To celebrate the ever so spooky season that is Halloween, we thought it was fitting to delve into The Six Evils of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Traditionally referred to as The Six Pernicious Influences, are the external or environmental forces that can "invade" the body and play a role in any disharmony or development of disease.
These influences are - Wind, Cold, Heat, Dampness, Dryness and Fire (or Summer Heat).
To get a little more nuanced, The Six Evils can technically come from both external and internal sources such as through your diet, the seasons and weather, your internal body constitution, lifestyle practices and more.
Depending on whether this is an internal or external influence, symptoms can manifest differently, and how the body responds can be interpreted as the body's effort to expel that particular influence, thus finding equilibrium.
So let's break them down a little together.
䷀ Wind - Any disturbance generated by the Wind element can develop very quickly with symptoms such as tremors, convulsions, numbness, itchiness, dizziness. Wind is Yang in nature.
䷀ Cold - Yin in nature and in a person lacks warmth and is slow and static. When cold invades the body, it can manifest as poor blood circulation, cold body and limbs, a pale face, cold painful joints and a desire to be warm.
䷀ Heat - Not to be mistaken for the normal Yang energy of the body, the Fire influence manifests as all or parts of the body appearing or feeling hot with a preference for the cold. Symptoms can include a high fever, red face, excessive thirst and sudden fainting.
䷀ Dampness - Yin in nature, dampness is sticky, slow, heavy and stagnant. Symptoms can manifest as sluggishness, a heavy, dull head, swollen joints, water retention and an increase in 'sticky' phlegm.
䷀ Dryness and Fire - Similar to Heat, Dryness is a Yang force, consuming the fluids of the body and manifesting as a dry lips, skin and hair, excessive thirst, constipation and a dry cough. Fire, otherwise knows as Summer Heat always manifests from exposure to extreme external heat which in turn damages the Qi, depletes out fluids and causes exhaustion.