Pediatric - Night sweats

Lorne,

Once again the necessity of reading Chinese rears its ugly head. No Chinese source says that children are yang exuberant. What the statement of fact is is that children have a "pure yang" constitution. This means that yang is not admixed or integrated in a so-called ji ji way (see the hexagram Before Completion describing the healthy admixture of yin and yang, yang moving down to unite with yin moving up) and, therefore, not controlled by their yin. It doesn't mean they have an absolute yang repletion or a yin vacuity. Rather, yin and yang are not yet completely integrated.

In terms of head sweats when falling asleep, falling asleep is a yin-yang transformation, i.e., going from a more yang state (wakefulness) to a more yin state (the unconsciousness of sleep) and all such transformations are situations where "things may take a wrong turn." In my opinion, in this case, yin does not completely embrace and downbear yang. Instead, some yang slips out of controls and counterflows up. However, as far as I know, there is no Chinese medical description of this particular phenomenon, probably because it is not pathological and, therefore, no Chinese source has ever felt it needed commentary. However, we Westerners seem to like to spin our wheels unnecessarily, in part because we actually think this map is the terrain it describes.

Bob Flaws
Blue Poppy