Classical Chinese Medicine
Organs and Elements
Every culture has a concept of foods that are healthy and foods that are unhealthy. From early childhood, we are told that some things are good for us and some things are bad for us. And that it’s ok to eat the bad foods, just not too much and not until after we eat the […]
The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, written approximately 2,000 years ago, describes a series of systematic correspondences that group material phenomena according to five-phases. In this correspondence the metal phase has resonance with and is connected to the Lungs and Large Intestine, the season of fall, the color of white, the flavor of pungent […]
The concept of organs in Chinese medicine can sometimes be a confusing topic for patients. In a Western culture, it can be very difficult to understand that Liver depression (this is the technical term for Liver Qi stagnation) is not going to show up on a blood test. This brings up the very important topic […]
“The Kidneys store the Jing” is one of the stated functions of the Kidneys in Chinese medicine. The term Jing is one which has no English language equivalent. It refers to a substance which is endowed to each person, through their parents, at the moment of conception. It has both a qualitative and a quantitative […]
The Spleen is the organ whose Chinese function is most difficult to understand from a Western biomedical perspective. Unlike all of the other organs, the Chinese concept of the Spleen has very little to do with the anatomical spleen (see also Nothing to Study – The Concept of an Organ in Chinese Medicine). Some of […]