It is baby season in Vermont. It comes after mud season and at the end of black fly season. Babies are everywhere. I see fuzzy little geese, ducks, turkeys, and the lovely brown eyes of Bambi peeking from behind a tree. Heavy rains have kept them out of sight, but they are nestled close to mother’s care. The air in Vermont is wet. Chinese herbal doctors refer to soggy, low energy, water retention and phlegmy congestion as dampness. Ayurvedic doctors use the term Kapha when referring to heaviness from poor energy, digestion, and climate. The humid weather works in the body to dampen vitality and enthusiasm. But I am far away in thoughts of Asia. I am listening to ragas, breathing perfumed incense, and warming vitality with Asian herbs.

Saraswati Churna

Saraswati Churna is a powder named after the Indian goddess of culture, learning, beauty and art, also named after the Saraswat river. She plays the veena. The Vedas are believed to have sprung from her head. It is the perfect remedy for drowsy gray days of rain. The ingredients ginger and pepper warm the dietary source of intelligence and memory–the middle, the digestion. Ashwagandha is added to enhance adrenal energy. Calamus root is added to calm nerve pain and nervous irritability. The powder is soothing, grounding, warming, energizing the higher intelligence.

Ayurvedic doctors recognize the effects of  humid weather, rich foods that are sweet and heavy, and low vitality leading to overweight, sinus and breathing congestion and depression: They call it Kapha. Excess Kapha leads to masses, congestion, confusion, low spirits. The pepper and ginger in Saraswati Churna warm and dry Kapha and revitalize digestion.

I added 1/2 tsp of Saraswati churna to my green tea this morning, came into my office, turned on the heater at my feet and applied a Bengay warming patch on to my numb typing wrist.

Drain Dampness

The Chinese approach to dampness is slightly different. If a fibroid or mass in involved, the herbal combination will include dispersing herbs that dry and dissolve masses: frankincense and myrrh. If it is just water retention–the kind you get during PMS or damp weather, or after eating too many sweet foods, then Drain Dampness a pill made by Health Concerns is more typically a Chinese approach that includes herbs that are diuretic and increase sweating. Drain Dampness includes diuretic alisma, poria, polyporus, and warming cinnamon and white atractylodes. It is recommended for edema, difficulty in urination, heaviness in the limbs, sinus headaches, vomiting, cardiac edema, and liver cirrhosis or swollen prostate discomforts. Dampness–excess water retention–is eliminated in urine and sweat.

Both approaches are valid. The best one depends on your needs. I feel better with warming, digestive, and grounding herbs so I choose Saraswati Churna. You may need to reduce swollen ankles, bloating, and a feeling of heaviness or dizziness. You may feel congested or cough with a heavy chest. You may have stiff swollen joints that ache during humidity or after eating carbs or sweets. You may feel pulsation below the navel. Drain Dampness pills work well for moving stuck Qi made worse from dampness.