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Your Liver, according to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), works 24/7 for you to regulate your blood. Hardworking and smart she is, there are times when she cannot do her job properly. This happens when she meets her natural enemy, an enemy that beats her and makes her so angry to the point of inflammation. This enemy is invisible, but sometimes powerful, and it is also something you hate. It is the emotion of ‘anger’.
Emotion and sickness: two strangers on the same street?
We usually have a thought about sickness: that it is caused by germs like bacteria or viruses. That is partly true. But if you look more deeply, as TCM does, that explanation is not complete. Think about Covid‑19: why did one person in a household get very sick while another person living in the same space stayed healthy?
In the world of traditional Chinese medicine, there is something other than bacteria and viruses that make you sick. It is simply your emotions. Emotion and sickness, in the words of Dr Lee, are not two things separated from each other. But in most cases, they are two in one: emotion can be a root cause of illness (knowledge by Dr Lee, a TCM practitioner earning his PhD from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine): In traditional Chinese medicine, physical illnesses originate from emotional issues ……
(Towards Healing, 2018, P. 54, text in Chinese).
Simply put, emotion and sickness are not, absolutely not, two strangers on the same street that emotion can cause you to feel sick. And if you still think the idea is unusual, the following number, provided by Angela Hicks (another expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine), may make it easier for you to understand why you suffer from IBS:
.…..approximately 90% of all illness has an emotional component
(88 Chinese Medical Secrets: How to Cultivate Lifelong Health, Wisdom and Happiness, 2011, P.79)
How IBS is triggered by your 90%
So what are the 90% you have been ‘carrying’ making you suffering from IBS? If the Liver affecting your digestive system (as mentioned in the previous post) is the reason why you have IBS, then the 90% is the emotion of ‘anger’.
However, before we get to the process of how anger triggers your IBS, the term ‘anger’ needs some explanation. In the world of TCM, “anger” is not just one feeling that it comes with four different faces:
- frustration: juggling work, family, and bills and feeling irritated or stuck
- resentment: holding on to hurt after being treated unfairly at home, work, or in relationships
- repression: telling yourself “I’m fine” and swallowing your feelings to keep the peace
- depression: feeling low, exhausted, or hopeless for a long time, even when you keep pushing yourself to function
Bottled-up anger and IBS: a TCM view
Let’s look at a common situation to explain how anger goes hand in hand with your IBS. When you experience anger and if you do not release it (I mean, properly), the emotion will block or sometimes stop Qi (Liver Qi, to be specific) from moving. (What is Qi? The vital energy within your body.)
Then this blocked Qi will turn into a from of energy that is too strong, a kind of excessive energy. This excessive energy will do one thing that makes you suffer from bloating, loose stools, and diarrhea.
What does the energy do? First it will not stay in one place. Then it moves outward and starts to “overact” on your digestive system. Yes, you are right. There are linkages between the Liver and your digestive system, and through the linkages Qi affects your digestive system, in a negative way that causes your to suffer from IBS.
The above process of triggering can be wrapped up into 4 steps:
anger ——> (Liver) Qi blocked ——> (Liver) Qi too strong ——> (Liver) Qi affecting digestive system (IBS)
Solutions: The next 2 posts
Explaining with a three-level solutions, the next two posts will focus on solutions:
- how to stop (Liver) Qi from overacting
- how to manage or gently self‑heal your IBS
- how to tackle a root cause of your IBS
Sources of knowledge
- Robert Ko, a Professor in the Division of Life Science (the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology), served in the Chinese Medicines Board of the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong
- Yu-ming Lee, a TCM practitioner earning his PhD from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
- Angela Hicks, joint principal of the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine in Reading (UK)
