The heart is where Korean medicine’s organ theory begins. It has two governing roles — it rules the blood and vessels, and it rules the mind. This guide explains both, the old distinction between the “blood heart” and the “spirit heart,” and the protective role of the pericardium.
The Organs in Korean Medicine: Zang, Fu, and the Extraordinary Organs
After Qi, Blood, and Body Fluids come the organs. Korean medicine sorts the internal organs into three classes by function — the storing Zang, the passing-through Fu, and a third, unusual group called the extraordinary organs (brain, marrow, bone, vessels, gallbladder, and uterus). This guide lays out the classification and what makes the extraordinary organs distinct.
Body Fluids in Korean Medicine: The Moisture That Keeps the Body Supple
Body Fluids are the third of Korean medicine’s three substances — all the normal fluids of the body. This foundational guide explains what Body Fluids are (and what they become when they turn abnormal), how they are made and moved by the spleen, lung, and kidney, what they do, and how they relate to Blood and Qi.
Blood in Korean Medicine: How It Is Made, What It Does, and Its Bond With Qi
Blood is the second of Korean medicine’s three substances. This foundational guide explains how Blood is made (food essence, with the spleen, kidney, heart, and lung each playing a part), what Blood does (nourishing and moistening body and mind), how it moves, and why Blood and Qi are an inseparable pair.
Qi in Korean Medicine: What It Is, Where It Comes From, and What It Does
Qi is the first of the three basic substances of Korean medicine. This foundational guide explains what Qi is (its formless and formed states), where it comes from (clear air and food essence), the main kinds of Qi, and the functions it performs — propulsion, warming, transformation, nourishment, containment, and defense.
The Liver and Edema: When Stagnant Qi Holds Water
The liver does not handle the body’s water directly — it governs the flow of Qi, and where Qi stalls, water stalls too. When stress knots the liver, a shifting, stress-linked edema follows, eased less by draining water than by the everyday liver care you already know.
The Kidney and Edema: The Root That Warms and Releases the Body’s Water
In Korean Traditional Medicine the kidney is the root of water metabolism — it warms the body’s water, transforms it, and governs its release. When the kidney is weak, as it is by constitution in the Soyangin types, edema tends to set in low, run cold, and linger.
The Spleen and Edema: When the Body Cannot Move Its Own Water
In Korean Traditional Medicine the spleen transports the body’s water. When the spleen is weak — common in the cold, weak-digestion Soeumin constitutions — edema turns heavy and sluggish, settles low and in the flesh, and comes with poor digestion.
The Lung and Edema: Why Some Swelling Begins Above the Kidney
Edema is usually blamed on the kidney, but the lung helps spread and descend the body’s fluids. When the lung is constitutionally weak — as in the Taeeumin types — swelling turns diffuse and whole-body, and stress through the liver makes it worse.
When a Plant-Based Diet Makes Your Metabolic Numbers Worse
Some people with metabolic disease follow a textbook plant-based diet faithfully and watch their liver, lipid, and glucose numbers worsen anyway. A pathologist explains why: for the liver-dominant constitutions Hepatonia and Cholecystonia, a plant-heavy diet works against the body’s structure — and the failing numbers signal a mismatched frame, not failed effort.