Melancholy Spleen

Western medicine sees the spleen as a large lymphatic organ associated with blood formation, blood storage, filtration, iron storage, bilirubin production, and antibody formation. Despite this, Western medicine does not consider the spleen as essential for life because other organs, especially the bone marrow, can take over many spleen functions. It is quite common for the spleen to be removed surgically.

“Pi” (commonly translated as Spleen with a capital s) is not an organ per se. It is a complex system and is related to the ability of the body to take in and process nutrients. By "up-bearing the clear," taken from classical Oriental medical thought, the Spleen transforms all types of foods, physical and non-physical, into a useable nutrient for the body/mind. As such, it is absolutely essential as a system and could not possibly be removed. It is this concept of the Oriental medical Spleen that is referred to in this article.

OHCO's Stomach Chi formula provides deep nourishment of the Spleen. The Spleen (Pi) and the Spleen's related system that is usually translated as Stomach (Wei) are considered by some ancient physicians and scholars as the functional center of the human organism, and any associated weakness of the Pi Wei is seen as the root of all disease. In order to improve health, the body must be nourished at its deepest levels. A healthy body can be more effective in fighting disease than well-intentioned outside intervention.

Pi Wei is strongly associated with our primary relationships to the outside world or that which is "other" as opposed to "us." Often, how we view these outside relationships, whether we have them at all, and, once we surrender to having some kind of relationship with the outside world, will have severe ramifications on how we feel. This is essential to our moods and how we see the basic nature of our personal universe.

Do we live with a sense that we are struggling with our lives and that we are victims constantly being swept this way and that by the malevolent forces around us? Or, are we playing and celebrating within our existence, figuratively skipping along, allowing nourishment and positive strokes at every turn and seeing the inevitable downtimes as anomalies instead of the usual state of affairs? All of this is associated with Pi and Wei in the Oriental sense. And, of course, this is the very essence of our mood. How we nourish ourselves from this Classical Oriental point of view has everything to do with our basic attitude toward life and how we perform.

Nourishment at the root level of the human system builds the basic connective tissues in the body at large and allows it to respond and move past any invading agents as it was designed to do. Fibromyalgia, for example, is a systemic and chronic condition that is best treated on a deep, widespread, and total body level.

Because of the way that Stomach Chi works to provide long-term nourishment of the Spleen, people with fibromyalgia might want to look at this Chinese herbal formula for support. There is often the tendency to focus on fibromyalgia's pain component and to sidestep the symptomology related to melancholy, depression, and emotional fatigue. From an Oriental point of view, moods and pain are intimately related. One feeds the other.

The eleven herbs in Stomach Chi work synergistically to strengthen the body’s basic mechanism. This can have a profound effect on difficult diseases. Recommended usage would be to take Stomach Chi the Basic Way (two capsules three times a day) for a month or so. The changes to the root condition may be gradual at first and should be cumulative. Because the pain aspect of fibromyalgia is so prominent, OHCO-Motion can be used as an adjunct for relief along the way.

It is not used as a maintenance formula because it does not provide the kind of deep constitutional change needed for someone with fibromyalgia. It will, however, improve blood flow, and the benefits of moving energy will certainly be far reaching when combined with the deeper nourishment of Stomach Chi. In this case, take Stomach Chi before a meal and OHCO-Motion after the meal.