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Getting 上火
The Chinese explanation for a sore throat, a mouth ulcer or a crop of spots is 上火 — literally rising fire, an excess of internal heat. It gets blamed on fried food, chili, lychees, short sleep and stress, and the remedy is cooling: herbal tea, pears, chrysanthemum, mung beans. The framework behind it sorts foods as heating or cooling rather than by nutrients, and people with no particular interest in traditional medicine use it casually. Hospitals run 中医 and 西医 departments side by side, and patients move between them without feeling a contradiction.