Stagnant Liver Qi: The Cause of Many Eye Problems
Do you have a blockage in your liver qi?
Disharmony in our health can often be traced to clogged blood and liver qi. Qi is the vital energy or life force that circulates throughout our bodies. When qi becomes clogged due to negative emotions, trauma, cold, or parasites, the result is a snowball effect throughout the body. Other organs that depend on the smooth flow of qi from the liver, such as the heart, lungs, stomach, and spleen, will suffer and their functions will decline.
The function of the liver is to store blood; harmonize emotions and control the rise, fall and harmony of body qi. In particular, the eyes, tendons and nails depend on blood nutrition from the liver. Disharmony in these areas is often a telltale sign that something is a friend to the liver. Eye disorders caused by insufficient liver blood are dry eyes, floaters, blurred vision, and night blindness. The liver and the eyes are closely related. In fact, the eyes are said to be the external opening of the liver.
As previously stated, negative emotions can damage qi. The emotion that most damages liver qi is anger. When anger damages liver qi, the result is self-perpetuating. An imbalance in the liver causes the liver to generate more anger. Therefore, it is probably fair to say that a person prone to anger has clogged liver qi. This is because anger blocked the liver qi so much that it stopped the blood flow to his eyes. Also, when qi contracts in the liver, the liver becomes hot like a compost heap. This causes a host of problems as the toxic heat from the liver rises. When liver qi is stagnant, it generates heat that rises to the eyes. The result of increased heat in the liver is red eyes, puffy eyes, conjunctivitis, dizziness, headaches, angry outbursts, depression, neck and shoulder pain, and insomnia. Wind stirs up liver qi and an acupuncturist will often see problems caused by wind attack after a windy day. I once had a patient who suffered from severe pain on the right side of his back. Ten sessions of physiotherapy had failed to relieve the pain. He told me that the pain had come on the day after playing golf on a very windy day. I treated his liver with acupuncture and when he returned the following week he said that the pain was gone immediately after the treatment.
Right shoulder and back pain is frequently caused by liver imbalance. Therefore, massage only provides short-term relief, since it is necessary to treat the liver directly to achieve a cure.