Questions on Organs and 5 Elements

tutor

Dear Prof Du,

Hi, this is my first lesson in TCM and I have some few issues I want clarified.
1. Am I correct in saying that both the Heart and Liver in TCM has functions related to the mind? Although it is the Heart that houses the mind and the Liver the emotions but it seems that some problems in the Liver could also result to insomnia, dream-disturbed sleep, dizziness and vertigo which are neurological symptoms.
2. In the theory of the 5 elements, if an element is in excessive state, could it affect all the other elements within its sphere of influence? For example, could an excess in Liver Qi affect the Heart (Mother-Child relationship), Kidney (Child-Mother relationship), Spleen (subjugation pathway), and Lung (reverse restriction pathway)? If that is true, then pathology in a single Organ could affect the whole spectrum of physiological processes in the whole body.
3. How important climactic conditions in the diagnosis and treatment in TCM? The concept of the 5 elements assumes the presence of winter, spring, summer and fall. Here in the Philippines we have only 2 climates: summer and rainy season. How do we correlate then the 5 elements with our 2 seasons?

Thank you.

mike

tutor

Dear Mike,
You are welcome to log in this forum and paste your posts!

Now let's clarify your questions.

1). Yes they do.
In fact all the five Zang organs are related more or less with the mind or the mentality.

2). Yes it does.
That's what we call the holistic entity of the body.
Of course the pathology will be in different severity according to the condition of each individual organs.

3). The climatic factors certainly are very important in making diagnosis and treatment in terms of traditional Chinese medicine.
Just as you said, in Philippines, you have only two seasons, so you cannot think the five ones.
So please find what climatic features are there in your place?
Traditional Chinese medicine doesn't say you must have five seasons.


Men have sperm while women have menstruation, so we won't say "how can we treatt my gynecological diseases?"
Right?

Tutor