Wine and Health, According to an Acupuncturist
Posted by Cathy Huyghe on Tue, Jan 18, 2011 @ 11:12 AM
The Tongue Speaks!
A few weeks ago a friend of mine told me her acupuncturist could identify what’s happening with her health just by looking at her tongue. She told me this just as an incredibly tannic Cabernet Sauvignon was etching its way across my own tongue.
At that moment, my tongue had quite a lot to say and I didn’t need a medical professional to interpret. But I was intrigued with the idea of acupuncture and wine, and I kept returning to it in my head.
What would my tongue say about my health, especially since I drink wine most days of my life? Are there any detrimental effects, from an acupuncturist’s point of view, to the daily consumption of alcohol? Many days I drink just a sip or two, some days I drink a glass, on a few days I drink two glasses. Are there any negative effects, I wondered, to my moderate wine consumption?
The amount of wine I drink hardly sounds like enough to rock the boat, especially in light of Western medicine’s (and the wine industry’s) publication of the cardiovascular health benefits of modern red wine consumption.
Still, I wanted to know what an acupuncturist would think. So I consulted Cory Walsh, Lic.Ac. in Salem. Walsh sent me eight pages of medical history forms to complete before I met with her. In response to the “Reason for today’s visit” question, I wrote “Examine effect of daily alcohol intake on my body. Balance any imbalances caused by it.”
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, she said when I sat with her in person, wine or any alcohol creates and perpetuates a condition called “damp heat.” Damp heat adversely affects the spleen in particular and yes, she could tell what was happening with my spleen just by looking at my tongue.
Since wine or beer, according to one of Walsh’s TCM professors, is “damp heat in a bottle,” and since I drink wine – damp heat – every single day, I expected that she would take one look at my tongue and tell me my system was overloaded by damp heat and my spleen was seriously impaired.
But she didn’t.
She looked, and she did not in fact see any impairment of my liver or gall bladder. She did see minor evidence of damp heat, which is a reflection of the mildly compromised condition of my spleen and stomach (they’re partner organs). In other words there is an impact, according to TCM, of drinking wine every day but in my case the impact isn’t major.
There are two reasons for this: I drink in moderation, and my base level of health is quite good. Walsh was intent to emphasize that I’m able to drink wine every day without seeing much effect because I am, in her words, “in excellent health.”
Well, that’s good to know.
Regarding moderation: “A little bit of a lot of different things is the goal,” Walsh said. TCM wants you to have all kinds of healthy food experiences but it doesn’t want you to have any experience in excess. Drinking wine every day probably would count as drinking it in excess, but the excess frequency is qualified, so to speak, by a very moderate (non-excessive) quantity.
Nonetheless there is evidence of damp heat on my tongue, probably caused by my wine consumption, and I asked Walsh what I can do to counterbalance it.
Avoid other hot-temperature foods, she said, foods that would also cause damp heat, such as tobasco sauce or chilis. And eat cooling foods instead, foods like mint, celery, cucumbers, and pears.
Fair enough, I thought. Cooling foods I could do.
Maybe I’ll even find a great wine to pair with them.