Week 8 - Internal Cause of Disease

Question 1

What kind of emotions cause harm?

Answer 1

long-lasting and strong emotions

Question 2

Why is it that emotions cause issue?

Answer 2

Emotions affect the organs directly.

Emotions cause diseases of the organs, and diseases of the organs can also cause excessive emotions to
arise.

Question 3

Which emotion damages liver?

Answer 3

Anger

Question 4

Which damages heart?

Answer 4

Joy

Question 5

Which damages lungs?

Answer 5

Anxiety

Question 6

Which damages kidneys?

Answer 6

Fear

Question 7

Why is the heart always affected?

Answer 7

Damage from emotions will always affect the heart, as well as the organ because it is the emperor

Question 8

What causes fire to form?

Answer 8

long term qi stagnation - stemming from emotions

• Excessive emotions make qì flow improperly.
• When qì flows improperly, it accumulates rather than circulates.
• When qì accumulates, heat is produced because qì is hot

Question 9

What does joy - xi do?

Answer 9

Damages the heart (controlling mental activities).
• Causes qì to slacken (move slowly or relax). 喜則氣緩。
• Excessive joy scatters the spirit. Líng Shū, Chapter 8
• Includes excessive excitement, excessive stimulation, excessive enJOYment, addictions.
• Leads to heart fire or heart yīn deficiency heat: mania (狂kuáng), unceasing laughter.

Question 10

What dose anger - nu do?

Answer 10

• Unexpressed anger causes liver qì constraint. This includes resentment, bitterness, irritability, frustration, depression. These also damage the
liver.
• Also, digestive problems when the liver
horizontally attacks spleen or stomach, as liver easily invades the earth organs.

Question 11

What does thought - si do?

Answer 11

• Damages the spleen
• Causes qì to bind (knot). 思則氣結。
• Includes obsessive or excessive thought, mental work, or studying.
• Weakens spleen function, causing fatigue, loss of appetite, loose stools, phlegm

Question 12

What does sorrow - bei do?

Answer 12

• (sadness, grief) 
• Damages the lungs 
• Causes qì to disperse (dissolve, scatter). 悲
則氣消。
• Sorrow leads to lung qì deficiency: 
breathlessness, fatigue, crying, sighing

Question 13

What does anxiety - you do?

Answer 13

• (melancholy or worry)
• Damages the lungs and spleen.
• Excessive thinking and anxiety lead to qì binding.
• Worry and anxiety damage the spleen, causing fatigue, loss of appetite, loose stools.
• It also binds lung qì causing breathlessness, stiff shoulders and neck

Question 14

What does fear - kong do?

Answer 14

• Damages the kidneys.
• Causes qì to descend. 恐則氣下。
• Depletes kidney qì causing bed wetting or incontinence

Question 15

What does fright [shock/startle] - jing do?

Answer 15

• Damages the kidneys (and heart).
• Causes derangement of qì. Fright makes qì chaotic. 驚則氣亂。
• Palpitations, breathlessness, insomnia,
night sweating, dry mouth, dizziness, tinnitus

Question 16

How do emotions adversley affect qi mechanism?

Answer 16

joy - qi slackens and scatters spirit

sorrow disperses qi

fright deranges qi mechanism

fear descends qi

thought AND anxiety make qi bind

anger rises qi

Question 17

Neither-External-Nor-Internal- Causes of Disease

Answer 17

Also known as Neutral Causes. This includes:

• improper diet
• work and rest
• sexual taxation
• trauma
• improper medical treatment
• parasites and toxins

Question 18

improper diet issues

Answer 18

overeating or malnutrition:

• The quantity of food should be appropriate. Extremes result in disease. Either damages the middle jiāo (spleen and stomach).
• The spleen-stomach suffer first, but eventually every organ suffers, as the spleen helps to make qì-blood for the whole body and transports qì and fluids throughout the body
• dampness accumulates and causes phlegm

Question 19

What should you do to have a better diet?

Answer 19

Balance - use the 5 flavors

• sour / wood
• sweet / earth
• bitter / fire
• acrid (or spicy) / metal
• salty / water

Question 20

What fucks up your diet?

Answer 20

too much spicy sugar and booze rotten food for good digestion, you should eat when relaxed and calm

Question 21

What is lao taxation?

Answer 21

(勞láo overwork) causes consumption of qì. This includes people who exercise too much. Long-term taxation consumes essence, affecting aging, stamina, and ability to resist disease

Question 22

what about more rest?

Answer 22

• Excessive rest impairs circulation of qì-blood.
• It affects the spleen, which leads to poor
transformation-transportation.
• This engenders phlegm and dampness because qìmoves and transforms fluids.
• Activity moves qì and scatters dampness

Question 23

what is sexual taxation?

Answer 23

• Excessive sexual activity injures kidney
essence and yīn.
• For men, this is mainly through ejaculation.
• For women, this also includes pregnancies
and childbirth.
• Sexual activity should be adjusted for age,
health, season, etc

Question 24

when shouldn’t you have sex

Answer 24

Traditionally, it is said that one should not have sex when
• late at night or after a long journey
• ill or exhausted
• drunk or angry
• the weather changes drastically
• the woman is menstruating, pregnant, nursing, or just after she has
given birth

Question 25

What is right qi and evil qi?

Answer 25

正氣Right qì is yáng, life, and 邪氣evil qì is
yīn, death.

• Right qì is the sum of all the healthy qì and
substances in the body that can resist disease.

•Evil qì opposes right qì and refers to the various causative factors of disease

Question 26

What makes disease happen?

Answer 26

Most of the time (but not always), there is first an imbalance within the body. Evils cannot invade unless there is insufficient right qì or the evils are very strong

Question 27

Supporting the Right

and Dispelling the Evil

Answer 27

• Diagnosis the relative strength of the evil and the right qì.
• Treatment should mobilize the right qì to defeat the evil.
• If right qì is strong, the evil will be
expelled.
• If the evil is expelled, the right qì can recover its strength

In a well-designed treatment, you can usually supplement and drain at the same time, but you must be careful:

• You must be careful not to supplement the evil.
• You must be careful not to take the evil deeper if it is still on the exterior

Question 28

What is supplementation?

Answer 28

Supplementation: for deficiency. Invigorates resistance, strengthens whatever is weak, restores function or substance.
• 補bǔ means to mend or repair, as in
patching clothes.
• You can supplement yīn, yáng, qì,
blood, or any of the organs (especially spleen and kidney

Question 29

What is draining?

Answer 29

Draining: an offensive method for
excess. Attacking the evil. Eliminates evils, reduces, expels, transforms or scatters evils or accumulations.
• 瀉xiè means to pour out, or drain,
like the dirty water in a bathtub.
• To use draining alone, the right qì of
the patient must be strong.
• If the right qì is weak, draining must
be combined with supplementation

Question 30

What to do in situations with mixed deficiency and excess

Answer 30

• Most often, drain the evil first or strongest.
• When the evil is resolved, strengthen the body.
• When there is evil qì, supplementation can
strengthen the evil.
• Supplementation should be primary only if the patient is too weak to receive draining treatment