Regarding the 7 emotions being pathogenic factors according to "Huang Di Nei Jing"

    Over a year ago I had an article called "How over-thinking can make you sick", that was a touch of how TCM sees emotions affect physical body. Actually there are at least 5 emotions listed in <<Huang Di Nei Jing>> that are believed to have different health impact to different organ system. Chen Wuze (1131-1189) from Song dynasty added 2 more to the system and it became the 7 emotion system we are still using today. Modern medical sciences including psychology does realize the mind-body connections but ancient Chinese had it specified, and that makes it easy for us to use this connection to heal ourselves and even others, or at least, prevent. 

    The 7 emotions are 喜(happy)、怒(anger)、憂(worry)、思(anxiety)、悲(sad)、恐(fear)、惊(shock/surprise). A emotionless person is not a real human being, so healthy person will have these emotions indeed, but when they become dominating in a way and not resolvable they will start to harm the body. 


    How the 7 emotions being pathogenic factor is generally viewed and practiced in 4 major aspects:

    1.Major causes are usually external stimulation. Different from virus or bacteria which usually invade the body through skin, mouth or blood, emotions are our reactions to external stimulation. Proper emotion releases will not harm the body but help the body to balance itself instead. But these are extreme or unusual reactions we are talking about that affect the organs to cause imbalance between Yin-Yang-Blood-energy systems. Unfortunately in most cases we do not have control over these external stimulation, but through proper training and learning we do have control of how do we react to these stimulation.

    2.Different emotion affects different Yin-organ directly. The theory of this topic is very detailed and complicated because it has been worked on by people from one generation after another through centuries. Here we will only talk about the specified emotion-organ connections.

• 怒(anger):Connected with the liver. Anger raises the liver energy and rushes it to the head. Too much anger will keep the energy hanging at the rib cage area and harms the liver. Since liver is the blood reservoir, when liver is harmed so will be the blood system. Others symptoms include high blood pressure, stuffed-chest, red eye, headache, stomachache, fainting or even stroke. 
• 喜(happy): Connected with the heart. Good amount of happiness will smooth the energy and blood flow, ease the tension and keep the body healthy. But too much "happy" will make the "mind" less stable or make a person hard to concentrate on oneself, sometimes even shows craziness. Because the Heart hosts the "mind" or "spirit", when the "mind" or "spirit" leaves the Heart, it will harm the physical heart system. Other symptoms may include weakness, hyperhidrosis, lack of concentration, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, breathing difficulty and fainting.
• 思(anxiety): Connected with the spleen. Too much anxiety and concern make the Qi flow at the spleen stagnate. Spleen in TCM is a unique term and it contains many body functions such as digestion, immune system, blood and metabolism. Common symptoms include  indigestion and loss of appetite, bloated belly, loose stool, palpitation，irregular menstruation, insomnia and forgetfulness.
• 憂(worry)、悲(sad): Connected with the lungs. Too much worry and sadness with make the lungs area circulation slow and accumulated, thus cause upper-energizer malfunction. Without good oxygen intake from the lungs the entire body will feel tired and powerless. Other symptoms include breathing hardness, chest pain and other breathing related symptoms.
• 恐(fear):Connected with the kidneys. It makes the Qi drop lower and the blood will follow. Too much fear consumes the essence in the kidneys, or make the essence "leaks" out of the kidneys because they lose the ability of hold them in place. And since kidneys are connected with bone system, urinating and sexual ability, fear will also affect these functions. Other symptoms include pallor, dizziness, urinary and fecal inconvenience, and miscarriage. 
• 惊(shock/surprise): Connected with the heart and gallbladder. A surprise can be a good surprise (such as winning a lottery), or bad surprise (such as being scared or hearing a shocking news). Either way, this emotion makes our Qi flow "chaotic”, causes strong impacts to the "mind" and harms the heart ultimately. Common results can be temporary loss of speech, mindlessness, lack of responses and even heart attack.  

    Although the emotion-organ connection is specified, do not rigidly think that one emotion can only affect one organ. Because human body is a organic whole system and emotional actives are often mixed and interchangeable. In general, all emotions will affect the heart in a way, because heart is the "emperor" organ in the system and that is where “spirit” resides. 

    3. Emotional impact and fluctuation can aggravate the condition and worsen the state of illnesses. But on the other hand, if the patient adjusts the emotional condition it can also bring the body condition closer to its original balanced state and heal itself.  This is why when we working on heal the body we also must consider the mental and emotional condition of the patients. And this is apparently the practical aspect of this body-mind theory.

    4. In conclusion, the 7 emotions are human's basic mental activities and one of the pathogenic factors.  Understanding the detailed body-mind connections can help us to prevent many illnesses by cultivating the mind. Like <<Huang Di Nei Jing>> emphasized, "Give the heart good care, keep it peaceful, void and empty; Allow the true Qi runs on its original way; Protect and hold the energy and spirit; How can one possibly get sick anymore? ( 恬惔虛無，真氣從之；精神內守，病安從來 ?)" Also, if we also apply the 5-element theory into this method, by balancing the extreme emotion impact from its counter element,  as a good support to help patients to recover from certain physical condition much more effectively.