Good morning Readers!

Today we are going to talk about the Small Intestine functions from a Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view. 

Belonging to the Fire Element, the Small Intestine shares an element with the Heart and also with Triple Burner and Pericardium. Due to it being an viscera, it has predominant Yang energy.

The Small Intestine has very important functions in Chinese Medicine. Firstly, it separate pure fluids from impure fluids, consequently, playing an active role in liquid metabolism in our body.

It’s important to remember that the Stomach produces body fluids (Jin Ye – saliva, tears, enzymes, etc), the Spleen removes the excess of those liquids retained in the body (removes inner humidity), the Bladder will receive the impure part of it, in order transform and excrete urine, and the Intestine has the role of repurposing liquids that can still be useful to the body, once they arrive in the last step of the digestion process. That’s why, it’s extremely important, the Small Intestine is a second way of water recapture, which avoids dehydration and keeps all body fluids flowing through all systems, thus keeping the body hydrated.

Therefore, it’s essential that every individual drinks liquid to an adequate extent, in order to ease the function in the Small Intestine.

When there is a Deficiency on this organ, the patient shall suffer from, liquid retention, constipation with dry feces, difficult to urinate, burning when urinating and pain in the abdomen region, that worsen when pressured.

In addition to its physical function, the Small Intestine, belongs to the Fire element, thus it has an important function related to human behavior. Such as, helping discernment and coherence of reasoning.

The Heart is the organ who receives an emotional matrix that will turn into feelings, such as anger, frustration, concern, and it will affect inner organs. The Small Intestine will give coherence to the attitudes, help deciding what’s right or wrong, also giving impetus so that we can choose to do the correct actions and which duties sequence must be done so that a plan works out.

This way, the Liver gives a sense of direction and focus in life, the Gallbladder gives courage so we can take a first step in the direction we want to follow and the Small Intestine reveals the right path, what’s wrong or right, how to achieve an objective taking coherent decisions.

We may say that when a patient is suffering from a difficulty comprehending what’s right or wrong, having reasoning problems, this patient has slow Small Intestine functions.

May a patient suffer from physical and psychological problems at the same time, caused by a Small Intestine dysfunction? 

Yes. A constipated patient, with liquid retention, difficulty to eliminate urine and abdominal pain may be having trouble choosing what to do and discerning how to take action in his life. Once we really think about it, we will be able to say that this patient is in a depressive state or already developed depression, stagnating his systems and it’s ability on rational thinking.

An important parallel that may be laid between occidental and oriental medicine. The Small Intestine is responsible for most of our bodies’ serotonin production. Serotonin is a substance that gives the sensation of pleasure and calmness and also gets rid of depression. Thus, we observe that Chinese and occidental medicine aren’t that different in line of thought.

Keep an eye open on the functioning of your intestines, in urinating and defecating capacity, if there are or are not abdominal pain, always paying attention to your behavior. When there starts to have discerning difficulty, it’s a sign your intestine needs help.

I hope that you liked it and that you have learned a bit more!

My warmest regards!

Profa. Fernanda Mara