What Will You Learn?

• The word spleen in old days embraces the spleen and pancreas, and currently the digestive system.
• Zang Spleen in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) means more than the anatomical organ.
• TCM Zang Spleen functions include food sourcing and its transportation and transformation, governing blood and fluids, associated with muscle nourishment, manifesting as luster in the lips and tongue.
• Zang Spleen is the powerhouse for life nourishment after birth. It influences idea formation and is the ground to support resources for all other Zang functions.
• Immunity and intestinal function are coupled since fetal development and after birth.
• The gastro-spleno-intestinal complex is uniquely positioned as a powerful determinative interface with the external world to take in and assimilate the good substrate while ridding the bad or counteracting the foreign substances.
• Modern understanding should link the vigilant spleen and lymphatic circulation with the gastro-intestinal system (including its gut hormones and associated neurohumoral system) into one anatomic-functional structure to mediate the comprehensive nutrient intake and processing functions, and immunological, lympho-circulatory, vegetative and energy balance.
• Main symptoms of zSpleen dysfunction include a wide spectrum of disorders like nutritional disturbance, weight problems, energy exhaustion, digestive and motility disorders, gastric bleeding, bleeding disorders, and fluid accumulation. It may be associated with chronic dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, understood as stagnate bowels, and is closely related to dermatitis.