Do you ever suffer from things like anxiety, insomnia, nausea, mouth ulcers, pimples/acne, nightmares, dry mouth or dry throat, yellow urine (not from vitamin B2 or dehydration) and feeling hot such as hot feet or hot palms during the night?
In addition to these “symptoms” do you eat a fair amount of chicken, beef, lamb, almonds, ginger, turmeric, garlic, peanut butter and onion?
You may have excess heat in the body from diet and “stress”.
It’s interesting, I remember several years in Sydney, I had a Chinese neighbour who looked at my skin, I had a couple of breakouts and has said I felt stressed from work and studies and straight away asked if I was eating too many nuts eg. almonds or peanuts?
I said define too many and she had replied more then 10! Eekk yes I was eating almonds and almond milk.
Another time, when I was suffering nightmares combined with my usual overthinking, an acupuncturist also flagged excess liver and heart heat.
I am not a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner or an Ayurvedic practitioner, I am qualified in western herbal medicine so we don’t really go too much into these excess heat producing foods and other contributing factors.
In TCM, it is more complex than just excess heat as they have different “heaty” classifications – full heat, fire, empty heat and there can be heat in the heart which leads to anxiety and agitation, heat in the stomach which can manifest as mouth ulcers and heart in the blood which can result in boils, acne etc.
In Ayurvedic medicine, if your predominant pitta dosha is imbalanced that can also produce similar kind of “hot” symptoms.
If you feel like this is you and you have had it checked out by orthodox medicine (eg. your GP), it might be worth considering seeing a TCM practitioner or an acupuncturist – often they are both.
Also, there is definitely room for reducing stress and taking warming foods and cooling foods into account, especially if you are suffering from these concerns.
I know for me, I have had a few breakouts and feeling more anxious and agitated, along with restless sleep and nightmares and yes I have been eating more almonds, almond milk, chicken, red meat, chocolate (yes it is warming), garlic, cinnamon and ginger and so forth.
So I am cutting back on nuts, no garlic, onion, chilli, cinnamon or spicy foods for a few days, no lamb (very warming) and I am eating more greens and a chinese chrysanthemum tea which my neighbour had recommended years ago and I found it again. PLUS upping the destress techniques I employ eg. walking in nature, meditation, salt baths, resourcing practices.
Just some food for thought and an avenue to explore if your current symptoms have no identified cause.
As always, speak to your healthcare practitioner to see what is right for you as every constitution differs and we all have different health histories, sensitivities, potential allergies, potential medications and concerns.
Holistic Health: Mindset, Body & Energy 