Waching daily Oct 31 2017

Mrs. Liu recalls that her stomach problems

seemed to begin with a mishap

that occurred 23 years ago in her home.

My parents passed away together,

and I was extremely depressed.

Both of my parents were gone,

and I couldn`t bear it all at once.

Mrs. Liu lost both her father and mother within three months of each other.

This blow was so hard, it left her reeling.

I didn`t eat or drink at all,

and this lasted until the fourth day,

when I thought that I should eat.

So what did I eat?

Sunflower seeds.

I grabbed a handful like this,

and ate them, after which I couldn`t eat anymore.

From that point on, not only did Mrs. Liu`s appetite diminish,

she also noticed some new changes.

I had a bad temper,

a really nasty temper.

She would get angry,

and lose her temper at the slightest problem.

I was frustrated.

I always tried to find a fault in something,

even if they didn`t say anything wrong.

The person who she found most faults with was her husband.

Sometimes he would encourage me to eat

and tell me to keep eating.

I said I couldn`t eat anymore.

He said, `Eat a bit more. It`s okay.`

I would say, `Do you want me to eat myself to death?

You know I can`t eat any more, but you force me to eat?

Aren`t you hurting me?`

Her condition grew worse and worse with her anxiety,

and life began to be torturous for Mrs. Liu.

It was so painful.

It was really bad.

My life had lost meaning.

Looking at your tone and condition now,

I can`t tell that

you have had such an experience.

TCM has the theory of the five elements,

and the liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidneys

corresponding to wood, fire, earth, metal and water,

as well as anger, joy, pensiveness, despondence and fright.

Anger corresponds with the liver. Correct.

If anger harm the liver,

the liver Qi can harm the stomach,

causing the Qi of both the liver and stomach to become stagnant.

So, just like this audience member said,

their stomach hurts when they get angry.

TCM believes that liver Qi can harm the stomach

leading to stagnation of the Qi

in the liver and stomach.

TCM believe that pain comes from this stagnation

which is why you have stomach pain.

No wonder! In the past,

I`d heard that anger harms the liver,

and then once, last year.

I suddenly lost my temper,

and I couldn`t eat anymore.

My stomach hurt so bad.

The TCM explanation for this is that

the liver Qi harms the stomach,

leading to stagnation of the Qi,

which causes pain.

That`s why you have stomach pain. Now I know.

So we have to really emphasize that

mood is closely related to the stomach.

Mrs. Liu`s pain on both sides was actually

related to her stagnant liver Qi.

Yes. Because as we said before.

if the liver and stomach lack harmony,

if there is stagnant Qi, this often leads

to stomach pain on both sides.

Why do both sides hurts?

Because they are locations that the liver meridian flows through.

This is the liver meridian in the middle of both nipples.

Many people, when they have stagnant liver Qi,

will experience breast pain, and swelling.

There can also be pain

in the ribs or in the abdomen,

or on both sides of the abdomen.

This is actually related to the location

that the liver meridian flows through.

If your Qi doesn`t flow freely,

it often leads to pain here.

Just now, Dr. Li first told us

about the five elements in TCM theory.

That`s right.

Mutual promotion and restrain between the five elements.

It sounds like a very deep, abstruse concept.

Let`s see if there are any explanations

from modern medicine.

Modern research has found that

atrophic gastritis is related to mood.

When people are angry or nervous,

gastric juice secretion increases significantly,

and too much stomach acid,

found in gastric juice can disrupt

the protective barrier that is the gastric mucosa,

and even lead to damaging pathological changes.

When people are scared, depressed.

or pensive,

this can decrease circulation in the stomach,

which suppress secretion of stomach acid

and also weakens gastric motility.

Weakened gastric motility means that

the combination of partially-digested food

and gastric juices that remain in the stomach

for a long time damages the gastric mucosa.

Right.

Modern medicine has also proven that

mood is related to the stomach. Yes, that`s right.