Relationship between blood and zang organs

[karrotcakeParticipant]

Reading my acupuncture book tells me that all 5 zang organs (liver,heart,spleen,lung and kidneys) have some relationship with the blood, but I can’t quite understand the differentiation.

1. Liver stores and controls the amount of blood circulating and ‘maintains free flow of qi’ so I guess by default affects blood
2. Heart obviously dominates blood function
3. Spleen controls blood and prevents extravasation
4. Kidneys produces blood through its connection with bone marrow
5. Lung dominates qi and would therefore affect blood circulation as it relies on the propelling function of qi

So, my question is, which is the most significant in controlling blood. They all seem connected fairly strongly such that if you have poor circulation, it would be hard to differentiate unless ofcourse you use the pulse. Is there any solution to this?

[sultanKeymaster]

You kind of answered your own question here. With these systems, there is no one organ which controls a singular function, they are all linked, which is what makes diagnosis and treatment so difficult. For example, an overall weak person may have serious blood deficiency due to a combination of problems in all organs, but the challenge is to prioritise. Which organ is most in need of help, how can you ensure that patient doesn’t die (assuming they are close to death).
As for diagnosing the issue, well then as you said, if you are skilled in pulse then it can be easier to determine the cause but don’t forget, you can also observe all other aspects. Im sure your book tells you of looking at the tongue, complexion, lifestyle habits, observation of behaviour etc.
So if you are unable to see everything in the pulse, the other factors can guide you.

In my opinion, if you are ever in such a serious case, you would usually be tonifying the body in general. As the patient improves overall, you can find cues as to which is the troubled area. So what at first glance looks like low kidney energy may in fact be as a result of the weakness of the spleen in absorbing food.
I certainly am not that experienced but that would be my approach.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by  sultan.

[Quie BianParticipant]

In controlling blood, I would say the heart and lungs have the most significant roles but all are important in their own way

[Amy93Participant]

It depends on what aspect of blood, is it hormones? or just plain circulation? sometimes its not clear, as its always linked as Sultan said, each problem of the blood will be related with one of the organs.

It can be more complicated where you have to bring in 7 system instead of the 5 organ system to understand (hence the reason we have so many systems to check and cross check).

[sultanKeymaster]

@amy93
Where does the differentiation lie in that? Blood vs hormones? (in terms of theory)

[karrotcakeParticipant]

Oh I see, that makes it a little clearer. Maybe I need a lot of practical experience to fully grasp this!

[Anna KParticipant]

I mean medically speaking, the bone marrow is where blood is created so there should be a fairly strong link to the kidneys in TCM…

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