Peeing water.
Oh, so that's what that is.
I've bought Paul Bergner's - actually the NAIMH's - Actions and Formulations -CD set.
It's all about the physiomedicalist approach.
And I've been idly listening through the first few CDs over the last few days.
And on CD 3, under "Effects on moisture", Paul says:
"For dryness. (...) you're dry and thirsty and you drink a glass of water and you pee out a glass of water three minutes later. That's dry."
Oh.
And he says that demulcents help. Such as mallow teas and the like.
I've always put that down to kidney deficiency (which is true to Michael Moore's energetics), where kidney strenghteners help. Which of course also is true, for that paradigm.
But that'd explain why I don't like to drink herbal teas all that much, myself. Most of the ones I have are astringent (like the nettle - raspberry leaf - peppermint - fireweed leaf combo I've been drinking lately), and astringents are always drying. I'll add mallow leaf to my herbal teas and see if I like them better ...
... course, mallow leaf adds "body" to herbal teas, making them sorta kinda nicer-tasting. To me. Which I'll just note under "things that make me go hmmm.".
Anyway, learn something new every day.
Most old medical systems
Most old medical systems have four humors, most of them include dry and moist and hot and cold.
"Dry", in this particular context, is peeing mostly water soon after you've drunk pretty much anything at all. And demulcents (like mallows, or slippery elm) make things more "moist", so you pee less, and not just water.
Licorice root is also moistening in this paradigm, and, what a coincidence, licorice is one of the kidney-heating herbs in Michael Moore's energetics. As are most of the adaptogens. Which in that paradigm help for peeing mostly water and not being able to handle heat, cos you don't have enough liquid to sweat things out, at all at all.
So things fit together, if you squint a bit.
(And completely unrelated to this: if you're thirsty all the time check for diabetes.)
Yes, he talks about the
Yes, he talks about the organs, not the person.
Substitute "lazy" for "cold" and "overactive" for "hot" in Michael's organ energetics, and substitute "kick it" (or "speed it up") for heating and "slow it down" for cooling, and you won't confuse things with the physiomedicalist, the TCM, or other traditional terms.
interesting, because along
interesting, because along with a demulcent I would (and have) definitely use an astringent here, because even though astringents are "dry", something like staghorn sumach will tone the tissues to prevent loss of fluid from laxity. Astringents, unlike diuretics, dry locally and will actually prevent loss of moisture constitutionally (diuretics would do the opposite). It's all about differentiating the different ways herbs can be drying. Astringency is one way, promoting the release of fluids from the body (via diuretics, diaphoretics, cholagogues, sialagogues, ect) is another.
Kiva's got a great story about resolving dryness via fluid loss through the use of astringents.