What Makes Us Ill
In today´s Story I would like to talk about what it is about life that robs us of our innate wellness and if it is in evitable.
The beginning of cultivating health and curing disease is to know what harms us, so that we can adapt and change our habits and behaviours.
“If the root cause is known, sickness will never arise!” Lu Buwei, 3rd century BCE.
The so called “Primitive Medicine” usually describe the origin of disease to supernatural forces. But in the last at least 2000 years in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) most disease already was understood to have discernible and perceptible, nonmagical causes. And these have been categorized into three main categories.
- External causes. Which are the negative influences from the environment in the form of climate and weather.(Nowadays we would say this corresponds to infectious diseases.)
- Internal causes. Which are generated by harmful and disordered mental and emotional states.
- Miscellaneous causes. Which neither are external nor internal causes. Including constitution, diet, inactivity, overactivity, sleep and sexuality.
In our examination it is useful to consider the dynamic relationship between what the TCM calls “upright Qi” (normal Qi (Qi+)) and “pathogenic Qi” (disease-causing Qi (Qi -)), which should be in balance.
The Qi+ refers to the healthy Energy that results from our inherited constitution and the harmonious functioning of our body and mind, including what we would call the immune system but having a broader meaning. It Qi+ is strong, we have a greater resistance to harmful influences (infections, stress, bad nutrition, lack of sleep,…) and if it is weak, we are more vulnerable. If our Qi+ is strong and Qi- is moderate, we can resist harmful effects and don´t get ill, while people around us (with a weaker Qi+) are catching colds or other infections and cannot bear or handle moderate stress unharmed. Even when the Qi- is very strong (Epidemics, War, Shock,…) some peoples Qi+ ist strong enough to emerge relatvely unscathered. (Not everybody gets ill during an epidemic or return home from War with post-traumatic-stress symptoms) And even if such persons gets ill they more likely battle it and recover sooner or rapidly.
With a weak Qi+ everything is in the contrary. So concerning the causes of disease, it is important to understand this relationship between Qi+ and Qi-.
Therefor the Qigong practice of Yangsheng, the nourishment of life, could be seen as learning how to support and boost our Qi+ and find ways to avoid Qi- whenever possible. Besides harmful effects, Qqi+ also weakens with age!)
Through the ages infections always have been the №1 Killer. (Just think of the Plague, Cholera, Typhoid, Black Death, Influenca, Puerperal,…) Even today with our “improved” hygiene and modern medicine, we rudely wake up and witness the fear and terror among health professionals at the spread of diseases as SARS, Ebola and now COVID 19.
Though bacterias and viruses were unknown in the beginning of TCM, it nevertheless was able to construct approaches to treat many of the symptoms and after-effects. The theoretical structure based on the idea of external pathogenic factors, called “the six evils” which are attacks by weather and climate.
“Excessive cold, heat, dryness, wetness, wind, excessive and continuous rains or fog — if these seven influence the vital essence, then life is harmed!” Lu Buwei, 3rd century BCE.
So the six evils are: Wind, Cold, Damp, Dryness, Heat and Fire. (By the way, the idea of weather and climate as pathogenic factors is found in every culture. (i.e. “to catchc a cold” = “Being attacked by wind (combined with cold or heat)))
Recently science discovered that roughly 25% of our DNA changes in response to the seasons and other research revealed a close relationship between external environmental factors and disease. Also people with chronic headaches or migrene report that weather changes can cause an attack. The same happens with rheumatism and arthritis patients. And Bronchitis and other lung diseases can be triggered by cold and damp.
In the TCM Wind is concidered to be particularly harmful and is known as the “Spearpoint of hundred diseases”, since it can drive other pathogens like cold and heat into the body. So no matter if the explanation is that climate and weather directly injure the body (TCM view), that they transform viruses or bacteria or that they weaken the immune system (wstern medicine view), it is important to protect oneself from and adapting lifestyle to these pathogenic factors. And this kind of protection nowadays is much easier then it was in the past.
In one of the next Stories I will continue the Qigong and TCM view on illness and disease by taking a closer look on how to protect from external pathogens…
