Quality of our Blood is Crucial - Optimal Viscosity is Key EN

The quality of our blood is crucial.
In the Shen-Hammer pulse system we can evaluate the viscosity of the blood; we call it the Blood-continuum. There are 2 obvious reasons seen from our perspective for increased viscosity to occur – either Heat is cooking the Blood or our ability to hold enough fluids inside the blood has gone down due to decreased fluid absorption and metabolism, or of course a combination of the 2.

A few words about fluid metabolism. The fluid we get via food and drink needs to be steamed from the Center Earth to the Lung and the Sky, then they cool off and then rain down to become Kidney Water (Metal generating Water). The Kidney Water is heated by Kidney Yang/Ministerial Fire in the lower, and then rises as red warm blood in East.

We can imagine the Taijitu symbol – within the big Taijitu we have smaller yin-yang pairs, in the North we have Kidney Water/Yin and Kidney Yang/Ministerial Fire, in the East we have warm nutritious blood – Jueyin Liver Blood and Ministerial Fire within.

Just imagine that our absorptive capacity when it comes to fluid metabolism has decreased. Then we will not produce enough Kidney Water and our blood will become to viscous.
One example - many patients force fluids down because they have been told to do so or they read it in a magazine, and many of them experience that they need to pee soon after. In this case they likely dehydrate themselves over time; the water they drink doesn’t contain salt and electrolytes, but what they pee out does. Then not enough quality Kidney Water/Yin is produced leading to viscous blood.

The viscous blood can flow in the larger vessels, but when it reaches the thin hair like capillaries it can/will clog and generate micro clots – blood stasis. We often see purple tongues and often also widespread spider nevi. This could also easily lead to easy bruising – and the Spleen might not even be involved….

Viscous blood can also explain high blood pressure. So imagine a Yang Xu client with very poor fluid absorption and too viscous blood having high blood pressure. They often respond very poorly to western blood pressure medications. And from a TCM perspective most of us – without this idea about viscosity and absorptive capacity – would most often jump to Liver Qi Stagnation or Liver Heat/Fire when it comes to treat it.

So this opens up for a thorough differentiation of high blood pressure from a chinese medicine perspective, including Blood Xu and Yang Xu. Hardening of vessels – arteriosclerosis is part of this differentiation.

This workshop will be both theoretical and practical. We will strive to learn to palpate the pulse and get direct information about the viscosity of the blood. Besides from Sebastian and Claus, 1-2 experienced assistants will help in the practical part - hands on feedback is very important.