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digestive system
hiccough
psychospiritual approaches
metaphors and correlations
Chinese psychophysiology:
Liver ~ Gan is the residence of the Hun (Ethereal Soul); it relates to decisiveness, control, and the principle of emergence; maintains smooth flow of Qi and Xue (Blood); controls the muscles, especially their contractility; and reflects emotional harmony and movement.
» Healthy expressions are kindness, spontaneity, and ease of movement.
» 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, tension, 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)
» 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. Chronically suppressed anger can implode and 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.
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; with the Spleen, is the root of post-natal Qi; and as Earth, relates to the ability to assimilate, stabilize, and feel centered and balanced.
» Healthy expressions are fairness, openness, and nurturance.
» Weakness, dysfunction, and illness associated with worry, anxiety, and overthinking. Worry will cause Stagnation of Qi in the Stomach and will manifest as a niggling, burning pain, belching, and nausea. Excessive mental work over a period of years leads to Deficiency of Stomach Qi.
» Stomach Xu (Deficiency) signs include slow digestion; vomiting after meals; painful eyebrows; emotionality; teariness; sadness; cold feet (Seem, p. 28); cold and shivering in the abdominal area; abdomen swollen and full; gastritis; loss of appetite; diarrhea; nausea; and leg weakness.
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.