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Who really thinks about their liver? Is it just a wedge-shaped spongy organ that absorbs alcohol and puts out blood and digestive biochemicals? Is it an imperfect champion of modern life, buffering us from the burden of late night snacks and booze, only to be appeased with fresh fruit juices and salads the next morning? What is this being with whom we have such a tumultuous relationship? It’s time to get to know the liver and the value it has according to Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Chinese medicine has a long history of placing the functions of the body into analogical frameworks that help bring to light the complex ideas of functional relationships between organ systems.
Physiologically, the liver demonstrates aspects of the decisive aspect of a military, in setting up the preconditions for the correct functioning of nearly every organ system. For example, the liver is related to blood pressure via its synthesis of albumin, the blood plasma protein that helps balance oncotic pressure, which ultimately influences systemic blood pressure. The liver stores and releases important vitamins, minerals and glucose; metabolizes hormones; synthesize proteins; detoxifies various metabolites; and secretes biochemicals vital to digestions such as bile.
These functions allow the entire body to function correctly, and in a broad Chinese medical sense this can be understood as a governing the directional movement of Qi through the organ systems – to allow Qi to enter and exit the organs, stop and start metabolic processes raise or lower pressure.
By helping the Qi move through the body naturally, allowing the liver to govern the movement of the blood, in a similar way to an army getting supplies and forces to the right people at the right time. The speed of the blood is controlled by the heart, but how the blood is used by any of the organs is controlled by the liver.
When you digest that heavy meal, blood gets rushed to the digestive organs; when you go for a run, blood is made available in the legs and lungs; when you sleep, blood retreats back into the liver for processing, allowing the liver to perform over 500 functions a day.
In Chinese Medicine Theory, strong emotions can cause Qi to become “blocked”, which makes the smooth function of the liver to become hard to do. Unfortunately, if the liver becomes physically injured or obstructed (with fatty liver or blockage of the diaphragm), this causes a tendency toward angry outbursts, in which the boy is attempting at removing any obstructions with forceful outpouring of energy.
This may sound like a bit of a stretch, but think of the act of sighing. The liver sits underneath the diaphragm. When the liver is obstructed by emotional tension, one begins to heave a heavy sigh to the move the diaphragm and hence for the liver to move as well. Knowing this it shouldn’t be surprising that a heavy sigh is an indication of a emotional stress being released. In this way we move our livers so our livers can “move” us, Move our Qi and move our blood.
Liver Qi Stagnation affects a large number of body processes, and it makes all of them less efficient. With the liver system being taxed and stressed, what follows are imbalances of digestion, blood pressure, hormonal expression, blood sugar regulation and mood. This can cause muscle tension and pain, anxiety and/or depression, accumulation of fat, insomnia, menstrual cramps, low libido and more.
The correct movement of the body based on the “planning” action of the liver ultimately create a harmony of action of the body that nourishes a positive sense of self that allows stressful situations to be dealt with and not “held on to.” When one holds onto stress after the moment as passed, the smooth coordination of the planning process is interrupted; but as we all know, when one part of a carefully organized plan goes awry, it throws off the timing of the rest of the plan.
There is a condition called “decision fatigue” this contributes directly to binding up the activity of the liver system in a similar way to the “decision paralysis” that occurs when we have too many options or cannot decide. We go into fight or flight mode, release a bunch of stress hormones, and then stew in them because the organ system responsible for clearing out and metabolizing these stress hormones, the liver, is the one being most strongly impacted by our emotional response.
Another catch-22 of the liver system is that thing like alcohol and fatty foods do tend to relax our minds and do technically ‘soothe’ the liver in small amounts. The prescription of medicinal wine are a perfect example of this; as is eating liver pate to support liver health. However, these same substances in too large of quantities will injure the liver itself, disallowing their further use as a liver-supporting substance.
In the end, a little liver Qi stagnation is to be expected in today’s lifestyle and we all do love a little challenge to keep things interesting.
The higher the stress level we have in our lives the more important it is to unwind and give the liver a chance to calm down. This can be done by staying physically active, including sports, dancing, hiking, Qi Gong and let’s not forget about Tai Chi. So if you have high levels of stress and need to find some way to handle it, come in and talk to us at Master Lu’s Health Center in Salt Lake City on how acupuncture and Tai Chi can help reduce your stress level and the amount of liver Qi stagnation.
