What do you know about urine and stool?

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Why are Urine and Stool So Important?

Human life cannot exist without eating, sleeping and waste excretion. As Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a practice based on rich experiences, it does not overlook these important aspects of our existence. Unlike Western medicine doctors, TCM physicians make diagnoses based on sensory perceptions to gather clinical information, and, usually this is done without needing other types of tests. Examination techniques generally include medical history assessment, smelling/listening, palpation and inspection of the body. See article on " What to Expect from a TCM Doctors' Examination." To a large extent, we make judgments about our health state using our sensory perceptions all the time, although we may not be consciously aware of it. For example, we may make judgments about our health based on the state of our spirit, skin condition and breath odor. For thousands of years,
TCM practitioners have honed these basic skills as the mainstay of health assessment. These clinical data observations are further analyzed in a systematic manner. Eventually, specific symptom profiles form the criteria for TCM diagnoses, which are correlated with particular underlying body disharmony patterns. This process may also be referred to in TCM as syndrome differentiation or identification.
When doing a consultation, a TCM physician usually asks about urination patterns and bowel movements, details that may seem irrelevant to the complaint of the individual being examined. Actually, this information is important for understanding and predicting pathological changes of our internal organs. Waste products of urine and stool provide a lot of information about the state of health balance in our body. They may also be early warning symptoms of certain diseases, so prevention measures may be instituted early on to prevent further progression.


TCM Understanding of How Stool and Urine Are Formed

Chapter 21 of the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic) states: "When fluids enter into the stomach, they will be carried upward to the spleen and go through transformation and transportation functions. They are then turned into nutrient essence and are transferred further upward to the lungs. The lungs move and adjust the water channels, which direct the fluids to descend to the kidney and bladder. As a result, the whole process enables the water vapor to scatter to the skin pores and irrigate the meridians of the organs." These statements reflect that body fluids are made of nutrient essence absorbed in the stomach and spleen where they are disseminated and descended by lungs to the entire body. Finally, the kidneys collect "turbid" water or left over body fluids. If the body cannot reuse these fluids, they are sent to the bladder for storage and excreted as urine. TCM describes the urinary formation in the kidneys and bladder as the vaporization process.

The process of stool formation is similar. After food is received and ripened in the stomach, it is transformed and transported by the spleen. The "pure" (nutrient essence) goes from the spleen up to the heart and lungs where it is distributed to the whole body; the "impure" (partly digested foods) go to the small intestine where it is further separated into "pure" and "impure" substances. Finally the "impure" (waste) substances are directed down to the large intestine. The large intestine receives the "impure" parts of the digested food from the small intestine and continues to absorb water from these materials. At the end of the process, stool is formed and excreted through the anus.

Everything is interdependent and mutually interactive according to TCM theory; formation and excretion of urine and stool are supported by every part of the entire internal system. Among the organs, the kidney and the liver are actively involved with each other. The kidneys' vaporization function ensures the proper distribution of body fluids and excretion of urine by the bladder; moreover, the kidneys' propelling and warming functions enhance spleen, stomach and intestine functions. Because the liver regulates qi movements, it's flowing and spreading functions are crucial to spleen health.
Flow chart of stool and urine formations from a TCM perpective





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