Let's explore How the Liver Generates Wind
Hey everyone, Dr. Richard Lai here, and welcome back to another episode of "Study Acupuncture with Me." If you're a regular listener, you might have noticed that I missed an episode last week. I want to apologize for that. We took a family trip to California for a friend's wedding, and despite my best efforts to balance work, packing, and travel, I couldn't get the episode out in time. But we're back, and I'm excited to bring you an episode that deviates a bit from the original schedule. Today, we'll be digging into a fascinating and often perplexing topic – liver patterns, specifically how the liver generates wind.
Before we dive into today's topic, I want to give a shoutout to Karen Olsen, one of our dedicated listeners who emailed in with an insightful inquiry. Karen is studying for the veterinary equivalent of the boards and finds herself puzzled by the concept of internal wind in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). She mentioned how wind and phlegm seem like such esoteric concepts, and she asked if I could tackle liver patterns and internal wind in an episode. Thank you, Karen, for your thoughtful question and kind words.
Understanding Liver Patterns in Traditional Chinese Medicine
To kick things off, it’s important to understand that liver patterns in TCM can be broadly categorized into three groups: full patterns, empty patterns, and full-empty (mixed) patterns. Let's focus more on the full and empty patterns, as they are essential for understanding how the liver generates wind.
The key patterns under liver wind include:
1. **Extreme Heat Generating Wind**
2. **Liver Yang Rising Generating Wind**
3. **Liver Fire Generating Wind**
4. **Liver Blood Deficiency Generating Wind**
Full and Empty Patterns Explained
You may be wondering, what exactly does “full and empty” mean in this context? In TCM, a full pattern indicates excess, whereas an empty pattern indicates deficiency. The full-empty or mixed patterns are more complex; they involve a deficiency causing an excess. For instance, liver yang rising, an excess condition, is caused by a deficiency such as liver yin deficiency, kidney deficiency, or a mix of both.
Liver Yang Rising
With liver yang rising, there's an excessive upward movement of yang due to an underlying deficiency. This excess can lead to symptoms primarily affecting the head, such as tinnitus, irritability, and headaches (often described as pounding or throbbing). The treatment approach here involves subduing the excessive yang and nourishing the underlying deficiency.
Specific Liver Patterns That Generate Wind
Now, let's delve deeper into the four primary liver patterns that generate wind, keeping Karen’s question in mind.
Extreme Heat Generating Wind
Extreme heat generating wind mirrors how the sun heats up the earth, causing wind. In the human body, this extreme internal heat stirs up wind. Imagine a forest fire; as it rages, it generates strong winds. Similarly, in TCM, heat at the blood level can lead to internal wind due to ensuing yin deficiency. Symptoms may include high fever, convulsions, and possible unconsciousness.
Liver Yang Rising Generating Wind.. We've touched on liver yang rising previously, but let’s explore the specifics:
**Liver Yin Deficiency**: This causes liver yang to rise due to insufficient yin to anchor the yang. Symptoms include dry throat and dry eyes, reflecting the body’s lack of moisture.
**Liver Yin and Kidney Yin Deficiency**: With this dual deficiency, symptoms combine liver and kidney issues – dry eyes (liver) and night sweats or back pain kidney).
**Liver Blood Deficiency**: This is another root cause of liver yang rising where a lack of liver blood leads to symptoms like blurred vision and poor memory.
Each of these root causes presents with differences due to which deficiency is more pronounced, offering a nuanced understanding of liver yang rising generating wind.
Liver Fire Generating Wind
Liver fire generating wind is a full condition where prolonged presence of liver fire leads to internal wind. Symptoms include tremors, dizziness, and typical liver fire signs like a red face, red eyes, and a red tongue with yellow coating. It’s analogous to how forest fires can fan the wind.
Liver Blood Deficiency Generating Wind
Finally, liver blood deficiency can directly cause wind. When there’s insufficient blood, the empty space in the vessels can be filled by wind. Symptoms include numbness, tingling, and other signs of blood deficiency like blurry vision and poor memory. This can be visualized as wind blowing through the empty spaces between buildings or across the ocean.
Applying These Concepts to Practice
Understanding these patterns and their root causes is crucial not just for acupuncture practitioners, but also for students like Karen preparing for their boards. To sum up:
Focus on the Root Cause**: Recognize whether you’re dealing with liver yang rising due to liver yin deficiency, liver and kidney yin deficiency, or liver blood deficiency.
Differentiate Symptoms**: Interpreting symptoms correctly can guide you in identifying the specific pattern and thus applying the appropriate treatment strategy.
Holistic Treatment**: Remember that each pattern combines different aspects of deficiency and excess, requiring a holistic approach to treatment.
Thank you for tuning in, and I appreciate your support and engagement. Until our next episode, keep studying and stay curious. God bless and happy studying!
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I hope this helps everyone, especially those preparing for exams or seeking to deepen their understanding of TCM. Don’t forget to subscribe, share this podcast with fellow acupuncture enthusiasts, and keep those questions coming! Thanks again, and see you next time on “Study Acupuncture with Me.”
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Transcript of Episode
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:00:04]:
Alright. Hey, everyone. Doctor Richard Lai here with Study Acupuncture with me. And today, we're at the Hudson Yards in New York City. And I've actually chosen this place for this video because of this. This is a huge art piece called The Vessel, and it's actually the centerpiece of this area that I'm in right now known as the backyard at the Hudson Yards. It's actually where my wife and I did our pregnancy announcement back in 2018. So today, we're at The Vessel and we're gonna talk about the extraordinary vessels.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:00:33]:
But first, let me tell you about the sponsor of this video. So today's episode is actually sponsored by Finding Joy gift shop. It's a Chinese medicine themed shop that has the perfect gifts for all lovers of traditional Chinese medicine. And the shop actually showcases 5 new art pieces every month to spark conversations about traditional Chinese medicine. I'm actually wearing one of their sweaters right now. So you can check out their designs and more at www.findingjoygift shop.com. And Rita, who's the owner of Finding Joy Gift Shop, has graciously offered to give our listeners 10% off their entire order. So if you use s a w m 2023, you get 10% off your entire order.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:01:13]:
Alright. So today we're gonna talk about 5 really important functions of the extraordinary vessels, which number 5 is the most important function. So make sure you get to the end of the video for that one. Alright. So let's start with function number 1. So function 1 is that the extraordinary vessels act as a reservoir for energy in relation to those main channels because the main channels are kinda like a river. So when a river rains really heavily, where's that water going to go? It's going to overflow and go to a reservoir. So just like in our body, if there's excess chi in the main channels, that excess chi is actually going to go to the extraordinary vessels.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:01:49]:
And that overflow is going to start a process known as irrigation because that overflow is actually going to irrigate the areas between our skin and our muscles, and it's going to irrigate our organs, and it's going to warm them. And because it's a reservoir, that means that energy can flow to and from this reservoir, meaning she can flow from the main channels to the extraordinary vessels and she can flow from the extraordinary vessels to the main channels. Alright. And to understand function number 2, we have to know that the extraordinary vessels, they originate in the space between the kidneys. And because of that, the extraordinary vessels actually contain and circulate kidney essence all throughout the body. And because it circulates that essence all throughout the body, it means that the extraordinary vessels actually help to mix that essence together with 2 things. It helps to mix it together with nutritive chi and defensive chi, and that flows in the body. And nutritive chi, we know it flows in our vessels, it flows with our blood.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:02:49]:
Defensive toli, and that actually brings us to function number 3. Function number 3 of the extraordinary vessels is that it plays a role in the circulation of defensive chi, and this is because of that overflow of chi into the reservoir of the extraordinary vessels. That overflow irrigates the space between the skin and the muscles. And what flows in that space between the skin and the muscles? Defensive chi. And what's the function of defensive chi? It protects your body and it warms the body. Alright. So up until now, we've gone over 3 functions of the extraordinary vessels. Number 1, it's a reservoir, and she can go to and from that reservoir, and that overflow causes irrigation in that area between the skin and the muscles.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:03:36]:
Function number 2 of the extraordinary vessels is that it circulates kidney essence throughout the whole body. And then function number 3 of the extraordinary vessels is that it plays a role in the circulation of defensive chi. Alright. So now we can actually connect function number 2 and function number 3 because in function number 2, we have the circulation of kidney essence, and in function number 3, we have the circulation of defensive chi. So that means there's actually a connection between kidney essence and defensive chi. And what that means for us is just that when you're trying to treat someone and boost their immune system, that you should tonify lung chi and you should tonify kidney yang. That way, you affect that defensive chi area and you affect kidney essence. Alright.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:04:21]:
Now the next function, function number 4, is about the extraordinary vessels and how it governs our 7 8 year life cycle. Now I talked about this in our kidney function video, which I'm gonna link in this video right up here. But basically, what you need to know is that there's a flow of essence that peaks at certain times. And in women, it peaks every 7 years and in men, it peaks every 8 years. And I go into all that and more in the kidney function video, so click right here to watch that video. Alright. Now, the last function and the most important function is that the extraordinary vessels regulate, balance, and integrate things in the body. So the extraordinary vessels regulates, balance, and integrate things in the body.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:05:05]:
So number 1, with regulation. The first function that we talked about, how excess chi or excess anything can actually overflow from the main vessels into the extraordinary vessels because it's a reservoir. So the extraordinary vessels then regulate the amount of chi that goes in and out. It also regulates the amount of yin and yang that goes in and out as well because it's trying to work towards balance. You'll see when we go over yin chow and yang chow, there's an excess amount of yang that goes to the eyes and that's why the patient has insomnia. So the extraordinary vessels work to regulate the amount of yin and yang that goes to and from the eyes. So the extraordinary vessels have to do with regulation. Now number 2, the extraordinary vessels have a function to balance.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:05:49]:
So it balances. It balances yin, it balances yang, it balances left, it balances right, it balances above, it balances below. And you can see this from all the extraordinary vessels put together because when you put it all together, it makes something known as an energetic vortex. So from that energetic vortex, you can actually see that Daimai, for example, separates up and down. Yin Chao and Yang Chao separates left and right, and you got Renmai in the front, you got Dumai in the back. So there's balance between those areas because of those extraordinary vessels. And then the last thing is about integration. So what does integration mean? Integration just means that you put put something together to make a whole.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:06:29]:
Now, the extraordinary vessels, what do they do with integration? They integrate a ton of things. They integrate essence with defensive chi. They integrate essence with nutritive chi, and they circulate all of that throughout the body. And the extraordinary vessels also integrate another thing. They integrate and connect your 6 extraordinary yang organs. So that's like your uterus, your brain, your blood vessels, your gallbladder, your marrow, your bones. So it integrates all of that together. It integrates those organs with your main channels and with itself.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:07:05]:
Alright. So now, let's talk about how we use the extraordinary vessels. First, we have to know that the extraordinary vessels has an opening point and they have a couple point. So for example, for the renmai, the opening point is Lung 7 and the couple point is qinmun 6. And if you look at the Yin Chao Mai, it's actually just the flip of it because the opening point is kidney 6 and it's coupled with lung 7. So if you wanna treat using the extraordinary vessel, you can number 1, just use the opening point bilaterally. Number 2, you can use both the opening point and the couple point bilaterally. Number 3, you can use the opposite side opening point and couple point.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:07:41]:
For example, right side lung 7, left side kidney 6. And then number 4, you can use the same side opening point and same side couple point. So for example, use left side lung 7 and left side kidney 6. For me, generally, I use 3 and 4 the most. So for example, for women, I may use their opening point on the right side of the body and I'm gonna pair that with a couple point on the left side of the body. And then for men, I'm just gonna do the exact opposite. I'm gonna take the opening point on the left side of their body and I'm gonna couple it with the right side of the body. And then also for me with patients that have issues on just one side of the body, for example, if they're just hurting on one side of the body, their left shoulder hurts, their their left hip hurts, I'm gonna use the same side opening point and same side couple point.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:08:24]:
Now last thing I'll talk about is why we wanna use extraordinary vessels. Now I like to use them because if you look at the extraordinary vessels and you look at the points on them, they connect a lot of different channels. So sometimes my patient's gonna come in and the issue that they have is gonna overlap multiple areas. So I can actually use the extraordinary vessels just to get them all because the extraordinary vessels, they cover a certain area and it's a broad area and they reach different areas. So using just one opening point and one couple point, you can actually get a lot of benefit through a wide area of effect. And then also, by using extraordinary vessels, you can activate that reservoir function. So if there's an excess, if there's stagnation, the extraordinary vessels can actually help you to move or at least absorb that excess, and that's gonna help your patient get relief. Alright, everyone.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:09:10]:
So that does it for this episode about the extraordinary vessels at the vessel at Hudson Yards. I wanna thank our sponsor again, Finding Joy gift shop, for sponsoring this video. Make sure you go to their website, www.bindingjoygiftshop.com, and you check out their 5 new designs every single one. Make sure you also use s a w m 2023 for 10% off your entire order. Alright, everyone. Until next time. God bless, and happy studying.
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