Effective Herbal Products for Common Diseases/TCM Health-care Regulation Program by Fumin Tang - HTML preview

Note: The terms spleen (i.e. the explanation of the term) and three visceral cavities are unique and specific to traditional Chinese medicine in its theory of the five internal organs and the six internal hollow organs.

Meridians and collaterals:

The main passages of the network are the principal channels, which connect different parts of the body and through which vital energy circulates, regulating bodily functions. The branches that diverge from the principal channels and link them with each other, forming a network throughout the body, are called collateral channels.This network constitutes the entire system of passages for circulating vital energy throughout the body, connecting the visceral organs and the limbs and joints of the body, providing communication all over the body, and regulating all bodily functions.

The theory of the five elements is one of the basic theories inherited by traditional Chinese medicine from ancient natural philosophy. It concerns the composition and evolution of the universe.

implementing conveyance, receipt and acceptance, and production and changes of things;

*Whatever pertains to metal has the property of cleaning, cutting down and contracting;

*Whatever pertains to water has the property of cooling, moistening and moving downward. Moreover, the five elements are related to each other in an intricate manner, as is shown below.

Illustrations of diagnoses made by using the theory of the five elements:

• Wood fire torturing metal: This expresses a pathological change which consists in that excessive liver fire consumes lung fluid, causing dry cough and chest pain or even hemoptysis accompanied by irritability, bitterness in the mouth, and blood-shot eyes.
• Earth failing to control water: This expresses a pathological change which consists in that a weak spleen, being unable to control the water flow, may lead to edema or retained fluid.
• Exuberant wood subjugating earth: This expresses a pathological change involving disharmony between the liver and the spleen and stomach, in which hyperactivity of the former (liver) is primary, while insufficiency of the latter (spleen and stomach) is secondary.
• Fire failing to generate earth: This expresses a pathological change in which fire of the life gate (i.e. kidney yang) is insufficient to warm the spleen and stomach, bringing on such symptoms as diarrhea, indigestion, intolerance of cold, and edema.

Thus it can be seen that application of the theory of the five elements in traditional Chinese medicine is chiefly for analysis of and research in the mutual relationships of the viscera, the channels and collaterals of the human meridian system, for study of the various physiological functions of the human body, and for clarification of their effects and influences on each other in pathological conditions.

Salivary Fluids:

This is the combination name of saliva and body fluids. It means the fluid in the human body, which is produced by chemical transformation from the minute particles of dietary water and grain.

Endogenous evils( pathogen):

This term denotes pathogenic factors, such as phlegm stasis and blood stasis in the body, posterior or secondary to some disease.

1. Phlegm:This term denotes the pathological product secreted by the respiratory tract and includes in its scope the mucous substances accumulated in the tissues of certain

c.Damp heat:This term is used to mean that owing to the fact that the spleen of the human body may not be healthy enough to transport well, dampness arises inside or, as a result of the body staying at a damp place for too long, external evils invade into it and, having been pent up and lying dormant in it for quite a time, produce heat.. The treatment should center on reducing fever and facilitating increase of moisture. The concrete therapeutic method to be adopted varies with the place of the body where the affliction occurs.