Japanese Acupuncture, LLC (480) 246-0624:
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Volume 2, No. 1: August, 2008
Oriental Medicine & On Human Conditions
Chapter One
Liver: Anger, Love, and Redemption #6
There is a famous Chinese poem created in the 7th century China. The famous part of the poem reads:
Years after years, age after age, flowers look alike.
Age after age, years after years, man is never the same.*
年年歳歳花相似
歳歳年年人不同
劉廷芝『代悲白頭翁』
*My own translation.
Flowers bloom the same way every year, but a person who looks at them is not. Man is transient and not everlasting. The poem has a tone of lovely sweetness and beauty contrasted with the uncertainty of human conditions. It has an undertone of the ominous.
Perhaps, people adore the poem because of its ambiance of sweetness. We cling to the hope rather than an uncertain doom.
Human mind is never certain. Along with happiness and joy, we carry the fear of uncertainty. Anger, fear, and love are, therefore, inseparable. We cannot define and understand the human mind, but we feel the emotions to empathize with a person. May it be your loved one, a partner, a friend, or a total stranger, we can certainly try and console.
As I mentioned in the past newsletters, ancient Chinese left nothing in understanding human ailments. They knew from the very start that a certain emotion created an illness. 2000 years ago, they knew what emotion would manifest as what illness and where in the body system. Above all, they knew how to treat it.
For example, there are acupuncture points named specifically for the sadness, the will, the anger and the soul, the worry (or over-thinking) and the intelligence, and the spirit (mental and emotional). Another is the Gate (門) point. All the Gate points named the Spirit (神) are important in psychological and psychosomatic healings. Additionally, there are quite a few points named the Devil* that take care of special and unusual situations and therefore are important even though they are not often used.
*Devil (鬼) point is either an unique name or an additional name to a certain point. The name is not commonly used today but is in the ancient texts.
Readers who read my past newsletters would know that the Will is the Kidney Element and is the base of the action when the Liver Element activates the excitement. Anger turns to the Soul, the Soul leads to the destiny. The Soul manifests as respect and confidence which are the Heart Element, and when the Intention in the Heart Element merges with the destiny, the purpose takes over, and one is on the way to self-actualization, knowing who he really is ("I Am").
What happens if one Element is weak or sick, and how does the imbalance affect the body and the psych? To explain, I need to talk briefly about the notion of the Five Element. For now, I want readers to understand that the Kidney Element is the mother of the Liver. The Liver Element is, therefore, the son. Liver Element is the mother of the Heart. The Heart Element is, therefore, the son.
I start from the Kidney Element. The kidneys have a very close relationship with the heart. Arrhythmia, for example, immediately affects the kidney function, or any kidney failure affects the heart conversely. There are many reasons for arrhythmia, and one of them is the stress. Excessive stress causes the blood acidic level to rise up, affecting the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system. The adrenal system is particularly affected since it is responsible in regulating the stress related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
When arrhythmia happens, its energetic immediately manifests on the left arm at PC-4 (Pericardium point named Xi-Men: = Xi-Cleft Gate: on the flexor aspect of the forearm, about three fingers width distal to the crease of the elbow, a Japanese point) and travels to PC-6 (Nei Guan = Inner Pass: guan also means the Gate: on the flexor aspect of he forearm, about an inch and a half proximal to the crease of the wrist), and immediately flips and transfers to SJ-5 (Wei Guan = Outer Pass: exactly opposite side of PC-6 on the forearm), then runs through the San Jiao channel as electric sensation. In this case, one must immediately open the first Gate, HT-7 (Shen Men = God or Spirit Gate: at the wrist joint, the proximal border of the pisiform bone), to restore the irregular Qi flow and to calm the Qi and the mind. For irregular pulse, HT-4 (Ling Dao = Spirit Pathway: at the radial side of the tendon, about one inch proximal to HT-7) is also a good
point. The difference between the two is that when acute, HT-7 is better, and for a regulation of the heart beat, HT-4 works well. In addition, a combination of PC and SJ points or a combination of PC and Sp points is highly recommended.
Once the energetic goes through the left arm, it enters the body and manifests at around Du-11 on the back (Shen Dao = God or Spirit Pathway: at the fifth thoracic vertebra). If one were to chase the energetic with acupuncture, he will end up at Ren-14 (Ju Que = Great Gateway: on the midline of the abdomen, slightly inferior to the apex of the xiphoid process)* Therefore, if one were to prevent arrhythmia and other heart ailments, Ren-14 becomes an important point.
*Of course, not all symptoms follow the course, but I think this is a very good example of how a certain energy runs through our body. Notice that all the names indicated here have either Gate, Pathway, or Gateway. Chasing it with acupuncture following the course is very interesting.
Arrhythmia is scary, and fear is the Kidney Element. Fear will directly attack the joy of Heart Element, and once the joy is displaced with fear, the mind is disturbed. Kidney is the mother of the Liver. When the Liver is weakened, its anger or depression element further aggravates the mind. If one is weak minded, manic may set in, throwing all emotions out of balance. In Oriental Medicine, this is called the Shen (Spirit) Disturbance. If the neurosis is due to the weak heart, it gives oily sweat on the palm of the hands (where Pericardium and Heart channels run).
When the autonomic nervous system is in imbalance, one becomes more fearful and frightened by a sudden sound or even a negative word. He may have weird, fiery, or scary dreams. Anxiety makes him act more agitatedly and nervously and starts to worry everything in the daily life.*
*Whether you agree or not, I am just giving one sample assessment.
To restore the mind (the Spirit), one must treat the autonomic nervous and adrenal systems. I write how to do so in the next newsletter.
© 2008 Dr. Y. Frank Aoi/Japanese Acupuncture
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