When probing the reason behind a person's illness, Chinese physicians classify them into internal, external, non-internal, and non-external causes. External causes are due to changes in the six weather patterns, which include wind, fire, heat, moisture, dryness, and cold.
Conversely, internal causes are due to changes in the seven emotions: happiness, anger, worry, pondering, sorrow, fear, and surprise. For non-internal and non-external factors, the illness is not due to the weather or the emotional changes in a person but due to other causes such as overeating, consuming contaminated foods, suffering cuts by sharp objects, or animal bites.
Our seven emotions can cause injuries to our five internal organs and thus cause illnesses. Joy can cause heart illnesses; anger can cause liver diseases; excessive worrying can cause problems of the spleen; sorrow can cause lung conditions; shock and fear can cause kidney diseases.
Additionally the five internal organs each represent one of the five elements. Chinese medicine takes a unique path in treating illnesses caused by emotion by correcting the balance of the five elements. Although this may be termed by modern medicine as psychiatric treatment, there are significant differences between these treatments.
In the cases when Wen Zhi, Hua Tuo, and Zhang Zhi He utilized anger to cure illnesses, their patients were actually afflicted with problems of the spleen. In Chinese medicine, “the liver represents anger and the spleen represents worry”; anger can harm the liver while excessive worrying can cause damage to the spleen.
Kings and governors of the past, as well as many of today's working people, frequently have to deal with stress and worries on a daily basis. Since the liver is of the wood element and the spleen is of the earth element, wood can restrain earth, and thus one can cure diseases of the spleen by using the liver’s wood element to balance the excess of earth elements.
Understanding how traditional Chinese medicine works can broaden our treatment options. This could be beneficial, as it provides us with another simple, effective tool to treat illnesses and save lives.
Part 1: theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/22110/
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