Dampness and Disharmony: Environment as Context for Dis-Ease

Last month I wrote about Clinical Code-Switching, and how the language of Chinese medicine is somehow both archaic and totally logical. Studying TCM required learning an entirely new language, and it was helpful during that process to just ‘go with it’ and not ask too many questions.

I haven’t had to worry about passing my board exams for many years now, so I can focus on the nuances of this language and how precisely it matches with the reality we know today. Since we’re in the dog days of summer now, we can use this season as an example.

Late Summer is unique in TCM, in that it’s not so much its own season but sort of is. Where summer proper is associated with the heart/small intestine and the fire element, Late Summer is associated with the spleen/stomach and the earth element. We explained some of this in an earlier article. When you learn about this, not understanding what any of it means, attribution of organs and elements seems completely arbitrary – but that’s not the case.

A Part, Not Apart

It’s not a groundbreaking concept that we’re affected by the environment. It’s common sense that things like changes in weather, for instance, can affect us physically and mentally. What we fail to account for is just how deeply it impacts our wellbeing. In school, it’s taught that Late Summer is dominated by ‘dampness in the body and disharmonies of the spleen and stomach.’ Let’s examine this piece by piece.

‘Dampness’ is an amorphous concept in TCM. Generally, it refers to the presence of ‘turbid water’ stuck in the body. Whatever that means. It can lead to everything from foggy-headedness, phlegm production in the throat and gut, swollen painful joints, and edema. If we were to ‘translate’ this into modern understanding, we can say it means fluid dynamics in the body.

Have you ever wondered why your joints may hurt more when it rains? If you’re savvy you may know that it has to do with the change in barometric pressure, but more specifically it’s how that change in pressure affects the fluid and tissue in your body. As barometric pressure drops, your body internals actually expand to fill the vacuum. If you’ve already got fluid buildup and inflammation in your knee, for instance, then the increased pressure from inside applies further pressure to the joint and increases pain. The ‘dampness’ in your knee is worsened and you get swelling and pain (Arthritis Foundation).

What about brain fog? Your brain has a function called the glymphatic waste-clearing system, responsible for clearing out neurotoxic waste and flushing the brain with cerebrospinal and interstitial fluids. If proper movement of the fluid is impaired, those waste products sit in your gray matter and cause that cloudy sensation (Cleveland Clinic, 2025).

So ‘dampness’ isn’t some esoteric concept. It’s actual micro-circulatory fluid dynamics. Somehow, thousands of years ago, Chinese physicians picked this up through observation and clinical practice. And for something that’ll really blow your mind, consider their use of herbal medicine. One herb used to treat dampness is Cang Zhu (atractylodis rhizoma), which does not increase fluid elimination but does increase excretion of sodium and chloride through the urine – electrolytes which are responsible for fluid volume, osmotic pressure, and regulation of fluid movement into and out of cells (Oregon State University, 2014).

The Human Element

Now we know that internal ‘dampness’ is a real thing. What about ‘disharmony of the spleen and stomach’? That sounds like they need couples counseling. To understand what that means, we must join the environment with human behavior.

Back in the olden days before refrigeration technology, food quality and safety was a different beast. Imagine late August with temperatures in the high eighties and a humidity index somewhere around 90%. You’ve just cooked up a nice dish and set it to cool, but get distracted doing farmer stuff. By the time you come back and tuck in, something’s… off. You now have food poisoning.

In high temperatures and humidity like you’d find in Late Summer, bacteria numbers double every twenty minutes, making food inedible in less than half an hour. Even at standard room temperatures, it takes two hours for food to be considered unsafe (USDA, 2020). If you have a weak stomach, this is a recipe for a bad time.

But alright, you messed up and ate some bad food. Luckily, the spleen’s function is to protect the body from any of that nasty stuff getting into the bloodstream. If the filtering fluid dynamics of the spleen are impaired – which can happen with very high external temperatures – then the spleen fails to protect us from those food-borne pathogens slipping into the bloodstream and making us very, very sick (Norouzpour et al., 2013).

Let’s take a step back in our hypothetical and say that you’re a clever farmer, and you have some old-school medicine training. At the first signs of stomach discomfort, you start munching on the bitterest things you can get your hands on. Why? Well, because that’s what it says in the Huang Di Nei Jing:

“When the spleen suffers from dampness, quickly consume bitter [flavor] to dry it.”

And guess what, you feel better! You don’t know the science behind it in 100 CE, but bitter flavors help combat food poisoning by activating bitter receptors that induce fluid secretion, increase motility to clear bad food, release antimicrobial peptides, and increase mucus to flush out toxic gunk (Reed and Knaapila, 2010).

Living In Tune Means Being Aware

Phrases like ‘living in harmony with the environment’ sound trite and dubiously mystical, but ancient pragmatism saw everything as context. They weren’t elevated beings singing praises to earth spirits; they didn’t want to die from dysentery, and they paid attention to how their bodies reacted to the world around them. The first chapters in the Huang Di Nei Jing – one of the earliest books about Chinese medicine – talk about how they had their stuff figured out because they were aware of themselves and their place in the world. My definition of wellness is the same: a dynamic, active state of awareness of oneself and one’s environment, as context for living healthfully.

References:

Arthritis Foundation. “Best Climate for Arthritis Patients: Humidity’s Impact on Your Joints.” Www.Arthritis.Org, https://www.arthritis.org/health-wellness/healthy-living/managing-pain/understanding-pain/best-climate-for-arthritis. Accessed 2 Sept. 2026.

Cleveland Clinic. “Glymphatic System: What It Is, Function & How It Works.” Cleveland Clinic, 6 Oct. 2025, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/glymphatic-system. Accessed 2 Sept. 2026.

Oregon State University. “Sodium (Chloride).” Linus Pauling Institute, 23 Apr. 2014, https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/sodium. Accessed 2 Sept. 2026.

Reed, Danielle Renee, and Antti Knaapila. “Genetics of Taste and Smell: Poisons and Pleasures.” Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science, vol. 94, 2010, pp. 213–240, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21036327/, 10.1016/B978-0-12-375003-7.00008-X. Accessed 2 Sept. 2026.

Norouzpour, Amir et al. “Autoregulation of Blood Flow: Vessel Diameter Changes in Response to Different Temperatures.” Journal of Biomedical Physics & Engineering, vol. 3, no. 2, June 2013, p. 63, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4204495/. Accessed 2 Sept. 2026.

USDA. “How Temperatures Affect Food.” Usda.Gov, 2020, https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/how-temperatures-affect-food. Accessed 2 Sept. 2026.