contagion

[Guest guest]

I wonder why the chinese did not come up with the idea of contagion

as a primary cause of gan mao. There is some evidence that they made

use of this concept in a limited fashion. PCOM is a very large

school with a huge clinic so there are lots of chances for

infection. The chinese idea of wind invasion implies that climate is

the main factor in causing gan mao. In ancient times, there would be

no reason to dispute this logic. New rhinoviruses appear at seasonal

changes as different viruses thrive in different weather conditions.

Zhang zhong jing refers to 2/3 of his 200 relatives dying from cold

damage, but he does not seem to suggest contagion at any point

(please correct me). Unlike modern times, an ancient clan would

probably all live in one village and have regular contact with each

other every day. So when they got sick at seasonal intervals, the

only new variable was the weather change. Since they all lived in

the same conditions of climate and no one had central heat or air,

other variables were equalized.

 

In San diego, my students live in the desert or on the coast, 5

minutes from school or 100 miles away. Yet they all become

susceptible to gan mao in the common realm of the same stewing

microbes. Even though some surf all morning in cold water and others

have no heat in their semi-legal apartments, some lie about in the

sun, others never leave their homes and so on. But they all get sick

around the same time. Interestingly, the nature of their sickness

typically has much to do with where they spend most of their time,

but they fact that got sick in the first place seems to be one of

contagion rather than any shared exposure to microclimate or other

factors. So the folks from the desert have dryness conditions while

those on the coast have wind cold damp at the same time. Sure, they

all share the " environment " or " climate " of PCOM, but that is also

highly variable, ranging from over 75 in clinic rooms to less than 68

in some classrooms, sometime with doors open, sometimes shut.

 

While I have no doubt the weakness of constitution plus exposure to

climate are major factors in sudden or chronic immunosuppression that

allows infection to occur, if there is no virus, there is no cold.

And infections spread from person to person. They are not caused

solely by a failure of one's personal relationship with the

environment (this idea is in fact quite confucian - behave and you

will be healthy). In fact, you can most certainly get sick despite

having no exposure to any adverse climatic factors at all. OTOH, the

frequency and severity and sequelae of infections can be greatly

mitigated by keeping strong and avoiding climate extremes. This old

wives tale is quite true. Take a sweater. But also please wash your

hands (with plain ol' soap and water, not that antibacterial crap).

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

>

>

> On Behalf Of

> Monday, May 09, 2005 10:44 AM

> cha

> contagion

>

> I wonder why the chinese did not come up with the idea of contagion

> as a primary cause of gan mao.

[Jason]

I don't know about 'primary or secondary' but surely they have had this

concept for some time...

 

-Jason

[Guest guest]

There are different factors to consider in infectious illnesses using

the perspective of Chinese medicine.

 

There are conditions that effect large groups of people despite

constitutional strength and even climatic factors. These are called

pestilential qi, or what Wu Youke called " one disease, one qi " . In

other words, Warm Disease theory developed the idea of a specific

disease evil " that lived between heaven and earth " and effected large

populations. However, this did not displace the warm disease concept

of shi bing or seasonal disease, and continued to classify epidemics

and pestilential qi according to seasonal conditions, even to the

point of predicting their onset and outcome.

 

There are times to use SHL theory, times to use WB theory. Each

approach has something valid to offer, depending on the clinical

situation, and whether one is looking at individual patients or

larger numbers of people.

 

 

On May 9, 2005, at 9:43 AM, wrote:

 

> While I have no doubt the weakness of constitution plus exposure to

> climate are major factors in sudden or chronic immunosuppression that

> allows infection to occur, if there is no virus, there is no cold.

> And infections spread from person to person. They are not caused

> solely by a failure of one's personal relationship with the

> environment (this idea is in fact quite confucian - behave and you

> will be healthy). In fact, you can most certainly get sick despite

> having no exposure to any adverse climatic factors at all. OTOH, the

> frequency and severity and sequelae of infections can be greatly

> mitigated by keeping strong and avoiding climate extremes. This old

> wives tale is quite true. Take a sweater. But also please wash your

> hands (with plain ol' soap and water, not that antibacterial crap).