Mastering the 5 Heart Organ Functions in Traditional Chinese Medicine: Essential for Acupuncture Students Preparing for the NCCAOM
Welcome back to Study Acupuncture with Me! I'm Dr. Richard Lai, and today we're diving deep into a topic that's not just fundamental but crucial for anyone preparing for the NCCAOM exam: the five functions of the heart organ according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). If you're in the thick of your studies or looking for a comprehensive review, you've come to the right place.
Let's get started!
Why the Heart Organ is the "Emperor" in TCM
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the heart is often referred to as the "Emperor." This isn't just a poetic metaphor but a crucial concept that underscores the heart's significance in governing the body. Much like an emperor oversees the functions of a kingdom, the heart governs critical bodily functions.
The Heart Governs Blood
The primary function of the heart in TCM is to govern blood. This not only includes the production of blood but also its circulation through the body. A healthy heart ensures that blood circulates smoothly, nourishing tissues and organs.
How it Affects Sleep
Ever wondered why poor blood circulation could lead to sleepless nights? It's because, in TCM, blood is considered the residence of the mind. The state of your blood directly affects your mental pursuits, consciousness, thinking, memory, and of course, your sleep. Unhealthy or insufficient blood can lead to restlessness and poor sleep quality.
Clinical Manifestations
If a patient has a dysfunction in their heart Qi, they might exhibit symptoms such as cold or sweaty hands. This is due to the heart's inability to circulate blood efficiently, affecting the peripheral regions of the body.
### Governing Blood Vessels
Another critical function of the heart is to control the blood vessels. The heart ensures that arteries, veins, and even the tiny capillaries in your fingers and toes remain healthy. If the heart Qi is deficient, it could lead to conditions like atherosclerosis, where the blood vessels become hard and narrow.
The Heart Manifests in the Complexion
One handy diagnostic tool in TCM is assessing the patient's complexion. A rosy, vibrant complexion indicates a healthy heart and blood circulation. Conversely, a pale or dull complexion may suggest heart blood deficiency or Yang Qi deficiency.
Blood Deficiency vs. Yang Qi Deficiency
How can you differentiate between the two? If the face is dull and pale, it's likely blood deficiency. However, if the pale complexion is bright white, it may indicate Yang Qi deficiency. This principle holds when assessing the tongue as well—dryness points to blood deficiency, whereas wetness suggests Yang Qi deficiency.
The Heart Houses the Mind
One of the more intellectually stimulating aspects of TCM is understanding that the heart houses the mind or Shen. In TCM, Shen means spirit, encapsulating mental and emotional activities.
The Five Spiritual Aspects of Yin Organs
In addition to the Shen housed by the heart, each Yin organ in TCM has a spiritual aspect:
- Liver: Ethereal soul (Hun)
- Lung: Corporeal soul (Po)
- Kidney: Willpower (Zhi)
- Spleen: Intellect (Yi)
When assessing a patient's mental and spiritual well-being, you're essentially evaluating the health status of their Qi and blood. For instance, lack of willpower may indicate a kidney issue, while a lack of life direction could point to liver dysfunction.
The Relationship Between Blood and Sweat
Another often tested concept on the NCCAOM exam is understanding how the heart controls sweat. Sweat, in TCM, is a form of body fluid (Jin), and its regulation is closely linked to the blood.
Mutual Interchange of Blood and Body Fluids
Blood and body fluids like sweat can mutually interchange. For example, if blood becomes too thick, body fluids will enter the blood vessels to thin it out. This interchange is crucial for maintaining homeostasis. Therefore, if a patient experiences heart Qi deficiency, they may have spontaneous sweating because of this disrupted balance.
Takeaways for NCCAOM Exam Preparation
Let's wrap this up with some key points you should focus on for your exam preparation:
The Heart's Role as an "Emperor": Understand that the heart governs blood and blood circulation.
Complexion as a Diagnostic Tool: Learn to differentiate between blood deficiency and Yang Qi deficiency by assessing complexion and tongue.
The Spiritual Aspects of Yin Organs: Memorize the spiritual aspects associated with each Yin organ and how they reflect in a patient's condition.
Mutual Interchange Concept: Grasp the relationship between blood and body fluids and how heart Qi deficiency can manifest in symptoms like spontaneous sweating.
Studying these intricate relationships will not only prepare you for the exam but also aid you in clinical practice. Traditional Chinese Medicine offers a holistic approach that intricately ties physical symptoms to mental and spiritual health, making it a fascinating field to study and practice.
Whether you're listening to my podcast during your morning commute, revising flashcards on your lunch break, or cramming late at night, remember to make time for self-care.
Until next time God bless and happy studying and may your Qi be balanced and your heart healthy!
Studying for the Acupuncture Board Exam
Here are the other ones you should be familiar with and be able to perform differential diagnosis for:
Yin/Yang Theory
Five Elements Theory (Wu Xing)
Eight Principles
Qi, Blood, Body Fluids Theory
Channel Theory
Organ Theory
Six Stages Theory
Four Levels Theory
Triple Burner Theory
Etiology Theory like External / Internal or Miscellaneous Causes of
God Bless and Happy Studying
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Transcript
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:00:00]:
Everyone. Doctor Richard Lai here with Study Acupuncture With Me. And a quick reminder first to go to my website www.studyacu with me.com and sign up for the email list. Signing up for that email list gets you free study guides with each podcast episode, so please go sign up right now. So today's episode is all about the heart organ and its functions. And next week, we're gonna review the functions of the urinary bladder. And I like to release this episode every single Sunday, so expect it on Sunday. That way you have something to listen to on your drive to work on Monday.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:00:34]:
And also I wanna say if that drive to work on Monday is the only time of solitude and only time of peace that you have and you're spending it by listening to my podcast, I just wanna say thank you. I appreciate that you're spending it with me because at least for me, that time in the car in the morning, sometimes that's really the only time of peace and quiet that I have. So it's a really sacred time. And I remember when I was going to acupuncture school, I was working full time. I was going to acupuncture school at night and on the weekends. And during that drive in the morning, it'd be quiet, but I'd be thinking, I have a quiz tonight. I have midterm next week. I have to write a paper, and I'd be reviewing my flashcards at work like it's in my pocket while I'm at work.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:01:15]:
And anytime there's downtime, I'm just, like, reviewing for the exam. So I get it. So that's why I make these podcasts because you're busy, and you just need someone to take their time getting into the material with you. So thank you for letting me do that for you. And in order for me to keep doing that for you, we need to hear a quick word from our sponsor. Alright. So this episode is on the functions of the heart. Now the heart is a very important organ, if not the most important organ because it's literally called the emperor.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:01:46]:
And the emperor is the sovereign ruler ruling the empire. So from an organ standpoint, what is the function of this sovereign ruler? So the main function of this sovereign ruler, the heart, is to govern blood, And that governing blood includes governing the blood vessels. Another function of the heart is to govern the mind. And if you've ever sat in my class before I refer to this explanation a lot because the blood is the residence of the mind meaning it houses the mind. The heart also governs blood. So by transitive property since blood is the residence of the mind and heart governs blood that's one reason why heart houses the mind. And this relationship this relationship between heart, mind, and blood, it affects so many factors of our life. For example, it affects our sleep quality.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:02:40]:
Now let me ask you, How is your sleep? And I know it's sort of a loaded question because I bet you the answer is that you don't get good sleep. So the question is why? Why don't you get good sleep? And here's where we as acupuncturists come in because we are blessed with that ability. We are blessed with the ability to try and answer that question for our patients. The question of why. Why isn't our patient getting restful sleep? And through our investigative process, we can find out why. Because one of the main factors that determines our sleep quality is the health and status of our blood and of our yin and this is because blood is the residence of the mind which just means that the heart houses the mind. And there are 5 major heart mind functions. Number 1, our mental activities.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:03:29]:
Number 2, our consciousness. Number 3, our memory. Number 4, our thinking. And then number 5 is our sleep. Now to get even more specific, the mind is housed in the blood. Specifically, it's housed in heart blood. And we also have the The is housed in the liver. The is also known as the ethyreal soul.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:03:54]:
So if there's anything affecting the blood that can cause the mind or even the to lose its resonance in the blood and that's going to cause you to have poor sleep since heart governs blood. Blood is the residence of the mind. So these three things we really need to exercise intention to care for heart, blood, mind since they all affect each other. Which brings us back to the first function and main function of the heart which is that it governs blood. Now this governing blood, it encompasses 2 things. It encompasses circulation and it encompasses production. And in the study guide that I'm gonna give you today, there's a diagram on the formation of blood. And this diagram is the process in which food qi is turned into blood and this takes place in our heart.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:04:43]:
So clinically, if we have a healthy heart then our production of blood will be healthy. Our circulation will be healthy. But if there's a dysfunction to our heart chi then you're gonna see pathological manifestations in our patients. For example, we might see that they have cold hands or sweaty hands. That's because of the circulation issue. Or like we mentioned before, if there's an issue with the blood or something's affecting the blood, the mind, the can be affected. And that's why our sleep quality will also then be affected. Alright.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:05:15]:
So now, the next function of the heart is that it controls the blood vessels. So that means every blood vessel, our arteries, our veins, our coronary arteries, our capillaries in our fingers and our toes because number 1, heart governs blood which means it governs circulation. But on top of that, the heart actually governs the health of the actual tubes itself, the blood vessels. So if a patient has good heart health they have good heart chi then their blood vessels will also be healthy. Their circulation will also be healthy. But if they have a deficient heart, they have heart blood deficiency or heart blood stasis that's gonna reflect in the pulse and it's actually even gonna reflect in the actual blood vessel itself. For example, with heart blood stasis, that can actually result in things like atherosclerosis. Alright.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:06:05]:
So now the next function of the heart is that it manifests in the complexion. So now this is an offshoot of the fact that the heart governs blood which means it governs circulation. The heart governs the blood vessels in the body which means when it comes to assessing our patients the complexion of their face can be used as a data point for our evaluation because we have blood vessels in our face that makes our face rosy or makes our face pale. So if circulation is normal or if circulation is weakened, maybe there's a deficiency of the heart or there's blood deficiency or sometimes there's a pathogenic factor that's affecting the blood like for example heat that can manifest on the face. Now if there's deficiency in heart blood for example how can we know this in our patient? Well, we can look at their complexion. If our patient has a dull pale complexion that's a sign that they could have heart blood deficiency. Even when we look at the tongue, when we see a pale tongue, what does a pale tongue mean when we look at the tongue? It could mean either Yang Qi deficiency or it could mean blood deficiency. The question is how do we differentiate between the 2? We have to look for an extra factor.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:07:22]:
We have to look to see is the tongue too wet or is it just plain dry? So if it's dry that means it's blood deficiency. If it's too wet then it's Yang Qi Deficiency. Now with the complexion of the face if it's dull and it's pale that's an indication that it's blood deficiency. On the other hand, if the face is pale but it's bright, like it's a bright white complexion, then that's an indication that it's heart Yang Qi Deficiency. So that's basically how the heart manifests in our complexion and how we can see the pathologies that are affecting the heart just by analyzing the colors of the face. Alright. Now the next function of the heart is that it houses the mind. Now, that's an important saying to understand.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:08:06]:
The heart houses the mind. Now, the mind can also be called the shen. The means spirit and we can drill pretty deeply into this word because when we refer to and we're talking about heart, we're talking about mind. So mind is equal to shen. Now we can also talk about shen with spiritual aspects because we have yin organs and each yin organ has a spiritual aspect to it. We have the heart, liver, lung, kidney, we have spleen and each has a spiritual aspect to it. So the heart, we have the mind or the shen. For the liver, we have the ethereal soul or the hun.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:08:49]:
For the lung, we have the or the corporeal soul. For the kidney, we have the willpower or the the zhi, and then for the Spleen we have the Intellect or the Yi. So basically, when we assess our patient we assess their Shen their Spirit. And from a clinical sense when we assess Shen we're actually assessing the health and status of their Qi and blood overall because Qi Qi is defined as vital force. So when we're assessing their Shen, we're assessing their vitality, their spirit, their mind, their ethereal soul, their corporeal soul, their willpower, their intellect. So, basically, in reference to the health and status of their chi and blood, we can pull on the thread, for example, of willpower. If we're assessing our patient and we talk to them and we see that they just seem to lack drive, They lack willpower. Now this can be an indication that there's something awry with the health and status of their kidney chi.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:09:50]:
If we see that they have no aims in life, they have no direction in life, that could be an indication that there's something up with their liver organ. So when we assess Shen, we assess our patient's overall health and status of Qi and blood and we can pull at these different strings to get to different organs in that way. Alright. So now the next function of the heart is that it controls sweat. So with sweat, we should first talk about what sweat is. And, basically, in our body, we have body fluids. These body fluids are called in Chinese, which basically just means organic fluids. Now or is light.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:10:29]:
It's clear. It's watery, and is actually exuded as sweat. This jin actually circulates with the in our That is the area between the skin and the muscles. Now in terms of blood and body fluids, they have a common origin. They're both produced from the food and drink that we eat. Now in the study guide, you have a body fluid formation diagram. And you can see there, the spleen sends some pure fluid up to the lung and the lung will descend and disperse that fluid which disperse we can also say diffuse. So the lung diffuses the body fluids for sweating.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:11:10]:
It does this by sending body fluids to the TOE. Now this episode is on the heart and one of the functions of the heart is that it controls sweat. Now sweat comes out of the toli and another function of the heart that we already talked about is that it governs blood. So we have blood, we have sweat, we have body fluids. Now there's a relationship between blood and body fluids, which sweat, we're talking about as a body fluid, in that blood and body fluids can mutually interchange. So mutual interchange just means that body fluids will enter the blood vessel and it's gonna change into blood. Now, this only happens when blood is too thick because remember we talked about gin. Gin is light, clear, and watery.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:11:58]:
So if blood is too thick, then the body fluids are gonna enter into the blood vessel and it's gonna thin the water down. So from a clinical standpoint, if the heart's function is to control sweat and to govern blood, all that can actually be affected if there's a pathology that's affecting the heart or a deficiency in the heart itself. For example, if there's heart chi deficiency, our patient's gonna have spontaneous sweating Because the function of controlling the sweat, the function of governing the blood, the function of mutual interchange would be effective. Hey. And that brings us to the end of this episode. So I hope you got tremendous value out of this episode. If you're heading to work right now or you're at work right now, have a wonderful rest of your day. If you're at the gym or you're outside walking, maybe you're walking your dog, enjoy every minute of that exercise.
Dr. Richard Lai DPT LAc [00:12:50]:
And if you're at home doing some chores or you're out running some errands, thank you for spending the time with me. So if this is your first time listening, make sure you get on the email list because there is a study guide associated with this episode. Now I also send a monthly email out where I rotate the PDFs on a monthly basis. So if in case you miss out on this study guide at the time of its release, if you're on the email list, you're not gonna miss any of the previous study guides. So make sure you go to www.studyaccu with me.com and fill out that quick, easy, short form to get on the study guide email list. Alright, everyone. Until next time. God bless, and happy studying.
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