What are the symptoms of heat toxicity? How is heat toxicity defined?

Heat poison, also known as fire poison and warm poison, belongs to the category of the concept of "poison" in traditional Chinese medicine and is an important part of the theory of etiology in traditional Chinese medicine. In traditional Chinese culture, the word "poison" has a very rich meaning. So what are the symptoms of heat toxicity?

1. Diseases of head and face swelling and infection characterized by local swelling and pain

"Treatise on Warm Diseases·Upper Jiao" says: "Warm poison causes sore throat and swollen throat, swelling in front of and behind the ears, swollen cheeks, and red face. There may be no pain in the throat but swelling outside the throat, and in severe cases, deafness. It is commonly known as big-head plague or toad plague." It is often manifested by local swelling, pain, and ulceration, such as big-head plague and red chin.

2. Yang poison spots

"Liaoli of Yin Syndrome" states: "There are four types of lesions caused by Yang poison: lesions caused by typhoid fever, lesions caused by fever, and lesions caused by warm poison. The lesions are like brocade patterns and may appear on the face, chest, back, or limbs."

3. TCM surgical sores and ulcers

The "General Theory of Carbuncle" in "The Golden Mirror of Medical Ancestral" says: "Carbuncle is caused by fire poison, which blocks the meridians and causes blood stasis." Many of the sores, such as carbuncle, sore, boil, and furuncle, are named after the poison, such as facial poison, palm poison, back of hand poison, shoulder wind poison, weizhong poison, and ear root poison. Its formation is mostly caused by stagnation of heat and toxins, blood loss and flesh decay.

4. Internal injuries and diseases

When heat forces blood to flow abnormally, symptoms such as fever, irritability, vomiting blood, and bloody stools appear; when heat toxins attack the heart and brain, it manifests as a stroke; when heat toxins block the stomach and intestines, it causes bloody diarrhea; when heat toxins stagnate in the lungs, it causes lung abscesses, etc.

5. Hidden pathogenic diseases in febrile diseases

The Revised General Treatise on Warm and Refreshing Heat says: “Warm and Refreshing Heat is a disease caused by latent qi…If there is also foul poison, it is called warm poison. There are two types of symptoms: one is wind-heat seasonal poison, and the other is damp-heat seasonal poison. This is to distinguish the names of the diseases based on the combined symptoms.”

6. Cancer

In clinical practice, fire poison and tumors are often seen coexisting, especially in some patients with middle and late stage tumors, who are often accompanied by heat symptoms such as burning pain in local lumps, fever or fever in the five hearts, thirst and red urine, constipation or loose stools and diarrhea, and yellow and greasy tongue coating. This may be caused by the accumulation of pathogenic heat, blood stasis, phlegm and dampness that have long transformed into heat, yin deficiency heat, or tumor necrosis and infection [5].