The clinical manifestation of wetness-heat vaporization form is extremely complicated; it can be classified into the following kinds according to its clinical symptoms:
- Wetness-heat of stomache and intestine
The symptoms of wetness-heat vaporization form are well known by the common people, these symptoms include: fatigue, somnolence(嗜睡), weakness, lassitude (精神不振), prolonged anonexia (長期食慾不振), nausea, vomiting, belching, acid regurgitation, bitter taste, foul breath, dry month, polydipsia (煩渴), nocturnal drinking (夜飲), abdominal distention, (marked after eating), letting out gas frequently, discomfort after eating, or even stomache ache (胃脘脹痛), defecation right after eating (進食即解大便), and possibly some patients may have constipation alternated with diarrhea (交替性腹瀉便秘), abdominal pain before defecation, tenesmus (裡急後重), scanty stool, burning sensation of anus, passing out wetness-heat stool.
Wetness-heat may also give rise to oral eruptions, viral disease of lip mucosa (口瘡), virus gastroenteritis, hepatic ulcer, defect in flowing of bile due to change of ingredients leading further to chronic cholecystitis (膽囊炎) and cholelithiasis (膽石症). Patients of middle age become easy to get large abdominal circumference (tympanites) (鼓腸). A small number of young patients may present hemorrhage of the gastro-intestinal tract or hemorrhoids caused by portal hypertensive peptic ulcer with erosion of the gastro-intestinal mucosa.
- Wetness-heat of skin
If wetness-heat causes invasion of the heat evil into the lung and stomache, the evil may gain access to the yang ming channel (陽明經)and be released through the skin, producing various kinds of skin diseases. In the viewpoint of traditional Chinese medicine, many skin diseases are the result of wetness-heat, such as eczema (濕疹), hidrotic dermatitis (汗性皮炎), neurodermatitis (神經性皮炎), German measles, acne, lupus erythematosus (紅斑狼瘡).
- Enclosure of wetness due to weakness of spleen
Patients with enclosure of wetness caused by weakness of spleen often show significant tiredness, pale yellowish skin, fullness of abdomen and increased borborygmus (腹鳴), indigestion of food, diarrhea after eating or inability of qi (氣) to descend due to spleen weakness, and this further causes constipation, somnolence, dizziness, shortness of breath, palpitation, weakness or soreness of lower extremities, hyperhidrosis (多汗), lowering of body strength, easy to get tired, hepatic edema (edema of legs or whole body) or secondary obesity (swelling due to weakness of spleen). If enclosure of wetness causes edema and high pressure of the labyrinth of internal ear, clinically, there may be paroxysmal vertigo, nausea, vomiting, nystagmus (眼球震顫), inability of opening the eyes; these are typical symptoms and signs showing imbalance of the ear fluid.
- Wetness-heat of lower-energizer (xia-jiao) (下焦)
Flaring up of liver fire and inefficiency of splenic transportation may cause the qi of wetness heat to run down to the lower-energizer to form wetness-heat of the latter.
- If the fire in ming-mun (命門穴位) is burning high and the urinary bladder contains heat, the result will be retention of heat in lower-energizer, producing redness of urine and obstruction of urination, constipation or hematuria (血尿), dripping urination and anuresis (尿閉).
- If wetness-heat is retained in the intestines and runs down to the anus, the stools will not be smooth and the accumulation of wetness-heat in the anus forms hemorrhoid masses and causes boldly stool.
- If the turbid blood of liver channel runs into the Dai channel (帶脈), the woman’s Dai disease is formed. Her vagina produces a kind of reddish discharge like blood but not actually blood; it seems turbid but not together turbid, and when it is expelled out in a dripping way, it is called red Dai (赤帶).
- If the Dai channel is damaged and the wetness-heat descends to the uterus, stagnation of qi (氣) hurts the liver, the spleen is also oppressed and its vital energy can not be held so that ingested food can not change into nutritious blood but turn into wetness which runs down in the form of vaginal discharge like whitish catarrhal fluid or like sputum, and in severe cases, with stingy foul odor (氣味臭穢). When the body is weak with wetness heat, the illness may present as up flaring fire (上則火升) or may manifest at the lower part as premature ejaculation (下則早洩), impotency (不舉) and nocturnal emission (遺精).
The signs of “Wetness-heat Vaporization Form”:
No matter how complicated are the symptoms of wetness-heat form, there are signs in common. These are:-
(1) Tongue enlarged, thick with teeth marks at the edge, and significant coating in cases chiefly showing gastrointestinal wetness-heat.
(2) Abnormality of margin of liver dullness, percussion tenderness over hepatic region, some patients complicated with tympanites (鼓脹) and abdominal distention.
(3) Edema of lower extremities or anasarca (全身性浮腫), often marked pitting edema over pretibial region (脛骨前).
| (Above) Sign of wetness-heat form: tongue enlarged with teeth mark | (above) Sign of wetness-heat form: pitting edema of lower extremity |
“Wetness-heat Vaporization Form” range of diseases (系列疾病)
In the recent 20 years, many of the patients diagnosed as wetness-heat vaporization form by traditional Chinese medicine present clinical symptoms which are diagnosed as common and recurrent diseases by western medical doctors. Diagnoses such as virus gastroenteritis (1031:2000), hepatic edema (539:2000), secondary obesity (96:2000), Meniere’s syndrome (79:2000), hepatitis B peptic ulcer, portal hypertensive gastric disease and hepatogenic biliary tract disorders were made.
Statistic of part of the common symptoms as diagnosed by western doctors
| Cases | Total | % | ||
| 1 | Virus gastrointestinal disease | 1031 | 2000 | 51.55% |
| 2 | Hepatic upper respiratory tract inflammation | 951 | 2000 | 47.55% |
| 3 | Hepatic edema | 539 | 2000 | 26.95% |
| 4 | Hepatic neurosis | 331 | 2000 | 16.55% |
| 5 | Hepatic anemia | 263 | 2000 | 13.15% |
| 6 | Hepatic osteo-malnutrition | 204 | 2000 | 10.20% |
| 7 | Secondary obesity | 96 | 2000 | 4.80% |
| 8 | Migraine | 84 | 2000 | 4.20% |
| 9 | Hepatic mal-development | 83 | 2000 | 4.15% |
| 10 | Imbalance of aural fluid | 79 | 2000 | 3.95% |
| 11 | Sexual hormone disorders | 65 | 2000 | 3.25% |
| 12 | Sterility | 70 | 2000 | 3.50% |
If these patients were treated according to Hepatophilic virus disease with systemic TCM therapy, they can all obtain a satisfactory effective result.
For the sake of facility to dwell upon the topic, the commonly seen symptoms and diseases of the wetness-heat vaporization form can be summarized into the following categories:
- Oral eruptions and labial mucosa virus disease
- Hepatogenic peptic ulcer
- Portal hypertensive gastric disease
- Virus gastroenteritis
- Hepatogenic bibiary tract disorders
- Tympanites (鼓脹)
- Bloody stool
- Wetness-heat of skin, including eczema, German measles, acne, hypo-immunologic skin disease
- Otogenic (耳源性的) vertigo (眩暈) (imbalance of aural fluid, Meniere’s syndrome)
- Wetness-heat of lower-energizer, including, wetness-heat of urinary bladder, chronic gynecologic disease, pelvic inflammatory disease, abnormal vaginal bleeding, prostatitis and prostatic hypertrophy (前列腺炎及前列腺肥大).
By Wong Kwok Hung
published on 20th February 2001
(translated by Professor ZHENG Hua En in August 2002)