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Chinese Theories Regarding the Liver And Gall Bladder
Because the liquid in the gall bladder and the juices secreted by the liver are greenish, thus resembling the vegetation element in color, Shin Nong concluded that the gall bladder and liver belonged to the vegetation element and that herbs of green color and sour taste should be used as correctives for disorders of these organs. Upon experiimenting, he discovered that herbs of this sort have power to contract the air in the blood, and that their action assists the liver and gall biadder in functioning.
The liver acts as a reservoir to hold the blood until it is thrown Lack into the circulation. The secretions of the liver and gall bladder enter the intestines and aid digestion.
If either the liver or the gall bladder is inflamed or is weak and inactive, pain, enlargement, gall stones, biliousness, sleeplessness, nervousness, discoloration of the skin, and a ringing or buzzing noise in the ears may follow. Sometimes, when the inflammation is severe, it causes running sores or even ulcers in the ears, deafness, inflamed cyes, blindness, hot flashes, or headaches.
Intense anger also affects the liver. Protracted sorrow causes the iiver to be sluggish and the blood to become poisoned. This condition is favorable to the formation of cancers, especially in the breast. Americans often laugh at the Chinese idea that the liver is partly on the left side of the body as well as on the right. Through their studies, the Chinese have found that the pulse of the circulation of the liver is determined by feeling the pulse in the left wrist, instead of in the right.
When through fright, anger, or other strong emotion, the liver is stimulated abnormally, it gets into a fiery condition. The individual is then liable to be quick-tempered, to talk fast and loud, or, if in pain, to groan or cry in a loud voice. An abnormally active liver frequent- -(59)iy deprives one of the use of his voice entirely for a short period of time. This is why President Andrew Jackson often found it necessary to stop and rest for a half hour or so before going on with a speech at a public meeting, or continuing in a private discussion. The presence of fever in the liver cannot be detected by the therinometer used by the medical profession, but must be discovered in other ways. The Chinese herb treatment for the liver acts independently through the blood circulation. Generally, it is not necessary to physic through the bowels. Cleansing the liver by physic is an Occidental method. When an adult or a child is suffering, if he groans or cries continuously, with a loud, steady voice, there is no doubt that he has inflammation of the liver and adjacent organs. Fong Wan once entered a home where a young man who had been given up as dying, lay groaning fearfully. Before even reaching the sick room, that experienced herbalist pronounced it "inflammation of the liver." He had herbs prepared for the sufferer, and the latter was well within two days.
The liver is one of the five principal internal organs, the gall bladder being one of its sub-organs. Pain in the right side, the region of the liver, is generally caused by inflammation of that organ or by the secretions of the liver flowing into the gall bladder, where they either become bile or solidify into stones. Physicians frequently cut out either the gall bladder or the appendix. They prefer not to cut out the main organ, the liver, because that operation would be both dangerous and difficult. Consequently, the liver is generally left touched, and many persons whose gall bladders have been removed, still suffer considerable pain in the right side. un- According to Chinese theories, the liver controls the nerves. When there is rheumatic nerve trouble, attention must be given to the liver, and herbs must also be added to the compound to drive out the accumulated poison. Fong Wan has in his office a number of letters of gratitude written by Oakland people, who have been successfully treated for liver trouble with his herbs. He is privileged to show these letters to any person interested. -(60)-