People might think, "Isn't dryness just a lack of water? If so, shouldn't drinking more water solve the problem?" Actually, that’s not the case. Many people who experience dryness do drink plenty of water, but the water either passes out of their bodies quickly as urine or just sloshes around in their stomach and intestines. These individuals still feel dry after drinking—they feel thirsty and drink water, but their thirst is not quenched.
Why is this? The reason is that water is just water, while bodily fluids are bodily fluids—they are not the same thing. In other words, for water to truly relieve dryness and quench thirst, it must be transformed into bodily fluids through digestion. You may have heard the phrase "generating fluids to quench thirst" (生津止渴), which means that only when water is converted into bodily fluids can it truly alleviate dryness and thirst. How does this transformation happen? It requires two processes: "digestion" (消) and "transformation" (化), which are carried out by the stomach and small intestine, respectively.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the stomach is primarily responsible for processing water. When people drink iced beverages or eat ice cubes and ice cream, the stomach must first heat them—at least to body temperature. Then, through its churning and breakdown processes, the stomach converts the cold liquid into water that matches the body’s temperature. The small intestine then takes over, transforming this water into bodily fluids. TCM refers to this process as "distinguishing and separating the pure from the impure" (泌别清浊).
Therefore, to help the body quickly convert water into essential bodily fluids, it is crucial to reduce the burden on the digestive system. This is why, the thirstier you are, the more you should drink warm water.
—From The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine: Four-Season Health Preservation, “Autumn Health Tips” (pp. 177–178).
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