In summer, the temperature is high, and the Qi and blood circulate on the surface of the body. The metabolism is very active, and the capillaries in the skin are easily dilated, allowing for smooth blood flow. The body's Yang Qi is generated while the Yin Qi is suppressed, which can easily cause an imbalance between Yin and Yang.
In the hot summer climate, people sweat a lot, causing a loss of water and nutrients in the body. This leads to the loss of trace elements such as calcium, iron, sodium, and potassium, affecting the body's acid-base balance. Due to the hot weather, people's appetite decreases, stomach acid decreases, and digestion ability weakens. If the intake of nutrients is insufficient at this time, it can easily lead to fluid imbalance, metabolic disorders, sluggish central nervous system reactions, ataxia, and lack of concentration, causing irritability, drowsiness, and abnormal emotions and behaviors.
During the long summer, with low pressure, high temperature, and humidity, sweat is not easy to be discharged from the body, or it is not easy to evaporate after sweating. This can cause irritability, fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, and thinness. The long daylight hours in summer and strong ultraviolet rays can easily damage skin cells, causing superficial congestion and dilation of blood vessels in the skin, and even cell edema, exudation, and skin diseases. The secretion of sweat and sebum increases in summer, resulting in increased metabolic waste on the skin surface. Excessive sweat reduces the acidity of the skin, weakens its ability to resist diseases, and leads to various infections on the skin surface, causing folliculitis, abscesses, prickly heat, jock itch, and other conditions. Dust adheres to exposed skin, such as hands, neck, and face, which can easily lead to infections by bacteria such as Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and fungi. After mosquito bites, the skin can also develop papules, wheals, erythema, vesicles, and other inflammations.
The spleen in the body corresponds to the long summer season. In summer, the temperature is high, and the heat in the body is not easy to dissipate. The temperature in the stomach and intestines is also relatively high, leading to a decrease in the secretion of digestive juices, a decrease in stomach acid, and suppression of appetite nerves. The diet in the long summer includes more cool and cold foods, causing frequent alternations between hot and cold in the body, which can lead to gastrointestinal spasms, abdominal pain, diarrhea, dysentery, and other conditions. The spleen likes dryness and dislikes dampness. Once it is damaged, it will affect the normal digestion and transformation of the spleen, resulting in poor digestion and absorption functions. Clinically, symptoms such as fullness and distension in the abdomen, loss of appetite, and loose stools can be observed, and even edema can occur.
Early summer is characterized by strong winds and low temperatures, which enhance the conduction of heat in the air. As a result, a large amount of heat is lost from the body, making the body vulnerable to cold and prone to diseases such as rheumatism, bronchitis, tuberculosis, kidney disease, arthritis, and chronic back and leg pain.
During the long summer, the relative humidity of the air is high, the temperature is high, and there is little or no wind. Sweat is difficult to evaporate, and excessive heat accumulates in the body, making it prone to heat stroke and heat exhaustion, with symptoms such as profuse sweating, restlessness, fatigue, increased body temperature, dizziness, vomiting, and muscle cramps in the lower limbs.
In the hot and humid summer, bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms multiply in large quantities, and food is prone to spoilage and deterioration, making it a high season for various gastrointestinal infectious diseases and food poisoning. Diseases such as acute bacterial dysentery, epidemic encephalitis B, diarrhea, enteritis, bacterial food poisoning, cholera, viral hepatitis, and other diseases can easily occur.
The hot and humid summer, with long days and short nights, has daylight hours of up to 12 hours. People sweat a lot and lose a large amount of body fluids. Blood circulation is fast, and the heart is under heavy burden. The globulin in the blood decreases, the blood temperature rises, the viscosity increases, and the heart rate increases, making it prone to sudden dizziness, migraines, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, and other cerebrovascular diseases. This is especially true for people with hypertension, heart failure, and coronary heart disease, who are likely to have a stroke and aggravate their conditions, endangering their lives.
In summer, the Yang Qi is strong on the surface but weak inside, and the Yin Qi is suppressed. If the generation of Yang Qi is hindered, heat will accumulate in the body, causing dryness and heat damage, imbalance between Yin and Yang, internal disturbance of organs, and the onset of "fire". Heart fire manifests as low-grade fever, night sweats, restlessness, dry mouth, mouth ulcers, short red urine, irritability, and other symptoms. Lung fire manifests as dry cough with little or sticky phlegm, hot flashes and night sweats, hot hands and feet, insomnia, red tongue, and so on. Stomach fire manifests as discomfort in the upper abdomen, dry and bitter mouth, dry and hard stools, slight cough, constipation, bloating, red tongue with little coating, and so on. Liver fire manifests as headache, dizziness, tinnitus, dry eyes, bitter and foul taste in the mouth, pain in the rib area, and so on. Kidney fire manifests as dizziness, vertigo, deafness, loose teeth, restlessness and heat in the five centers, and soreness in the lower back and legs.
