Summary
The Stomach’s main function is to ‘receive’ ingested food and drinks for absorption. The Stomach is the root of Body Fluids and it prefers Dampness. Stomach disorders are mainly caused by diet. The Stomach Qi can be either Stagnated or depleted due to excessive worry or thinking.
The Functions of the Stomach
- Together with the Spleen, the Stomach plays an important role in transporting Grain Qi and food essences to the whole body, especially the four Limbs.
- The Spleen and the Stomach work closely together and they are inseparable. If this transportation is damaged, it causes fatigue and weak limbs. The Stomach function of transporting food essences also impacts the pulse. If Stomach Qi is normal, there is a gentle, flowing, and relatively soft pulse.
Classification
- Fu Organ
The TCM Stomach Functions
- It controls ‘receiving’
- It controls the rotting and ripening of food
- It controls transportation of food essences
- It influences tongue coating
- It controls the descending of Qi
Main Symptoms
- Stomach disorders are mainly caused by diet. Food that are too hot, dry, greasy, spicy, or cold disturb the Stomach. Unhealthy eating habits also harm Stomach functions, such as eating while working, driving, or standing, eating irregularly, or over- and under-eating.
- The Stomach Qi can be either Stagnated or depleted due to excessive worry or thinking. If the Stomach functions are impaired, poor appetite, indigestion, food retention, distension or pain in the epigastric region can occur.
Patterns of Disharmony
1. Stomach Heat or Fires
- Stomach Fire indicates a true Excess of Heat in the Stomach, creating symptoms such as mouth ulcers, bad breath, intense thirst as well as strong desire for cold drinks and foods. The Blood in the Stomach Channel get rebellious due to the extreme Heat or Fire, so that it leaks out of vessels and causes gums bleeding. The pain and swelling in the gums is also due to the Heat in the Stomach Channels. Over time the Heat disturbs the normal descending of Stomach Qi, causing obstruction to Stomach Qi or rebellious Stomach Qi, hence the symptoms of regurgitation, vomiting, acid reflux and nausea. The Heat also ferments the Stomach fluids and make it ‘sour’. Constant and ravenous hunger is also a result of the Full Heat. Stomach Fire and Stomach Heat are similar concept, except that the Fire is much more severe than Heat. For the prior pattern, there will be redder tongue, darker and drier coating, more intense thirst, darker urine, drier stools as well as more disturbed Mind. It is more common to have bleeding gums under the Fire pattern. Sometime the Heat or Fire can combine with Phlegm and causes Phlegm-Heat in the Stomach. It causes additional symptoms such as feeling of chest oppression, mucus in stools, mental derangement and spitting of stick phlegm.
2. Stomach Qi Deficiency
- When Stomach Qi is weak, all other Organs suffer. Fatigue is the main symptom, and it is especially obvious in the morning because the Stomach functions are usually the most active at that time. The weak feeling of limbs are another manifestation because the weakened Stomach Qi cannot direct the food Essence to the limbs.
3. Phlegm-Fluids In The Stomach And Small Intestine
- Phlegm-Fluids is a type of Substantial Phlegm characterized by white, very watery and thin sputum. It can sometimes actually be heard splashing in the body. Phlegm-Fluids in Stomach and Intestines simply refers to a pattern whereby Phlegm-Fluids accumulates in those Organs. It often does so when the transportive and transformative functions of the Middle-Burner are damaged due to Spleen Yang Deficiency.
4. Stomach Deficient And Colds
- Also called Stomach Yang Deficiency, this pattern is normally associated with Spleen-Yang Deficiency, which leads to Internal Cold, resulting in cold limbs, loose stools, vomiting of clear fluids, no thirst, preference for warm drinks and foods and a Weak pulse. When Stomach Qi is deficient, it may be made worse by the bowel movement, hence the aggravation of the feeling of discomfort in the epigastrium after a bowel movement. Because the discomfort is caused by a Deficiency condition, it is better with eating and better after pressure or massage.
5. Stomach Qi Stagnation
- Epigastric distension is the main symptom of Stomach Qi Stagnation. Since the Stomach is part of the Middle Burner, the Qi Stagnation there disturbs the normal descending of Stomach Qi, which results in belching, nausea, vomiting and hiccups. Irritability is also due to the Stagnation of Qi.