Etiology of TCM在线视频

Hello everyone

For today’s class we’ll study a new chapter

Chapter 5 etiology and pathogenesis of TCM

From TCM view etiology mainly refers to the pathogenic factors

which could induce disease

Pathogenesis usually refers to the whole process of onset

progression and prognosis of disease

First let’s get to know the contents of etiology

There is a close relationship among

etiology pathogenesis and symptoms

Etiology and pathogenesis mainly discuss the causes of disease

and the mechanism of disease’s occurrence

development and evolution

According to TCM

etiology refers to various kinds of factors that cause diseases

such as abnormal climates seven emotions

phlegm retention blood stasis etc

For example we have a patient with the symptoms

like fever cough sneezing running nose and stuffy nose

How do we know what the pathogenic factors are

To answer this question body temperature

blood and/or urine test and image examination

may be applied by the western medical doctor

to find the bacteria or viruses

which induced the disease

In order to understand the etiology

TCM will focus on the symptoms and signs

at the same time

the doctor usually checks the tongue and feel the pulse

for the patient

Then based on all the information collected

by using the diagnostic methods

the TCM doctor will infer the pathogenic factors

which induce the disease

Analysis of symptoms and signs

to deduce the etiology

such method is called syndrome differentiation

to determine disease cause

To be more specific

the etiology is classified into three categories

The six pathogenic factors invading the body from the outside

which are called external pathogenic factors

For example wind

as one of the six external pathogenic factors

invades human body mainly through skin nose or mouth

The seven emotions directly involving the internal organs

which are called internal pathogenic factors

Third the pathological products

such as static blood

can induce disease as a kind of pathogenic factor

Now let’s go through all kinds of pathogenic factors

Under normal circumstances wind cold summer-heat

Dampness dryness fire/heat are called six qi

They are six normal conditions of nature

and are harmless to human body

When excessive or deficient climate occurs

for example too hot

in summer or too warm in winter

and rapid climate changes

the body cannot adapt then disease occurs

On the other hand

when people are too weak to adapt themselves

even to normal climate changes

the six qi will also become

pathogenic factors

to attack and cause disease

Under these circumstances

the six qi are called six pathogenic factors

There are some characteristics for six pathogenic factors

First they invade human body through skin

or from nose or from mouth or both at the same time

Second they have a closely relationship with seasonal changes

For example in spring there may be more wind diseases

summer more heat diseases etc

Third they can invade the body respectively and simultaneously

For example common cold due to wind-cold

diarrhea due to dampness-heat etc

Wind belongs to Yang pathogen

mainly attacks the upper part or the surface of the body

Wind tends to mobile and causes diseases with no fixed place

such as syndrome of

migratory arthralgia

On the other side

wind diseases are unpredictable and attack quickly

such as urticaria

Wind tends to cause vibration

the symptoms like tremor

vertigo convulsions

stiff neck and so on

Wind is the primary pathogen that leads to be complicated by other

pathogenic factors

that is attached by other pathogens

For example cold tends to attached to wind

when attacking body

causing syndrome like wind-cold

Cold belongs to Yin pathogen tends to damage Yang Qi

and leads to the symptoms

such as aversion to cold

fever headache running nose body pain etc

Cold can easily lead to stagnation in the body

like stagnation of qi or blood which induce the symptom of pain

Cold has the characteristics of constriction and traction

For cold attacking the exterior

there may be aversion to cold

and fever without sweating

When cold attacks meridians and joints

it can induce spasm and pain

Cold has the characteristic of limpidity

which produces clear nasal discharge or white clear sputum

Summer-heat has the characteristic of

torrid and belongs to Yang

Symptoms like high fever

profuse sweating thirsty

red complexion and surging pulse

are all the features of it

Summer-heat ascends and disperses

attacks the head and offend

pericardium directly with the symptoms like great sweating weak

scanty and dark urine etc

Summer-heat is usually accompanied with dampness

induce the symptoms such as heavy limbs

stuffy chest

sticky stool greasy tongue coating etc

Dampness belongs to Yin and tends to damage Yang Qi

inducing the symptoms like chest distress

poor appetite

and abdominal distention etc

Dampness is characterized by heavy and turbid

which may induce the symptoms of heaviness of head

dirty complexion

turbid urine

Dampness is viscous and lingering

and mainly presents with sticky greasy tongue coating

and long course of disease

Dampness tends to move downward

which induce the lower limbs often having edema

Dryness pathogen belongs to yang and is characterized

by dryness and tends to consume body fluid

inducing dryness of mouth nose throat skin and feces

Dryness tends to impair the lung

Fire/heat belongs to Yang

Fire/heat has an ascending tendency

having symptoms like high fever

aversion to heat red tongue rapid pulse etc

Fire/heat disturbs the mind

which may induce

insomnia or unconsciousness

Fire/heat is likely to consume qi and body fluid

and may have the symptoms

such as thirsty dry throat

dark urine

constipation

red tongue with yellow coating

Fire/heat is prone to produce bleeding and internal wind

the symptoms such as

bloody stool headache and high fever can be seen

The internal pathogenic factors refer to the seven emotions

including joy anger anxiety considering grief fear and fright

They are the human mental activities

When sudden strong long or prolonged emotional stimuli

go beyond the body's adaptability and endurance

the emotional stimuli will become pathogenic factors

which cause dysfunction of qi blood and the zang-fu organs

and imbalance of yin and yang

hence leading to diseases

Different from the six pathogenic factors

the seven emotions directly affect the corresponding zang organs

and result in diseases

because a certain zang organ

is closely related to a certain emotional activity

The basic rules are as follows

Excessive anger damages liver

excessive joy damages heart

excessive considering damages spleen

excessive grief

and worry damage lung

excessive fear and fright damage kidney

Anyway excessive emotions damage the functions of zang-organs

The third kind of pathogenic factor is pathological product

such as phlegm and fluid retention

stagnant blood and calculus

On one side all these are

pathological products

produced by body

on the other side they can induce diseases

as pathogenic factors

All in all through today’s class

I hope you get the point that the etiology of TCM

is quite different with western medicine

TCM use the syndrome differentiation method

to seek the pathogenic factors

And the pathogenic factors are classified into three categories

That’s all for today

see you in next class