The Organs

We publish articles to help you understand the concept of traditional Chinese medicine through a modern lens. Although the way things are phrased in traditional medical texts seems strange or mystical, most of it translates quite well into modern language, if we take the time to understand. The observations made by physicians of the time may provide useful insights into how the body works and its systems integrate. The traditional texts were written thousands of years ago, most notably, in the Huangdi Neijing, 2600BC. All theoretical traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) organs will be in italics, and physical Western medicine (WM) organs in normal text, for the reader to distinguish the difference.

These articles aim to correlate and translate the traditional functions of each organ system with modern-day observations and understanding.

Maybe you're someone who has had acupuncture and wants to know what exactly your acupuncturists might mean when they talk about your Kidney/Bladder, Heart/Small Intestine, Liver/Gallbladder, Spleen/Stomach, or Pericardium/San Jiao... Or maybe you're an acupuncturist who struggles to explain to your clients what their TCM diagnosis means in terms they understand? In either case, I hope these interpretations are interesting and help you see TCM and the human body from a different perspective.

We're covering the different functions of TCM organ systems in a series of articles