Guide to Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Endogenous Five Pathogens-Endogenous Dampness and Turbidity

Endogenous dampness refers to the pathological state that the transport function of spleen (transporting Shui Gu, transporting water and dampness) and the transport function of body fluid are decreased or blocked, which leads to the imbalance of body fluid metabolism in Shui Gu, and water, dampness, phlegm and blood stasis are intertwined. Because endogenous dampness is mostly caused by spleen deficiency, it is also called spleen deficiency dampness, or internal dampness.

2. Pathological changes of internal dampness

The formation of internal dampness is caused by many factors, such as excessive phlegm dampness caused by body yang deficiency, or excessive cold diet, excessive consumption of fat and sweets, and internal injury of spleen and stomach, which leads to spleen yang weakness or spleen weakness, resulting in the loss of its health function, inability to conduct body fluid for the stomach, and transport and metabolism disorders of body fluid. Therefore, if water and liquid do not melt, they will gather into dampness, stop as phlegm, stay for drinking, or accumulate as water. Therefore, poor spleen transport is the key to the generation of dampness and turbidity. Therefore, Su Wen's "On the Truth" said: "All wet swelling belongs to the spleen."

Spleen governs the transport and transformation, depending on the warm qi transformation of kidney yang. Therefore, endogenous dampness is not only the pathological product of spleen-yang deficiency and spleen-qi deficiency, but also closely related to renal insufficiency. Kidney governs body fluid, and kidney yang is the basis of all yang in human body, so when kidney yang deficiency is damaged, it will also affect the transport and transformation of spleen and produce endogenous dampness. On the contrary, because dampness is evil, excessive dampness can also damage Yang Qi. Therefore, long-term stagnation of dampness will also damage the yang of spleen and kidney, resulting in the syndrome of yang deficiency and dampness. In addition, the disease of internal dampness caused by deficiency of kidney yang is related to the disease of internal cold.

Dampness is heavy and turbid, and it is easy to block the circulation of qi, so internal diseases, that is, blocking the circulation of qi in the upper, middle and lower triple energizers in the body, often lead to different pathological manifestations according to the different parts of dampness and evil.

In addition, exogenous pathogenic dampness and endogenous pathogenic dampness are formed in different ways, but they often influence each other. Any body that is easy to damage the spleen, the spleen loses its health, the internal dampness is turbid, or the internal dampness is abundant, and it is also easy to be invaded by external dampness.