The liver, which is responsible for the smooth flow of chi throughout the body, is very close to the spleen which is the main digestive organ. When liver chi stagnates, due to stress, anger, frustration or inappropriate diet, it invades the spleen and disturbs the digestive process. From a…

Anger causes the formation of liver fire, which rises upwards towards the chest generating breathlessness and asthma. The underlying cause for this pattern is long standing liver chi stagnation resulting from emotional and psychological issues. Symptoms: Breathlessness, asthma, fullness and stuffy chest and hypochondrium, cough, yellow or blood-streaked sputum,…

Lifestyle factors and emotional stress, combined with irregular meals and overwork stagnates liver chi and it invades the stomach. The stomach is the ‘giver of life’, but when disrupted it creates pain and disease. Symptoms: Irritability, distension and pain in epigastrium and hypochondrium, fullness in epigastrium, acid reflux, belching…

A chronic condition involving spleen and kidney. Your spleen controls transportation and transformation, and kidney yang warms the spleen to support its functions. Yang deficiency in the spleen or kidneys will cause dysfunction of transportation and transformation, leading to loose stools, diarrhoea, stomach rumbling, chronic diarrhoea, and a cold…

Kidney yang deficiency affects many aspects of health including core energy, sexual energy, lower back strength, knee strength, bone strength, hair and reproduction. It is affiliated with CFS chronic fatigue syndrome. Lifestyle plays a crucial part in developing kidney yang deficiency. Kidney yang is referred to as the ‘fire…

The heart and kidneys depend upon each other for support, but they also control each other. The heart descends to the kidneys to provide warmth (kidneys are the fire for all physiological processes) and the kidneys ascend to the heart to prevent it from becoming hyperactive (the heart stores…

This is a pattern affiliated with chronic disease (in TCM chronic diseases can be cured or relieved) and osteoporosis. The kidneys store your essence (jing), the substance that nourishes, fuels and cools the body, and is also responsible for human growth, reproduction and bones. In health, jing is abundant…

This pattern is affiliated with incontinence and us caused by excessive sexual activity or drug abuse, especially methamphetamines, which both weaken the bladder and fluids leak out resulting in frequent pale urination, but also incontinence. Symptoms: Frequent pale-abundant urination, incontinence, lower back pain, enuresis….

This pattern is caused by irregular eating habits and chronic overwork combined with longterm worry which injures the lung energy. It is a chronic pattern characterised by the exhaustion of the body’s chi. Symptoms: Dry cough (worse in the evening), dry mouth, blood-tinged sputum, insomnia, thin body, breathlessness from…