Heatiness - heaty

The weather in England, especially London, has been very hot, and it will be about 27 C today. 

So, I have been suffering from heatiness - the body becoming heaty.  This is a very strange concept in the West, but in Chinese Traditional Medicine, this is a common problem for people in the summer.

This problem of excessive body heat or heatiness is called 熱氣 dzuah8ki3 in Teochew and in Mandarin is said as rèqì.

So what are the symptoms of heatiness or excessive body heat which I have been suffering the last few days?

1. constant low level headache
2. pain in the gums, and in some bad cases ulcers in the mouth
3. having difficulties passing motion and in come cases constipation
4. having a temperature and begin to shiver with cold in the warm weather
5. some people even suffer from nose bleed

So what I have taken to help me in this state of heatiness?

I have been drinking chrysanthemum tea. In Teochew, which is my Chinese language, it is called 菊花茶 gêg4huê1dê5. It is said as júhuāchá in Mandarin.

It was given to me by my dear friend Christina, many years ago and I have been storing it in the fridge all these years and I am now using it.  

I put a few chrysanthemum flowers in a small tea pot and pour boiling water into the flowers and brew the tea for a few minutes and then decant - draining all the liquid into a cup. AND I drink this tea all day long for two days already and today is my third day and the symptoms have all cleared. 

If you do not have chrysanthemum tea, you can drink beer with salt. Otherwise, CocoCola with a little salt added. Or you can make yourself mung bean soup. 

All of these will cool your body system down and you will be able to cope with the heat and enjoy the summer. 

As I am back to normal, I will drink the chrysanthemum flowers with 普洱茶 Pou2dze2dê5 or said in Mandarin as Pǔ'ěrchá. This Pou'dze'dê comes from Yunnan Province said as 雲南省 Ung5Nam5 Sêng2 in Teochew. It comes in a block or a cake. One would not fridge this tea cake or block and leave it to air dry. One does not even have to put the tea in an airtight container. 

My Teochew friend from Singapore, Brenda, has written and suggested the following. She has suggested one could gurgle one's mouth with warm salt water.  She has heard a TCM physician recommending one to have a mouthful of salty water before having a shower and one spitting out the salt water after the shower. She also wrote that one could try drinking a Chinese concoction, 廿四味 or also known as 二十四味凉茶 - a type of Chinese cooling tea.  One could also eat fruits with lots of juices such as watermelon, pears, which will cool one's body heat.

I must ask my Indian friends how they cool their body heat down when they go to India for a holiday.