Cloudy With A Chance Of Rain - Going Against The Grain

As many of you who follow my blog know - Dr. Pendleberry, my Doctor of Oriental medicine - is currently treating me for a damp condition.  What I humorously refer to as "cloudy with a chance of rain." When Dr. Pendleberry refers to my damp condition he is not talking about the weather here in Southern California or the vagaries of the external environment that we are all subject to -  instead, he is referring to an internal disequilibrium or disharmony which in TCM is called dampness.   Interestingly the appellation for the internal condition in TCM - wind, heat, cold, dry, damp and summer heat - all sound similar to weather conditions.

In Chinese Medicine, internal dampness is reputed to lead to conditions such as high cholesterol, cancer, cysts, tumors, chronic fatigue syndrome, allergies, and environmental illness.  If a damp condition is cleared up - all damp excesses such as water retention, excess weight, cysts, tumors, and yeasts such as candida are eliminated.   In TCM there is always an interested emotional component to healing.  In the case of damp conditions - the corresponding emotions of anxiety and worry would also be resolved.

To treat my damp condition Dr. Pendleberry has recommends a two prong approach - herbs and dietary modification.

The diet that he recommends for my condition includes high quality protein, high quality fat, and vegetables.  In case you did not notice - these dietary recommendations are conspicuously dairy and grain-free.  Dr. Pendleberry said both dairy and grain consumption lead to dampness - perhaps that is  how I got here in the first place?

Dr. Pendleberry said there are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids in human nutrition - but there are no essential carbohydrates.  That is strong medicine for someone like me to hear.

I momentarily dug into Paul Pitchford's tome "Healing With Whole Foods" to get a grasp of foods recommended for treating a damp condition and found the foods that help dry dampness are often bitter and/or aromatic.  Foods such as dandelion, romaine lettuce, celery, turnip, pumpkin and chamomile all help dry dampness.

Just as an aside - while surfing the web - I came across some thought provoking information on grains and CFS.

In Bill Giles book ‘No More Chronic Fatigue’ he states

“Many health professionals are unaware of the defense chemicals in grains called lectin proteins, which can cause disruption  to our immune systems.  Plant physiologists say that lectins are involved with plant defense against viruses bacteria, fungi and sometimes to animals that eats them (including humans).  When people eat grains, their immune systems are challenged and, if chronically ill, they will have poorer than normal ability of recovering their normal immune strength and good health if they continue to eat grain foods.”