Beyond Chaos - The Logic of Health

Author: Yu Zhengwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Now we turn to the study of broad causation.
A simple question once put health professionals in a dilemma: "People are equally exposed to the causative factors mentioned above, why do some people get sick while others remain very healthy?" Now, the answer to this question is quite clear: it is related to genes and their states. However, when the World Health Organization included mental and psychological health in the definition of health, and when the relationship between genes and their states to thinking, consciousness, personality, and mental state has not yet been fully clarified (this issue will be discussed in the next section), we can temporarily directly link mental and psychological states to the occurrence and development of certain diseases.
The results of the study of broad causation are also simple: you have the internal cause of disease—genes. You don’t get sick because your genes are not in the state of disease. Your living environment and lifestyle may lead to changes in your genes from a non-disease state to a disease state, so your genes are in a diseased state, and you enter a pathological state.
Now, let’s briefly describe the etiological views of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). You can find similarities in some basic concepts between TCM and the broad causation theory. TCM analyzes etiology with the human body’s state as the center, believing that causative factors are closely related to innate qi or post-natal qi.
Natal qi refers to the hereditary factors inherited from parents, similar to our current genetic factors; post-natal qi is similar to the influencing factors during human growth. TCM also divides post-natal qi into three major categories:
— Mental factors: TCM believes that "seven emotions" are the main mental factors affecting human health. The seven emotions are joy, anger, worry, pensiveness, sadness, fear, and shock. These emotions are closely related to the five organs, such as the saying that joy damages the heart, anger damages the liver, pensiveness damages the spleen, sadness and worry damage the lungs, and fear and shock damage the kidneys.
— Dietary factors: The relationship between diet, seven emotions, and the five organs has been discussed in the Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon). There is a lot of factual basis for the similarities between the five flavors and five qi of food and their effects on specific organs and modern medical discoveries.
— External environmental factors: TCM’s six evils (liu yin) point out the factors in the external environment that are related to health, namely wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness, and fire. The relationship between the six evils and the functions of the viscera is also described in detail in TCM classics.
The balance between natal qi and post-natal qi is the key to ensuring the body’s original qi. Once this balance is lost, the original qi and vitality will be weakened, leading to the invasion of pathogenic factors.