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Before you heal someone, ask him if he is willing to give up the things that made him sick.
— Hippocrates
This is perhaps the most important principle of Chinese medicine. The purpose of an examination and treatment is always to find the cause and, if possible, eliminate it. The only permanent way to solve a condition/imbalance is to eliminate the cause.
To give a simple example. Suppose you have a dog with an itch, and that itch is caused by a hypersensitivity to chicken. Then you can continue to give that dog chicken and in the meantime suppress the itching with anti-inflammatories. But isn’t it better and easier to stop giving the dog chicken so that he doesn’t get an itch anymore? This seems simple, but in practice it unfortunately happens all too often that symptoms are combated but that the cause is not removed.
The catch is that it is not always easy to find the cause. In Chinese medicine, we often talk about the “root” of the problem. If an imbalance has existed for a long time, one symptom can lead to another symptom and it is not always easy to find the root of the problem. And in some cases, the cause cannot be eliminated, for example, in a congenital disorder. But that does not alter the fact that it is worth trying to find out and solve the root of the problem!
The TCM recognizes external (from the outside) and internal (from the inside) factors that can lead to disease.
The external factors are:
•Trauma
• The six external pathogenic factors (EPF):
o Wind
o Cold
o Summer heat
o Drought
o Fire/heat
o Vapour
With trauma you can think of, for example, a fall, an accident, a bite wound, a sprain of a joint, etc.
The six external pathogenic factors are not something we as Westerners are used to. In Western medicine, we talk about viruses and bacteria, among other things. In Chinese medicine we are talking about the above external factors that can enter the body (through the skin, nose or mouth) and enter into a “fight” with the resistance of the body. If the body’s resistance is stronger than the EPF, the EPF is overcome and no symptoms arise. But if the body’s resistance is weaker than the EPF or if the EPF is too strong, the EPF can move further into the body and cause disease. The EPF can only attack the body or in a combination of a number of factors, for example, a typical cold in the TCM is often described as wind-cold. And if you think about this, this also makes sense. After all, when do we catch a cold? When it is cold and windy outside and our resistance is not optimal. And also in the west we know that we can get a stiff neck if we sit with our neck in the wind / draft and that we can overheat or get heatstroke if we sit in the sun for too long. And if people are in drought for a long time (such as in the desert) they can suffer from nosebleeds and blockages.
Each factor causes specific symptoms and favors specific locations in the body. As an acupuncturist, I use this knowledge to determine which EPF we are dealing with.
These are the factors that can lower our resistance, making the EPF more likely and these are the factors that often lead to more chronic diseases.
The TCM recognizes a number of groups of internal factors that can cause disease:
•Diet
•Way of life
•Emotions
This concerns the quantity and quality of the food. Too much or too little food is of course not good. It can also be too much or too little of certain ingredients of the diet such as too much salt, too much fat, too few vitamins etc.
Good quality nutrition is essential for the health of ourselves and our pets and we actually know that. From the TCM point of view, fresh food contains more Qi. Processed food contains little or no Qi. The way of preparing the food also affects the amount of Qi in the diet. Since the Qi in the body can only be replenished through our diet and breathing, it is therefore very important that the diet contains sufficient Qi.
Balance is the magic word. A good diet is good in quantity and quality, fits the constitution of the individual, is varied and contains nutrition from all five elements.
See also: https://www.qi4paws.nl/blog/wat-is-chinese-voedingstherapie
This includes physical and mental challenge. Of both, too much or too short is not good. It’s all about balance. Other aspects that fall under lifestyle are too much stress and too much sexual activity (too much breeding).
From the TCM’s point of view, emotions and the body are directly connected. Just think of expressions like: spitting your bile, scaring you to death, getting punched in the stomach when you hear something shocking, etc.
If you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense. If you experience a strong emotion, you also feel it in your body and if you are not comfortable in your own skin, your emotions are often different.
The TCM links the organs to emotions: the liver belongs to anger, the kidneys to fear, the heart belongs to happiness, the lungs to sadness and the spleen to worry. From the TCM’s point of view, this works both ways. If the Qi of an organ is not optimal, you can show the corresponding emotion more. A stagnation of liver Qi often results in being irritated and angry, for example. But it also works the other way around: if you are often angry and irritated, this affects your liver. Changes in your emotions and/or behavior can therefore be an indication that something is not going well somewhere in your body.
For example, we know that the most common cause of aggression in dogs is pain. From the TCM’s point of view, pain is a stalling/stagnation of Qi. The liver is, as it were, the engine of the Qi and if the Qi stagnates somewhere, this always affects the liver. A malfunctioning liver leads to anger and irritation.
We can’t ask our pets how they feel, but changes in their normal behavior can be an indication that there is an imbalance somewhere in the body and can be a good reason to consult a veterinarian-acupuncturist.
Other factors
Then there are two factors that can play a role that do not really fall under the previous two headings, namely:
• Weak constitution
•Toxins
Weak constitution means that an animal has not received optimal build and energy from its parents.
In our current society, it is actually unavoidable that we and our animals ingest toxins, but the more we can avoid this, the better. Think, for example, of unnecessary additives to the food such as dyes and flavorings, unnecessary medication use, pesticides, etc.
For each patient, all these factors are looked at to detect possible causes and, if necessary, remove them. For example, I may treat my patients with acupuncture but also ask the owner to adjust the diet, or the degree of exercise or mental challenge.
The beauty of this system is that if we know what can cause disease, we can also do our best to prevent disease. And that is precisely the main goal of Chinese Medicine. Staying balanced to prevent disease. And an acupuncturist can help you to ensure that your animals come and stay in balance!
Do you have any questions or comments? I’d love to hear that!
