new info on the spleen

in the middle of this article is some interesting info on the spleen.

--roseanne

 

I BEG TO DIFFER

 

A Diabetes Researcher Forges Her Own Path to a Cure

 

By GINA KOLATA

 

Published: November 9, 2004

 

 

r. Denise Faustman thinks she has a shot at curing diabetes.

She has published one significant scientific paper after another on the

disease. She has succeeded in curing it in mice, something no one else has

accomplished.

But when Dr. Faustman, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, went

looking for money to finance the next stage of her research, testing the ideas

with diabetes patients, she could find no backers. Pharmaceutical companies

turned her down. So did the Juvenile Diabetes Research Association.

Her approach was criticized, even though in the past, said her boss, Dr.

Joseph Avruch, chief of the diabetes unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital,

" most of the things she found turned out to be true. "

Only the support of Lee A. Iacocca, the former chief of Chrysler, who said he

wanted to see diabetes cured in his lifetime, has allowed her to pursue her

goal. He mounted an $11 million fund-raising campaign and wrote a $1 million

check to start the fund.

The reason for the resistance, Dr. Faustman and some colleagues believe, was

simple: her findings, which raise the possibility that an inexpensive, readily

available drug might effectively treat Type 1 or juvenile diabetes, challenge

widespread assumptions. Many diabetes researchers insist that a cure lies

instead in research on stem cells and islet cell transplants.

Dr. Faustman's story, scientists say, illustrates the difficulties that

creative scientists can have when their work questions conventional wisdom and

runs

into entrenched interests. But if she is correct, scientists will also have

to reconsider many claims for embryonic stem cells as a cure for diabetes, and

perhaps for other diseases.

" I wish Denise well, and I flat out hope she's right, " said Dr. Mark

Atkinson, a diabetes expert who directs the Center for Immunology and

Transplantation

at the University of Florida College of Medicine. " But the environment she's

trying to move this forward in is so much like kids in a sandbox, whipping sand

around. It's hard to see with so much sand in the air. "

With many foundations and universities competing for research financing, and

with the heated politics of stem cell research, it is no surprise, Dr.

Atkinson said, that disputes can sometimes become vitriolic.

In addition, he said, the field has been whipsawed by false hopes.

" I've seen a lot of things in diabetes come and go, " Dr. Atkinson said. " For

decades we have been told that a cure is just around the corner. That's part

of the background, that's why it's emotionally heated. "

Dr. Faustman's research began when she came to Massachusetts General in 1985

to help start a program to cure diabetes with transplants of islet cells,

which come from hormone-producing regions of the pancreas. She had learned to

isolate human islet cells from the transplant technique's developer, Dr. Paul

Lacey of Washington University, and she was confident about her skill.

Other scientists had tried the transplants and failed - the islet cells died

despite immunosuppressant drugs - but Dr. Faustman thought she would succeed.

" I thought the secret was that my islets were better than anyone else's, " she

said.

But when she and Dr. David Nathan, the director of the diabetes center at the

hospital, tried using her islets, they also failed. So Dr. Faustman decided

to go back to the laboratory and study the phenomenon in mice.

Researchers had reported that islet transplants could cure diabetes in mice,

but they had been making them diabetic by destroying their islet cells. Dr.

Faustman decided to look at mice with a strong genetic predisposition to develop

diabetes on their own. When the islet cell transplants failed in those

animals, she asked why.

Diabetes occurs when a white blood cell, part of the body's immune system,

migrates to the pancreas and mistakenly sees islet cells as foreign tissue. It

then multiplies and destroys the islets. But, Dr. Faustman learned, she could

block the white cells by supplying them with a piece of protein that signaled

that the islet cells were normal cells, rather than foreign invaders.

She also had to stop the attack that was under way in the pancreas. That

required killing the white cells that were doing the attacking. Her solution was

to give an off-patent drug, BCG, that is inexpensive, $11 a vial, and approved

for use as an immune system stimulant. It elicits the release of an immune

system hormone, tumor necrosis factor, that kills activated white cells.

After Dr. Faustman gave the mice the two types of treatment, the attack on

the islets stopped.

Then, to her astonishment, something else happened: the islet cells grew

back, a development that went against everything known by scientists.

The implications, Dr. Nathan said, were enormous. The diabetic mice, he said,

had had extremely high blood sugar levels for weeks and would die without

insulin. Researchers had successfully intervened earlier in the disease with

these animals but not once diabetes was so firmly established.

" No one had cured them, " he said. " Here was this treatment that we thought

would get them ready for a transplant but - eureka! - the diabetes was cured. "

If Dr. Faustman's findings could be applied to humans, there would be no need

for islet cell transplants. Embryonic stem cells, which many researchers

believed might be turned into islet cells, eliminating the need to get islets

for

transplants from cadavers, would also be unnecessary.

In fact, the work meant that unless the underlying immune system attack on

the pancreas was stopped, these replacement cells would eventually be destroyed

anyway, so such treatments would never be a cure.

Dr. Faustman published the work in The Journal of Clinical Investigation in

2001.

" We weren't allowed to use the word 'regenerate,' " she said. " People didn't

believe that an organ could regenerate. " Instead, she had to say " restoration

of insulin secretion by return of blood sugar to normal. "

Even though the islet cells were growing back, it was still unclear where the

new cells were coming from. Before long, Dr. Faustman had a surprising

answer. They were from the spleen, a fist-size organ on the left side of the

diaphragm whose pulpy interior is filled with blood.

In a paper last year in Science, Dr. Faustman reported that she had cured

female mice of diabetes and transplanted them with spleens from male mice. The

islet cells that grew back were male, and they had come from the male spleens.

The findings raised the question of what happens to people who have their

spleens removed. Dr. Faustman went to the medical literature and discovered that

most spleens were removed in emergency rooms and that few patients were

followed afterward, with two exceptions.

One was a group of patients in England with pancreatitis. To treat them,

doctors had removed half of the pancreas. When they removed the right half of

the

organ, the patients were fine. But when they removed the left half, along with

the attached spleen, patients often developed diabetes about five years

later.

The other case involved children with beta thalassemia, a genetic disease

involving iron storage. Often, they developed enlarged spleens, which were

removed. Five years or so later, many got diabetes.

The stories about patients who had their spleens removed are not proof that

Dr. Faustman's work applies to humans as well as mice.

" Denise's work is remarkable in animals, " Dr. Nathan said. " But does it apply

to humans? As a clinical investigator, I have to remain skeptical.

Scientifically, is it a long shot? I don't know. "

Mr. Iacocca's check, and the money he wants to raise, will pay for the

initial phase of a clinical trial, the first step for finding out. Dr. Nathan,

who

will direct the trial, will ask whether BCG kills the islet-destroying white

blood cells of patients in the same way it does in mice and, if so, at what

dose. Dr. Faustman is working on a blood test that will immediately assess the

effects of BCG by determining whether the dangerous white cells are being

destroyed.

In the meantime, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is financing an

independent effort to replicate Dr. Faustman's work. The researcher, Dr. Anita

Chong of the University of Chicago, said her studies were still under way. But,

she added, " so far, what we have done replicates what she has done. "

For his part, Mr. Iacocca was confident from the start that Dr. Faustman's

work was correct. His foundation's scientific advisers strongly endorsed it, and

Mr. Iacocca, whose wife, Mary, died of diabetes complications, has a personal

interest.

" I can't wait for the pharmaceutical companies or even government tax money

to fund what looks promising, " Mr. Iacocca said. " They are not known for high

risk and they are also slow to react. We are trying to get a cure. "

-

<ra6151

<Chinese Medicine >

Tuesday, November 09, 2004 8:31 AM

new info on the spleen

 

 

>

>

> in the middle of this article is some interesting info on the spleen.

> --roseanne

>

> I BEG TO DIFFER

>

> A Diabetes Researcher Forges Her Own Path to a Cure

>

> By GINA KOLATA

>

> Published: November 9, 2004

 

I find this very interesting. Gina's writing has been the very model of

mainstream opinion, following hand-to-mouth what the pharmaceutical

companies feed her. If she's changing editorial direction, it is no doubt

because she spots a financial opportunity. Watch for a forthcoming book.

 

 

Avery L. Jenkins, DC, DACBN, FIAMA

Chiropractic Physician

Diplomate, American Clinical Board of Nutrition

Fellow, International Academy of Medical Acupuncture

Kent, CT

www.docaltmed.com

 

 

" There is no meaning in life except the meaning that man gives his life by

the unfolding of his powers. "

--Erich Fromm

" But when they removed the left half, along with

the attached spleen, patients often developed diabetes

about five years

later. "

 

 

I was in a serious accident 20 years ago and had to

have my spleen removed. I have no sign of diabetes.

 

So I would have to say that the above statement is not

always the case.

 

Mary

 

--- ra6151 wrote:

 

>

> in the middle of this article is some interesting

> info on the spleen.

> --roseanne

>

> I BEG TO DIFFER

>

> A Diabetes Researcher Forges Her Own Path to a Cure

>

> By GINA KOLATA

>

> Published: November 9, 2004

>

>

> r. Denise Faustman thinks she has a shot at curing

> diabetes.

> She has published one significant scientific paper

> after another on the

> disease. She has succeeded in curing it in mice,

> something no one else has

> accomplished.

> But when Dr. Faustman, an associate professor of

> medicine at Harvard, went

> looking for money to finance the next stage of her

> research, testing the ideas

> with diabetes patients, she could find no backers.

> Pharmaceutical companies

> turned her down. So did the Juvenile Diabetes

> Research Association.

> Her approach was criticized, even though in the

> past, said her boss, Dr.

> Joseph Avruch, chief of the diabetes unit at the

> Massachusetts General Hospital,

> " most of the things she found turned out to be

> true. "

> Only the support of Lee A. Iacocca, the former chief

> of Chrysler, who said he

> wanted to see diabetes cured in his lifetime, has

> allowed her to pursue her

> goal. He mounted an $11 million fund-raising

> campaign and wrote a $1 million

> check to start the fund.

> The reason for the resistance, Dr. Faustman and some

> colleagues believe, was

> simple: her findings, which raise the possibility

> that an inexpensive, readily

> available drug might effectively treat Type 1 or

> juvenile diabetes, challenge

> widespread assumptions. Many diabetes researchers

> insist that a cure lies

> instead in research on stem cells and islet cell

> transplants.

> Dr. Faustman's story, scientists say, illustrates

> the difficulties that

> creative scientists can have when their work

> questions conventional wisdom and runs

> into entrenched interests. But if she is correct,

> scientists will also have

> to reconsider many claims for embryonic stem cells

> as a cure for diabetes, and

> perhaps for other diseases.

> " I wish Denise well, and I flat out hope she's

> right, " said Dr. Mark

> Atkinson, a diabetes expert who directs the Center

> for Immunology and Transplantation

> at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

> " But the environment she's

> trying to move this forward in is so much like kids

> in a sandbox, whipping sand

> around. It's hard to see with so much sand in the

> air. "

> With many foundations and universities competing for

> research financing, and

> with the heated politics of stem cell research, it

> is no surprise, Dr.

> Atkinson said, that disputes can sometimes become

> vitriolic.

> In addition, he said, the field has been whipsawed

> by false hopes.

> " I've seen a lot of things in diabetes come and go, "

> Dr. Atkinson said. " For

> decades we have been told that a cure is just around

> the corner. That's part

> of the background, that's why it's emotionally

> heated. "

> Dr. Faustman's research began when she came to

> Massachusetts General in 1985

> to help start a program to cure diabetes with

> transplants of islet cells,

> which come from hormone-producing regions of the

> pancreas. She had learned to

> isolate human islet cells from the transplant

> technique's developer, Dr. Paul

> Lacey of Washington University, and she was

> confident about her skill.

> Other scientists had tried the transplants and

> failed - the islet cells died

> despite immunosuppressant drugs - but Dr. Faustman

> thought she would succeed.

> " I thought the secret was that my islets were better

> than anyone else's, " she

> said.

> But when she and Dr. David Nathan, the director of

> the diabetes center at the

> hospital, tried using her islets, they also failed.

> So Dr. Faustman decided

> to go back to the laboratory and study the

> phenomenon in mice.

> Researchers had reported that islet transplants

> could cure diabetes in mice,

> but they had been making them diabetic by destroying

> their islet cells. Dr.

> Faustman decided to look at mice with a strong

> genetic predisposition to develop

> diabetes on their own. When the islet cell

> transplants failed in those

> animals, she asked why.

> Diabetes occurs when a white blood cell, part of the

> body's immune system,

> migrates to the pancreas and mistakenly sees islet

> cells as foreign tissue. It

> then multiplies and destroys the islets. But, Dr.

> Faustman learned, she could

> block the white cells by supplying them with a piece

> of protein that signaled

> that the islet cells were normal cells, rather than

> foreign invaders.

> She also had to stop the attack that was under way

> in the pancreas. That

> required killing the white cells that were doing the

> attacking. Her solution was

> to give an off-patent drug, BCG, that is

> inexpensive, $11 a vial, and approved

> for use as an immune system stimulant. It elicits

> the release of an immune

> system hormone, tumor necrosis factor, that kills

> activated white cells.

> After Dr. Faustman gave the mice the two types of

> treatment, the attack on

> the islets stopped.

> Then, to her astonishment, something else happened:

> the islet cells grew

> back, a development that went against everything

> known by scientists.

> The implications, Dr. Nathan said, were enormous.

> The diabetic mice, he said,

> had had extremely high blood sugar levels for weeks

> and would die without

> insulin. Researchers had successfully intervened

> earlier in the disease with

> these animals but not once diabetes was so firmly

> established.

> " No one had cured them, " he said. " Here was this

> treatment that we thought

> would get them ready for a transplant but - eureka!

> - the diabetes was cured. "

> If Dr. Faustman's findings could be applied to

> humans, there would be no need

> for islet cell transplants. Embryonic stem cells,

> which many researchers

> believed might be turned into islet cells,

> eliminating the need to get islets for

> transplants from cadavers, would also be

> unnecessary.

> In fact, the work meant that unless the underlying

> immune system attack on

> the pancreas was stopped, these replacement cells

> would eventually be destroyed

> anyway, so such treatments would never be a cure.

> Dr. Faustman published the work in The Journal of

> Clinical Investigation in

> 2001.

> " We weren't allowed to use the word 'regenerate,' "

> she said. " People didn't

> believe that an organ could regenerate. " Instead,

> she had to say " restoration

> of insulin secretion by return of blood sugar to

> normal. "

> Even though the islet cells were growing back, it

> was still unclear where the

> new cells were coming from. Before long, Dr.

> Faustman had a surprising

> answer. They were from the spleen, a fist-size organ

> on the left side of the

> diaphragm whose pulpy interior is filled with blood.

> In a paper last year in Science, Dr. Faustman

> reported that she had cured

> female mice of diabetes and transplanted them with

> spleens from male mice. The

> islet cells that grew back were male, and they had

> come from the male spleens.

> The findings raised the question of what happens to

> people who have their

> spleens removed. Dr. Faustman went to the medical

> literature and discovered that

> most spleens were removed in emergency rooms and

> that few patients were

> followed afterward, with two exceptions.

> One was a group of patients in England with

> pancreatitis. To treat them,

> doctors had removed half of the pancreas. When they

> removed

=== message truncated ===

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the new Front Page.

www.

The diabetes issue has to do with the pancreas, not the spleen.

The TCM Zang-Fu is Spleen-Pancreas, of which the Pancreas is the

most significative of the pair, for it occupies a central

position in the body(Earth), and is of yellow colouring(Earth),

the Spleen attracts more attention than it deserves.

Marcos

 

--- Lydia Lane <purfectautumnday escreveu:

 

" But when they removed the left half, along with

the attached spleen, patients often developed diabetes

about five years

later. "

 

>I was in a serious accident 20 years ago and had to

have my spleen removed. I have no sign of diabetes.

 

>So I would have to say that the above statement is not

always the case.

 

>Mary

 

--- ra6151 wrote:

 

>

> in the middle of this article is some interesting

> info on the spleen.

> --roseanne

>

> I BEG TO DIFFER

>

> A Diabetes Researcher Forges Her Own Path to a Cure

>

> By GINA KOLATA

>

> Published: November 9, 2004

The following sentences contain what I thought was interesting in the article

- in case people missed it.

---RoseAnne

 

" Then, to her astonishment, something else happened: the islet cells grew

back, a development that went against everything known by scientists.

 

" We weren't allowed to use the word 'regenerate,' " she said. " People didn't

believe that an organ could regenerate. "

 

Even though the islet cells were growing back, it was still unclear where the

new cells were coming from. Before long, Dr. Faustman had a surprising

answer. They were from the spleen, a fist-size organ on the left side of the

diaphragm whose pulpy interior is filled with blood. "

This is not accurate. Pancreas in Chinese is yizang, ~{RHT`~}, and nowhere

in the Chinese medical literature is pi ~{F " !!~}used to describe the

pancreas. While the pi/spleen includes many if not all of the

functions of the pancreas, the pancreas is not considered to be a

paired zang with the spleen.

 

 

On Nov 14, 2004, at 4:24 AM, marcos wrote:

 

>

> The diabetes issue has to do with the pancreas, not the spleen.

> The TCM Zang-Fu is Spleen-Pancreas, of which the Pancreas is the

> most significative of the pair, for it occupies a central

> position in the body(Earth), and is of yellow colouring(Earth),

> the Spleen attracts more attention than it deserves.

> Marcos

>

>

 

 

 

 

Interesting,

Thank you Z'ev, I stand corrected.

Anyway, what is the business with the Pancreas? I have him paired

up with the Spleen in a number of books and maps;

'Spleen-Pancreas' meridian and son on. If it is just Spoleen,

what is the pancreas doing there? Is it a case of faulty

translation? Misconceptions?

Whatever, since(as i wrote on my post), the pancreas IS yellowish

and IS located more to the center of the body than the Spleen, it

seemed logical to me to conclude that the ancient chinese thought

really a pair with the Spleen and that it was, hmmm, more

emblematic of it's element/phase: the Earth.

And back to the diabetes issue, it HAS more to do with the

Pancreas, and the disease involves metabolising sugars(sweet,

Earth taste again).

Thank's again, I have to start studying chinese I guess...

Marcos

 

 

--- <zrosenbe escreveu:

 

>This is not accurate. Pancreas in Chinese is yizang, ~{RHT`~},

and nowhere

in the Chinese medical literature is pi ~{F " !!~}used to describe

the

pancreas. While the pi/spleen includes many if not all of the

functions of the pancreas, the pancreas is not considered to be a

 

paired zang with the spleen.

 

>

On Nov 14, 2004, at 4:24 AM, marcos wrote:

 

>

> The diabetes issue has to do with the pancreas, not the

spleen.

> The TCM Zang-Fu is Spleen-Pancreas, of which the Pancreas is

the

> most significative of the pair, for it occupies a central

> position in the body(Earth), and is of yellow

colouring(Earth),

> the Spleen attracts more attention than it deserves.

> Marcos

Marcos,

You are right, many English language texts talk about

'spleen-pancreas', but all of them are based on assumptions by Western

authors that this is what the Chinese meant, even though the term

pancreas yi or yizang never appeared in classical Chinese medical

texts. Discovery of the anatomical pancreas was not until the modern

era in China. One could assume this can be based on what you mention

here, i.e. all the gastrointestinal functions associated with the

spleen, but we need to be accurate with translations of Chinese medical

concepts and not read into them.

 

 

On Nov 15, 2004, at 7:46 AM, marcos wrote:

 

>

> Interesting,

> Thank you Z'ev, I stand corrected.

> Anyway, what is the business with the Pancreas? I have him paired

> up with the Spleen in a number of books and maps;

> 'Spleen-Pancreas' meridian and son on. If it is just Spoleen,

> what is the pancreas doing there? Is it a case of faulty

> translation? Misconceptions?

> Whatever, since(as i wrote on my post), the pancreas IS yellowish

> and IS located more to the center of the body than the Spleen, it

> seemed logical to me to conclude that the ancient chinese thought

> really a pair with the Spleen and that it was, hmmm, more

> emblematic of it's element/phase: the Earth.

> And back to the diabetes issue, it HAS more to do with the

> Pancreas, and the disease involves metabolising sugars(sweet,

> Earth taste again).

> Thank's again, I have to start studying chinese I guess...

> Marcos

>

>

> --- <zrosenbe escreveu:

>

> >This is not accurate.  Pancreas in Chinese is yizang, ~{RHT`~},

> and nowhere

> in the Chinese medical literature is pi ~{F " !!~}used to describe

> the

> pancreas.  While the pi/spleen includes many if not all of the

> functions of the pancreas, the pancreas is not considered to be a

>

> paired zang with the spleen.

>

> >

> On Nov 14, 2004, at 4:24 AM, marcos wrote:

>

>

>

 

 

Hi Zev,

 

I agree with you that the Pancreas has never been mentioned as far as I'm

aware in TCM literature. Although, I'm sceptical that the ancients never got

a chance, even by accident, to observe the psychical structure of the inner

anatomical body. Yes, I understand that cutting open the dead was taboo in

ancient times, but even so, some chance must of presented itself that would

of allowed the observation inside the body. In that case, why wasn't the

anatomical body given much credit?

 

Attilio

 

 

[zrosenbe]

17 November 2004 00:23

Chinese Medicine

Re: new info on the spleen

 

 

 

Marcos,

You are right, many English language texts talk about

'spleen-pancreas', but all of them are based on assumptions by Western

authors that this is what the Chinese meant, even though the term

pancreas yi or yizang never appeared in classical Chinese medical

texts. Discovery of the anatomical pancreas was not until the modern

era in China. One could assume this can be based on what you mention

here, i.e. all the gastrointestinal functions associated with the

spleen, but we need to be accurate with translations of Chinese medical

concepts and not read into them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attilio,

I don't think I could answer this one for you. There are many

possibilities, but I could only speculate. I think someone like Dr.

Paul Unschuld could possibly answer your question.

I do think the Chinese had a relatively sophisticated anatomical

knowledge, but it is a mystery why the pancreas was not taken account

of until the modern era.

 

 

On Nov 17, 2004, at 2:17 AM, Attilio D'Alberto wrote:

 

> Hi Zev,

>

> I agree with you that the Pancreas has never been mentioned as far as

> I'm

> aware in TCM literature. Although, I'm sceptical that the ancients

> never got

> a chance, even by accident, to observe the psychical structure of the

> inner

> anatomical body. Yes, I understand that cutting open the dead was

> taboo in

> ancient times, but even so, some chance must of presented itself that

> would

> of allowed the observation inside the body. In that case, why wasn't

> the

> anatomical body given much credit?

>

> Attilio

>

>

> [zrosenbe]

> 17 November 2004 00:23

> Chinese Medicine

> Re: new info on the spleen

>

>

>

> Marcos,

>    You are right, many English language texts talk about

> 'spleen-pancreas', but all of them are based on assumptions by Western

> authors that this is what the Chinese meant, even though the term

> pancreas yi or yizang never appeared in classical Chinese medical

> texts.  Discovery of the anatomical pancreas was not until the modern

> era in China. One could assume this can be based on what you mention

> here, i.e. all the gastrointestinal functions associated with the

> spleen, but we need to be accurate with translations of Chinese

> medical

> concepts and not read into them.

>

>

>

 

 

 

Hi Z'ev, Attilio,

I've seen(i'm sure most of us) old chinese drawings of the inner

organs, they aren't very precise, looks more like someone without

much drawing ability trying to picture what they are seeing, but,

the opening of the human body was taboo, except in the case of

executed criminals, enemies and so forth, these had no privileges

at all, there are cases when even the graves of their

ancestors(in the case of traitors -those that rebelled against

the reigning Emperor) where dug up, thus ruining their families

Feng-Shui. And there was no shortage of those, wars and

rebelions(not to mention crime) being common in certain phases of

Chinese history. Many opportunities for the

physician/acupuncturist to examine!

Marcos

 

--- <zrosenbe escreveu:

 

-Attilio,

I don't think I could answer this one for you. There are

many

possibilities, but I could only speculate. I think someone like

Dr.

Paul Unschuld could possibly answer your question.

I do think the Chinese had a relatively sophisticated

anatomical

knowledge, but it is a mystery why the pancreas was not taken

account

of until the modern era.

 

 

On Nov 17, 2004, at 2:17 AM, Attilio D'Alberto wrote:

 

> Hi Zev,

>

> I agree with you that the Pancreas has never been mentioned as

far as

> I'm

> aware in TCM literature. Although, I'm sceptical that the

ancients

> never got

> a chance, even by accident, to observe the psychical structure

of the

> inner

> anatomical body. Yes, I understand that cutting open the dead

was

> taboo in

> ancient times, but even so, some chance must of presented

itself that

> would

> of allowed the observation inside the body. In that case, why

wasn't

> the

> anatomical body given much credit?

>

> Attilio

>

>

> [zrosenbe]

> 17 November 2004 00:23

> Chinese Medicine

> Re: new info on the spleen

>

>

>

> Marcos,

>    You are right, many English language texts talk about

> 'spleen-pancreas', but all of them are based on assumptions by

Western

> authors that this is what the Chinese meant, even though the

term

> pancreas yi or yizang never appeared in classical Chinese

medical

> texts.  Discovery of the anatomical pancreas was not until the

modern

> era in China. One could assume this can be based on what you

mention

> here, i.e. all the gastrointestinal functions associated with

the

> spleen, but we need to be accurate with translations of

Chinese

> medical

> concepts and not read into them.

>

>

>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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