Chinese Food Health gives you the basic approaches on how to nourish and preserve health in the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

You may have heard Chinese saying, “Let’s don’t be too sad; it’s bad for your health.” Well, then laugh is good… wait a minute, but laugh too hard too long may not be good for your health neither.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, human beings in general have seven kinds of sentiments and reactions, namely, joy, anger, anxiety, pensiveness, grief, fear, and fright. It is called “Seven Emotions.”

TCM Practitioners consider that the variation of the seven emotions has a close relationship with the function of our internal organs and circulation of “Qi” (essential energy) and blood, and each of seven emotions corresponds with our five organs individually. While heart is related to joy, liver to anger, lungs to anxiety and grief, spleen to pensiveness, the kidneys to both fear and fright.

So, what does that mean? “Under normal circumstances, our seven emotions are the physiological responses of the human body to environmental stimuli and are not pathogenic causes,” TCM Practitioners explained. “Nevertheless, if the emotional stimuli are too sudden or too intense or too lengthy, the functional activities of our organs will be disrupted, causing disharmony of “Qi” flow which leads to illness eventually.”

Let’s take a look at how the “Seven Emotions” in excess impair the corresponding organs:

Joy
Joy relaxes “Qi.” Under normal situations, joy is capable of promoting the flow of Qi and blood, therefore it can relax mental strain. Excessive joy, yet, makes “Qi” to flow too fast to be controlled, resulting in poor concentration of the mind, or even mania.

Anger
Anger encourages “Qi” to flow upward. Which means excessive anger can bring liver “Qi” going up excessively and give rise to the blood flow as well. In such case, angry person not only experiences red face and eyes, he/she may also shows symptoms of dizziness, vertigo, and headache.

Anxiety and Grief
Anxiety and grief consume “Qi.” That’s when we are in deep anxiety or grief, we are likely to cry or weep for an extensive time, hence lung “Qi” is consumed. In addition, when we are in a state of anxiety or grief, we will experience discouragement as well as a depressed feeling in the chest, both caused by the deficient of lung “Qi.”

Pensiveness
Pensiveness stagnates the flow of “Qi.” It is because when we are thinking, we must concentrate and “Qi” will remain in place to support the activity. Therefore, intense and extended thinking will cause stagnation of “Qi” (specially the “Qi” of spleen), making it to accumulate. People who are in this state will suffer from poor appetite, abdominal distension, and constipation.

Fear and Fright
Fright leads to a disturbance of the flow of “Qi.” It is because when we get frightened suddenly, our circulation of “Qi” will be interrupted, leading to a distressed mind and palpitation.

Fear, on the other hand, makes “Qi” to flow downward. That means when excessive fear takes place, it can impair the kidney “Qi,” causing incontinence of feces and urine which mainly depends on the controlling effect of kidney “Qi.”

In conclusion, our sentiments and reactions are the physiological responses of the human body to environmental stimuli that normally do not cause pathogen. However, if our seven emotions change in excess, there will have adverse impact on the functional activities of our organs and the flow of “Qi” and blood, worsening or causing an illness to deteriorate.

Take patient with hypertension as an example. Since hypertension is a disease caused by excessive rising liver “Qi” plus the liver is related to anger, this patient may have high risk of sudden syncope, coma, or even paralysis in the case of being stimulated by abrupt and powerful rage resulting from further excessive rising of liver “Qi.”

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