Dryness Through the Humoral Lens
Dryness can appear in many small, everyday ways, for instance restless sleep, brittle hair, dry skin, constipation, or vulval discomfort. In Western herbal traditions these patterns are understood through older energetic frameworks that describe how the body holds warmth, moisture, and tone. These are not medical models. They are simply tools herbalists use to understand patterns of imbalance rather than individual symptoms.
Balance and imbalance
Modern herbalists sometimes speak about constitution or “tissue states”. These ideas come from humoral medicine, an older framework once central to Western practice and still present in parts of Middle Eastern and Asian traditions. It fell out of use as Western medicine shifted towards anatomical and biochemical explanations, yet many herbalists now find it remains a useful way to understand how people differ and how imbalance shows itself. In this approach the body is seen as a shifting balance of four qualities: hot, cold, moist, and dry. Everyone carries their own mix, with one or two tendencies usually standing out. Life, weather, food, emotional strain, and long periods of pressure can all influence this balance and make dryness more noticeable. It is a traditional interpretive model rather than a biological explanation, but it continues to help shape personalised herbal responses.
Stress, hormones, and the humoral view
In herbal practice, dryness is often understood by looking at the pattern around it. Some people show heat and tension, others feel cold or depleted, and some simply seem dried out by long periods of busyness. These descriptions sit alongside the constitutional ideas explored in the earlier blogs in this series. Rather than treating stress or hormones as direct causes, a herbalist looks at how the person presents as a whole and how their pattern has shifted.
Stressful periods may leave someone feeling hot, agitated, or overextended. In traditional terms this resembles a warm, dry pattern and herbs with cooling or soothing qualities, such as chamomile, lemon balm, or marshmallow root, are often chosen to ease it. Around menopause, falling oestrogen can make dryness more noticeable. In humoral terms this is described as a loss of natural softness or tone and nourishing herbs, such as oat straw, sea buckthorn, or liquorice, are traditionally used to support comfort. After illness, people sometimes feel cold, tired, or “emptied out”. Warm, stimulating herbs such as ginger, cinnamon, or rosemary are often used to lift this type of pattern.
These are traditional ways of interpreting change, not biological explanations, but they offer a practical structure for choosing herbs that match the person rather than the symptom.
Temperaments and why people rarely fit one type
Traditional texts also describe four broad temperaments: Choleric, Sanguine, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic. Most people sit between two types, and these blends help explain why dryness can feel hot and sharp in one person, dull and stagnant in another, or simply the result of too little nourishment or rest. Herbalists draw on these patterns to guide their choices, aiming for gentle shifts in balance rather than symptom-by-symptom solutions.
Most people sit between two types. Someone may be mainly Melancholic with a touch of Phlegmatic, or Sanguine with a hint of Choleric heat. These blends shape the twelve temperaments described in modern Western herbalism. Understanding your own mix can help you choose herbs and habits that genuinely match your tendencies.
How this influences Western herbal practice
In traditional herbalism plants are chosen for their qualities rather than their biochemical actions.
Cooling herbs, such as chamomile and lemon balm, are used to soften heat, agitation, and restlessness.
Warming herbs, such as ginger and rosemary, are used to lift low energy or sluggishness.
Moistening herbs, such as marshmallow and liquorice, are used to soothe dryness or tension.
Astringent herbs, such as sage or oak bark, are used to tone tissues that feel loose or too moist.
A practitioner considers the whole person — skin, voice, energy, digestion, sleep, emotional tone — and chooses a blend aimed at easing the overall pattern, not treating a symptom.
What this means for vulval dryness
Using this framework, vulval dryness can arise from more than one pattern.
Excess heat, for instance tension, urgency, caffeine, or alcohol.
Cold stagnation, for instance long sitting, low circulation, or low energy.
Systemic dryness, for instance dehydration, nutrient depletion, or chronic busyness.
Medication effects, which disrupt the system externally.
Each pattern calls for a slightly different approach. Someone who feels hot and tense may benefit from cooling and moistening herbs. Another who feels cold and depleted may feel better with warmth and nourishment. The aim is to help the body return to a steadier, more comfortable state, not to treat dryness directly.
What comes next
Future blogs will explore each temperament more closely, including how dryness appears in that pattern, how the pattern responds to strain, and which herbs and habits are traditionally used to restore balance.
Learn more about the humoral tradition
If you are curious about the wider framework behind these ideas, you may enjoy exploring how humoral medicine is understood by contemporary herbalists. The approach is far richer than a single article can cover and includes constitutional types, organ patterns, seasonal influences, and the ways herbs are matched to people as well as symptoms. A good starting point is the overview on Herbal Reality by Stephen Taylor, which explains the roots of the tradition and how it has shaped modern Western herbal practice.