The Specificity of Liver Qi Stagnation: What Most TCM Practitioners Miss, with Dr John McDonald PhD

Key Takeaways

Research has shown us that acupuncture points are very specific. No two acupuncture points will produce the same pattern of activations and deactivations on functional MRI. It's not good enough to treat liver stagnation because there's lots of points to treat liver stagnation, but they're different and specific. And indeed, if we look at the historical literature over the past 2,000 years, it's all about indications, signs, and symptoms. It's not about patterns. The idea of patterns as we know them uh is basically uh a product of the 1950s. Liver chi invades stomach is basically stress related vomiting and liveri invades spleen is essentially stress related diarrhea. A man is born gentle and weak at his death is hard and stiff. Green plants are tender and filled with sap healthy wood. At their death they are withered and dry. Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life. When the lyic system fires it literally shuts down the preffrontal cortex. So when we are triggered, when we are angry, when we are fearful, when we are in a limbic activation state, we lose the capacities of the prefrontal cortex. So the liver and gallbladder work very closely together. So when the gallbladder is healthy, it has the ability uh to appreciate nuance. It has the ability to react in a a variety of ways. So gallbladder 34 very specifically releases the sphinctra body allowing the bowel to flow and the bowels to move. So for liver stagnation type it's really really very specific. And if you feel yourself starting to be triggered remember the resources that you've got to deal with that change your breathing. Sing, exercise, relax those muscles. [Music]