Causes of a disease – ancient and modern perspective

Traditional Chinese Medicine believes that normally there is a relative balance between different organs and systems of the body, between the body and emotions as well as between human body and environment. If for any reason this dynamic balance is disrupted then disease will be caused.

The causes of the disease are usually divided into internal, external and others:
- Internal: emotions (anger, joy, worry, pensiveness, sadness, fear, fright/shock)
- External: weather (wind, cold, summer heat, damp, dryness and fire/excessive heat)
- Others:

• constitution (heredity)
• fatigue / over-exertion
• excessive sexual activity (more correctly, related to sexual activity)
• diet
• trauma
• epidemics
• parasites and poisons
• wrong treatment

If we consider that all causes interrelate each other and we make a simple calculation of the possible combinations of these 21 major causes we obtain a number of 51,090,942,171,709,440,000 different conditions. Eliminating from our calculation, trauma, epidemics, parasites and wrong treatment assuming that from statistical stand point their occurrence rate is low, we obtain 355,687,428,096,000 combinations that can causes a disease.

An initial conclusion would be that a disease condition of an individual is unique and it is a result of the internal and external characteristics of that specific (and unique) individual live in. As a result, a holistic approach is indispensable to any analysis of a disease or wellness status of an individual.

In our times we have many new causes of disease which did not exist in the times when Chinese Medicine developed (for example radiation, pollution or chemical in food). In practice it is important to keep in mind these new causes, and it might therefore be necessary in certain causes to integrate Chinese diagnosis with other Western diagnostic tests to find the causes of disease

We can “complicate” even more this analysis in order to see the big picture of our existence if we add the following:

- Human beings are mind, body and spirit complexes which exists in continuous dynamic equilibrium with higher energy dimensions of reality. These higher energies endow the physical vehicle (our body) with the properties of life and creative expression.
- The interface which regulates the flow of these higher energies into the physical framework (in our “trivial” reality) is mad up of chakra-nadi system and the acupuncture meridian system, working in conjunction with the body’s microcrystalline and bioelectronic networks .

We can conclude in a more simple statement. In order to establish the root cause of a disease, in addition to environment conditions we should explore in a holistic manner all aspects of:

• Internal connection of the human body systems
• Emotions
• Spiritual component of our existence.

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