Eight Principles Flashcards
What are the Eight Principles?
Exterior-Interior
Cold-Heat
Vacuity-Repletion
Yin-Yang
What is a Combination disease? What are some examples?
- A two or three-fold concurrence of either unpaired principles, or of interior & exterior.
- e.g. Interior-exterior combination disease.
- e.g. Vacuity-heat-interior combination disease.
- NOTE: Most diseases fall into the category of Combination disease.
What is a Conversion disease? What are some examples?
- Displacement of sx of one principle by sx of the opposing principle of the pair.
- e.g. External pattern converts to an interior pattern (generally indicates abatement of right qi & advancing pathogenic qi).
- e.g. Interior pattern exits to exterior (generally indicates recovery of right qi & abatement of pathogenic qi).
- e.g. Cold pattern converts to heat pattern.
What are some factors that affect Conversion disease?
- Strength of pathogenic qi
- Vacuity of right qi
- Inappropriate treatment
What is a Complex disease?
Two possibilities for Complex disease (both are contradictory, but there are signs of coexistence):
1) Simultaneous cold & heat
2) Simultaneous vacuity & repletion
What are some examples of Complex disease?
- True Heat & False Cold
- True Cold & False Heat
- True Repletion & False Vacuity
- True Vacuity & False Repletion
What are the essential signs & sx of an Exterior disease?
1) Aversion to Wind or Cold
2) Fever or Chills
3) Floating pulse
4) Acute or short duration of signs & sx
What is the pathomechanism for aversion to wind or cold?
Depression of lung defense / wei qi causes aversion to wind or cold.
What is the pathomechanism for headache & limb pain?
Pathogenic qi obstructs qi & blood flow in the channels, causing H/A & limb pain.
What is the pathomechanism for nasal congestion & cough?
Obstruction of lung diffusion causes nasal congestion & cough.
What is the pathomechanism for cold leading to lack of sweat?
Cold constricts the pores, so there is no sweat.
What is the pathomechanism for cold leading to sweat?
- Patient is deficient and Wei Qi is vacuous, so pores stay open and there is sweat.
- Or, Ying Qi is vacuous, therefore not contained internally and comes out as sweat.
What are the main causes of internally generated disease (aka Interior disease)?
1) Externally-contracted pathogens penetrate to the interior (conversion of Exterior disease to Interior disease).
2) Direct strike of external pathogens to the interior.
3) Other causes including: affect-mind damage, dietary irregularities, taxation fatigue, viscera-bowel or qi-blood irregularities, medications
What is “direct strike”? What are some examples?
- When something has penetrated the interior directly.
- e.g. eating something cold, like ice cream or salad
- e.g. eating something very hot
- e.g. injection of something like chemotherapy or flu shot
- e.g. immersion into cold water
What are some general signs & sx of Interior disease?
- Pulse is deep (does not necessarily mean cold or vacuous).
- Disease course generally long.
- Disease generally more severe.
- Disease onset may be either acute or insidious.
- No aversion to wind or cold.
- No floating pulse.
What are the 4 common possibilities of Interior disease?
- Interior Heat
- Interior Repletion
- Interior Cold
- Interior Vacuity
What is a Midstage pattern?
- Shao Yang pattern: half-exterior, half-interior
- Disease hasn’t decided whether it will move in or out.
- Externally contracted pathogens are depressed between the exterior & interior.
What is a Dual Exterior-Interior pattern? What are some examples?
- A complex condition where the same pathogen invades Interior & Exterior at the same time.
- e.g. Cold Exterior pattern & Cold Interior pattern
- e.g. Hot Exterior pattern & Hot Interior pattern
What are the some general signs & sx of Cold patterns?
- Moist white tongue fur
- No thirst or thirst w/ desire for warm fluids
What are some Repletion Cold signs & sx?
- Tight pulse (whereas slow pulse is a Vacuity Cold sign)
- Repletion Cold signs tend to be abdominal: pain in stomach duct or abdomen, fulminant vomiting, fulminant diarrhea or constipation
- Fulminant panting & fullness in chest
- Green-blue facial complexion
What are some Vacuity Cold signs & sx?
- Slow pulse
- Aversion to cold
- Somber-white facial complexion
- Desire for quietness
- Curled up recumbent posture (“shrimp position”)
- Counterflow cold of limbs
- Long voidings of clear urine
What are the causes of Cold patterns?
1) Yin pathogens enter body (Repletion Cold - “when yin is exuberant there is cold”)
2) Debilitated Yang Qi (Vacuity Cold - “when yang is vacuous there is cold”)
What are some Repletion Heat signs & sx?
- Red face, red eyes
- Vigorous fever
- Vexation & agitation
- Thirst for cool fluids
- Hard dry bound stool
- Short voidings of reddish urine
- Tongue: red or crimson body, yellow fur
- Pulse: rapid, surging, large
What is the difference between Vexation, Irritation, and Agitation?
- Vexation refers to HT only.
- Irritation refers to LV only.
- Agitation affiliated with Heat causing movement internally.
What are some Vacuity Heat signs & sx?
- Vexing heat in the five hearts
- Steaming bone tidal fever (pt feels very hot internally though there may not be sweating; tidal means fever more towards end of day)
- Dry throat & mouth
- Tongue: smooth, bare, red
- Pulse: fine, rapid
What are the causes of Heat patterns?
1) Invasion of Yang pathogen (“when yang prevails, there is heat”)
2) Insufficiency of Yin-humor (“when yin is vacuous, there is heat”)
What are the causes of Vacuity patterns? What is the treatment principle?
- Weak constitution
- Damage to right qi
- Due to illness, loss of blood, loss of jing, or great sweating
- NOTE: Vacuity refers to emptiness of vital substance associated with that organ (SP=qi; LV=blood; KD=yin, qi, yang, jing; etc)
- TX: Supplementation, Tonification, Nourishment
What are the causes of Repletion patterns? What is the treatment principle?
- Repletion is associated with exuberant pathogenic qi AND the strength of the body’s reaction to the pathogenic qi. (Pathogens are always replete, but it’s the body’s response that varies.)
- TX: Draining, Clearing
What are some Yin Vacuity signs & sx? What is the treatment principle?
- Sx: nighttime sweating, dizziness, tinnitus, thirst, dry mouth or throat, malar flush, 5-center heat, insomnia, red face/flushing due to yang floating up unfettered
- Signs: red-crimson tongue w/ little or no coat, thready or fine pulse
- Organs most affected: LV, KD, LU, ST, HT
- TX: Clear heat, Enrich yin
What are some causes of Yin Vacuity?
- Heat from warm disease that depletes yin fluids.
- Excessive blood loss, sweating, vomiting, or diarrhea.
- Enduring disease, taxation fatigue, excessive sex, emotions.
- Excessive intake of warm, dry medicinals that rob the yin.
What are some Yang Vacuity signs & sx? What is the treatment principle?
- Sx: bright white facial complexion, fatigue, lack of strength, aversion to cold, lazy speaking, cold limbs, lying curled up, spontaneous sweating, clear copious urination, loose/sloppy stool
- Signs: pale & puffy tongue w/ white wet coat, slow & forceless pulse
- TX: Warm the Yang, Disperse Cold
What are some causes of Yang Vacuity?
- Delay of treatment of internal cold.
- Excessive intake of cold medicinals or food.
- Excessive taxation, old age.
