Indecision, Initiative And The Gallbladder
Chest pains, headaches, dizziness, indecision and anxiety…Who doesn’t complain of one or more of these issues? Do you know someone who lives with all of these complaints? Most of the time, when confronted with these symptoms, people make an appointment with an MD to figure out the cause. Too often, they will then receive referrals to several specialists for each complaint. Sometimes medication is offered that may help, or maybe the medication helps some of the issues, but the rest remain or become worse over time.
Often, this is when acupuncturists get involved, when conventional medicine isn’t helping, and you are sick, frustrated and finding no relief. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a deeper and more direct way to diagnose and treat these issues. These symptoms may seem like separate problems, to be treated as individual illnesses, but TCM understands them as an underlying gallbladder weakness. Although blood tests may show liver enzymes and liver activity are fine and there are no gallstones present, the gallbladder is the link between all of these medical issues.
Digestion, Emotions and the Gallbladder
As always in Chinese medicine, digestion is the number one activity of the body that must work well for all other systems to function properly. The gallbladder doesn’t get a lot of attention when it comes to digestion. Normally we only hear about the gallbladder when someone has gall stones, can’t digest certain foods or when it has been surgically removed. But the gallbladder has a much more active role in digestion and can be a contributing factor to anxiousness, fear, chest pain and irregular heartbeat (arrythmia), low or poor appetite and a general ennui about life (depression).
The liver and the gallbladder are close partners in TCM. The liver’s function is to contract and relax and disperse qi while producing bile for the digestion of the fat we consume in foods. While you are eating, the bile goes directly to your small intestine but when you are not eating, the bile is stored in the gallbladder. The gallbladder in TCM rules decision-making and the courage to carry out choices, complementing the liver’s governance of life-planning. Issues in the gallbladder often have an origin in emotional upset during childhood such as being bullied or never praised and only reprimanded. The emotional issues resulting from these experiences and housed in the gallbladder include timidness, dizziness, nervousness and indecision, blurred vision, restless dreams, and floaters in the eyes. These symptoms are a sign of weak liver qi and blood and affect the development and function of the gallbladder later in life.
Affect on The Other Organ Systems
The disfunction from the liver and gallbladder deficiency will affect other organ systems in the body. Some of the emotions affected, like nervousness, will directly contribute to symptoms designated by, and in the spleen and the heart. These deficiencies can be boosted with acupuncture and herbs that target these particular organ systems and their functions. Generally, a qi deficiency occurs when there is a traumatic or pre-term birth, or a childhood lived in fear. Improper digestion results, making blood and energy less abundant.
Being easily scared or timid is a kidney-based symptom in TCM. The kidneys have a close relationship to the liver and gallbladder as they are all involved in maintaining proper moisture (yin and blood) in the body—when fluid is too abundant and the kidney function is diminished it is not able to excrete excess moisture as it normally would. When kidney fluid is in excess, the kidney yin is overpowering the weaker kidney yang and the emotion of fear results. Interestingly the “belt area” around the waist is a designated area of the gallbladder and the kidneys. An acupuncture point at the end of the foot on the gallbladder meridian gets rid of excess fluid around the middle, held up by diminished kidney function.
Weakened kidneys produce fear and they cannot anchor the heart so palpitations and anxiety, insomnia and restlessness occur. This is due to improper blood flow being unable to help the digestive process thus making the body incapable of efficiently turning food into energy and blood because it doesn’t have the tools to complete the task. This causes the spleen to malfunction and diarrhea or loose stools occur. If this continues and becomes the norm, there can be constant anxiety, the mind never rests, and sleep never comes. The cycle perpetuates, the headaches get worse, and soon the person finds themselves at the pharmacy getting a prescription for gastric reflux, headaches, anxiety and a sleep med. All because the gallbladder is not able to do its job properly! In a Western diagnosis this is called gastric anxiety and considered an idiopathic disease because the cause of it is not known. Chinese medicine knows!
Treatment
TCM is the most effective way to treat both the immediate physical complaints and the underlying emotional issues related to gallbladder-based symptoms. Indecision and anxiety and headaches and dizziness can all be treated and alleviated through continued acupuncture and herbal medicine treatments. Not every outcome will be the same, some people may have diseased gallbladders that should be surgically removed, but we can work toward prevention and alleviation of symptoms in most patients.
Are you experiencing some of these emotional and physical symptoms and wondering about the health of your gallbladder? Contact Acupuncture by Andrea to schedule a consultation. Until then, why not try an at-home treatment to improve the health of your gallbladder? This video outlines a very simple set of exercises to help clear the gallbladder. Be sure to follow the instructions to achieve the highest benefits of this treatment.