Yuck! Why Does My Acupuncturist Keep Asking Me to Drink Warm Water?

Have you ever found yourself sitting in front of your acupuncturist and they look at you and say, “You need to stop drinking ice cold drinks and go move toward drinking room temperature or hot drinks.” Did you reply, “Yuck, why would I do that. Drinking warm water is gross. What if its 90 degrees outside?”

Well they aren’t just being weirdos or wanna see you uncomfortable. They have your best interest at heart, I promise, and in fact there is medical justification for this seemingly unusual request. It’s about strengthening your digestive health and taking some burden off a potentially taxed system.

In traditional Chinese medicine the two main organ systems that are involved with digestion are the Stomach, no surprise, and the Spleen. In fact the Spleen has a rather large roll in Chinese medicine. In western medicine the spleen isn’t often mentioned. The Spleen is responsible for, what we would say, is the transformation and transportation of the nutrition. It separates the usable from the unusable parts of our food and helps the stomach. It is the Spleen that is key to the production of Qi from our food and drink. It is this Qi that helps in producing qi and blood throughout the body. The Spleen helps keep us clear headed, our muscles feeling strong, and our digestion on track.

You may still be wondering what this has to do with drinking cold drinks or putting an ice cube in your water. In TCM each of our organs or systems has various characteristics and properties. The Spleen is no exception to this. One of these characteristics is that the Spleen hates dampness and is prone to cold. According to, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, “the Spleen’s activity of transformation and transportation can be easily impaired by the excessive consumption of cold liquids or icy drinks.” So based on Chinese theory every time we drink icy drinks, or eat excessively cold foods we are suppressing and slowing our digestion. If you happen to be someone who already struggles with digestive problems then every time you gulp an ice cold bottle of water you could be making things harder on yourself.

Another way to think of it is, from a slightly more western view, is that our digestive processes are based on acids, heat and decomposition (which also produces a type of heat). Think also about how it takes heat to melt fats and oils. With this in mind, we take our food in we chew it, heat it and send it to our stomach where acids again heat it and process it and move it on down the line. So imagine that you put a big fatty piece of bacon in your mouth, sorry if you are vegetarian or vegan, and then take a big swig of ice cold water. What is happening to those fats? They harden and solidify. How much more work is your body now going to have to do to heat things up, melt the fats and break the food down? Have you ever though about why most Asian restaurants have hot tea on the ready with your meal?

What is the answer? To lift the burden off our digestion and to keep the internal fires stoked and warm. If we pour a bucket of water on our digestive fire then all your left with is a wet, cold mess.

I think you get he idea. So if your acupuncturist makes the suggestion to back off the cold drinks and foods, perhaps, you will have a bit more of an understanding of where the unusual request is coming from. And perhaps the request isn’t all that unusual after all.

We want what is best for you. Take care of you.