The Body Clock in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Understanding Our Energy Cycles for Health and Healing

Lothar Ursinus

• Publisher: Earthdancer Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781644110379
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

A reference guide to understanding the natural rhythm of our organs and learning to support them in a holistic way • Explains the Organ Body Clock from Traditional Chinese Medicine and which organs and meridians are dominant during different hours of the day • Describes exactly what happens inside the body during each organ's active time and shows what we can do to support the organs with plant medicine, homeopathy, our behavior, and simple daily practices • Explores the mental and emotional states each organ is related to and their connections to the teeth, the other organs, and the Five Elements of TCM All of our organs are energetically interconnected. They each have regular rest and active cycles throughout the day, with different organs becoming dominant at different hours. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this is known as the Organ Body Clock. In this accessible guide to the body clock in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the author shows how to support the body's natural rhythms of activity, recognize the body's signals of imbalance and find their sources, and achieve healing on the physical and energetic levels. He explains how the body clock can provide deep insight into our physical and energetic health. For example, if we always wake up at a certain time at night, we should look up which organ is associated with that time, which will lead us to discover the part of our body that needs special attention and help. The author explores the 12 major organs of the body, describing their active and rest hours, their function inside the body, the mental and emotional states they are related to, and their connections to the teeth, the other organs, and the Five Elements of TCM. The author describes exactly what happens inside the body during each organ's active time and shows what we can do to support the organs with plant medicine, homeopathy, our behavior, and simple daily practices. By working with the body clock and better understanding our bodies' rhythms, we more easily trace our ailments and conditions to their source for faster relief, sustainable healing, and energetic balance.

Lungs

Detachment and courage; letting go, creativity, and transformation

ORGAN TIME

3am to 5am strongest activity

3pm to 5pm weakest activity

Our lungs provide us with direct and relatively unprotected contact with our surroundings. We forge a new link with our environment with every breath we take.

The lungs develop from the lung bud, a gland-like protrusion that forms in a part of the foregut. This lung bud migrates upward and then hangs down like a tree inside us (with a trunk and a top), forming a hollow space. In TCM, the lung and colon have a polarized relationship and the interaction of both organs is to be found in the symptoms of many diseases. A cough thus corresponds to diarrhea, for example, or an irritable bowel could be described as “asthma of the colon.”

The lungs’ job is to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide and here, too, there is a parallel to the colon, which receives and then excretes. The lung takes care of volatile materials while the colon deals with solid matter.

The lungs receive support and control from the kidneys during inhalation, although they can control exhalation themselves. The lungs are the only organ that we can consciously control: by holding our breath, we can prevent in- or exhalation.

Letting go, creativity, and transformation

Breathing is a passive process; even the exchange of gases in the alveoli of the lung is carried out passively via diffusion. You only have to allow breathing to occur, the rest happens by itself. The classic image of asthma is of sufferers holding their breath while at the same time feeling they cannot breathe. We also hold our breath in situations in which we feel fear. We remove ourselves from the flow of life, as it were, when we interrupt our breathing. People who are unable to let go, and this includes breathing, find their creative talents limited.

We are forced to say many goodbyes during the course of our lives. A child that moves on to solid food and becomes a toddler bids farewell to being a baby. Puberty means saying farewell to childhood. A young person moving out of their parents’ home is often a difficult parting for the parents but a giant leap into independent life for the child, as they choose their own environment. Saying farewell to a loved one through death is most difficult of all; the grief associated with parting, indeed mourning itself, is a lung emotion; not being able to let go and grieving are one and the same thing.

In such situations, the plant goldenrod (Solidago) can be extremely helpful; it is used when a painful experience has occurred in a relationship or partnership, or when leaving relationships.

Farewells are accompanied by change and transformation. The energy of change is to be found in copper, which is a basic material used in therapy, for example for bronchial asthma. Copper is the metal associated with the kidneys, showing in turn that the kidneys play a major role in treating asthma.

Emotions

The lung emotions are grief and sorrow, including melancholy and depression. People with lung complaints often have a mournful disposition, which shows itself most clearly in moments of excitement. A tendency to cry is often a sign of hidden lung weakness.

Lungs as an “earth organ”

Anthroposophic medicine describes the lung as an “earth organ.” Growing and flourishing are impossible without earth, and eating heartily with a good appetite is a way of saying “yes” to the Earth itself. In the same way that the liver is connected with thirst, so the lungs regulate our hunger pangs. If a loss of appetite is involved, especially with children, or indeed in cases of puberty anorexia (Anorexia nervosa), the lungs must always be incorporated into the treatment.

Children experiencing problems of the airways frequently come to my practice; their complaints involve either a lymph system that is working too hard or bronchitis that is difficult to shake off. Many pediatricians have described the latter as the anteroom to asthma. People with lung problems are often sent to the seaside or the mountains to recuperate; both areas have strong creative and light-bringing powers in the form of pebbles (as well as sand) and salt. The beneficial air may also play its role in recovery.

It is always interesting to hear mothers report that their children recover more swiftly by the sea or among the mountains; the strong connection between the lungs and the earth makes the convalescence of children easy to understand.

Sensory organ

The lungs’ other jobs include managing our sense of smell and our nasal organs. The sense of smell can often be blocked as a result of a viral infection of the upper airways and reinforcement of the lungs should feature in treatment in such cases.

Lungs and skin

If neurodermatitis (also known as atopic dermatitis) is treated exclusively with creams, i.e. via the skin, the complaint may shift location inward and a clinical picture of asthma can present. Such cases make obvious the connection, very familiar in Chinese medicine, between the lungs and their related region of tissue in the skin. Treatment would then have to be carried out homeopathically and in reverse, i.e. from the lungs to the skin. The asthma reverts to neurodermatitis before a complete cure can take place.

Teeth

The upper 14 and 15 teeth on the right side and 24 and 25 on the left side (in the dental numbering system, see p. 126) are associated with the lungs and the colon. Teeth 14 and 24 are often removed to make space for other teeth in the jaw, but there has been little study made of the consequences of such orthodontic treatment; it can certainly be considered an intervention in the natural development of the personality and the mind.

Lungs and adrenal glands

The hormonal counterparts to the lungs are the adrenal glands. These small glands help us to deal with the challenges of the day, ensuring our survival. Whatever stressful situation may occur, such as injury, illness, relationship problems, or work challenges, the adrenal glands ensure that our bodies react appropriately. Our energy levels, resilience, and basic vital functions are highly dependent on the function of the adrenal glands.

Countless medical textbooks state that our existence would not be possible without the hormones produced by the adrenal glands, and the same is true by analogy when we look at the subtle effects of the adrenal glands. In chakra lore (teachings about the power centers of our body), the adrenal glands are associated with the root chakra. This chakra is located at the perineum, between the genitals and the anus, and at the coccyx, and the main issues linked to the root chakra are security and stability. It thus represents the foundations and basic needs of our existence. Intact adrenal glands enable us to face up to life without fear, to go with the flow of life, and to be open to experiences that allow us to grow in mind and body.

The adrenal glands are thus linked with our basic instincts and our requirements for surviving and thriving. They are strengthened at the start of life through the safety, security, and trust experienced within the maternal relationship. This later grows and flourishes into self-confidence.

Physical violence, existential fear, shock, traumatic experiences, and injury all disrupt the function of the adrenal glands, and an individual’s development is determined by insecurity, fear, and a lack of confidence. This lack of a sense of security often goes hand in hand with low self-esteem, which can manifest outwardly in inflexibility, arrogance, an inability to adapt, and in the presentation of an isolated, lonely, and stubborn personality. It may result in withdrawal from others, a desire not to be noticed, and a consequent inability to develop the true core of one’s being.

How you live plays a crucial role in the adrenal glands’ ability to recover and a lifestyle with too much stress and excessive demands is a crucial trigger for weakness of these glands. In such cases, it is important to establish the precise cause of the stress. Relaxation exercises, yoga, regular sleep, downtime, laughter, and physical exercise are a few of the ways of reducing stress and are key elements of a healthy lifestyle.

What else happens in the body between 3am and 5am?

An increase in the production of the sleep hormone, melatonin, occurs to ensure we enjoy peaceful, relaxed sleep, and a harmonious changeover to the autonomic nervous system begins in our body.

There is a decline in the influence of the parasympathetic nervous system,^*2 which generates calm and relaxation, and an increase in the influence of the sympathetic nervous system, which supports activity and dynamism. If we are worried, stressed, or fearful, we often have difficulty sleeping properly between the hours of 3am and 5am.

Lung complaints appear principally during this time frame. Blood pressure slowly rises, and those with weak hearts often wake up around this time, sometimes finding it difficult to breathe as a result of a pulmonary edema (a collection of fluid within the lung). Asthma attacks occur with the greatest frequency between 4am and 5am, and statistics show that people make the most mistakes during a night shift. These two hours are also a crisis point for those suffering from stomach ulcers; sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a previously unexplained phenomenon, also occurs more frequently during this time (in the first months of life). It is during these two early hours of the morning that most people die, irrespective of the underlying cause.

What is good for the lungs?

Plenty of physical exercise, ideally in those geographic areas that are most beneficial for the lungs (by the sea or in the mountains), is the best preventive medicine for healthy lungs. Conscious breathing exercises and yoga would also have a positive effect.

Mother tincture of ground ivy^*3 (Glechoma hederacea) helps us to let go and experience renewal. When combined with a patient and calm approach, it can encourage trust in the body’s powers to heal itself. Through its capacity for warmth and light, this tincture can bring new vital energy to processes that have become paralyzed. Ground ivy is a great plant for treating asthma and illnesses of the airways and kidneys in particular.

At a physical level, mother tincture of cranesbill (Geranium robertianum) has a cleansing and detoxifying effect by activating the lymph; by analogy, on an emotional level it has a liberating and releasing effect.

Foods with a sharp or spicy flavor are suitable for the lungs. Such foods include game dishes, oats, radishes, some hard cheeses, and peppermint tea, for example, where these are suitable for the body’s own metabolism.

Colon

Acceptance and letting go

ORGAN TIME

5am to 7am strongest activity

5pm to 7pm weakest activity

In terms of the colon, most people’s first thought is of excretion and excrement. Long before laboratory analysis and computer tomography were involved, doctors took an interest in their patients’ excreta because they could “read” the body’s internal metabolism in it. Patients today invariably answer “normal” when asked about the nature of their stools. This is probably because we are generally familiar with the nature of our own stools (firm, soft or crumbly) and the regularity of our bowel movements, which can vary from several times a day to once a week. As a general rule, if a person passes stools that are too soft or liquid, it is an indication that the colon’s ability to shape its output is too weak; by contrast, if the digestive powers of the small intestine are lacking, small, dry stools can result.

The 4’ 6” (1.5m)-long colon adjoins the small intestine as the last section of the digestive tract and wraps around with the small intestine at its center. The colon is home to microflora (gut bacteria) that play a key role in bodily function.

Acceptance

The role of the small intestine is to tak...