As we hit the days of high summer, even though it’s been a rather wet one, the heat is starting to build up. We, here in Switzerland, are not traditionally use to dealing with extreme heat; most buildings here are built to keep heat within for cool winters, not for cooling down in hot summers. As our Earth and climate changes drastically, we have to learn to adapt better to the heat.

Having spent the first 21 years of my life in the tropics and learning Chinese Medical principles, I feel that I have a certain experience, knowledge and expertise in dealing with hot weather. Here are some of them:

1. Stay in the shade and out of direct sunlight                                                                   If you have to go outside when it’s sunny, find shady spots to stand in or walk through. Wear a hat or even use an umbrella to create shade. People in Asia do this all the time.
2. Create darker inside spaces                                                                                           Most of the living spaces in Switzerland have very large glass windows, which trap a lot of heat. When the sun shines directly on them, cover them with blinds or close the shutters and the curtains to block out the sunlight. This will help cool the inside space.
3. Keep air circulating and good ventilation                                                           Contrary to what I often experience and hear in Switzerland, open your windows behind your blinds or shutters. The air in the room needs to be well circulated to cool down and stay fresh. Help the air to circulate with a fan. Close the window only when the temperature outside rises past 32 degrees Celsius, after midday and when the heat is radiating from the concrete or if you have air-conditioning. Stale, stagnant, damp air does not cool down and is unhealthy.
4. Drink enough fluids that cool                                                                                         Our bodies release heat through urination and sweat. Replenish this fluid by drinking enough. Contrary to what we might imagine, drinking WARM drinks actually cool our bodies down more that cold, icy ones. A few blogposts ago I wrote about Homeostasis, which is the reason why warm drinks cool you down more than cold ones, by promoting the opening of the pores or sweating. Drinking certain teas, like peppermint or green tea, which both have a cooling temperature, also promote cooling of the body, by stimulating sweating and urination. In the desert in the Middle East where temperatures rise above 40 degrees Celsius often, people traditionally drink warm black tea, sometimes with mint or some other herbs like sage.
5. Eat cooling foods                                                                                                                      Just as certain drinks promote cooling, so do certain foods. Watermelon, cucumbers, most fruits and vegetables we use in salads are cooling. Eating these will help cool the body down. Eating light also aids in cooling, by not congesting or overloading your digestive system.
6. Wear loose clothing made of light material                                                                      If you were ever in the tropics, you will realize that wearing clothing made of cotton or linen, which hangs lightly off the skin creates a good circulation of air around the skin. The more space between the skin, the better. People in South East Asia, even the men traditionally wear Sarongs (like in the picture above), which is essentially a light piece of cloth wrapped around the waist, hanging down all the way to the lower legs like a skirt, with a shirt. This allows free flow of air to the legs and lower body, efficiently cooling the whole body down.
7. Take WARM showers                                                                                                         Last but not least, take warm showers or baths. Again, contrary to popular belief, bathing in warm water actually cools the body down faster and more efficiently than cold water. Why? Homeostasis once again! Taking a cool moist towel to the skin provides a cooling relief on the skin, if you allow the water to evaporate but ultimately warm water cools the body down better than cold; the pores of the skin will open more with warm water than with cold, which makes them contract, trapping heat under the skin. 

Enjoy these few days of Summer! Stay cool and healthy!
 
 


 
Image by Martin Fuhrmann on Pixabay

When you begin to study Human Biology, one of the first concepts you will be exposed to is Homeostasis. What is Homeostasis? The word “homeo” is Neo-Latin from Greek, meaning “similar” and “stasis,” meaning “standing still.” Together, it implies “staying the same.” This is the basis in which our living body creates a stable environment conducive for maintaining optimal life function.

Many things we experience every second of every day in our lives as living beings, we take for granted because our bodies do it automatically, without our knowledge or consciousness. Homeostasis is one of these. Suppose you were in the Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia at this time of year (which at this current moment of my writing is at -23 degrees Celsius), you go outside without a coat or gloves or shoes. The first thing your body would begin doing, is to thermoregulate; neurons in the hypothalamic region of the brain begin to sense and react to change in core temperature, the thermoreceptor cells at the skin will send signals to create piloerection (goose bumps on the skin), skeletal muscles begin to contract triggering the shivering reflex, thus creating motion in the body to generate heat, blood vessels begin constriction and metabolic reaction increases internally. These all occur in order to maintain the 36.5 to 37-degrees Celsius body temperature that human bodies need, in order to have optimal functioning of the body’s system. If you were to continue to remain in this state without any means to warm-up your body for a longer period of time, your body would begin progressing towards hypothermia; the overcooling of the body to the point where it cannot maintain normal life function and possible breakdown or even necrosis of tissue or death.

On the contrary, if you were to go to the Death Valley, California in the middle of summer, where the hottest temperature was ever recorded on any place of the Earth at 52.7-degrees Celsius, and stand in the middle of the sand and rocks of the desert, your body would go through the reverse process of thermoregulation. The neurons in the hypothalamus would sense a rise to core temperature, the thermoreceptors in the skin would sense the heat, triggering the pores of your skin to open to release heat, excrete sweat from the sweat glands cooling the surface of the skin, blood vessels would dilate causing reddening of the skin. This would decrease the core temperature, closer to 37-degrees Celsius. Once again, if we could not find shade or replenish the fluids used, then the body would progress on to hyperthermia; the overheating of the body and dehydration to the point where the system would shut down. This very intelligent system of thermoregulation built into our bodies is not the only Homeostatic function that we possess: the blood pH levels, the blood glucose levels, to name a few are also part of the process of Homeostasis.

What is the basic principle of Homeostasis? It is about balance, sometimes described as a “dynamic equilibrium.” There is a middle point that an organism strives for; an ideal point where all things function at its optimum. This idea of the body’s self-regulatory system was explored by Claude Bernard, a French physiologist in 1849. But the term Homeostasis was only coined up in 1926 by an American neurologist-physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon, just about a hundred years ago.

To describe Homeostasis as “a point” is to do it an injustice, as it would imply non-moving, which it is not. It is a process, a motion, a dynamic-ever-changing dance in the body. The Chinese obviously didn’t call it Homeostasis when they developed their ideas almost 3000 years ago, they called it Yin-Yang. It wasn’t just used to describe the human body’s capacity to self-regulate but also a perspective of the Earth, of the Universe and of how living beings, such as human beings, live in a microcosm of a greater macrocosm. Whatever happens here on our Earth affects that which is within us, as well as what is beyond us. Our bodies seek balance within itself, within the Earth and within the universe. So often though we are unaware of it. As an example, I ask patients, who are experiencing some sort of symptom that brings them in for treatment, if this is affected by weather. Many a time, I hear an affirmative answer: “Yes, the weather does affect it.” But often times, comes the next sentences: “But how can that be?” My answer is: “How can it not be? Do we live on the Earth or do we live in a laboratory, where conditions have been manipulated to become a vacuum, controlled solely by the lab technician?” We do not live in an individualized, climate-controlled bubble; we live in a big, living multi-organism, multi-elemental, rich environment that many of us cannot even fathom. So complex yet so effortless and simple on our part, until something goes off-balance.

When we look through the lenses of Yin-Yang to see our bodies, we realize that when something is taken out, something of similar magnitude has to be put back in, in order that the balance be regained. Try wearing 2 shoes of different heights, a flat-soled shoe on one foot and a high-heeled shoe on the other. Walk 10 steps in these and feel how uncomfortable you feel. Walk 10 days with them and the body would have gone through quite a few aches and pains before beginning to adapt. We would start to see the changes to the structure of the body, depending on how much the height difference is in the soles. Already we see some form of balance adaptation happening in the body, in response to a change in conditions. Take these shoes off and you feel the “rightness” of balance returning to the body. This balance is already built into our systems, we just have to take a moment to check-in to find it. Now realize that even if we are unconscious of the imbalance that is occurring, our bodies do it for us anyway and when it can’t it warns us with its alarm system - pain

What a wonderful creation our bodies are. Rene Descartes stated, “Cogito ergo sum – I think, therefore I am.” I believe it’s even simpler and more profound, “I AM.”
 
 

Image by kati on pixabay

This past week, we experienced what it is like to have summer after a cool, wet Summer; it was scorching hot and humid. It reminded me a little, and I mean really just a little ;-), of the tropics. We were all feeling the heat as well as heaviness, sweating, and it felt like no one really had an appetite. This is what we call Summer-Heat in Chinese Medicine.
 
Growing up, I never really thought about how food affected me. I remember my mother making foods to cool us down, due to the ever-constant warm temperature in Malaysia. We ate and drank lots of fruit/ juice in general. I never really thought about it until I began studying Chinese Medicine. Fruit in general has a cold temperature and is often sweet in flavor, as they ripen in the heat of Summer. This means most fruit will cool down heat and influence the Spleen and Stomach, as the sweet flavor is associated with the Earth element.
 
One fruit that comes to mind for this season is the Watermelon, Fructus Citrullus vulgaris. It's juicy, refreshing and cooling. This is one of the most common fresh-made juices one can get when you are in Malaysia, because it cools Summer-Heat. It grows locally all-year round there and in the Summer in most warm-weathered countries. One of my teachers called it the "Chinese aspirin," as it clears heat from the body like when we experience feverishness, though I must emphasize it's not the best herb for fevers. The Chinese call it Xī Guā, 西瓜 , which translates as "Western Gourd/Squash/ Melon." This was because in ancient China, Watermelon grew in its Western regions. Interestingly, I found out that Watermelon has been found to have originated in North Africa, possibly Sudan, and even in ancient Egypt there were seeds found in the pyramids and references in carvings dated 2000 BCE. Africa is West of China and it may be that it made its way to China through trade. 
 
Watermelon is one of those fruit that almost all parts can be eaten and act as medicinal food. The part which we all eat is the red-juicy-sweet core enters the Urinary Bladder, Heart and Stomach channels in Chinese Medicine. Hence, it functions to cool the Summer-Heat, generate fluids, expel jaundice and promote urination. The peel is used for its stronger effect on promoting urination. Watermelon seeds are eaten regularly as a snack in Asia; it is first sun-dried and roasted with salt. The skin of the seed is peeled off and the inside is eaten. This is said to help clear urinary tract infection and lower blood pressure. Watermelon is sweet in flavor and cold in temperature. Therefore, if one has blood sugar imbalances or a cool digestive system, tending to loose stools/diarrhea, then be careful to keep the Watermelon intake to a minimum, or for that matter fruit/juice as well.
 
Like so many of our foods, Watermelon's journey on the Earth from Africa and its transformation from a water-bearing possibly bitter/bland fruit into sweet, red nectar is a fascinating story of migration and resilience; just as us humans migrating to greener pastures, surviving and adapting. It not only nourishes and heals us but also inspires our creativity. I watched the famous jazz musician and composer, Herbie Hancock describe how and why he wrote his famous song, "Watermelon Man" in 1962. So as you eat your Watermelon next time, listen to the Mongo Santamaria's version of the song and get into the Watermelon groove.
 


Image Watermelon by Jorge Furber on Pixabay
​

I remember my first meeting with Echinacea in the late 1990s. I was at the end of my Bachelor's degree in the US. I recall being totally stressed out, as many students (and other people) are, having exams, papers due, part-time job and just worrying about life. I was also involved in dance and one of my dance professors/ choreographers, who I was working closely with on a performance, introduced me to Echinacea. She gave me her bottle of almost-finished Echinacea tincture to try, when she heard that I was having another bout of sore-throat which would progress to a cough, that I often had when I was stressed out. But that didn't help my throat and I went on to have a cough.
 
Fast forward 10 years later and I had finished studying Chinese Medicine, became a practitioner, moved to Switzerland and my children have already been born. I wasn't so prone to getting sick but when it came, it would begin with the throat. I knew how to treat it with Chinese herbal formulae but I somehow felt that I needed something simpler, a single herb. I am often aware of my throat, how it feels and the subtle changes that occur before I actually get a cold or flu. I started to experiment on myself, I tried Echinacea tincture on myself, which isn't in the Chinese Materia Medica, by the way. It is now over 10 years that I faithfully carry my Echinacea tincture in my medicine bag when I travel or have it always in my home. My kids have grown up taking the Echinacea tablets when they had a runny nose or when we got on planes, as an immune system strengthener and instead of candy to relieve ear pressure. I have grown Echinacea now in my garden for a few years and finally this year, she is thriving in a pot at my front door, grown from seed. She hasn't been simple to grow since the slugs and snails have feasted on her in my garden every year and she never could survive.
 
Echinacea purpurea or Purple Coneflower is a native of the Great Plains of North America and is a member of the Asteraceae or Sunflower family. The name Echinacea is Greek, meaning "Spiny One," referring to spiny sea urchins and purpurea to the reddish-purple color. There are a few other species of Echinacea some have yellow or white petals, E. purpurea, E. augustifolia and E. pallida are the ones used in medicine. She, I experience her as female, is a hardy plant, with a beautiful orange-yellow-green spikey cone-shaped head in the center and a skirt of light-purple petals. Amazingly beautiful! Sometimes when I stare into the cones from above, I get a trip, observing the formation of the spikes that form the cone - spiraling clockwise, anti-clockwise in never-ending complexity inward and outward. She attracts bees and butterflies (and slugs too!). Like many perennials, she blossoms only from the second year on, if planted from seed, from July to September.   
 
The part of the plant that is often used for medicine is the root but all parts are used. As I stated before in other posts, Chinese Medicine categorizes food and medicine by temperature, tastes, organs it affects and functions. Echinacea has a cool temperature, with spicy, bitter and slightly sweet tastes. She affects the Lungs but I have found some sources that also state that she affects the Liver, Urinary Bladder and Stomach. She helps to clear Wind-Heat (TCM diagnosis for some colds and flus) and Lung Heat, where the heat has passed deeper into the Lung manifesting bronchitis symptoms like fever and yellowish nasal secretions or cough with yellow-green phlegm. I have never tried her for Bladder themes or insect/snake-bites but she has been documented to be used by the Native Americans of the Great Plains, like the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Lakota Sioux, for various ailments for over hundreds of years. 
 
It is my experience that Echinacea should be used as an individual herb only in acute situations for a short period of time, about 3 but no more than 10 days, at least 3 times a day. I have heard experiences of patients, who used Echinacea daily for over 2 years and found that it wasn't effective anymore. I can understand this; it's like overusing any substance over an extended period of time will reduce its effectiveness for acute issues. Use of Echinacea over a longer period of time should be in combination with other herbs, such as with other Wei Qi (Defensive Qi) tonics, in order to strengthen the immune system.
 
Echinacea has been my doorway-opener into Western herbs. Literally, she helps me protect my body's doorways, my throat and Lungs from invasion from bacteria and viruses. Lots of scientific research is being done on Echinacea in this field. As with all herbs and with nature, use with respect and honor them. They will respond to us as we to them.  



​Images by Elaine    

If you go on a walk right now, you will observe that the Peony is in or coming to blossom.  In German, we call them Pfingstrosen, I imagine due to the fact that they flower around the time of Pentecost. As a child, I recall having experienced the flower Peony in the form of soap from China; a very strong, sweet scented soap, which was almost too sweet for me. We also used to get duvets from China that were Peony brand. When I went with my mother to the market, I would ask her about the flowers, whose blossoms were wrapped in white tissue and she would tell me that they were Peonies imported from China. So, I had an impression that Peonies were Chinese, as they don't grow in the tropical climate in Malaysia.
 
Since my studies in Chinese Medicine began, I have come to know of how the Chinese honor the Peony. It was referred to by Confucius (551-479 BCE), was often the subject of art in the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) and even declared the national flower of China during the Qing dynasty, the last imperial government of China till 1912. In Chinese it is called Fu Gui Hua, "flower of riches and honor." Peonies are naturally occurring in temperate and cold areas of the northern hemisphere, from Morocco to Japan to North America. There is a Greek myth of Peony, where the God of Medicine, Aesclepius, got jealous of his student, Paeon, and he was saved from Aesclepius' attack by Zeus who transformed him into a flower - the Peony. 
 
There are tree Peonies, herbaceous Peonies and hybrids that have leaves like the tree but are herbaceous.  In the Chinese Medicine itself, we use 3 different species of Peony: Paeonia suffruticosa, Paeonia lactiflora and Paeonia veitchii. Interestingly, the part of the plant that it used as medicine is not the flower. The part of Paeonia suffriticosa, which is the tree, that is used is the cortex or bark of the tree, Mu Dan Pi. It is used to cool the blood and clear heat, as in the case of fevers. It also moves blood when there has been trauma, lowers blood pressure and inflammation. Paeonia lactiflora, the herbaceous Peony, provides its radix or root as medicine in the form of Chi Shao or Bai Shao. Chi Shao is the root that is still red, which helps move blood and relieve pain from trauma or menses. Bai Shao is the white root, which tonifies the blood, calms the liver, relieves tension and adjusts Ying Qi (Nutritive Qi) as well as Wei Qi (Defensive Qi). One of my Chinese herbal teachers called Bai Shao the "White Fairy Mother."
 
I grow Peonies in my garden, both the tree and herbaceous ones. They are special plants that don't like to be moved, they find a spot and they root there till they die. I observe them throughout the year. After they flower in Spring (April to early June), the tree has already flowered now and the herbaceous form is flowering soon, the energy of the plants goes inward and dies back its external manifestation in autumn. This does not mean the plant is not working, the power of the Yin (autumn and winter being Yin times of the year) is being generated in the root of the plant. This I believe is why the root of Bai Shao are so powerful to nourish the Yin and Blood in our bodies. Right now, those who react to the seasonal pollen that is currently in full emission, that includes myself, will be thankful to Mu Dan Pi for providing the cooling and calming of the mucous membranes in the eyes and nasal passages. The bark of the Peony tree is hardy yet gentle, providing the soothing coolness and protection of autumn-winter in the searing heat from growth of spring-summer. It is an herb of balance; sinking when there is strong rising action, calming when there is over-excitement. 
 
Chinese Herbal Medicine uses herbs mostly as formulae, almost never one herb alone, as the synergy of the combined herbs counteract the overexertion of another. One could say they operate as a team, supporting one another and balancing the forces of the other. Each herbal formula is prepared specially for each individual person, paying attention to causes of the imbalance and not just on symptoms. If you are interested in using Herbal Medicine, discuss it with your practitioner so that s/he can help you understand your imbalances and how these amazing plants can aid you in your health.  

Images Peony by Elaine

The extreme heat (above 35 degrees celsius) and the rains of this past summer has both helped our plants to grow and mature. Some plants like the Coriander have dried out, which I had expected as they are very fast-growing, short-living beings that need to be plucked regularly for their leaves to continue growth. They are beginning to grow their seed, which we will harvest for next year's growth. We have also discovered a stowaway Tomato plant, growing in our pot of Lupins. It grew late in the season so we will see if it will have enough time to fruit. The Garden Project adventure has gotten many of our team members on the balcony, watering and sharing in its growth. Looking up from Falknerstrasse to see living beings on our balcony is very satisfying. Not just that they are beautiful, green and blossoming, but also to know that life can thrive in the harshest of environments by adapting.   


​Photos by Elaine

Photos by Elaine.