The Yin Yang Organs Relationships in Chinese Medicine Theory

Be sure to watch till the end as I shed the light on the complicated relationships between the Pericardium and the San Jiao.

Keep rocking using TCM,
Clara
TCM Geek

PS: If you want more, check out this podcast episode on Exploring the Intricacies of Yin Yang in Chinese Medicine (Podcast). And if you haven’t invested in my AcuPoints Made Easy Book (PDF or Hard Copy) yet, or my Chinese Medicine TREATMENTS Made Easy, get your copy here! 🙏

Spleen & Stomach relationship in Chinese Medicine

What I love about this TCM Stomach and Spleen is that they have the perfect Yin & Yang organs relationship according to Chinese medicine. Because they are completely opposite!

1- Stomach Qi when it’s healthy goes down. If it’s unhealthy, it goes up and we have nausea, we have acid reflux, vomiting, et cetera.

The TCM Spleen on the other hand, when it’s healthy, it raises clear Qi to the head and it keeps the organs from falling down. So its normal direction is to go up.  When it’s unhealthy, the Spleen goes down and we are very tired, chronic fatigue, and maybe even prolapse of organs.

2- The Spleen has tendency to be affected by Dampness and by Cold. The Stomach gets affected by HEAT 🔥 and Dryness. Again perfect opposition of Yin & Yang.

They complement each other and work really well together. However, the digestive system is at the centre of our health. and because the Spleen and Stomach are such opposite, if we eat a lot of warm food, it might be too warm for the stomach creating ST Heat.

Vice versa, if the Stomach has a lot of Heat and we wanna cool it down with cooling food. We have to be careful because it might make the Spleen too cold. So it’s a fine balance between the two.

Heart & Small Intestine relationship in Chinese Medicine

What’s the connection between the TCM Heart and the Small Intestine, really where is the connection? 🙈

1- The Small Intestine as a Fu Organ separates the clear from the turbid as a function in the physical aspect. However in the emotional aspect, this is where it will connect to the Heart. In Chinese medicine, the Small Intestine also separates clear from turbid thoughts.

It is the ability of having clear judgment and being able to separate right from wrong. For example, when I see a patient that is in abusive relationship, and they’re not able to see they are being abused. They often also think it’s their fault. It is a Small Intestine not being able to separate right from wrong.

As you know, the Heart is in charge of all our emotions. So when the small intestine is not able to separate right from wrong, it creates phlegm in the brain. There is phlegm in the Heart Mind. That’s the connection!

2- When there is Heart Fire, it can move down to the small intestine creating inflammation like with interstitial cystitis. I see a lot of women with interstitial cystitis in my practice over the years, and every single one of them has insomnia.

This is when using Heart 5 (the LUO connecting point of the HT) to clear Fire in the Small intestine, works so well!

Liver & Gallbladder relationship in Chinese Medicine

The TCM Liver & Gallbladder relationship is very simple. They truly complement each other.

1- When there is a lot of tension on the shoulders, due to stress (creating Liver Qi stagnation), this is when Gallbladder 21 is so useful.

As we know, the Liver is affected by stress because Liver moves Qi, allowing us to be relaxed. When we are stressed, shoulders tighten, we can use GB 21 to relax the trapezius. You can also add GB 34 to move Qi and soothe the sinews.

2- I love these two together because also when a patient has temporal headaches, which is often due to stress, the best acupuncture points are going to be on the gallbladder meridian (specifically the head around the temporal area).

So see, these two Yin & Yang organs relationships work really well together!

Lung & Large Intestine relationship in Chinese Medicine

The relationship between the TCM Lung and Large Intestine is very easy to grasp in my opinion.

1-  According to Chinese medicine, the Lung is in charge of the defensive Qi or the immune system, and so is the Large intestine! As a physical organ, the Large Intestine provides our body with friendly bacteria (or probiotics), which fight invaders.

2- In the 5 Elements, they both connect to the skin. So when a patient has chronic constipation, for example, and they’re not eliminating. This might come out on the skin with zits or cystic acne.

Using LI 6 (the LUO connecting point) of the Large intestine to reduce face swelling due to allergies works great, because one of the TCM Lung function is to reduce edema of the face.

Kidneys & Bladder relationship in Chinese Medicine

The TCM Urinary Bladder and the Kidneys are probably the easiest to grasp! In the western sense, the Bladder excretes the fluid that we don’t need through urination. The Bladder & Kidneys work very well together in transforming fluids and excreting them. Remember, the TCM  Kidneys are in charge of water metabolism in the lower Jiao.

Also the Kidneys and the Bladder get affected by FEAR. When there is a fear or shock, the person can have bladder incontinence or lose bladder control. So fear affects both of them, and that’s their relationship connection.

Pericardium & San Jiao relationship in Chinese Medicine

I think the connection between the Pericardium and the San Jiao is not easy to understand! We have to look at them from a meridian perspective.

The Pericardium is the protector of the Heart because its function is to allow good blood flow and blood circulation for the whole circulatory system. But it’s also mental aspect to protect the Heart from being affected emotionally.

When looking at the Pericardium and the San Jiao’s relationship, we can focus mostly on the mental aspect rather than the physical. Together, they affect a person’s capacity to relate to other people, in the external world, so outside of themselves.

An example is when a patient has a really hard time being in a crowd, and feels really anxious, that’s the San Jiao and Pericardium not properly connecting or working together.

Sj 5 and PC 6 reconnect the patient with their environment, calms the anxiety and allow for the patient to feel safe in a crowd. Chinese medicine ROCKS!

Chinese Medicine Zang-Fu Organs Relationships Video Transcript

Using Stomach 40 as a LUO Connecting Point connecting the Stomach to the Spleen is a true gem when it comes to metabolism syndrome or blood sugar imbalances.

Today, I’m going to talk about the relationships of the Yin and the pair Yang organs like: the Spleen and Stomach. The Lung and the Large intestine. The Heart and the Small Intestine, which are often hard to understand where the connection is with those two. The Liver and the Gallbladder. The Kidney and the Bladder and also the Pericardium and the San Jiao. That way we can truly utilize the LUO Connecting Points in clinical practice to help out patients because it’s really important to understand the relationship between the Yin and the paired Yang organs.

Stomach & Spleen

What I love about the Stomach and the Spleen, is that to me they have the perfect Yin-Yang relationship. According to Chinese medicine, because they are completely opposite. The Stomach Qi–when it’s healthy–goes down, right? If it’s unhealthy, it goes up and we have nausea, we have acid reflux, vomiting, etc. The Spleen, on the other hand, when it’s happy and healthy it raises clear Qi to the head and it keeps the organs from falling down. It goes up when it’s unhappy, or unhealthy the Spleen goes down and we are very tired, exhausted, chronic fatigue, and maybe even prolapse of organs. See how its completely opposite? Second, the Spleen tendency to be affected by dampness or excess body fluid and by Cold.

The Spleen does not like cold. The Stomach is the opposite.

It gets affected by heat, and then by dryness. So very much dry and heat affects the Stomach, but it’s cold and damp affect the Spleen. See how very much opposite? Which is really cool because they work really well together; however, digestive system is at the center of our health.

Because the Spleen and Stomach is such opposite, if there is a lot of cold affecting the Spleen, for example and we eat a lot of warm food, it might be too warm, too hot, too fast. Now the Stomach has too much heat and now we have excess heat in the Stomach. Vice versa if the Stomach has a lot of heat and we want to cool it down with cooling food, cooling formulas we have to be careful. It might make the Spleen too cold, right?

So it’s a fine balance between the two and that’s why diet, talking about health and how we eat our eating habits makes a huge difference. It takes time, consistency but it’s really at the center of balancing our whole health. I love that connection.

What’s the connection between the Heart and the Small Intestine? 

When I was back in school in TCM school, I had a really hard time understanding why the Heart is connected to the Small Intestine. What does it have to do with anything? So, it separates the clear from the turbid as a function in the physical aspect. In the emotional aspect (this is where things are going to get connected) the Small Intestine also separates the clear from the turbid and what does that mean? It is the ability of having clear judgment, and being able to separate right from wrong right.

For example, when I see a patient that is in an abusive relationship. Doesn’t matter if it’s a man or woman, they are with a partner that’s abusive in their relationship. It could be physically or emotionally or both, but that person is excusing and saying, “Oh, but they love me, but it’s okay because, you know. it’s my fault. I did, it I created this. It’s all my fault.” It is a Small Intestine issue. Not being able to separate the right from the wrong, make sense.

The Mental Aspect

So when it comes to the connection between the Heart and the Small Intestine, there’s two things on the mental aspect. As you know, the Heart is in charge of all our emotions, all our clear thinking. With the Spleen, sending clear Qi to the head. When the Small Intestine is not able to separate right from wrong there is phlegm in the brain there is phlegm in the Heart, right? If someone is going to take a gun and start shooting at everybody there is phlegm in the brain, right? There is an imbalance, because the person is not seeing this as wrong. There’s a mental health aspect that’s affecting the Heart, mind. That’s the connection.

The second one is when there is Heart Fire, it can create Fire in the Small Intestine. How does that show? Often that shows with Interstitial Cystitis. So Cystitis is an inflammation of the urethra and the ureter that creates really painful urination, maybe even blood in the urination, but the person does not have an infection. I see a lot of women with IC in my practice over the years and every one of them have insomnia. They don’t sleep well for many years. So that affects the Small Intestine and often we use a point like Heart 5. Heart 5 is a LUO Connecting Point of the Heart to the Small Intestine and that’s a great point to have when there is Interstitial Cystitis. Isn’t that cool? I love Chinese medicine!

Lung & Large Intestine Relationship

The relationship between the Lung and the Large Intestine is twofold. The first one is the Immune System. The Lung is in charge of the defensive Qi, the Immune System and so is the Large Intestine. In the physical organ we have probiotics which are fighting invaders, which are fighting bacterias, right? That’s the first thing. The second thing that’s connecting the two is the skin. They both manifest on the skin.

This is part of the Five Element Theory, right? When we talked about the Five Element both Large Intestine and Lung manifest on the skin. When someone has a lot of constipation, it might come out on the skin with zits, or eruption, or cystic acne. It could be a hormonal. I’m not saying this is what happens every time you have it, but I want to tell you a story that’s really interesting.

My Skin Journey

For example, I moved to Canada from France many, many, many moons ago (because now I’m in my late 50s–oh my God, time flies!) Anyway, when I was from France born there bred. Of course I had baguette and croissant. I moved to Canada and I have to tell you as a teenager, I never–ever–had a zit or acne at all, ever in my life. Within two years of being in Canada, I started having massive, cystic acne. Like a lot of acne. Really, really painful and I was just like, “What is happening to me?”

I went and had my hormone checked. Everything was fine with my hormones. I’m like, “I don’t understand.” It lasted quite a long time, until I figured out that the gluten or the wheat in North America is processed completely differently than in Europe and my gut, my Large Intestine was like, “No, no, no, I don’t like this.” That created inflammation. It took two years for the wheat that I was eating to create massive inflammation in my Large Intestine. So, I thought, “Okay. Well, let’s stop the wheat and see what happens.” Within a month, my whole skin cleared. Completely cleared. See how the Large Intestine and the skin, right?

Going back to France

I remember the first time we went back to France with my husband after I went gluten free. He said to me, “What are you gonna do when we go to France?” and I said, “I don’t care. If I look like you know, I have zits all over. I’m having baguette. I’m having croissant. I’m gonna have everything.” Nothing happened when I was in France, nothing happened anywhere I’ve been in Europe. It doesn’t change my skin. Here if I have a little piece of cake at a birthday party, the next day I wake up and I have a zit right away. So obviously it’s processed differently, but the point here is that my Large Intestine is telling me something on my skin. That’s the relationship between the Lung and Large Intestine.

The Liver & The Gallbladder

Liver Gallbladder relationship is very simple. You know when we have a lot of tension on our shoulder, this is where Gallbladder 21 is. One of the best points when we have traps or trapezius muscle that is so tense and tight because we have a lot of stress. As we know, Liver is affected by stress because it removes Qi all over the body allowing us to be relaxed. When we are stressed, shoulders tightens and that’s the Gallbladder Meridian that we can utilize to relax the shoulder. This is great trigger point to relax all that tension up in the upper traps, right?

So that’s also another point that we use is Gallbladder 34, which is one of the best point for influential point of the sinews (tendons, ligament, and joints). This is the best point when there is issue with the joints.

That complements the Liver very, very well. Makes sense?

I know I love those two together because also when we have temporal headaches (which is often due to stress, right?) at the end of the day people are like, “oh I have a temporal headache,” and we know it’s Liver Yang Rising. The best points are going to be around the Gallbladder Meridian, which goes on the temporal area. We are going to use a Gallbladder and absolutely like Gallbladder 41, Gallbladder 40, distal point to allow temporal headache to be relieved. so see they work really well together.

Bladder & Kidney

Let’s look at the Bladder and the Kidney. So we know this, because it’s easy. In the Western sense, the Bladder excretes the fluid that we don’t need through urination, right? The Bladder in the Kidney work very well in transforming fluids and excreting fluid. Because, of course, the Kidney is in charge of water metabolism in the Lower Jiao. The Kidney and the Bladder work really well and they get affected by fear. It’s easy to see because when there is a fear or shock the person can have Bladder incontinence or lose bladder control. That’s the fear. Affects both of them and that’s their relationship.

The San Jiao & the Pericardium

In that perspective, you know also the San Jiao and the Pericardium. Let’s talk about that connection. The Pericardium is the protector of the Heart, right? It’s the protector of the Heart in the physical aspect because the Pericardium function is to have great blood flow and blood circulation. But, it’s also mental aspect to protect the Heart from being affected emotionally very deep. Now the Pericardium and the San Jiao connection. Their connection is very much more mental than physical or emotional versus physical. You can see together they affect the person’s capacity to relate to other people in the external world–so outside of themselves. When people have a really hard time with being in the crowd, being with a lot of people, feel really anxious, when there’s too many people? That’s San Jiao and Pericardium not properly connecting or working together.

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