TCM Basics 101: Root for illnesses-Anger
Emotions are really an interesting subject. Because it is something that makes living being LIVING.
Previously I talked about having 7 endogenous factors that can be the root causes of illnesses. 2 were merged to become 5 main factors to tally with the 5 elements.
And so let’s talk about first of the 5 endogenous factors: Anger.
Becoming angry is normal. Its human to feel that way when people step on our toes or things do not go our way. But if a person is constantly angry and frustrated, that’s when imbalances arise.
In TCM, each emotion is energetically connected to a specific organ. What it means is the emotion arises from the organ and the emotion affects the organ most.
Anger is connected to Liver.
So it’s a chicken and egg relationship. People with a lot of anger either have Liver issues or the Liver issues cause the person to experience anger more frequently. It does not matter who is the cause. The main thing is anger is linked to Liver.
Read more about Checklist for Liver Intoxication here.
Read more about the Functions of Liver in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine here.
In my clinical experiences with Liver cancer patients, most of them were big bosses or billionaires and their family always reflected to me that they had very bad temper, and very impatient characters. Just like a raging active volcano.
Secondary to liver cancer is liver related problems such as fatty liver, abnormal cholesterols, gall bladder stones. These are the build up to liver cancer which to me is the final call from above that its time to let this person wake up from their vicious cycles in life. In fact all cancers are the final warnings. Read more about Emotional Roots of Cancer here.
Another characteristic of extreme anger imbalance is sleep disturbance. Because the Liver is the main organ affected by anger, and there is certain timing governed by each organ in TCM (I think I left this part out in my blogs but we will go into this soon) also known as the TCM Body Clock, chronic anger can result in the person waking up at 2 plus am or 3am most of the time. Because that’s the governing time of Liver, which in simple terms means the Liver carries out its function in its most optimal level. And during Liver governing time, it detoxifies not just the physical toxins in our body, but also the emotional toxins. And if it does not manage to clear up the toxic emotions by the end of its governing time, the energy from the emotion will have remnants to stir up the person, and in this case, from the person’s sleep at about 2 to 3 am. Read more about Dr Xiang Jun’s Liver Detox here.
So here’s my two cents worth about Anger as one of the internal factor for illnesses.