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digestive system
food poisoning
psychospiritual approaches

metaphors and correlations

Chinese psychophysiology:
Stomach ~ Wei is the Sea of Nourishment and origin of all fluids; transforms and digests food so that the Spleen can separate the distilled food essences; and relates to ability to assimilate, stabilize, and feel balanced and centered.
» Healthy expressions are fairness, openness, and nurturance.
» Weakness, dysfunction, and illness are associated with worry, anxiety, and overthinking. Anger, frustration, and resentment affect the Stomach indirectly through Liver Qi Stagnation which invades the Stomach. (Maciocia, p. 267)

Liver ~ Gan is the residence of the Hun (Ethereal Soul); it relates to decisiveness, control, and the principle of emergence; cleanses the Xue (Blood); maintains smooth flow of Qi and Xue (Blood); and reflects emotional harmony and movement.
» Healthy expressions are kindness, spontaneity, and ease of movement.
» Liver Shi (Excess) signs include discontent; anger; pain in lumbar region and genitals (Seem, p. 28); muscular tension; excessive sex drive; insomnia; moodiness; excitability; genital diseases; red, tearing eyes; compulsive energy; and bitter taste in the mouth. Especially against a background of chronically suppressed anger, the stress of toxins in food can give rise to Fire in the Liver and Gall Bladder, with symptoms of irritability, bitter taste, headaches, etc., and a tendency to "invade" the Stomach, Spleen, and Intestines.
» Liver Qi Stagnation reflects and accentuates emotional constraint as the Liver's function of facilitating smooth flow in the body is constricted. Stagnation is associated with frustration, irritability, and feeling stuck. With time this pattern tends to produce a gloomy emotional state of constant resentment, repressed anger or depression, along with tightness in the chest, frequent sighing, abdominal tension or distension, and/or a feeling of a lump in the throat with difficulty in swallowing. (Maciocia, p. 216)

Small Intestine ~ Xiao Chang receives and transforms food by separating the Clear (Pure) from the Turbid (Impure), with the Clear becoming bodily fluids and the Turbid becoming urine - this function also operates on the emotional, mental, and spiritual levels; regulates quality of Xue (Blood); and is responsible for digestion and nutrient absorption.
»
Healthy expressions are love, joy, and the ability to discriminate; and, as the Princely Fire, warmth, vitality, and excitement.


therapies

process paradigm: (experientially oriented)
• What is the symptom preventing me from doing? What is the symptom making me do? (see process interview: digestive system)

related materia medica listings:
the shadow and physical symptoms
converting a symptom to a signal
process paradigm


footnotes

Reprinted from The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, Maciocia, Giovanni, 1989, by permission of the publisher Churchill Livingstone, a division of Elsevier Limited.