If you’re one of millions of people who suffer from an auto-immune disorder and have struggled to find relief, don’t despair.

 

Under normal conditions, our immune system serves to protect us against disease. When not functioning properly, our immune cells can mistakenly attack the very body they’re meant to protect. The precise mechanisms and causes of auto-immune disorders vary, and are not fully understood. From the perspective of allopathic medicine, foreign invaders such as bacteria, viruses and toxins play some role in the breakdown of immune function. The perspective of Chinese medicine is to look for clues to the malfunctioning of our immune system in the complex web of interactions within our whole bodily ecosystem.

 

The lungs, in Chinese medical theory, are the foundation of the immune system. Along with the skin, nose, sinuses, and colon, they form the protective boundary between ourselves and the outer world. When healthy, this system allows us to receive what is needed and discard what is harmful or not of use. When these organs aren’t functioning optimally, the boundary becomes blurred and our immunity is compromised.

 

The spleen-pancreas and the stomach together govern the transformation of the food we eat into usable nourishment needed to support a healthy immune response. When the digestive system lacks integrity, it is unable to break down food into substances small enough to be used efficiently. Consequently, our immune system treats what should rightly be our sustenance as a foreign invader.

 

Also integral to a healthy immune system, the kidneys house our constitutional reserves from which we draw our strength and our vitality. The kidneys are like a bank account that can be either replenished or depleted. When our reserves are low, our body will “borrow” what it needs from other organs, eventually throwing our entire ecosystem into a state of weakness and confusion.

 

Without the healthy boundary of the lungs allowing us to discern what is harmful from what we need to receive, the integrity of the digestive system to transform what we receive into nourishment, and the foundation of the kidneys to “bank” that nourishment, our entire system becomes unable to properly perform, thus giving rise to the fatigue, pain, and inflammation commonly experienced with auto-immune disorders.

 

The beauty of Chinese medicine is in its ability to diagnose and treat both the distinct parts as well as the whole. My job as a practitioner is to determine which aspects of these interrelationships aren’t working, and to help guide these crucial functional dynamics back to a state of harmony and health.