The prevention of disease.

There is a saying in Chinese called yang shen, which quite literally means to “nourish life”. This is associated with the prevention of disease through eating well, exercising well, thinking well, sleeping well, etc. Yang shen can apply to the general lifestyle choices we make that help us live a healthy life.

A similar phrase appears in one of the earliest Chinese medical texts, the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wun written between the 4th and 2nd centuries b.c., “The sages did not treat the sick, they treated those who were not yet sick”. An obvious reference for Doctors to educate their patients on the necessity of living a good lifestyle in order to prevent illness. This same thought trend continues in another early text titled the Nan Jing, where it states “The superior practitioner treats what is not yet ill; the mediocre practitioner treats what is already ill.”

Many scholar physicians throughout the ages, particularly Hsu Ta-ch’un of the 17 hundreds, have focused on the “not yet ill” part of this phrase. Hsu has surmised this to mean that the superior physician is able to prevent the transmission of an illness, already aquired, from one part of the body to another part of the body.

Medical experts know, therefore, that if an illness reaches its full strength, it will inevitably be transmitted throughout the body. Such a transmission is to be prevented beforehand…That is what is meant by the statement “The superior practitioner treats those who are not yet sick.”

It is always good to prevent oneself from acquiring sickness by living a healthy lifestyle, but even those with the best intentions can still become sick. Thus it also becomes important to understand illness, so as to prevent it’s destructive path on the body, onto other areas throughout the whole body. There are many examples of this in our modern day, like the prevention of melenoma through proper protection from the sun during its peak hours, to the removal of the an actual lesion so that it doesn’t spread or metastasize to other parts of the body. Everyone knows what damage melanoma can do if allowed to spread, a fact learned through superior practitioners understanding the course a disease may take if allowed to grow.

Another modern example of this concept relates to psoriasis, an illness with undeniable consequences to body parts other than just the skin. Psoriasis has been linked to increased pregnancy risks like miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy, to arteriosclerosis and heart attack, depression, and even erectile disfunction. The connection, from a western point of view, is due to inflammation, which we could view as a type of fire.

If a fire catches on our stove top, we put it out and then the fire no longer does damage. But if that fire is allowed to grow larger, soon it starts to affect other parts of the kitchen – the counter top, the walls, floor, etc – until the whole house is ablaze in flames. Think of psoriasis in this way. As the flames of inflammation affecting the skin create the thick scaly patches we know as psoriasis continue to grow, soon the blood stream is affected, with the arteries and veins becoming thick and full of plaque. With a compromised circulation organs that require lots of healthy blood flow, like the heart, uterus and penis, will also become affected and quickly lose their own health.

The superior practitioner can see that psoriasis is more than skin deep and would thus not be satisfied with the mere application of a cream, like steroids. They know that there may very well be a fight going on inside the body as well, one that must be stopped through the administration of internal medicine (preferably herbal) and through the education of methods to protect ones heart (like eating less sugar and exercising), so that the effects of this fight don’t start to hurt the innocent bystanders standing afar.

The prevention of disease is then two fold. One part has to do with self preservation and the prevention of illness through a healthy lifestyle. The other part has to do with the prevention of an already acquired illness from spreading to other parts of the body, creating havoc on the parts that are “not yet ill”. The second part shows the importance of treating illness as it appears, quickly and effectively, before it has the chance to do more damage.

Wishing you health,

Dr. Trevor Erikson

Reference: The above quotes and ideas come from Paul Unschuld’s great book, “Forgotten Traditions of Ancient Chinese Medicine – The I-hsueh Yuan Liu Lun of 1757 by Hsu Ta-ch’un“. Published in 1990 by Paradigm publications.