Centralforce666
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2017
- Messages
- 576
Cancer is a very poorly understood illness and there are many theories and scientific ideas which one may read about that are confusing and/or downright made up.
I am going to elucidate on some of the TCM concepts which explain and demystify cancer in the hope that this may assist the group's members in understanding, being clear on and potentially avoiding this chronic disease.
Firstly, there are very few single-causative agents for cancer.
HPV has been described as a cause of cervical cancer and other such viruses etc. have been implicated in the development of other cancers however there are too many instances where people have had these viruses but not get cancer.
It is best to think of these things as triggers.
The underlying body condition is the forming ground for cancer.
A healthy person's immune system is capable of recognisance and elimination of cancer cells and these cells arise every day in the human body many times over as a result of abnormal cell division.
This is a numbers game and the more cells which are dividing expose the multitude of cells to aberrations in DNA replication due to small errors which can occur for MANY reasons, toxins included.
A cell has to undergo and survive approx. 10 different DNA level mutations before it can be considered malignant and it is now becoming clear that many cancers form over periods of decades, not months.
The accelerated growth phase which is consistent with symptoms and lethality is the final and most difficult to resolve state and it is becoming more common for cancer to be at this stage before it is even treated thanks to the structural change paradigm of modern medicine which basically states that any disease for which a visible change has not occurred on a histological level is a 'functional' illness which has its origins in the psyche and therefore is treated as such, with drugs that target the neural network to dull or alter it so that the functional symptoms no longer exist.
By the time an illness moves from the functional to the structural change phase, it is already serious and treatment is harder than it would have been had the functional illness been treated immediately and correctly.
For cancer specifically, the formation of a tumour is preceded by many functional illness signs as the body's internal balance skews.
Long term emotional stress (one of many pathways, used here only as an example) stagnates the qi.
Stagnant qi gives rise to the following symptoms:
- Frequent sighing, irritability and frustration, alternations of bowel movements between constipation and looseness, bloating and abdominal pain after eating, cold hands and feet (but warm on the rest of the limb).
Long-standing qi stagnation can - amongst other development pathways - lead to invasion of the digestive energies of the spleen or stomach.
Spleen damage leads to:
- poor appetite, loose stools, shortness of breath, spontaneous sweating and in worse stages feelings of cold all over the body.
In addition to this, the stomach invasion leads to:
- burning stomach pain, acid reflux and regurgitation, restlessness and vexation and pressure in the epigastrium.
This pathway is called Wood overacting on Earth as the Liver, a wood organ responsible for the free flow of qi throughout the body becomes jammed due to the qi stagnation and its regular qi flow is disturbed and invades the nearby digestive organs.
Over time, (years) the resultant stomach fire leads to stasis of blood in the stomach. The tongue turns purple and the person by this stage may have already developed peptic ulcers or other stomach lining disturbances.
Unaware of the seriousness of their plight, they eat copiously to contain the stomach whilst the spleen struggles to digest the food and ascend the pure qi to the head.
Their thinking becomes faulty as their mind becomes less nourished and they find it difficult to concentrate.
They may eat comfort foods to ease the reflux or avoid food to avoid the pain that comes from eating when the stomach lining is adversely affected.
These are all functional signs of disease that many would discard as irrelevant or not serious.
Meanwhile the accumulated blood congeals and prevents qi from passing the area.
Qi builds up like water in a dam, bringing to a standstill in that area the fluids of the body including more blood.
Nutrients become trapped there and slowly a congealed mass begins to form.
The lack of qi movement can prevent pain from the area reaching the central pathways to alert the mind that something is terribly wrong.
And so, as the mass grows, it may also become hot.
Thus the person now has qi stagnation, fire and blood stasis (accumulative pathogens which require immediate treatment) all in a fixed location with no warning that they are there except their functional symptoms which may or may not be ignored for many years.
The blockage causes other body systems to become weaker, such as immunity and digestive nourishment until eventually the cancer is formed enough to produce physical symptoms that require hospitalisation and often by this point it is too late.
The above pathway is one of a hundred different manners by which cancer may arise, and excludes a trigger from an external wind/cold/damp invasion (viral and bacterial infection falls into this category amongst others) which is consistent with a new approach to cancer treatment in western medicine whereby individual sub-types of cancer are being identified within previously accepted groups of what were thought to be the same disease.
These sub types require individualised treatment protocols, much like TCM also approaches each case differently based on the pathway and end presenting result of the cancer.
Thus, to say that 'x-chemical' or 'x-virus' causes cancer is a misnomer.
It is better to state that 'x-chemical' encourages the development of cancer or may be a contributing factor to cancer development in a person whose body conditions are akin to cancer's development.
These body conditions are visible and can be known from the onset of the very first symptom and resolved early to avoid this terrible fate.
I am going to elucidate on some of the TCM concepts which explain and demystify cancer in the hope that this may assist the group's members in understanding, being clear on and potentially avoiding this chronic disease.
Firstly, there are very few single-causative agents for cancer.
HPV has been described as a cause of cervical cancer and other such viruses etc. have been implicated in the development of other cancers however there are too many instances where people have had these viruses but not get cancer.
It is best to think of these things as triggers.
The underlying body condition is the forming ground for cancer.
A healthy person's immune system is capable of recognisance and elimination of cancer cells and these cells arise every day in the human body many times over as a result of abnormal cell division.
This is a numbers game and the more cells which are dividing expose the multitude of cells to aberrations in DNA replication due to small errors which can occur for MANY reasons, toxins included.
A cell has to undergo and survive approx. 10 different DNA level mutations before it can be considered malignant and it is now becoming clear that many cancers form over periods of decades, not months.
The accelerated growth phase which is consistent with symptoms and lethality is the final and most difficult to resolve state and it is becoming more common for cancer to be at this stage before it is even treated thanks to the structural change paradigm of modern medicine which basically states that any disease for which a visible change has not occurred on a histological level is a 'functional' illness which has its origins in the psyche and therefore is treated as such, with drugs that target the neural network to dull or alter it so that the functional symptoms no longer exist.
By the time an illness moves from the functional to the structural change phase, it is already serious and treatment is harder than it would have been had the functional illness been treated immediately and correctly.
For cancer specifically, the formation of a tumour is preceded by many functional illness signs as the body's internal balance skews.
Long term emotional stress (one of many pathways, used here only as an example) stagnates the qi.
Stagnant qi gives rise to the following symptoms:
- Frequent sighing, irritability and frustration, alternations of bowel movements between constipation and looseness, bloating and abdominal pain after eating, cold hands and feet (but warm on the rest of the limb).
Long-standing qi stagnation can - amongst other development pathways - lead to invasion of the digestive energies of the spleen or stomach.
Spleen damage leads to:
- poor appetite, loose stools, shortness of breath, spontaneous sweating and in worse stages feelings of cold all over the body.
In addition to this, the stomach invasion leads to:
- burning stomach pain, acid reflux and regurgitation, restlessness and vexation and pressure in the epigastrium.
This pathway is called Wood overacting on Earth as the Liver, a wood organ responsible for the free flow of qi throughout the body becomes jammed due to the qi stagnation and its regular qi flow is disturbed and invades the nearby digestive organs.
Over time, (years) the resultant stomach fire leads to stasis of blood in the stomach. The tongue turns purple and the person by this stage may have already developed peptic ulcers or other stomach lining disturbances.
Unaware of the seriousness of their plight, they eat copiously to contain the stomach whilst the spleen struggles to digest the food and ascend the pure qi to the head.
Their thinking becomes faulty as their mind becomes less nourished and they find it difficult to concentrate.
They may eat comfort foods to ease the reflux or avoid food to avoid the pain that comes from eating when the stomach lining is adversely affected.
These are all functional signs of disease that many would discard as irrelevant or not serious.
Meanwhile the accumulated blood congeals and prevents qi from passing the area.
Qi builds up like water in a dam, bringing to a standstill in that area the fluids of the body including more blood.
Nutrients become trapped there and slowly a congealed mass begins to form.
The lack of qi movement can prevent pain from the area reaching the central pathways to alert the mind that something is terribly wrong.
And so, as the mass grows, it may also become hot.
Thus the person now has qi stagnation, fire and blood stasis (accumulative pathogens which require immediate treatment) all in a fixed location with no warning that they are there except their functional symptoms which may or may not be ignored for many years.
The blockage causes other body systems to become weaker, such as immunity and digestive nourishment until eventually the cancer is formed enough to produce physical symptoms that require hospitalisation and often by this point it is too late.
The above pathway is one of a hundred different manners by which cancer may arise, and excludes a trigger from an external wind/cold/damp invasion (viral and bacterial infection falls into this category amongst others) which is consistent with a new approach to cancer treatment in western medicine whereby individual sub-types of cancer are being identified within previously accepted groups of what were thought to be the same disease.
These sub types require individualised treatment protocols, much like TCM also approaches each case differently based on the pathway and end presenting result of the cancer.
Thus, to say that 'x-chemical' or 'x-virus' causes cancer is a misnomer.
It is better to state that 'x-chemical' encourages the development of cancer or may be a contributing factor to cancer development in a person whose body conditions are akin to cancer's development.
These body conditions are visible and can be known from the onset of the very first symptom and resolved early to avoid this terrible fate.