Heart Fire: Why August Makes You Feel Hot, Wired & Exhausted (And What To Do About It)
About this episode
Dr. Kelly Cmolik discusses the concept of Heart Fire in Chinese medicine and its effects during late summer.
Episode Summary If late summer has you feeling anxious, wired, sleepless, and flushed — you're not imagining it. In this episode of Chinese Medicine in the Modern World , Dr. Kelly Cmolik breaks down Heart Fire , a classical Chinese medicine pattern that explains why symptoms like insomnia, heart palpitations, skin flares, irritability, and "wired but exhausted" energy tend to spike during the height of summer. Dr. Kelly connects this ancient framework to modern physiology — sympathetic nervous system activation, inflammatory cytokines, and cortisol dysregulation — and explains why Chinese medicine identified these mind-body patterns thousands of years before Western science had the language for them. She also unpacks the surprising relationship between the heart and small intestine, shares a self-assessment "burnout audit" for August, and gives practical, food-based strategies for cooling the body down before symptoms boil over. In this episode, you'll learn: What "Heart Fire" is in Chinese medicine and why it worsens in summer The classical symptoms of Heart Fire: anxiety, insomnia, palpitations, skin flares, and more How chronic strep infections can quietly contribute to…
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