Latent Heat The Terrorist Cell that Lurks Within

Photo by Dustin Humes on Unsplash

Latent heat occurs when your body fails to clear a ‘pathogenic factor’.

What does ‘pathogenic’ mean? It means illness-generating.

Warning! Some pages on this site are, we like to think, easy to read and assimilate.

This is not one of them!

You have to grasp a whole bundle of concepts to make sense of the ideas on this page.

If you’re really interested in acupuncture but not ‘latent heat’, why not have a look at either 5 Elements or at acupuncture channels. They’re a lot easier!

All right – still here? OK.

In orthodox (Western) medicine pathogenic factors are viruses and bacteria, toxins and poisons, trauma and, to a certain extent and depending on whether your doctor agrees with the viewpoint, stress and emotional factors like grief and anger.

In Chinese Medicine theory there are many causes of disease, both external, like invasion by ‘wind-heat‘ (roughly equivalent to viruses and bacteria),  ‘wind-cold‘ (which arise when cold, heat or damp enter via your skin), trauma, and internal (including emotional factors).

Bacteria multiplying

Using more expressions from Chinese Medicine, where your ‘Kidney qi‘ is plentiful, it will produce adequate ‘Defensive energy’. If your ‘Lung qi‘ is working properly it will ‘spread’ that Defensive qi properly over the surface of your body.

That more or less means that where your health’s constitution is strong, it will have the potential to defend itself. Then, if your metabolism is working properly, your body will deploy that defence where needed.

The Chinese terms like ‘Kidney Qi’ etc are fairly precise and help the acupuncturist decide exactly how to apply treatment. By the way, you could have weak Kidney Qi and yet have perfectly healthy kidneys! Kidney energy is only partly related to your kidney organs.

When attacked by a pathogenic factor a healthy body will vigorously defend itself, and after an acute episode it will eject the pathogenic factor from the body.

Time to Recuperate from Latent Heat

At that point, given rest and time to recuperate, the body returns to equilibrium and health.

But if not? …

However, what if your body’s defensive energy is not up to producing a strong defence?

Here the pathogenic factor penetrates beyond the initial defence line and provokes symptoms at a deeper level.

For example, someone catches a cold but instead of developing a fever, (for example with shivers, nose blocked with phlegm, sore throat etc) his body fails to keep the disease at that level but lets it sink in further. He starts wheezing with a deep cough and may eventually be diagnosed as asthmatic.

From the cold and throat, the first line of defence, the barrier has now moved inwards to the Lungs. This is harder to cure without treatment whereas had the ‘cold’ been kept in the nose and throat, normally the body would have repelled the invader after a few days. There’s more about this on our page on warm diseases and how they invade – see Four Levels.

Alternatively, the invading pathogenic factor continues to cause mild ongoing symptoms that weaken the body. See ‘ ‘remaining pathogenic factor’ for more about this. And also read chronic disease.

 

Latent Heat – A Terrorist Cell Within

However, sometimes the invader arrives and takes up residence without your immune system (your resident defence force) apparently knowing about it.

Lurking within Society – Unseen – Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash

This is like members of a terrorist cell that enter a country and establish themselves as normal citizens. Living unobtrusively while they await the call to arms, they prepare for action. Because the country’s police and intelligence agencies are unaware of them, no alert is raised.

It’s also like a house where the occupants aren’t aware that they are harbouring an arsonist who, given the right stimulus, will set the place alight.

How Does this Latent Heat invasion occur?

There are various ways this ‘invasion’ can happen.

As explained above, the first is when, for instance, a pathogenic factor like a ‘cold’ is caught but fails to materialise: there is an invasion of wind-heat or wind-cold that the body fails at the time to fight off with strong reactions like shivering and fever.

Another is when a series of emotional ‘blows’ are absorbed but not repulsed properly. For example, perhaps the individual has to live through quite impossible circumstances that build up an inner rage which, though controlled at the time, awaits a stimulus to release it.

Or perhaps a series of deaths casts the individual down badly. He continues as normal for a while until a new trigger of some kind releases them and they emerge as heat, inappropriate behaviour or illness.

Think of it like a compost heap which, long-forgotten, has dried out.

But now it’s summer, and given the right stimulus, it can easily ignite, burning up and potentially damaging its surroundings.

How? Sunlight concentrated through a small piece of broken glass, perhaps, or even just a stray match.

 

Compost heap
composting

 

Immunization

Immunisation is another source of this.

Ideally after an immunisation, since the body has been invaded by what seems – to the body –  to be a toxin, there should be a reaction: a fever and/or a rash of some kind.

If no such reaction occurs, the invasive force has penetrated to a level beyond the reach of the normal defensive forces.

There is a danger that many babies – vaccinated against many diseases before age 2 – carry potential latent heat. Theory suggests this may lead to chronic disease.

Injection of another pathogen

This could be through an insect bite or from some other substance injected or absorbed, usually through the skin.

Residual Heat

Another source is what I’ll call residual heat. This affects older more often than younger people. All of us absorb foods that aren’t properly or fully digested. Normally we eliminate them via our stools or by urination or perspiration. All of us, over life, have accidents that cause minor damage.

Normally our bodies repair themselves but if our lifestyle is such that we absorb more than we expel, then ultimately we’ll be carrying around an extra load of pathogenic factors.

 

Lighting-a-Match-id239340

©Hwee-Fuan-Tey-dreamstime-stock-photos-1

 

Why are they pathogenic? Because our bodies are organic, they gradually cook things. Things dry out or fester:

  • Old injuries eventually dry out joints causing ongoing pain
  • Damp in the body turns into phlegm
  • Arteries and veins ‘fur’ up.

 

All these have the potential to erupt into inflammation and pain and other more serious complications, given the appropriate conditions.

Of course, in many older people such ‘appropriate conditions’ never actually do occur, so their systems carry an ever-increasing load of residual factors, their bodies dry out and can’t keep operating properly, their metabolisms slow down and they move around more and more slowly – a form of accelerated ageing! (Well, eventually we all die!)

Something similar – Suppression

Related to residual heat are circumstances where the symptoms of a disease have been suppressed. This could be from treatment with medication, but the underlying disease has not been addressed or cured.

In such a case, the underlying disease may return, possibly in another form at a later time, given the right trigger.

And sometimes the appropriate conditions for latent heat to erupt do occur.

The Original Idea behind Latent Heat

The original idea the Chinese had for Latent Heat applied the idea to ‘Cold’ which they said entered in the winter, then turned gradually into ‘Heat‘ which came out in the Spring.

Why would Spring do this?

 

Spring, when latent heat can emerge
Spring blossoms – Photo by Miro Dozo on Unsplash

Because Spring is when temperatures are increasing, winds are increasing and our bodies are buffeted more by changing circumstances. These are signs of increasing Yang energy.

Bear in mind that, although China experienced terrible ongoing wars and disturbances which at times produced appalling hardships, their Daoist philosophy also gave them great respect for the changing climactic effects of the different seasons.

So in Spring, the Chinese argued, if there were sources of Latent heat ‘hiding’ in the body, then they might erupt when external climactic factors (ie hotter, or more yang) triggered them.

Normally a trigger would be another external invasion by wind-cold or wind-heat, or just heat. Also, after a winter’s rest, the defensive energy may have been partially replenished and so could begin to defend itself – to fight back.

But because it isn’t fully replenished by the rest or because suppressive treatment is applied, our Defensive-qi doesn’t mount a proper defensive action and can’t properly expel the sources of latent heat, which then exhaust it, leading to a new status quo and ongoing exhaustion.

It could happen any time!

However, in our experience, you don’t have to wait for Spring to set it off. It can occur at any time of year, sometimes from trying circumstances and even after a holiday when your defensive energy has recovered.

When this occurs, you may suddenly develop enormous tiredness as the latent heat sources rise up and absorb all your defensive energy, leaving very little for your career or life.

If you accept this line of reasoning you may realise that trying to suppress the symptoms again, perhaps with paracetamol or antibiotics, would be poor treatment.

Well, not just poor, but very counter-productive, because it would weaken your ‘yang’ response yet again, leading to the likelihood of renewed chronic disease and tiredness.

The Four Levels of Disease

 

Levels defending the centre – Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash

 

In Chinese medicine, the theory that is most appropriate for Latent Heat is that of the Four Levels of invasion of disease. Click on the link for much more about this, but briefly:

  • Outermost Level: the Defensive-Qi level
    On the outer, Defensive-Qi level, the pathogenic factor is kept on the outside. Exact symptoms depend on the kind of reaction (wind-heatsummer-heatdamp-heat and dry-heat) but in general there is fever and aversion to cold with what is called a ‘floating’ pulse. Latent Heat is prevented if the disease penetrates no further.
  • Qi Level
    When a disease penetrates to the next level, the Qi level, there is a higher fever which persists for longer, and more malaise. The pulse in most cases is no longer floating but remains rapid and fairly big, slippery or full.
  • Nutritive Qi Level
    At this level, there is mental confusion, delirium or restlessness and the pulse is ‘fine’, or ‘thin’, and still rapid.
  • Blood Level
    At the deepest level, the Blood level, the pulse remains rapid and is either thin, fine or wiry. There is still fever, sometimes high, but behaviour is now more bizarre, with mania, irritability, twitching, fainting, tremor and convulsions.

 

As you can see, as the disease penetrates deeper, the body mounts a defence at various levels. At the deepest level, the defence manifests at the mental level, with continuing unresolved fever.

Taking immunisation, ideally the body defends itself at the Defensive-Qi level. Failing that, Chinese medicine considers that the vaccine toxin passes, unnoticed, to the deepest ie Blood level, where it may turn to Heat or Damp-Heat in due course.  This might be much later in life when the originating cause has been long forgotten.

Summarising So Far

Latent heat arises when the body doesn’t expel a source of illness. This can arise from – for example:

  • Invasion by wind-cold or wind-heat not dealt with at the time
  • A build-up over time of repressed emotions
  • Immunisation not properly reacted to at the time
  • Suppression of the symptoms of a disease
  • The detritus of life and the many injuries our bodies learn to endure and which can, in the right circumstances, become sources of disease

 

Often the latent heat turns into a more visible form or heat, such as a rash. This, embarrassing and unpleasant though it may be, is much better on the outside of the body than festering inside.

Alternatively, the latent heat may affect us mentally causing psychological symptoms, anxiety, fears, sudden rages. It may trigger other destructive processes in the body. These are usually of a drying, thickening nature.  They prevent proper circulation of blood. That prevents the normal functioning of the SpleenStomach and Lung energies. The result is compromises – ie problems – in movement, nerve impulses and/or mental acuity.

How to avoid Latent Heat?

Don’t let Latent Heat happen in the first place!

  • After any acute disease, give yourself time to rest and recover properly
Time to Rest – Photo by Angelina Kichukova on Unsplash
  • Eat foods that are appropriate to your metabolism
  • Learn to express your emotions properly! Don’t become paranoid, vindictive, spiteful, wasted by grief or worry, or revengeful. Even if expressing emotions is difficult, learning to recognise them can sometimes forestall disaster.
  • Avoid immunisations if possible and if you must be immunised, do so only when in excellent health so that your body reacts properly to them. Try to have yourself immunised just one disease at a time, so allow time for your body to react to each in turn.
  • Avoid multiple vaccinations (ie being vaccinated against many diseases at the same time) against which the body cannot mount an effective exterior defence and which, by their quantity or frequency, invade the body to a deep level
  • Avoid treatments that suppress the symptoms without curing the underlying disease. (Avoiding such suppressive treatment is very difficult with modern medicine which is extremely good at suppressing symptoms.)
  • Finally, avoid foods that are bad for you. Eat well and regularly. Take plenty of exercise to enable your body to stay fit, repel illness, burn out toxins and cope better with stress.

 

Old Age Disease

As you age, keep active, socially, mentally and physically and maintain an active interest in life.

TaiQi and Qigong provide much more than just gentle stretching movements to help mind and body maintain health. They help foster what the ancient Chinese called ‘Essence’.

This essence is the source of life: keep it healthy, use it sparingly and it will keep you fit into old age.

Symptoms of Latent Heat

The following are frequently the symptoms of latent heat as it emerges, but your symptoms may be slightly different!

However, the symptoms usually appear quite fast when they do appear. They are yang symptoms appearing against an exhausted yin background.

  • Exhaustion and lethargy
  • Sleeplessness/insomnia
  • Irritability
  • Thirst
  • Feeling hot, even feverish
  • Heavy, tired limbs
  • Urine goes dark
  • Pulse is fast
  • Tongue is red

 

Treatment of Latent Heat

For treatment of Latent Heat with acupuncture or Chinese herbs, your particular symptom picture would be diagnosed and might appear as one of the following:

 

If  you do think you have latent heat, the main thing is NOT to suppress the symptoms with antibiotics, NSAIDS or other suppressive medicine!

Why? Because that would ‘throw’ the disease process back inside, further weakening your resources, your Kidney qi level, and dissipating your immune system’s ability to defend you against future disease.

Also, it makes it less likely that your body will have the energy to produce latent heat symptoms again. That means you will probably continue to take ongoing Western medicine with its suppressive effects. That means unending chronic disease for you, with its tiredness, weakened mental acumen, drug side-effects and accelerated ageing processes.

Jonathan Brand colours

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4 Responses

  1. a great explanation, thank you, i understood more about latent heat. I am a chinese medicine practitioner.

    1. Hi Karen

      Thank you for writing. I’m glad the page on ‘Latent Heat’ made sense. I incline to believe it is becoming more common.

      Best wishes

      Jonathan

  2. Interesting. I think I suffer from latent heat following Covid-19 infection. I made up anti-viral herbs that were cold/bitter, but without anything to release/drain heat (?). And the Covid-19 resolved quickly but I’m left with parched mouth, tinnitus, spasms, parasthesia.

    Dangers of self-treatment without knowing exactly what you’re doing!

    1. Some of your symptoms may well be due to latent heat, though the spasms and parasthesia are unusual for this. Covid 19 seems to leave damage in many areas. You’d need to get a full diagnosis to see which syndromes in Chinese medicine are involved. Best wishes – Jonathan

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