Do you experience a thick tongue coating, soft stools, and heavy limbs as soon as summer arrives? These symptoms may indicate excessive dampness in your body.

Why is dampness more common in summer?
Which habits can worsen dampness?
Let's find out ↓

Climate: High temperatures and frequent rain lead to high air humidity, making it easy for dampness to invade the body and harm Yang energy.

Love of Coolness: Preference for cold drinks, ice cream, icy watermelon, etc.

Accumulation Over Time: Neglecting to dispel dampness may lead to gastrointestinal discomfort or respiratory system issues in winter.

▶ Check Your Tongue

• Healthy Tongue: Pale red and moist, with a thin white coating, no teeth marks.

• Dampness Tongue: Obvious teeth marks. Tongue coating white, slippery, and moist (Cold-Damp) OR tongue coating rough, yellow, and greasy (Damp-Heat).

▶ Check Your Stool
Stool is not well-formed and is difficult to wipe clean after bowel movements.

▶ Check Your Energy
Feel drowsy and fatigued even after sufficient sleep. Hair becomes oily easily.

▶ Check Your Appetite
Poor appetite, don't feel like eating.

▶ Check Your Joints
Feel sore and heavy in the calves upon waking in the morning. Joints feel sore, swollen, or numb.

1. Sedentary Lifestyle
Suggestion: Brisk walking, jogging, Ba Duan Jin (Eight-Section Brocade exercises), or Zhan Zhuang (standing meditation).

2. Not Drying Off Properly After Bathing
Note: Dry your body thoroughly and blow-dry your hair after bathing. Do not sleep with wet hair.

3. Staying Up Late
Harm: Not only affects sleep, but long-term late nights can lead to phlegm-dampness.

4. Preference for Greasy, Sweet, Rich Foods
Avoid: Fatty meats, fried foods, sweets, spicy hot pot, and other greasy foods. Excessive consumption can damage the spleen and stomach, promoting the generation and retention of dampness.

5. Overindulging in Raw and Cold Foods

Warning: Those who overindulge in raw/cold foods, consume alcohol, or have irregular eating habits are more prone to dampness. Spleen and stomach function weakens, allowing dampness to accumulate.

▶ General Tips
Frequently massage the Fenglong acupoint (located 8 cun above the external ankle) to clear heat and promote dampness resolution.

▶ Dispelling Dampness According to Body Type

• Damp-Heat Type (Oily complexion, bitter taste in mouth, yellow coating) → Coix Seed and Red Adzuki Bean Porridge

• Cold-Damp Type (Pale complexion, aversion to cold, easily tired) → Porridge with Dry-fried Coix Seeds

• Phlegm-Damp Type (Dizziness, heavy body feeling, fatigue) → Poria and Coix Seed Tea