Internal Heat in TCM: Patterns, Herbs and What Actually Helps

Red eyes, a bitter taste in the morning, a tongue with a yellow coat, the TCM pattern called internal heat has a recognisable face. Cooling it is straightforward once you confirm it is real heat and not deficiency masquerading as heat.

The patterns behind internal heat

• Stomach heat with big appetite, bad breath and gum problems
• Liver heat with red eyes, irritability and a bitter taste
• Deficiency heat with afternoon warmth in the palms and cheeks

Same complaint, different machinery. That is why a herb that transforms one person's internal heat can leave another person unchanged: the pattern underneath is not the same.

The herbs most often used

• Dandelion (Pu Gong Ying): clears heat and toxicity, the classic field herb for hot swellings and breast abscess
• Green tea (Lu Cha): promotes urination to drain damp heat
• Pomegranate (Shi Liu): the juice nourishes yin and quenches thirst
• Chrysanthemum (Ju Hua) is the cooling flower behind many heat-clearing teas and deserves its own pot on the stove

Acupressure you can do yourself

Massage each of these, hegu, taichong, with a firm circular pressure for about a minute. Soreness that eases as you press is a good sign you are in the right spot.

Food and daily rhythm

On the plate: Mung bean soup, pears, watermelon in season; less chili, alcohol and fried food

In the day: Cooler foods and cooler hours of the day, sleep before midnight to let yin recover

Herbs work best as part of a pattern, not as a solo act. If your symptoms keep coming back, that is the moment to get a proper TCM diagnosis rather than to keep self-prescribing.