The ONLY Illness There Is...

The Only Illness There Is

By Marcus Santer

I’d like you to join me on a journey of understanding. The result of this journey will be a new understanding on what health is, how it works and why in theory there is no such thing as an incurable illness. By the end of the journey you will know that there is only one illness and you will know how to prevent it.

Now I am certain that if you are anything like me, that paragraph you read above will seem like a mighty big claim. Especially if you have always thought that there is only one valid model of medicine – The Western model. The truth is there are many valid models of medicine. The one I’ll be looking more closely at in this article is the Chinese model.

Chinese medicine is the longest continuous medical model known to man. By the end of the Tang Dynasty in the 10th century, five centuries before the birth of Western medicine, the Chinese had already developed a highly comprehensive body of medical knowledge and methods. For millennia it has been successfully serving the worlds largest population that has enjoyed a very high level, of documented, civilisation.

The Chinese cured contagious diseases long before antibiotics, effectively performed major surgical operations and successfully treated psychiatric illnesses and many other medical discoveries regarded as remarkable in the West where preceded by the Chinese - often by a few centuries.

I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not ‘anti’ Western medicine.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not a question of which model is best. The better question is which model helps to overcome the immediate problem. Chinese medicine is especially beneficial in the area of degenerative diseases e.g. Heart Disease, Diabetes, Arthritis, Cancer and Alzheimer’s to mention a few, which are the major medical problems facing the West today.

So, how does Chinese medicine work? When you consider that doctors specialising in Chinese medicine spend many years in their training, it is not possible for me to cover everything in this short article. What I propose to do is to give you a simplified (yet still accurate) overview of a few of the core principals upon which Chinese medicine is founded.

Before I go any further it is important to remember as you continue reading that Chinese medicine takes a very different approach to health and well being than that of Western medicine. The first and most important concept to explore is that of Yin/Yang theory because it forms the foundation upon which ALL Chinese medicine is based.

You’ll likely have heard of Yin and Yang. It is perhaps one of the most misunderstood theories in existence today.

And yet it is so very simple. Let me explain. First, Yin and Yang are symbolic – you cannot go into a shop and buy a bag of Yin. Yin Yang theory is simply a theory of relativity. Which means something is labelled Yin or Yang only in relationship to something else. For example – in a relationship between a boy and a girl, the boy is Yang (male) compared with the girl who is Yin (female). But, if we take a different relationship, say between a boy and a man. The boy in now Yin compared with the man who is Yang.

Don’t get caught up in this. The important understandings to take from this are that Yin Yang theory is a theory of relativity, something is Yin or Yang only in relationship to something else, and that nothing is completely Yin or completely Yang (hence the white dot in the black shape and the black dot in the white).

In Chinese medicine Yin and Yang are used to describe contrasting characteristics that are relative to each other. When looking at health Yin symbolises your body’s natural ability to respond to our constantly changing environment and Yang symbolises all factors that may cause illness.

Hence in Chinese medicine there is only 1 illness and that illness is called Yin Yang disharmony. To put it another way: your body has failed in its natural ability to respond appropriately to disease causing agents. One of the most valuable philosophies of Chinese medicine is that good health is your birth right and that Yin Yang disharmony is unnatural. What this means is that in the Chinese medicinal model there is no such thing as an incurable illness! How different is that from the Western model? Which version do you prefer the sound of?

If Yin Yang harmony can be restored then good health will be restored. However, there is an important caveat to this: if an illness has been left untreated for too long it may not be possible to fully restore Yin Yang harmony.

The second foundational principal of Chinese medicine we need to familiarise ourselves with is the concept of energy or Qi (also referred to as Chi). An explanation of Qi alone could fill several large books! Think of it as ‘vital energy’ it is the force that enables you, me and everyone else to be alive. Everything is ‘made of’ Qi, hold your hand out 12 inches away from a wall and the space between your hand and the wall is not empty, it is full of Qi. We are literally swimming in Qi.

This concept shouldn’t be too strange to us. The cutting edge of Western science – Quantum physics - agrees with what Chinese medicine practitioners have known for millennia, that everything is made of energy. The only difference is the frequency at which it oscillates or vibrates.

This is a gross simplification of Qi, but it will suffice for our needs

The third and final foundational principal is that of Meridians. Your Qi or energy flows throughout your body along a network of streams called meridians. Like a stream the flow of Qi can be strong, or just a trickle. For happiness, health and vitality we want the flow of Qi through our meridians to be like a strong flowing river.

Like a stream the paths of the meridians don’t follow rigid boundaries, but they do follow a general pattern that allows a Chinese medicine practitioner to know where they are.

There are 12 primary meridians – called primary because they flow through internal organs and 8 secondary meridians – called secondary because they do not flow through internal organs. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the secondary meridians are of less importance to the primary meridians.
When your Qi flows smoothly, you will have good health, when it flows strongly you will have vitality and when you have an over abundance you will have longevity. However due to accidents, poor lifestyle choices etc. it is all too easy to develop blockages to this harmonious Qi flow. When a blockage occurs it reduces the flow of Qi.

The reduction in the amount of Qi getting to an internal organ or to the healthy functioning of the many systems and processes of the body can lead to unhappiness, pain, disease or illness. In fact if the blockage is severe enough to stop the flow of Qi completely – death quickly follows.

The good news is, that if you are reading this article, no matter what current ailments if any you may have your Qi is flowing.

Blockages to strong, harmonious Qi flow are physical, emotional, mental, or Spiritual in nature. Here are some examples of each:

Physical – if you accidentally cut yourself or fall over this may cause a physical blockage to the flow of Qi around your body. Neither of these examples will cause severe energy blockages, unlike a car crash that may cause enough damage to totally stop Qi flow altogether. Surprisingly though, bad posture is one of the most common (and easily remedied) causes of physical blockages.

Emotional – if you have been suffering from a lot of stress over a sustained period of time this will cause emotional blockages, other emotional factors to consider include regular and prolonged exposure to fear, anxiety and worry.

Mental – I remember when I first learned this one. I simply couldn’t believe it, but from my own experience I have discovered it to be true. The number one cause of mental blockages is: Thinking too much! That’s right; thinking too much is bad for your health.

Spiritual – the most obvious example of a spiritual blockage is depression. Depression crushes the human spirit and affects you physically, emotionally and mentally.

In practice, blockages do not occur in isolation. I.e. an event occurs and causes an emotional blockage only. More common is that an event will affect you in a number of different ways and have an effect on one or more of the four aspects listed above. This happens because they are all interdependent. The four definitions are given in isolation to aid our understanding

With our added understanding of the meridians and energy flow we can now clarify our understanding of health even further:

• Yin Yang disharmony = illness

• The cause of Yin Yang disharmony is disturbed energy flow and can manifest in millions of different ways. From a cold to cancer and everything in between.

• Energy flows through the meridians.

• Therefore removal of blockages to the harmonious flow of energy in the meridians results in Yin Yang harmony.

So the question you’re probably asking now, is “how do I remove the blockages to harmonious Qi flow? There are a number of different answers to this question, but they all work on the principals I have already described to you (Yin Yang theory, Qi and meridians).

Acupuncture uses needles inserted into specific points on the meridians to stimulate your bodies Qi and hence remove blockages. Tui Na (Chinese massage therapy) also uses stimulation of the meridians and specific points on the meridians to remove blockages, but this time the therapist uses their hands instead of needles. Chinese herbs and Diet work in a different way, but also seek to restore Yin Yang harmony.

These branches of Chinese medicine require much skill, learning of techniques, practice and years of study to be applied proficiently.

The therapist must diagnose where the blockage is, what type of blockage it is and establish a strategy for treating the patient (and not just the illness).

There is another branch of Chinese medicine that is nowhere near as well known as acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Yet it has the great advantage that because it directly stimulates the flow of Qi, you do not need to know where the blockage is. You do not need to study for years and years in order to use it and it requires no special equipment whatsoever.

This is probably one of China’s best kept medical secrets. So don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it. It’s called Qigong – meaning literally – Energy Work. When you practice Qigong you are working directly with your bodies energy. In a nutshell, Qigong uses gentle external body movements, usually (but not always) co-ordinated with the breathing, performed in a meditative state of mind to generate the flow of Qi around and through the meridians of the body.

There are many, many, different schools and styles of Qigong. Which is not surprising when you consider it has a history going back over 5000 years!

The forte of Qigong is two fold:

1. It removes blockages to the harmonious flow of energy through the meridians of your body thus restoring Yin Yang Harmony. Whether these blockages are physical, emotional, mental or spiritual in origin makes little difference to the effectiveness of Qigong.

2. Once energy blockages are removed, Qigong can then increase the flow of energy through the meridians promoting vitality and longevity.

Having a harmonious flow of Qi through the meridians helps to keep your internal organs in peak condition which allows you to live to a ripe old age. The practice of Qigong also brings with it Spiritual insights. You gain insights into universal reality that confirm to you that there really is more to life than this.

I’d like to emphasis that Spiritual does not mean religious. A person of any religious faith can practice and receive all of the benefits of Qigong. Qigong is non-religious. What I mean by Spiritual is being in touch with who you really are, the deepest part of you.

Everyone has a Spiritual life and if you are involved with a specific religion then that will be Spiritual for you. If you’re not religious then anything that gets you in touch with your inner self e.g. quiet time, meditation, listening to music, reading a good book, going out for a walk with the dog etc, might be Spiritual for you. This part of you life can only be defined by you.

Our Spirit is so important to our happiness, health and well being, but it is often the most neglected. This is why mild to moderate depression is so prevalent in our modern society.
We’re too busy trying to get or achieve that we often end up burnt out and confused.

China’s 5000 year old secret – Qigong - is, I believe, the remedy for many of the most pressing illnesses facing our modern age. I believe a radical paradigm shift is required and it is this: You are responsible for your happiness, your health and your well being and Qigong is the simplest and most profound method available for doing this.

My aim with this article has been to show you a tiny glimpse of a different (yet totally valid) approach to medicine. One that believes that good health is your birth right. One that believes there is only one illness (and you know what that is now – Yin Yang disharmony. One that believes there is no such thing as an incurable illness.

Knowing is never enough, you must now take your knowledge and convert it into real practical experience if it is to give you true lasting value.

Therefore I would like to leave you with a few references should you be interested in deepening your understanding or experiencing for yourself some of what I have mentioned.

Chinese Medicine – The Complete Book Of Chinese Medicine by Wong Kiew Kit, Chinese Medicine by Ted Kaptchuk, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine by Giovanni Maciocia (this is a wonderful book, but is rather expensive - try to get hold of a second hand one).

Qigong – I’ll come clean and confess that as a long time practitioner of Qigong and author of a book on Qigong my opinion of what makes good Qigong is biased. Now that we’re clear on that let me recommend to those who want to dig deeper the following: The Art of Chi Kung and Chi Kung for Health and Vitality both by my Qigong teacher: 4th Generation Shaolin Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit.

Please visit my website if you are interested in learning more about Qigong. You’ll find plenty of free articles and videos there: www.shaolinchikung.co.uk