Part of my morning routine entails taking a 3-4 mile walk in the woods. I do this year round; however, my favorite time to walk is in the summer when it is 80 + degrees. At that temperature, I work up a nice sweat by the time I get home.
According to Chinese medicine, sweating does two things; first it cools the body, which is well understood in the West. The second thing sweating does is cleanse the blood. Sweating is the main way for men to deep-clean the blood. Women deep-clean the blood through menstruating, and when they reach menopause, sweating then becomes their main way of deep-cleansing the blood.
Your skin is your biggest elimination organ. It is often referred to as the third kidney. Sweat and urine have very similar chemical compositions and they are both waste products of your blood. When your kidneys are overworked by toxins, your skin picks up the slack if given a chance to sweat
Sweating detoxifies your body, by removing the accumulation of potentially carcinogenic heavy metals as well as alcohol, nicotine, sodium and cholesterol. Profuse perspiration also deeply cleanses the skin, creating beautiful and improved tone, texture, and color.
Specific benefits of hot-weather induced sweating include:
- Improved blood circulation: Being outside in the heat increases and improves the rate of blood circulation and breathing.
- Weight loss: Being outside in the heat is similar to mild exercise, it burns about 300 calories per hour. Regular time in the heat combined with a healthy diet and moderate exercise will help you lose weight and stay fit and healthy.
- Skin cleansing: A profuse 80 + degree-induced sweat followed by a shower cleanses your skin far more thoroughly than just taking a shower. It makes it soft and healthy with immediately noticeable effects.
- Body relaxation: Stress build-up creates tension in the body manifesting in various aches and pains. The heat and humidity of the day diffuses the pain and relaxes tired muscles. A walk or run in the evening will leave tense muscles and sore limbs totally relaxed. And it may also temporarily relieve arthritic pain.
- Mind relaxation: Exercising in the heat relaxes the body relieving physical as well as mental fatigue and stress.
Some folks sweat too much or inappropriately.
- Spontaneous sweats usually occur with other symptoms such as fatigue, lethargy, allergies, catching colds frequently, body feeling cold or chilled, loose stool.
- Night sweats usually occur with other symptoms such as feeling warm at night, hot flashes during the day, dryness, thirst, insomnia, constipation. Frequent night sweats are a sign of depletion and you should not let this go untreated.
- Excessive daytime sweating usually occurs with other symptoms such as felling hot, bad temper, irritability, anxiety, high blood pressure, frequent headaches, overweight.
If you experience any of these symptoms, you should make an appointment to see how acupuncture could help restore your health and balance.
Likewise, there are many people who find the heat suffocating, oppressive and very irritating. They suffer with headaches, palpitations, shortness of breath or burning inflammation somewhere in their body as a result of being in the heat. If you are one of these folks, you don’t have to suffer every time you spend 15 minutes in the sun. Acupuncture can balance your body’s capacity to tolerate heat so that you, too, can enjoy summer and its juicy gifts.
During the summer months, it is possible for the more balanced person to make himself comfortable by eliminating things like onions, chili, garlic, cinnamon, cloves and other warming spices which raise the body’s temperature. Additionally, celery and cucumber are cooling foods so you may want to have some of these every day. Also, in India, it is common to put coconut oil on the skin before the shower. Doing this regularly during the summer months will keep you cool.
Wishing you a cool and juicy-clean summer,
Dan Ebaugh, M.Ac., L.Ac..
