Your Home, Birth Date, Health and TCM

Your home, the house "Feng Shui", may give us an indication of possible health problems. From my own experience and observations over the years dealing with clients, I'll share some of my findings here.

Question: For the entire four years I have been living in my home, I have had severe digestive problems and muscle pain. The digestive problems became much worse this year and I came close to death being diagnosed with celiac disease.

My Answer: Check out the toilets close to your bedroom, imagine you are sitting on the toilet, draw two lines the width of the toilet (21 inches), through the walls in front and behind your sitting position, see if this 21" line hits or aligns any part of your body while you are in a sleeping position.
Tell me if it makes contact with your stomach area.
Check out your bedroom door and see if it aligns, or opposes the bathroom door.

Feedback: I really appreciate all the detail you gave, Peter, re dealing with my precise problem. I measured the toilet next to the bedroom like you said and you were right on the nose, there was a straight line going from there right to the part of my small intestine where the problem was.
Thank you so much. You have helped me immeasurably! I am going to act on this and change the master bedroom around right away.

The positive feedback concerning the direct relationship between the TOILET and the BED is abundant; I will give you additional feedback I have received concerning this issue.

Question: I would also like to ask what I would be looking for environmentally that would be causing allergies?
Concerning the line from back to front when sitting on the toilet and what it would dissect is most interesting, as I understand it correctly that line dissects with my neck while I sleep and I had/have a broken neck (now with a metal plate bracing it)

My Answer: I can see the indication of her allergies as well from the toilet position.

Over the years, I have also found some interesting common characteristics of clients with respiratory problems such as allergies and asthma.

• The homes they typically live in are mostly East or West facing, with some visible RED object either inside or outside the Western part of the dwelling
• The kitchen is usually located in the western sector of the house
• There is often a toilet line dissecting the throat or upper part of their bodies
• Their nostrils are usually smaller; the amount of air intake is less than normal

Your house Feng Shui can play an important role in any emotional or mental problems. Besides the main entry location, according to Feng Shui theories, there are a few possible signs indicating problems.

• The headboard of the bed should be completely touching the wall. This alone will interfere with the sleeping pattern, causing unnecessary over-thinking during bedtime.
• There is exposed overhead beam inside the house. This will bring on unnecessary tension, causing disharmony among family members.
• Sleeping under a slanted ceiling. This will add strain to the eye-vision due to the different distances of the flat and slanted ceiling to our sight. Also it may lead to a compressed feeling.
• There is mirror facing the bed directly. This can cause insomnia and nightmares.
• The lighting in the house is either too bright or too dark.

There are other feng shui no-no in a house that is health related, the center of a house is utmost important, bathroom, kitchen and stairways are not recommended, otherwise there is possible heart problem and digestive problem.

The term Feng Shui has become very popular in the West lately.
What is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui is the art of living in harmony with the land and keeping time with nature. Wind (feng) and water (shui) form the land's physical shape, knowing how to find favorable feng shui may enhance aspects of one's health, prosperity, relationships and reputation.

It is the art of accentuating and concentrating the great benefit of Qi.

Qi is the energy force of life. Qi flows through every part of the body, pulsates through all forms and all materials, accumulating and dispersing, linking the energy force of the earth.

• Heaven Qi governs the celestial cycles.
• House Qi streams through a dwelling.
• Human Qi flows through a person.

Finding a favorable Qi spot to build a house, position and design it to maximize house Qi, then through human Qi connect with the heaven Qi thus completing a most auspicious cycle.

Feng shui is based on the Chinese hypothesis of Yin/Yang and Five Elements. These two concepts also formed the foundation of Chinese metaphysical studies, including Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Astrology.

Yin and Yang are two opposing forces active in the Universe. Yin exists in yang and yang exists in yin. This perpetually changing combination creates Qi.

The term "Five Elements" is actually an incorrect translation of "Wu Xing".

Wu Xing actually means "the Five types of active Qi dominating at different times", water dominates in winter, wood in spring, fire in summer, metal in autumn, the transitional periods between seasons is dominated by earth.

The names "water", "wood", "fire", "metal" and "earth" are only substances whose properties resemble the respective Qi in the closest possible way. They do help us understand the properties of the five types of Qi but they also mislead us if we take everything in the literal sense.

Here we list some of the properties, shapes and colors of the five types of active Qi as their names imply.

• Water runs downwards, liberal. Wavy, black and dark blue.
• Wood grows upwards, enduring. Rectangular, green.
• Fire spreads in all directions, radiant and hot. Triangular, red, orange, purple and pink.
• Metal pierces inwards, sharp and pointing. Spherical, white, golden and silver.
• Earth attracts and concentrates, stable. Cubical, brown and yellow.

There are three cycles, in general, describing the behaviors of the five types of active Qi, the Enhancing cycle, the Weakening cycle and the Controlling cycle.

• The Enhancing cycle: Water > Wood > Fire > Earth > Metal > Water
• The Weakening cycle: Wood > Water > Metal > Earth > Fire > Wood
• The Controlling cycle: Wood > Earth > Water > Fire > Metal > Wood

With the understanding of Wu Xing, Yin and Yang concepts, the medical Wu Xing were developed in Traditional Chinese Medicine connecting the human organs and viscera with both concepts according to its function and position.

• Wood: Yin Wood is Liver, Yang Wood is Gall bladder.
• Fire: Yin Fire is Heart, Yang Fire is Small intestine.
• Earth: Yin Earth is Spleen, Yang Earth is Stomach.
• Metal: Yin Metal is Lung, Yang Metal is Large Intestine.
• Water: Yin Water is Kidneys, Yang Water is Urinary bladder.

From these groupings, we can easily identify the organs of digestion are all yang polarity with a downward function. From the moment any food enters our mouth, through the esophagus into the stomach, the grinder will pass the chopped food to the small intestine where with the help of bile delivered from the gall bladder via the bile ducts, the bile helps in alkalinizing the intestinal contents and plays a role in emulsification, absorption, and digestion of fat. The small intestine absorbs the pure part and transports it to the spleen for distribution; the impure part goes to the large intestine. The large intestine absorbs the residue of water, any excessive water will be stored in the urinary bladder, and the rest of the food will be feces.

The elements with Yin polarity form the five major organs in our system. These organs co-ordinate with the organs of digestion, and connect with the channels, tendons, muscles, skin, hair and bones, also the nine openings of eyes, nose, ears, mouth, tongue, anus and external genitalia.

The nutriment absorbed from food and delivered to the spleen, will be carried by the upward function of the spleen to the lung, with the oxygen obtained via breathing, the formation and aeration of blood occurs. The heart will pump the blood to the liver for storage and redistribution to various part of our body via the veins and blood vessels. Any excessive unused nutriment will be stored in our kidneys for future use.

In TCM, the kidneys and the spleen are considered the two most important organs in our system. The spleen is acting as our central vacuum, upholding our organs and viscera; it also is the agent controlling the nutriment distribution.

The kidneys have different functions besides being the bank deposit of excessive unused nutriment; it's also our heating and cooling system. Kidney yang controls the heating, and kidney yin controls the cooling.

Yin and Yang in TCM can be best illustrated in the evaporation and condensation process.
Assuming we have a pot of cold water on the stove, the water represents YIN, and the heat from the stove represents YANG. If the stove is on, the water will start to heat up and evaporate in the form of steam; soon the water will be depleted as hot steam. Here we can see the YANG as heat and steam, moving upward.

As we know, when hot air rise in the sky, it will condense when it meets cold air, which will form a cloud, heavy enough to drop as rainwater. Here we can see the YIN as cold air and rainwater, moving downward.
Our body is a concealed environment, equipped with heating and cooling apparatus to keep the evaporating and condensing process circulating.

Our health is very much nature related, one of the pathogenic factors the exogenous pathogens, refer to six relatively abnormal meteorological conditions: wind, cold, summer heat, damp, dryness and heat (fire, warmth). Each condition is linked to a major organ.

• Wind: Liver, it's characterized by movability (of symptoms) and changeability. The clinical manifestations are abnormal limb motion, such as spasm or twitching, and a wandering symptomatic site as in urticaria or arthralgia. The symptoms may vary in intensity and they usually include a dislike of wind, fever, sweating, headache and itchy throat.
• Cold: Kidney, the invasion of cold will consume the Yang causing a contraction of the channels and the blood vessels, and therefore a poor circulation of Qi and blood. The symptoms are a slight fever, a dislike of cold, hypohydrosis, headache, muscular pain and spasm, occasionally a dark blue and painful area in the local muscles and skin. A frozen shoulder is a good example.
• Summer Heat: Heart, this only occurs in the summer. It damages the Yin and may progress to affect the level of consciousness. The symptoms are excessive body heat, profuse sweating, thirst, dry mouth, dry red skin, and in severe cases, delirium. It may combine with Wind and cause convulsion or it may combine with Damp to produce dizziness, nausea, a stuffy sensation in chest and general malaise.
• Damp: Spleen, diseases caused by damp are sticky, muddy, greasy and stagnant. It causes a generalized heavy feeling associated with distention, dizziness and a heavy head, general malaise and a stuffy sensation in the chest, abdominal swelling and an exudative and prolonged skin disease.
• Dryness: Lung, it consumes Yin fluid. There may be a dry sore feeling in the nose, mouth and throat, a coarseness of the skin, a cough with scanty sputum and possible haemoptysis. Tuberculosis is an example.
• Heat (fire, warmth): Heart, all these represent the same pathogen, but at different intensities. Fire is the most severe, and warmth the mildest. As with summer heat the Yin may be damaged and this will affect the level of consciousness. The main difference is that summer heat only occurs in the summer and is generally less severe than fire. Diseases that are caused by heat are generally of abrupt onset and rapid change, they are nearly always acute infections. Initially the patient may complain of a high fever, chill, thirst, restlessness, irritability and profuse sweating. In severe cases the patient may be in coma with convulsion.

There are other factors affecting our health, our emotions and feelings play an important part.

• Excessive fear and fright, or over-joy, injures the heart, causing palpitations, insomnia, irritability, anxiety and mental abnormality.
• Excessive angers causes dysfunction of liver. This impairs the function of freeing, causes pain and distention in the costal and hypochondriac region, abnormal menstruation, depression and irritability. If the storing of blood is disturbed then menorrhagia and hemorrhage can result.
• Excessive grief, anxiety and over-thinking cause dysfunction of the spleen and stomach, anorexia and a feeling of fullness or distention after meals.
• Excessive grief, anxiety and anger cause poor circulation of Qi and blood. If there is retardation of Qi, and stagnation of blood then this can cause a tumor.

Over-eating, over-indulgence in alcohol, fatty, hot and pungent food, improper dieting, contaminated food, excessive physical labor, lack of physical exercise and traumatic injuries are factors as well.

When we are sick, it's because our internal universe is out of balance, it's a Chinese metaphysical theory, what's inside our system will show up on the outside in the form of clinical symptoms, either in the face, palms, the body or perhaps from the birth date.

Four Pillars of Destiny is a system in Chinese Astrology, based on the same theory of Yin/Yang and Wu Xing.

With the birth data, the Four Pillars of Destiny presents a framework in which we can better understand the potentials and cycles of our lives, and how to enhance our prospects for health and prosperity.

A Four Pillars chart is a personal energy blueprint a map of our own unique Qi. This map can indicate how we may interact with, and respond to, environmental Qi, and the cycles of "energy" over time. Knowledge of the possible fortunate and less fortunate periods of our lives, our potential health risks, and primary personality traits, allow us to work within ourselves and our environment to maximize positive potentials, while minimizing the negative.

Knowing our elemental synthesis helps us to prepare for times of abundance and times of challenge, to customize and develop our own healthy environments.

This Chinese astrological system has not been as popular as Feng Shui in the West, simply because of its secrecy and complicated theories and also the language barriers.

Over the past few years, I have come up with a mathematical system for my students to learn this wonderful ancient Chinese secret. I have been using this as a diagnosis technique to try to understand my patients better, their mindsets, their characters, their personality profiles; all these are crucial to the cause and formation of any illness. There are 60 types of major personality profiles plus other influential factors.

I am also able to get a peek at what might have happened in the past that could lead to the current health problem, so that I would be able to provide the psychiatric healing, also preparing the patients for possible future events.

From the day of the birth and the element associated with it, this element is called the Day-Master. Certain Day-Masters born in certain seasons of a year are very likely associated with certain illnesses in life. Preventive measures can be beneficial to strengthen the problematic areas well before any symptoms show up.

From the distribution of elements in a Four Pillars Chart, a percentage calculation based on the month of birth can give a precise picture of strength and weakness of each organ and viscera during one's life.

For the purpose of medical diagnosis we combine TCM's medical elements, which represent the major organs and viscera, and TCM's Yin/Yang theory of internal/external, endogenous/exogenous, heat/cold, asthenia/sthenia.

By studying TCM's diagnostic theories of symptoms and causes, with the help of a Four Pillar Chart and reading the signs showing up on the face or body parts, we would be able to identify what type of illness, location of the illness, source of the illness and possible causes of the illness.

If we can have a better understanding of illness, we can give patients the proper remedies to deal with their specific health problems. Perhaps one day we will see the Eastern and Western medical theories work together, with advanced technology. It will be a blessing for everyone.

Peter Leung