The Six Stages of Cold-Induced Evils

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This is not an in-depth analysis of the 6 Stages of Cold-Induced

Evils but general info for those new to TCM and the beginning

students on the list.

 

The 6 Stages is a model of feverish conditions, including many

infections diseases like the common cold. There are different stages

to these infectious diseases and other medical conditions. The

treatment is not the same for all the stages. What helps and is

proper at one stage may do nothing or even aggravate the condition

in another stage. Because Chinese herbal formulas can take a long

time to prepare, it was necessary to have a way of predicting what

would be needed next. Otherwise a client can pass into another stage

before the treatment is ready for the previous stage.

 

There is another reason for being familiar with the 6 Stages.

The " Evil " may not clear completely. The person may be cured from a

Western standpoint, but the Evil is still within causing problems.

What we're talking about here are things like post-viral syndromes,

many cases of CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome),

and most conditions where the person was never the same after coming

down with an infection. (Note: This is going to be particularly

significant to any DOs and MDs on the list as well as to any readers

who were never the same after coming down with an infectious

disease.)

 

The " Pernicious Evils " are Cold, Heat, Damp, Dryness, and Wind (and

Fire). Chinese medicine pays a lot more attention to environment as

a cause in sickness than Western allopathic medicine does. To put

this in modern Western terms, conditions in the environment can

cause changes in the body that make it more likely that a person

will " catch " something, or a bacteria or virus in the body will

activate. One of the classic examples of this is the way that a

house or office which is too dry will dry out the nasal passages,

and a person is more likely to catch a cold than if there is enough

moisture in the air.

 

There are 6 stages to these illnesses. They are Greater Yang (Tai

Yang), Lesser Yang (Shao Yang), Bright Yang (Yang Ming), Greater Yin

(Tai Yin), Lesser Yin (Shao Yin), and Absolute Yin (Jue Yin).

Beginners, don't worry about memorizing the stages. The important

thing to remember is that there are 6 stages, and the first 3 are

Yang stages when feelings of Heat predominate, and the last 3 are

Yin stages when feelings of Cold tend to predominate.

 

There are subdivisions of the main stages, but these aren't

important for the present discussion.

 

There is a special kind of Qi called Protective or Defensive Qi

which circulates at the surface of the body and gives protection

against Pernicious Evils invading. As long as a person's Protective

Qi is stronger than the Evil, the Evil will not invade. Sometimes

the Evil will be too strong for Protective Qi that would be adequate

otherwise. Like when a person is exposed for hours, day after day

to air whih is too dry. Sometimes a person's Protective Qi is

temporarily weak because of things like missing sleep, poor diet,

eating on the run, etc. Sometimes the Protective Qi Deficiency is

chronic because the Spleen and Lungs are weak. The thing to remember

about 6 Stages infections and medical conditions is that the Evil

only invades when it is stronger than the Protective Qi. (There

also are infectious illnesses that develop regardless of how strong

the person's Protective Qi is. The 4 Levels of Virulent Heat Evils

is the model for these illnesses.)

 

When an Evil attacks from the environment, it attacks the Exterior

of the body first. The term " Exterior " applies to the head, neck,

arms, legs, shoulders, skin, muscles, meridians, and bones. The

term " Interior " refers to the trunk of the body, in particular the

Organs. If the Evil is not stopped and expelled, it will continue to

invade into the Interior. It will go deeper and deeper into the

Interior. The Stages will get more and more serious.

 

Sometimes an Evil will lodge in the Interior and stay in a certain

Stage. It may not get worse or it may get worse slowly, but it

hasn't been expelled. This is what happens in cases of post-viral

infection and many cases of CFIDS. The infection may be cured or in

remission, but the Evil is still inside. There have been changes in

the body from what was preinfection, and these changes have not been

reversed. The Evil is still within causing problems.

 

The Evil may penetrate deep into the Interior and stay in one of the

more serious stages, or it can lodge in the Shao Yang (Lesser Yang)

Stage. The Tai Yang (Greater Yang) Stage is completely Exterior.

The Evil is only affecting the Exterior of the body. In the next

Stage (Shao Yang), the Evil is partially in the Exterior and

partially in the Interior. After the Shao Yang Stage, the Evil is

completely in the Interior. One of the main symptoms of the Lesser

Yang Stage is the alternation between fever and chills, between

feeling hot and cold.

 

The first three Stages of the 6 Stages - the Yang Stages - tend to

be characterized by Heat, and the last 3 - the Yin Stages - tend to

be characterized by Cold. The treatment for the 3rd Stage - the Yang

Ming (Bright Yang) Stage includes clearing Heat and sedating Fire.

Cold and bitter herbs are used to get rid of the Heat. But healers

need to be aware that treatment should not be more vigorous than

called for in the individual case and prolonged beyond necessary.

The reason for this will become apparent in a moment.

 

The first of the Yin Stages is the Tai Yin (Greater Yin) Stage. A

sickness can progress naturally from the Yang Ming (Bright Yang)

Stage to the Tai Yin Stage as the illness gets more and more of a

foothold. This is particularly likely when the person tends to be

chronically Qi or Yang Deficient. BUT the most common cause of

progression from the Yang Ming to the Tai Yin Stage is overtreatment

with cooling substances during the Yang Ming Stage. This includes

not only herbs with a cooling effect but antibiotics with their Cold

thermal energy. This is why healers don't want to be any more

vigorous in treating the Yang Ming Stage than is necessary and to

not prolong treatment beyond the length of time necessary. This

also carries an additional caution against using antibiotics to

treat viruses. Antibiotics are useless against viruses; they only

kill bacteria (including the bacteria the body needs for digestion

as well as the disease-causing bacteria). Sometimes antibiotics are

needed and save lives. But if misused, they can make health

problems worse and even trigger health problems that didn't exist

before.

 

When people who were " never the same " after an infection finally get

treatment that is helping from a TCM standpoint, many of them will

describe the improving as being like " backing up through symptons

and stages " . Even people who have no knowledge of TCM will use words

and phrases like this to describe the improvement. What they're

doing without realizing it is accurately describing something that

the Chinese first noted and described centuries ago: The

progression of the 6 Stages of Cold-Induced Illnesses and the

recovery.

 

I also want to point out that everything taken into the body has TCM

properties even if this is not recognized by the person using or

administering the substances. It's not only herbs and foods that

have properties like thermal energy (a heating, cooling, or neutral

effect on the body), possible effects like moving Qi, etc.,

prescription drugs also have these properties. So do vitamins and

minerals, EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids), amino acids, etc. Sometimes

Westerners will use substances that are what they need from a TCM

standpoint without knowing anything about TCM or understanding what

they are doing and why it's working. They just know something helps.

 

I want to say something for the people on the list who have CFIDS

and the healers who are treating people with CFIDS. I don't care

what the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) says, CFIDS can be and

usually is progressive. When it comes to CFIDS or any other medical

condition, and/or infectious illness that fits the 6 Stages model,

sometimes a person will go through a Stage so quickly that it may

look like the person skipped the Stage. Sometimes the progression

will occur slowly over years. Then there is the problem of the Evil

becoming lodged in a particular Stage. The bacteria or virus may be

gone or in remission, but the Pernicious Evil is still there. Or

rather the effects of the Pernicious Evil are still present.

 

I also want to say something else for the people on the list who

have CFIDS or treat CFIDS. One very common problem with CFIDS and

its treatment is that something which works " stops working " . In

many of these cases, it's not that whatever is helping has stopped

working, it's that something else is needed in addition to what is

working. In these cases, when what was working is stopped, the

person eventually gets as sick as he or she was before this

treatment was started. More than one thing that works is needed.

 

There are cases where what was helping stops helping, and this is

when the treatment was helping a particular Stage of the 6 Stages.

The treatment for each of the 6 Stages and their subdivisions can be

very different. What helps in one Stage may do nothing in another

stage (it " stops working " because the illness or condition is no

longer in that Stage), or it can even make the person sicker (like

using herbs appropriate for the Yang Ming (Bright Yang) Stage in the

Tai Yin (Greater Yin) Stage).

 

The Evil of the 6 Stages models isn't restricted to just Cold.

 

Note for the students on the list. The terms Tai Yang (Greater

Yang), Shao Yang (Lesser Yang), etc. also are used to describe pairs

of meridians. For example, the Tai Yang (Greater Yang) meridians

are the Small Intestine and Bladder, and when Pernicious Evils

invade, they often will affect these two meridians first,

progressing through the deeper meridians. Even though there can be a

lot of overlap between the Stages and meridian pairs, they are NOT

equivalent. In other words, just because the illness has reached the

Yang Ming Stage, this does not mean that problems are confined to

just the Large Intestine and Stomach Organs. There can

be problems in other meridians and Organs as well. Remember that

when the term Tai Yang (Greater Yang) is used to describe a Stage of

an illness, this is the only Stage in which the illness is still

completely in the Exterior. (The Exterior meaning the head, neck,

muscles, meridians, etc. A better way of explaining this is to say

that the Evil has not yet begun affecting the Organs.) If the

illness has progressed to the Shao Yang Stage, the illness is now

partially in the Exterior and partially in the Interior (i.e., the

Organs are starting to be affected.) And, just because an illness is in a Stage

where the Organs are being affected, this does not mean that new Evils are not

invading and causing problems in meridians.