TCM
Traditional Chinese Medicine
What causes disease? In Western medicine, germs and viruses are considered to be the primary culprits, but in traditional Chinese medicine, disease is thought to be caused by disharmonies within the body or between the body and the environment. It is the result of a struggle between hostile forces and body energy, not unlike the struggle between germs or viruses and the immune system in Western medicine.
The cause of disease in traditional Chinese medicine are divided into three basic categories. First, there are external causes, which include six atmospheric or climatic forces: wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness and fire. The second category is internal causes, which include seven emotions: joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear and shock. Third, there are two other causes, which are neither internal nor external: fatigue and food.
Secrets To Good Health – Laughter
Emotions As Causes of Diseases
Emotional Traumas
How Anger Affects Our Health
In a medically advanced world, one may rightly ask what are the advantages of taking Chinese Medicine in comparison with modern scientific medicine. Many practitioners of Chinese Medicine believe that both have a role to play in modern society.
Drugs are fast-acting, thus very useful in severe conditions of illness. On the other hand, herbs are slow-acting and never extremely potent. They are thus suitable for many chronic illnesses where a slow approach to treatment is desirable. The crude drugs, the processed herbs, release their active ingredients slowly in the system. Also, the presence of other substances may slow the absorption or may enhance the absorption of the active ingredients. It has also been shown that the active ingredients in a herb may have a different effect from the pure form.
Chinese Herbs
Prescription of Chinese Medicine
Six Atmospheric Forces As External Causes of Disease
1. Wind
2. Cold
3. Summer Heat
4. Dampness
5. Dryness
6. Fire
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How does fire produce toxic effects? At the beginning, fire consumes body fluids, creating a shortage of fluids in the body. As time goes on, the shortage of body fluids may reach the stage where the body can no longer function normally, with the result that fire takes over. Symptoms caused by toxic fire are characterized by burning sensations with pain. Most cases of infection and inflammation fall within this category, including infection of the eyes, kidneys(nephritis), or throat; inflammation of the lungs(pneumonia); and infections of the urinary system. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy used to treat cancers very often produce toxic fire in the body, which is why many cancer patients complain about nausea and sore throat.
All five atmospheric forces can be transformed into fire to cause disease, but this can happen more easily when body fluids are in short supply, a condition called “yin deficiency”. When the other five atmospheric forces are transformed into fire mainly because of a yin deficiency in the body, it is called “fire of deficiency”; when fire is caused primarily by the strength of the other five atmospheric forces, the condition is called “fire of excess”.
Seven Emotions as Internal Causes of Disease
1. Joy
2. Anger
3. Worry
4. Thought
5. Sadness
6. Fear
7. Shock
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In traditional Chinese Medicine, it is thought that emotions have an impact on internal organs because they disturb the energy balance in those organs. For example, when you are angry, the energy of your liver rushes upward to cause various symptoms in the head, including headache, high blood pressure, and stroke in severe cases, which is why, in extreme cases, a person may die after an angry outburst.
When you experience any of these basic emotions to an excessive degree and for a prolonged period of time, an energy disorder may start to affect a specific organ, or the excessive emotion might produce pathogenic fire in a specific organ.
Anger is harmful to the liver, but sadness can reduce anger.
Joy is harmful to the heart, but fear can reduce joy.
Thought is harmful to the spleen, but anger can reduce thought.
Worry and sadness are harmful to the lungs, but joy can reduce worry and sadness.
Fear and shock are harmful to the kidneys, but thought can reduce fear. ~ Nei Jing
If you are suffering from an extreme emotion and thus causing disease to your body, it is advisable to summon up the balancing emotion. This viewpoint is supported by Yi Lin Sheng (1584) which says “Medicinal herbs alone cannot treat a disorder caused by an extreme emotion. Another emotion should be engaged to reduce the extreme emotion that is causing the disorder in order to strike a balance. A healing emotion is an invisible herbal remedy.“
Controlling Your Emotions
If you feel angry now, after your anger is gone, you are very likely to be joyful, because anger gives rise to joy. If you feel joyful now, after your joy is gone, you are very likely to be in deep thought, because joy gives rise to thought. Throughout your life, you will have emotions that are constantly changing, from one to another according to three basic patterns or three ways in which emotions are related.
How To Control your emotions to strike an emotional balance
