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Module 1   Lesson 4   Wu Xing

The Five Elements and the causes of disease

How does an acupuncturist explain why stress goes to your gut, and what actually makes someone ill?

After this lesson you can read the pentagon with its two cycles and four pathological sequences, and sort any cause of disease into external, internal or miscellaneous.

pattern e.g. Spleen deficiency product e.g. Dampness, Phlegm produces becomes a cause itself
Dampness, Phlegm, Blood stasis, internal Wind and Fire arise from a pattern and then become causes themselves; that is how a complaint keeps itself going.

Know by heart

  • Generating sequence. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and back to Wood; the one that generates is the mother, the one generated is the child. mnemonic: wood burns, ash becomes earth, earth holds ore, metal gathers dew, water feeds the tree.
  • Controlling sequence. Wood controls Earth, Earth Water, Water Fire, Fire Metal, Metal Wood: two places on. mnemonic: roots split the earth, a dyke holds back water, water puts out fire, fire melts metal, an axe fells wood.
  • Seven things per element. Zang and Fu, season, climate, taste, sense organ, tissue, emotion (step 2). mnemonic: the voice follows the emotion: anger shouts, joy laughs, pensiveness sings, sadness weeps, fear groans.
  • Four pathological sequences. Edge: the mother does not nourish the child, the child steals from the mother. Star: overacting (normal direction, too hard), insulting (reversed). Rule: in deficiency tonify the mother, in excess sedate the child.
  • Six external pathogens. Wind, Cold, Summer-Heat, Dampness, Dryness, Fire; their characteristics are on the tiles in step 4.
  • Seven emotions, six movements. Anger rises, joy slows down, worry and pensiveness knot, sadness dissolves, fear descends, shock scatters. mnemonic: anger goes to your head, fear sinks to your boots, sadness drains away, shock bursts apart, pensiveness ties your stomach in knots.
  • Miscellaneous, and the products. Neither external nor internal: constitution, overwork, diet, excessive sexual activity, trauma, epidemics and parasites, wrong treatment. Products that become causes themselves: Dampness, Phlegm, Blood stasis, internal Wind, Fire.

The rest of this lesson is reference.

Five Elements and causes of disease: How does an acupuncturist explain why stress goes to your gut, and what actually makes someone ill?
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Three practice questions from this lesson

Wood is in excess and Kidney-Yin is being exhausted. Which sequence?
  1. Insulting
  2. Child steals from mother
  3. Mother does not nourish child

Answer: Child steals from mother. Water is the mother of Wood; a child element in excess drains the mother.

Metal is deficient and Wood becomes excessive. Which sequence?
  1. Insulting
  2. Overacting
  3. Child steals from mother

Answer: Insulting. Metal normally controls Wood; when the controller is deficient and the controlled element is in excess, Wood insults Metal.

Water is deficient. What do you tonify according to the classical rule?
  1. Earth, the controller
  2. Wood, the child
  3. Metal, the mother

Answer: Metal, the mother. In deficiency tonify the mother; Metal generates Water.

The rest of this lesson

In the course you get the step-by-step explanation, 17 case-based practice questions, 17 spaced-repetition flashcards, the pitfalls and the bridge to physiology with evidence grades. This lesson belongs to module 1: Foundations.

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