Relative & Absolute Yang & Yin Deficiency

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I can't easily draw a graph in this email message to illustrate this, so I'm

going to have to rely on words. This has been covered on here before, but a

lot of new people have joined the list since then, and this is relevant to a

post I made yesterday on discusschineseherbs about Yin and Yang tonic herbs

(under a Fibromyalgia heading).

 

Say for example that a healthy individual has a Yin level of 100 and a Yang

level of 100. You don't really measure Yin and Yang like this, but I need

to give you some numbers to work with so you can picture this like a graph.

Now let's say that for some reason the person's Yin level falls to 80. This

is an absolute Yin Deficiency. Yang is fine, but the person is Deficient in

Yin. Yin needs to be supplemented with Yin tonic herbs to bring its level

in the body back up to 100.

 

Now let's look at another case. This person's Yin level is 100, but for

some reason the person's Yang level is 120. This person has all the

symptoms of Yin Deficiency even though there is enough Yin in the body.

Why? Because Yang is in Excess. This is a relative Yin Deficiency - there

is enough Yin in the body, but Yang is in Excess and creating the symptoms

of Yin Deficiency.

 

It's helpful to realize that Yin and Yang do opposite things in the body.

Yin cools and calms, and Yang heats and activates. In the second example

above, there would be enough Yin to properly cool and calm the body under

normal circumstances, but because Yang is in Excess and adding heat and

activation, there's not enough Yin to keep up. Yang gets out of hand.

 

The main reason for a case like example 2 is that the person is eating too

many Yang foods or is taking Yang tonics s/he doesn't need. The latter - too

many Yang herbs - is likely to occur in men who want to be super studs.

This is why I cringe every time I see one of those ads for increasing sexual

drive using herbs. Many of the people taking them aren't really Yang

Deficient and don't really have libido problems. They just want to be super

studs.

 

The main way to tell if it's a case of true Yin Deficiency or Yang in Excess

is to question the person about diet and about herbs being taken. Since

this is supposed to be a part of a thorough TCM evaluation, you should be

doing this anyway. If someone comes in with the symptoms and signs of Yin

Deficiency and reports that s/he's taking a lot of Yang tonic herbs or is

eating a lot of Yang foods, more than likely the Yin Deficiency symptoms are

coming from Yang Excess. (Very practiced and observant and experienced

healers may be able to tell or at least suspect from other things, but the

main way to tell is by questions about diet and herbs.)

 

However, there is a third possibility in which there is both realtive and

absolute Deficiency. Let's look at an example where there is both Yang and

Yin Deficiency (and this happens a lot with the Kidneys). Let's say that the

person's Yang level is 40 and the Yin level is 80. This is one very cold,

very slow moving, very passive, very Yang Deficient individual. This person

is so Yang Deficient that it's going to almost completely mask the Yin

Deficiency. Yang heats and activates, Yin cools and calms. Now let's say

the healer starts the person on a lot of Yang tonic herbs. In time, the

Yang level starts to move up. It reaches 50, then 60, and finally 70. As

the Yang level gets closer to what the Yin level is, more of the symptoms

and signs of the Yin Deficiency are going to start to appear. They're no

longer being masked by the severe Yang Deficiency. Now, let's say the day

finally arrives when the Yang level is say 85 and the Yin level is still 80.

At this point the Yin Deficiency symptoms are going to predominate. This

is a case of both absolute and relative Deficiency. The Yang is suppressing

the Yin. The person is still Yang and Yin Deficient, but because Yang is

higher than Yin, it may look like the person is just Yin Deficient. You need

to either cut back on the amount of Yang tonic herbs or add more Yin tonic

herbs to take care of both Deficiencies.

 

This is also why you need to note and pay attention to all abnormal

symptoms. Both Kidney Yang and Yin may be Deficient. Or, you may have a

case where say the Lungs are Yin Deficient but the Spleen is Yang Deficient.

 

How do you tell if a person is both Kidney Yang and Yin Deficient? If the

symptoms point to Kidney involvement (things like back pain, knee pain,

changes in libido, ear or hearing problems, teeth problems, bone problems,

urination problems, etc.), if one is present, you can just about bet the

other is too, though in milder degree. If it's one of those cases where one

part of the body is Yang Deficient and another is Yin Deficient, there will

be definite mixed signs and symptoms. The tip of the tongue may be red

(pointing to Heat in the Lungs and Heart) and the rest of the tongue body is

pale (pointing to Cold in other parts of the body).

 

In order to simplify this example, I set an equal level for Yin and Yang in

the body. BUT, in real life, they not only won't be equal most of the time,

they're not supposed to be most of the time. When you go bed to sleep at

night, you don't want Yang equal to Yin. This is a Yin time of day when you

want to wind down and be less active. Likewise, during the day when you're

working or playing, you don't want Yang equal to Yin, you want more Yang.

This is a Yang time of day.

 

Note: The Kidneys supply Yang and Yin to the rest of the body, so when the

Kidneys are Yang and Yin Deficient, you can bet other parts of the body are

as well. This joint Deficiency can show up more or less equally in other

parts of the body, or, one part of the body may be more Yin Deficient and

another Yang Deficient. You're going to see this in particular with the

Lungs and Spleen because of the close relationship between these two systems

and the Kidneys. If the Kidneys are Yang Deficient, the Spleen eventually is

going to be Yang Deficient. IF the Kidneys are Yang (and Yin) Deficient and

unable to supply enough Yang and Yin to the rest of the body, in the case of

the Lungs, they may be more Yang than Yin Deficient like the Kidneys, or,

they may be more Yin Deficient than the Kidneys. The clinical picture of

the latter very likely will be that the tip of the tongue is red, and the

rest of the tongue is pale.

 

Victoria

 

 

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