Internal Dampness

If mold has been a health issue for centuries then, surely, medical treatment for mold exposure is not new. For this reason, Chinese Medicine has piqued my interest. The art of healing through acupuncture has been around for 2500 years. Western medicine as we know it has been around less than 150 years. The surgeries and drugs of modern day are nothing short of miraculous in many cases. But with chronic injuries like ours, the tools for healing are limited. Thus we have taken our mycotoxin knowledge and entered the world of acupuncture.

The first time I saw our acupuncturist he informed me that our condtion fell under the category of internal dampness. Our exposure, he said, had created a tropical climate of sorts inside of our bodies. A climate where microbes easily multiply and thrive.

I read this in the book The Foundations of Chinese Medicine:

"Dampness refers not only to damp weather, but also to damp living conditions, such as living in damp houses. The characteristics of Dampness are that it is sticky, it is difficult to get rid of, it is heavy, it slows things down, it infuses downwards and it causes repeated attacks.

"External Dampness tends to injure the spleen and impair its fuction of transformation and transportation. After the initial attack, therefore, the spleen will become deficient which, in turn, will tend to produce more Dampness. At that point, it will be impossible to distinguish exterior from interior Dampness."

The goal, therefore, is to change our internal climate. We're trying to dry things up. Thankfully, we've noticed significant changes.

I read an interview this week with the team acupuncturist for the San Francisco Giants. It's the first season the team has used acupuncture and evidently it's helping pitcher Randy "the Big Unit" Johnson. The 46-year-old player earned his 300th win on June 4th and is still averaging 8 strike-outs per nine innings pitched.

We're not headed for the Hall of Fame, just inching our way toward recovered health.