Traditional Chinese Medicine contemplates the human being in continuous interrelationship with the environment. The climatic energies affect us and the body responds to its stimuli to maintain the balance.
The external energies (climatic factors) are harmful when they affect us:
- Too intensely.
- For too long.
- Too frequently.
- At the wrong time (for example, too cold from air conditioning in summer).
- If our Wei Qi (defensive energy) or Zheng Qi (vitality) is weak.
These external pathogenic factors (wind, cold, dampness...) can affect us by themselves or in combination with each other. For example, air conditioning gives cold, dryness and wind at the same time. Our defensive energy confronts them and eliminates them. If our defensive energy is weaker than the external pathogenic energy, the pathogenic factor can penetrate to the interior through the six levels (Tai Yang, Shao Yang...). Cold, wind, dampness can occur in our body not only from exposure to the weather, they can also happen originating from internal imbalances.