left untreated, damp can thicken and congeal developing into phlegm.

Symptoms and patterns of dampness

The list is long, and many chronic conditions have dampness. Here’s a short overview.

• Aches and pains that are worse with weather changes, and feel heavy - some arthritic conditions

• ADD, ADHD, and mood swings

• Allergies and asthma - acute or chronic

• All post viral conditions - chronic fatigue, mono, Epstein Barr, shingles, long covid

• All blood sugar conditions - diabetes, low blood sugar, etc

• All patterns that have excess phlegm or mucus - sinusitis, rhinitis, coughs that rattle or are productive

• Candida, yeast or fungus patterns

• Cancers - many forms of cancer have damp as an pattern

• Digestive weakness - loose stools or mucus in the stools, gas, bloating, slow digestion

• UTI’s, kidney infections - any cloudy urination patterns

• Edema and fluid retention

• Fatigue, low energy and low body temperature - Yang collapse, adrenal exhaustion and thyroid problems

• Growths, masses and swellings

• Gout

• Headaches - frontal and sinuses, they are worse with pressure or weather shifts

• Muscle fatigue and weakness

• Muzzy - headiness, unclear thinking and inability to focus

• Nausea or vomiting of mucus and phlegm

• Obesity and weight gain

• Oozing eczema, rashes and skin conditions

• Pain that is dull and heavy feeling - this can be in the joints, muscles, or channels

• PMS, breast distention and bloating

• Polycystic ovarian syndrome

• Pus filled wounds

• Sensations of heaviness in the muscles or head - you feel a bit like a water balloon

• Soft, mushy muscles

• Sugar cravings

• Weak immunity - frequent colds, flus or viruses

If your patterns get worse when the barometric pressure shifts - you ache or get a headache when that storms a brewin’- you have damp. Probably wind too.

Can you have dampness with out swelling or puffiness? Yes, it’s common for chronic sinus congestion and arthritic joints.

Damp and phlegm can mingle with cold or heat, and wind. Here are your clues.

• Damp Cold – Sensation of cold, craves warm. Low body temperature. Discharges or coughing up of mucus that is clear or white. Frequent pale cloudy urination. This can be a common cold, vaginitis or a chronic post viral syndromes.

  • Tongue is swollen, pale and has a thin to thick sticky white coating.

  • Pulse is slow and slippery.

  • Treatment is to drain damp and warm cold. Bring on the ginger.

• Damp Heat – Sensation of heat in the body. Fever, thirst, scanty and cloudy urination. Discharges or cough that produces yellow mucus. Green mucus indicates toxic damp heat aka infection. Examples of damp heat - foul, explosive diarrhea. Bladder infections, IBS.

  • Tongue is swollen and red with thin to thick yellow coating.

  • Pulse is slippery and fast.

  • Treatment is to drain dampness and clear heat. Hi, peppermint.

• Wind Damp – Chills, tingling, numbness, aches when the storm systems move or it rains. There will be pressure in the head and heavy sensation, like you have a water balloon for a head. Covid is an exterior invasion of toxic wind, heat and damp. An example of exterior wind damp is a cold with a runny nose or virus. Many post viral syndromes are interior wind damp patterns.

  • Tongue will have a quiver or be deviated. Tongue color and coat may be unchanged or red if there is heat and clear or white if there is cold.

  • Pulse is slippery and may be superficial or moderate.

  • Treatment is to drain damp and eliminate wind. We do love peppermint.

Even without assessing if you have damp cold, damp heat or wind damp you can start draining dampness.

The main causes of dampness

• Living in a damp climate or basement

• Constitution - you were born with propensity. Good news, this is a pattern that is very well treated by lifestyle changes…ah, hem…the diet.

• Excessive antibiotic use - Sometimes they are a blessing but excessive use of antibiotics leads to damp patterns and further weakens the immune system.

• Erratic dieting and irregular eating habits - These can crash the Spleen Yang. See Yang Collapse for more.

• Diet - Certain foods and eating habits lead to patterns of damp. Food is a bit tricky. I can tell someone with an addiction to smoking to stop, but I can’t tell someone to stop eating. The approach here is to cut out or greatly limit the biggest damp forming foods, while including foods that treat the pattern. You likely won’t have to cut out these foods forever, just while we clear things up, and heal. How long that takes depends on the level of damp and phlegm. Chronic patterns take longer…and it’s a process, hang in there. Limit or greatly reduce the biggest damp forming foods.

  • Alcohol

  • All high allergen foods - nut butters, nuts, soy, soy sauce, sprouts and vinegars (including pickles and other ferments).  A hand full of freshly shelled nuts is acceptable.

  • Chocolate - Don't fly into a rage - there are no recorded instances of people dying from not eating chocolate. Chocolate is usually loaded with sugar, often milk, soy and even wheat. Small amounts of dark chocolate can be okay.

  • Dairy - Milk, hard and aged cheeses are excellent at creating glue and phlegmy conditions. A little naturally fermented kefir with FOS (which feeds the healthy gut bacteria that controls yeast) can be beneficial.  However, be cautious as kefir's nature is 'cold' and most candida cases need a 'warming' of the yang function. Goat’s cheese is more digestible and less cloying.

  • Fruit and fruit juices - Fruit is nature's dessert.  It's sweet and highly condensed, even more so  in the form of juice which the yeast can thrive on.  Low glycemic fruits like limes, lemon, grapefruit are fine. Apples and pears eaten whole with the fiber are also acceptable.

  • Glutenous grains - Trimming out glutenous grains like wheat, barley, quinoa, spelt and rye for a time can be hugely beneficial. Try teff, millet and amaranth. Soaking any grain overnight greatly helps with digestion and absorption. You can up digestibility by soaking your grain in kefir.

  • Eggs - Their energetics are yin nourishing and building. Limit eggs to 1 or 2 a week.

  • Avoid raw, cold, and frozen foods - The goal is to stoke the digestive fire and drain dampness - raw foods will counter this. This doesn’t include frozen foods such as vegetables that you heat to serve - avoid that ice cream.

  • Refined foods - Pastas, pastries, cookies and crackers.

  • Rich meats - Pork, cured and processed meats are particularly cloying.

  • Soy - Another beautiful super food - it is often overused in our culture appearing in desserts and processed foods. The nature of soy is cold and cloying which is why it is most often fermented and served heated forms like tofu in soups and tempeh.

  • Sugar - Yep, all of it.  Sugar, maple syrup, honey, sucrose, fruit juices - all of it encourages dampness.

  • Yeasted foods - Beer, pastries, breads, and rolls.  Yeast begets yeast...don't eat more of it.

  • Rancid oils - Use only cold pressed olive oil during the cleanse.

Draining Damp and Transforming Phlegm

The good news is there is a lot you can do now, and the list of beneficial foods very long. I have numerous blogs that will help you address dampness but you don’t need to read of them to get started. The list here will set you in the right direction. Earth is about processes - you want a garden, you must plan for the planting, prep the beds, plant the seeds, weed, water, pick, harvest and process. There’s not a start or stop really, but a flowing through like the seasons. Pick a few things to add in and start your process.

For the big picture on the Earth element read Late Summer - Eating With The Seasons .

Here are a few of the easiest things you can add to start draining dampness.

• All chlorophyll rich foods - All leafy greens, seaweeds, micro algaes (spirulina), wheat and barley grass juice.

• All lentils and legumes - Especially mung and aduki.

• Citrus peels - Add them to teas and recipes. Steam with them.

• Clear sinus congestion or coughs.

• Fiber, fiber, fiber - Lentils, legumes, root vegetables and winter squash. Your fiber rich foods are essential.

• Herbal formulas - There are numerous herbal formulas that may focus on dampness in an area (sinuses and lungs) or work on phlegm and damp anywhere. Check with your practitioner to get an appropriate recommendation.

• Hydrate - For dry phlegm conditions we need to thin the fluids to be able to transform and clear them. It’s like making gravy, if it’s too thick, we need to thin it so it move.

• Use Pungents - Especially herbs like rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, and pine. Choose warm pungent if you are cold, and cold pungents if you are hot. Eat your radishes and onions.

• Use Sour foods - Get those digestive enzymes flowing!

• Use Bitter foods- Another avenue for breaking up quagmires and draining.

• Use fermented foods to improve your digestion. When the digestion improves you start to eliminate dampness.

• Stick with it! It takes time to replace old habits with new, and to clear dampness. It can be slow going or move in huge leaps, but we are often impatient and back off too quickly. If we don’t adequately clear and start to tonify the body we run the risk of strengthening the dampness or phlegm.

Here’s to a clearer, stronger you!

April