Hello! The following was your response to me regarding the oniony armpit body odor just for reference: Anything health-related can be looked at through the lens of a pattern diagnosis! The answer depends upon all of the other signs and symptoms. So, likely there is heat. Which pattern is hard to say. Is it deficiency-type nervous anxiety with yin deficiency signs (liver yin deficiency with empty heat, heart yin deficiency)? Is the person excess (liver qi stagnation with heat, gallbladder damp heat, heart fire, liver yang rising, liver fire rising, small intestine heat etc etc). To understand, you also would need to look at what the anxiety looks like: fear-based, suppressed anger, high startle-response, chronic, acute…. What I think I was trying to figure out was which smell category that would go into? An onion smell doesn't seem to fall into the rancid, rotting, or putrid categories to me. Should it not be looked at in this way? I do understand that the overall pattern must be considered. In this case (my case) there is kidney essence deficiency and spleen qi deficiency according to my TCM doctor. Does this smell make sense with these diagnoses? Thanks!

He said: Hello! Ok, I understand. I consider an onion smell to be somewhere on the spectrum of pungent (metal element). I couldn't really make much of a guess as to how this fits into your case. This is one of those scenarios where I would need an entire scenario to wager a guess. If your TCM practitioner is correct, perhaps you could look at the earth-metal-water side of the spectrum on the five phases cycle. There are many variables: Is the current TCM diagnosis correct? Is what you are smelling correct (meaning do other people tell you this or are you smelling it- smelling yourself is not very objective!)? Are you just eating too many vegetables from the allium family and the volatile oils are being exuded from your pores or breath? It might be an interesting conversation to have with your TCM practitioner!

Thanks! I did talk to her about this and she told me to study the meridians. She didn't really have any good information on the specific smell. When I looked them up, the kidney meridian runs up to the chest/lung area. It seems like it could make sense with what you said. What's your opinion on this?

Andrew said: I don't know if I would think meridians for this but your practitioner knows you better than I do. Again, for me to really come up with an explanation of the phenomenon I would have to know much more about you and your case. Without that information I can only vaguely guess. Onions are pungent which is the odor associated with the element of metal. Assuming your diagnoses are correct, remember that: Earth nourishes metal and metal nourishes water on the generation cycle. So, the balance of all three of the elements may be affected.

Here's the full set of symptoms :) Swollen, scalloped, pale tongue with medium white coat crack in the spleen area Fatigue mild edema in ankles and feet cold feet cold in general poor short-term memory clear, abundant urination dry skin excess vaginal discharge anxiety crying for no reason onion armpit odor when nervous or sweating urinary leakage when exercising twitching left eye no libido (not caused by exhaustion. I just have no interest.) easily frustrated difficulty staying asleep/waking too early (wake around 4:00 and I'm lucky if I get back to sleep) difficulty concentrating clots and cramping during menstruation with med/heavy flow (periods are regular 25-28 days per cycle) lots of dreaming (was scary dreams...now just dreaming) mild depression/unhappiness breasts sore/tender in the nipple area occasional high-pitched tinnitus tend towards constipation, but still go daily some varicose/spider veins in my thighs I don't feel good after eating Food doesn't sound good Very indecisive bright white around eyes anxiety-induced tightness in lungs and throat that makes it difficult to take a full, deep breath. I feel like my lower lungs and throat are being squeezed/restrained Low back pain - associated with feeling totally exhausted after doing a small task and needing to lay down out of exhaustion Heaviness in legs - hard to climb stairs possible mild prolapse of the rectum fuzzy vision very weak/thin/peeling nails fearful In all fairness to my practitioner, I don't think I gave her the entire list at the beginning. I just keep trying to figure it out because I see signs of liver qi stagnation, spleen qi or yang deficiency, and kidney yang deficiency. Happily, several of the symptoms have improved or disappeared completely, so progress is being made. I'm just asking for my own learning/understanding. Thanks!!

Andrew said: A good resource is Lorie Dechar's book, The Five Spirits. I suggest reading it and using it to understand what is happening on a deeper level. The issues may go deeper than just liver qi stagnation. My recommendation is to read that book and discuss the concepts with your TCM practitioner; which, by the way, is a long-term conversation. Your provider needs to get to know you as you get to know yourself on this level. Think of doing this work slowly over months to years.