Many people frequently suffer from "internal heat" (shanghuo) symptoms like swollen gums, mouth ulcers, and insomnia with excessive dreaming. They assume they have a "hot" constitution and rush to take bitter, cold-natured clearing medications like Sanhuang tablets or Huanglian Shangqing tablets. However, after taking them, not only does the "fire" remain, but they also develop diarrhea, frequent nighttime urination, and cold hands and feet. Why is this? From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this is often caused by excessive internal cold.

Under normal circumstances, what we call "shanghuo" is "excess fire," meaning the heat pathogen in the body is too strong; using heat-clearing and fire-purging medicine can quickly bring it down. However, many people today do not have a simple "excess fire" constitution, but rather "upper heat and lower cold." What does this mean? It means the upper body exhibits symptoms of inflammation—such as mouth ulcers, swollen gums, and insomnia—while the lower body suffers from severe cold, such as cold pain in the lower back and knees, frequent nighttime urination, and edema in the lower limbs.

Why does this happen? It is mostly due to a deficiency in kidney yang and excessive cold within the body, which blocks the path for kidney water to nourish heart yang. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the heart is an organ of fire and the kidney is an organ of water; only when water and fire balance each other can the body's internal environment remain stable. When kidney water cannot ascend, heart fire becomes excessive, making a person prone to "internal heat" symptoms.

How should this be treated? We need to warm the kidneys and supplement yang to allow the heart and kidneys to communicate. One can refer to the modified "Wumei Wan" (Mume Pill) for treatment. This formula is excellent; its ingredients can warm and tonify kidney yang while opening the communication between the heart and kidneys. This allows kidney water to ascend and nourish heart yang, and heart fire to descend and warm kidney water. In this way, the body's internal heat is lowered, the cold is dispersed, and the body returns to a state of balance.

Therefore, if you frequently suffer from "internal heat" in the future, do not blindly take heat-clearing medications. You must first check if you have a "upper-heat, lower-cold" constitution and identify the root cause before seeking treatment.