Does craving cold drinks have a meaning?

[redcairo]

For a few months now (greatly since open heart surgery), I've had this almost chronic craving, actual sense of need, for extremely cold drinks.

 

I took up chomping on crushed ice in the hospital and am still on that. I was delighted to develop a vice that was not a drug and didn't cost me money and wouldn't give me a disease. :-)

 

But it's been 4 months now, and I am still just craving COLD drinks all the time. Yes, I am on diuretics (for edema) but yes, I drink PLENTY of water (sometimes probably too much). So it's not just thirst. It's specifically a need for something COLD -- not just in my mouth, but going into and being inside my body like a drink is.

 

I have begun to wonder if this might be reflecting some kind of need, or imbalance, that people more into the subtleties of eastern medicines might be more familiar with. Need for yin?

 

I'm wondering if anybody has ever heard of this, or has any comments about it. Many thanks in advance if so.

 

RC

 

[silent thunder]

Cold drinks are one of the few things both of my TCM teachers mention frequently as a really bad thing that should be avoided.

 

edit to add:  unfortunately they didn't say anything about how to avoid other than willpower and mindfulness.

Edited November 11, 2016 by silent thunder

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Craving cold drinks is a sign of internal heat in TCM.  Depending on its source it may be relatively superficial and treatable be acupressure or acupuncture or may require the use of herbs if its source is on a deeper level.  It can indicate a serious problem which simply drinking cold drinks will probably not improve and the cold drinks may create long term problems of their own.  Also it may be tied into some of the medical drugs which you are taking and you may need to review their side effects.

[Taomeow]

 A craving for cold drinks is a symptom of anemia, typically of the iron deficiency kind, or of low hemoglobin.

 

Of course there's a TCM explanation too, but I am too tired to unravel it.  In any event, I would recommend a blood test.  Good luck.

[Gerard]

Hello,

 

Well you answered yourself: open heart surgery.

 

Please go see a Chinese Medicine practitioner for herbal and also needle treatment.

 

You probably are Heart Qi and blood deficient, have phlegm obstructing this organ, dampness lurking in the spleen as well as being spleen Qi deficient since the Heart is the mother of the Spleen. Your Lung won't be functioning well and Kidney Yang deficiency further aggravating the state of both Heart and Spleen. Note that consuming cold foods and beverages and iced drinks (amongst other causes) will further weaken and sap the energy of Kidney Yang leading to deficiency. Over time human lifespan will also decrease. Finally once the root (Kidney) is completely exhausted then physical life will come to and end.

 

The doctor will pick all these imbalances up by checking your face, tongue and pulse.

 

I'll suggest you buying the prepared raw herbs which you'll have to decoct. Pills are very convenient but won't work

unless taken in large quantities, normally 3 times the amount of what's being prescribed, hence making the cost prohibitive.

 

Decoctions are like cooking Preparation can be time consuming but they are highly effective. It's my favourite healing method of all paired with cultivation of the mind using the forces of the natural world.

 

https://www.sacredlotus.com/go/chinese-formulas/get/decoction-prepare-chinese-herb-formula

 

Some herbs are treated bones and shells, in this case you must crush them into thin powder and decoct them separately (45-60 min). You can add them to the main decoction afterwards.

 

If any seeds are prescribed like Bu Gu Zhi or Tu Su Zi, better put them in a cooking muslin bag for

added convenience. Other herbs like Gui Zhi and Sheng Jiang should be added near the end of the decoction (10-15 min) due to their volatile nature. Divide the amounts evenly if cooking the herbs 2 (or even 3) times. Finally aromatic herbs like Shi Chang Pu (highly used herb to open orifices, Heart in your case) or Sha Ren are added 5 to 10 min prior to the end of the decoction process.

 

Ask the herbalist shop attendants to place all these specific herbs in small bags to avoid making

the costly mistake of putting them all together in one large bag. Otherwise the overall

effect of the formula will be decreased; when it comes to healing the Heart you won't want to take a weakened formula!!

 

Wish you a great recovery!

Edited November 11, 2016 by Gerard

[Karl]

For a few months now (greatly since open heart surgery), I've had this almost chronic craving, actual sense of need, for extremely cold drinks.

 

I took up chomping on crushed ice in the hospital and am still on that. I was delighted to develop a vice that was not a drug and didn't cost me money and wouldn't give me a disease. :-)

 

But it's been 4 months now, and I am still just craving COLD drinks all the time. Yes, I am on diuretics (for edema) but yes, I drink PLENTY of water (sometimes probably too much). So it's not just thirst. It's specifically a need for something COLD -- not just in my mouth, but going into and being inside my body like a drink is.

 

I have begun to wonder if this might be reflecting some kind of need, or imbalance, that people more into the subtleties of eastern medicines might be more familiar with. Need for yin?

 

I'm wondering if anybody has ever heard of this, or has any comments about it. Many thanks in advance if so.

 

RC

Often diabetes is the cause.

[redcairo]

Thanks for the input everybody. As noted this is only about temperature, not thirst.

 

I was tested for just about everything imaginable before surgery. Aside from a faulty (birth defect) heart valve they couldn't find anything awry with me, and it was quite a list of tests. Even the cath test came out clean. However, since the surgery I've been on diuretics, and ibuprofen, both of which affect the kidneys. (And a beta blocker said to be for 'heart remodeling.')

 

I've been working to compensate with liposomal silymarin and C and Co-CQ10 which do seem to help, but the oddity of the sort of craving-for-putting-cold-inside-my-throat/stomach (no matter what the temp, or what I'm eating or not eating) just finally struck me as very out of the normal for me and only present since the surgery. (I'm a Pitta technically, so hot foods and cold drinks are my thing in general, but this is something different.) (Note that I am not diabetic, and my blood pressure's totally normal, and so on. In fact the docs were basically blown away at how good all my stats were, aside from massive edema caused by the heart valve problem, and lipedema thought to be a possibly genetic issue (no cure yet and cause unknown).

 

They tell me that since I wasn't getting about 70% of the O2/nutrients (blood pouring into body, hence edema out of this world) that my body has to rebuild systems of every kind, either from scratch or from atrophy. Not to mention I was bedridden for a long time (all but bathroom, for nearly a couple years, and barely moved before then for a few years due to the exhaustion symptoms, so I have to rebuild muscle to walk-etc. again and now my limbs are huge and heavy. Not to mention that is the ultimate long-term profound malnourishment. I think right now, 4 months after surgery, my body just has not yet built sufficient support for the new flow (power), so it is not yet to the point of getting rid of the edema like the docs have all assured me the body will do as it heals. (Glad I wasn't holding my breath. I still have probably 120# of edema on me, possibly more. Most of it on lower body and interfering with mobility, fitting into my vehicle for driving, and more. Very frustrating and very interfering with the exercise I need to do in order to help get rid of the edema, in a catch-22 of sorts.)

 

They pour massive stuff into you during surgery I was told, so I came out of it larger than I went in (bizarrely). I went on a ketogenic diet and lost 66# of water in 4 weeks, but after 3w I was in horrific pain and had a lot of side effects, since it's a super low-water body state and this + diuretics turns out to be a horrible combination. I tried to ditch the diurs but I just kept growing so I had to go back on them. Then I did 4 weeks of regular food to try and 'recover' from the pain/symptoms and in 4 weeks promptly got back 24# of that 66 (which I expected). Bright side, don't hurt anymore, and other things. Down side, most of it came back in the inner thighs, affecting walking-etc. yet again. Now I'm on the third experiment which is basically super LC every other day, ordinary diet on inverse days. I hold water for carbs in a huge way, but I can't be keto while on these diuretics, so I'm trying to find a happy medium that will let me actually lose edema but not seriously F' up my body from dehydration (as body water and edema are not the same thing).

 

I've spent over a decade studying and experimenting related to my body and nutrition so I don't beileve that I have any issues related to that topic, it's merely trying to deal with massive protein-water-edema that needs to be gotten rid of -- at the same time I need to not dehydrate my body of regular water it needs desperately.

 

I figured my kidneys were probably at issue, so I will look into that and thank you for the specifics on herbs. I really laughed about the herbal shop though. I live in nowhere NE OK -- I would probably have to drive for hours to a big city to find, somewhere, some kind of shop that sold herbs. :-)  I buy nearly everything that isn't fresh groceries online mostly at amazon.

 

Best,

RC

Edited November 11, 2016 by redcairo