Hot weather – what can you do to cool down your liver?

In summer, the hot weather causes the body to generate heat, leading to acne breakouts, dry and cracked skin, and dark spots, which can make people feel less confident. There are many causes, one of which is impaired liver function, or what traditional Chinese medicine calls "liver heat."

At the beginning of summer, the sweltering heat waves are too intense for the body to adapt, coupled with irregular lifestyles and eating habits, causing many people to feel tired, restless, and uncomfortable. When it's hot, they often experience thirst, dry skin, and even skin lesions like boils and sores. According to traditional Chinese medicine, these are signs of liver heat due to impaired liver function, also known as liver blood heat.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, liver heat is a sign of liver inflammation.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hong Siem, Chairman of the Hanoi Traditional Medicine Association and Vice Chairman of the Central Vietnam Traditional Medicine Association, the living environment has a significant impact on human health.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, if the ambient temperature rises, the metabolic process in the body increases, which means the liver has to work harder, generating heat and thus causing liver heat. If the liver is overworked, its function will decline, leading to disease.

The liver is considered a vital factory in the human body, helping to metabolize, synthesize, and eliminate toxins. All food and drink entering the body are processed and filtered by the liver; nutrients are absorbed to nourish the body, while harmful toxins filtered by the liver are excreted.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, prolonged internal heat means that toxins and heat toxins in the body cannot be expelled, accumulating and eventually leading to illness. Traditional Chinese Medicine attributes this to liver blood heat, meaning that blood in the liver is overheated, which can cause disease.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, liver diseases are divided into two types: excess syndrome and deficiency syndrome. Excess syndrome refers to newly contracted diseases that cause liver heat – known as acute liver blood excess heat, while chronic diseases that cause liver heat are called liver blood heat – this is the deficiency syndrome. Depending on the type of disease, Traditional Chinese Medicine will have an appropriate treatment method, explains Dr. Nguyen Hong Siem, Specialist II.

What can I do to cool down my liver?

According to Specialist Doctor Nguyen Hong Siem, to avoid liver heat syndrome, each person needs to know how to protect their own health.

The most important thing to prevent liver diseases during hot weather is to maintain a balanced lifestyle, exercise, and diet. Getting enough sleep is essential because the liver, like other organs in the body, needs time to rest and regenerate. A diet rich in green vegetables and ripe fruits, sufficient water intake, and avoiding spicy foods are very good for protecting health. Because in the summer, when the outside environment is hot and humid, combined with consuming many spicy foods, the body easily generates heat, causing internal heat, which can lead to liver heat.

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables helps to cool the body.

To protect your liver health, absolutely avoid excessive alcohol consumption. The liver is severely affected if a person frequently drinks alcohol or is addicted to it. The most serious complications a person may face are cirrhosis or liver cancer due to alcohol.

If you have chronic liver disease, you need to be monitored regularly. As mentioned above, some liver-related symptoms are caused by chronic diseases, Dr. Siêm noted.

In addition to the above points, Dr. Siêm also advises that to avoid internal heat, people can use vegetables and herbal remedies that have cooling and detoxifying effects, such as centella asiatica, houttuynia cordata, bitter melon, some common and easily available foods that have good effects such as watermelon, lemon juice, etc., or foods and medicines that are very commonly used in folk medicine such as kudzu root (known in traditional Chinese medicine as Pueraria lobata), knotgrass, burdock, dandelion, bamboo shoot...

According to VNN