Hey there this is Clara from AcuPro Academy I'm so glad you're here this course is all about the foundation of Chinese medicine specifically the Yin-Yang Theory made easy because my goal is to empower you to achieve superior patient care and grow a successful practice while having fun because after all I know you are a TCM Rockstar and no matter what if you need to review your foundation or check it again this is the course to do so So enjoy this course and don't forget keep rocking it using TCM! The Yin-Yang Theory in Chinese medicine is probably the single most important theory It is the foundation for everything including Physiology Pathology and treatment in TCM You look at the symbol the Tai Ji symbol which is translated loosely by the supreme ultimate this Yin-Yang symbol we used to see everywhere really we represents what the Yin-Yang theory is about you can see the little dot in either color and that's because there's always a seed of the Yang with an Yin in the seed of Yang with an Yin they are obviously opposites right we got two different opposites but they complement each other and make a whole a whole circle that can actually change and transform into each other so the symbol really represents well what the union theory is about and we use the Yin-Yang theory TCM to be able to help us diagnose patients to see how the physiological part of the body functions and of course pathology and treatment First of all Yin and Yang are opposite but it's a relative opposition meaning that we cannot compare a table with an orange because they have nothing in common but we can compare a cat to a dog they're both animals so we're cats a little more Yin compared to a dog which is more Yang so my dog is full of energy he's full of Fire he wags his tail he's so happy to see me he loves running around specifically during the day but sleeps at night my cat on the other hand is much more subdued likes to be alone is sleeping during the day but is always up and going at night so they are opposite but you can take two dogs for example and you can have a dog that's much more Yang lots of energy loves to run around never gets tired you know that kind of type of dogs like maybe Australian Shepherds full of energy and then you can have a Bernese Mountain Dog which would be much more subdued really relaxed and doesn't want to exercise much and it's tired very quickly and it's more Yin and sleeps a lot more so you can always change and compare two different things that are opposite and those things are gonna change now even though those two things are gonna change let's look at more in the term of opposite so Fire is much more Yang and water is much more Yin those are two elements in nature that are opposite Yin will go downwards right when you pour water water always goes down it never goes up but Fire always goes up no matter what if you take a candle and you put it upside down fire in the flame still goes up right so upward is Yang downward is Yin the night which is more dark in nature and more cooler cold is definitely more Yin the day which has the Sun is more warm and bright it's definitely more Yang usually we say feminine energy is more Yin women are more dark what can you say and Men energy or masculine energy is more Yang so you can have a woman that has a lot of masculine energy and be very Yang in nature even though she's a woman and you can also have a man that has feminine energy is more sensitive kind of person and is much more Yin in nature even though he's a man and he's Yang so can you see how opposite doesn't mean it's very completely totally Yin or totally Yang there's always change within the Yin and Yang in the opposition so let's look at a few more I'm going to look at the picture are the blue on the right and compare Yin and Yang for specifically disorders and when it comes to Chinese medicine and treating people so chronic disorder versus acute a chronic it's considered more Yin and acute more Yang it does not mean that every chronic condition is Yin or that every acute condition is Yang it's just when we compare chronic versus acute okay that's the difference the body or anything that's above is always sorry the body which is always below compared to the head which is above so the body is below it's closer to the Earth closer to the ground it's more Yin the head which is more up above or closer to the sky the Sun the heavens is more Yang so anything that's above is more Yang anything that's below is more Yin so if you compare your hands to your feet your hands are much more Yang your feet much more Yin because anything that above or closer to the Sun is more Yang anything that's also to the Earth is more yet someone with a weak voice feels very deficient Yin in nature compared to a loud voice which is more Yang and excess in nature we talked about this before an introvert versus an extrovert anatomy versus physiology so Anatomy is much more static physiology is much more energetic right so matter is Yin energy is Yang medial closer to the midline is more Yin in nature so all meridians that are in the front of the body or medial close to the midline or a much more Yin in nature while the meridians that are on the lateral or the side of the body and the back of the body are much more Yang cold I'm gonna need more Yin bluish kind of hotish condition are gonna be more Yang but again it depends we have to look at specific when we're comparing right so someone that is cold feeling stuffy achy shivery is more Yin in nature compared to someone who has the flu whose feverish sore throat and feels like they want to drink a lot of cold drinks they're more Yang okay someone that likes tea and hot drinks is more Yin in nature someone that like ice cold drinks is more Yang in nature someone that's deficient versus someone that's excess a Yin condition is more deficient a Yang the more excess but again not every Yang condition is excess and not every Yang condition is deficient it's just comparing the two okay so you got a bunch more on the other side there we said dark and bright right cold and hot heavy versus light wet or damp versus dry soft versus hard right so you can look at there's the feminine and masculine energy and look at all of them and compare the Yin and Yang so those are opposites now the second thing about the Yin and Yang is that they can transform into each other right and it's a qualitative change because we need certain condition to be able to change so the egg change into the chick which becomes the chicken and then the chicken lays the egg and then the egg change into the chick which becomes the chicken and which one came first the egg or the chicken don't ask me that question but it's the same at night changes in today and the day change in tonight and the cycle keeps repeating itself right so what does that mean well it means that also in diseases and disorders they can change into each other as well so for example someone wakes up in the morning with flu-like symptoms like feverish and a sore throat and feeling like oh no one I think I'm coming down with the flu which is more of a Yang disorder in nature but then the next day that person wakes up and now they're completely stuffy they feel achy shivery they want warm tea and they realize oh I thought I had the flu but no it's just a cold and now I feel all tired that's more Yin in nature so the fluish symptoms became the cold symptoms and that couldn't go the other way around as well so it's very often that the disorder can change and it's the same thing with we talked about introverted versus extroverted for example my husband was very introverted as a teenager very shy subconscious would not talk to people very reserved now he's the life of the party he's the extroverted guy and loves to be around people and make fun of everything and be the clown and be the center of attention completely different and maybe when it becomes older he'll go back into being a Yin person maybe you'll become a grumpy old man and don't talk to anybody but that's the intern transformation of Yin and Yang that's constantly happening it's never static things change all the time we know change is constant that's the Yin-Yang theory right there they are also in the interdependent of each other so they form a whole meaning that together they are one and they cannot exist without the other right so the interdependence is that basically you look at winter cannot exist without summer night cannot exist without day the expansion cannot exist without contraction that makes sense right they are opposite but they are dependent of each other the Liver and Gallbladder for example work together right they work together and they can be separated we can have our Gallbladder removed but then that affects everything in the digestive system right forever so the body cannot be separated from the mind they are dependent of each other that makes sense good Yin and Yang also have a mutual consumption and again it's a quantitative change meaning there's an adjustment continuously that has to happen for keeping the relative level of Yin and Yang balance so the balance between the rest and activity is one that is has to happen in order for balance to stay constant so for not Yin to be too much or Yang to be too much or not enough there's got to be a balance between rest and activity so when we exercise this is very Yang in nature we move we do a lot of exercise we get hot and warm sweaty this is very Yang in nature but we also need to balance this with Yin time Yin time means rest on so sleep relaxation meditation time to read a book using our mind instead of our body right so we need to balance constantly the Yin and the Yang within our body and that's what us as practitioners we try to do with patients is to keep their Yin and Yang as balanced as possible that's the first thing we want to do is to keep a homeostasis or a state of complete health that's our goal now we said earlier nothing is totally Yin and nothing is totally Yang so let's look at the extrovert person who likes to sing and be with people and party in order to stay balanced that person needs some downtime like a massage or meditation or reading a book but they need Yin time or downtime in order for their excess extroverted personality to be balanced and otherwise there's gonna be an out of balance person and an unhealthy person who's gonna eventually get sick or get a disorder the introvert person usually loves their downtown they like to read to be by themself to create maybe like to paint love to walk by themself or go for a run on the own but often they also still need other people and social interaction otherwise they're gonna feel imbalance and depress and lonely so they still need interaction and a lot of time teachers can be very much introverted but they feel comfortable in a classroom environment because they are in control of the students so that's the constant balance there's nothing can be totally Yin or totally Yang and as we said earlier there's always the seed of Yin within Yang and the seed of Yang within Yin when it comes to the Yin-Yang theory in Chinese medicine the Yin organs are the lung heart liver spleen kidney and pericardium for specifically meridians organs and system their opposite Yang organ or the large intestine the small intestine the gallbladder the stomach the urinary bladder and the San Jiao in English called the triple burner triple warmer or triple heater those organ or system and meridians are going to be very important in the way we're going to diagnose people using Yin and Yang theory to help us figure out what's out of balance with each patient and how we're gonna go about treatment so let's look at the pathology in general and excess of Yang so Yang is more warm in nature or fire right so if we have an excess of Yang within the body we're gonna have heat syndrome we're gonna have symptoms that are gonna have a lot of heat into them in excess of Yin the Yin is the cold part of everything opposite of Yang right so if Yang is heat again Yin is cold in excess of Yin causes cold syndrome so we're gonna have a lot of cold symptoms now a deficiency of Yang a deficiency of Yang means that you know fire since Yang is your fire the fire in you is not there you have lost your fire or if you want to see it as a house the heater in the house is broken and if the heat in the house is broken the house is gonna be really cold right the heater is broken no heat in the house more than a couple now if there's a deficiency of Yin remember Yin is the cold part of you if you have no cooling system the Yin part of you is your cooling system right if your cooling system is broken or your air conditioning in the house is broken the house is gonna be hot it's gonna feel that make sense so excess of Yang too much fire causes you to feel hot but the AC the air conditioning within your body or the deficiency of Yin also causes you to feel hot excess of Yin too much cold in the body is gonna make you feel cold but Yang deficiency or your heating system is broken then obviously you're gonna feel cold also so the idea is to look at those and say well how do I know if this person has excess Yang or Yin deficiency because they're both gonna feel hot how do I know if this person is Yang deficiency or Yin excess because they both gonna feel cool we need to figure out how those differences are happening in symptoms because the treatment is going to be completely different so homeostasis is the line where basically everything is in balance and the person is super duper rocking healthy if we have excess Yin so above the line too much cold in our body then we are that if we have not enough fire in the body a Yang deficiency we also feel cold so we have to figure out how do we know the difference well Yin excess or excess cold in the body always congeal it creates blood stagnation meaning that it becomes an ice cube so blood circulation is impaired and the blood circulation not being able to properly reach certain areas is gonna cult is gonna cause some pain symptom so excess Yin is gonna stop blood circulation and create pain now compared to Yang deficiency there is no fire no heat because it is broken or it's not working so our fire is down our heat is down we have no energy no energy very very fatigued so we're gonna compare those two and see the differences because after all if you have excess Yin see above the homeostasis on you want to get rid of the excess that's your treatment while if you have Yang deficiency then what you need to do is tonify right boost it you need to lift it back up to this homeostasis line so the treatment is not the same it's completely different with Yin excess we are gonna get rid of the excess and we're gonna move the blood circulation with the Yang deficiency we need to bring the heat back up so let's look at the different symptoms Yin excess versus Yang deficiency so we know which one it is usually someone that has Yin excess has tendency to have constipation which feels much better after a bowel movement while someone that's Yang deficient it's gonna have tendency to have undigested food in the stool loose stool diarrhea with undigested food and feel tired after the bowel movement the person that's Yin excess very difficult and warming up in excess I'll give you a syndrome frostbite people that go and have frostbite on their fingers they can't warm up it takes forever the fingers are so cold so painful there's no blood circulation they turned blue and purple right because there's no circulation while someone that's Yang deficient if you bundle them up and keep them nice and cozy and a lot of clothes they can eventually warm up as I said earlier Yin excess says people will have local local pain right very local pain so you can have menstruation pain that happens during menstruation that stabbing strong pain but it's relieved by warmth so when we put a heating pad on the lower belly then the pain gets better or we can have pain like sciatica sciatica pain on the glutes that is really painful but when we put the heat on it he feels much better ok so a local pain bluish color for Yin excess so like I said blueish fingers would be what we present a Yin excess with a Yang deficiency if we have something it will be definitely milder it won't be as strong and it will be better on massage so if someone gives you a nice rub a nice massage you feel much better while usually the person that is Yin excess does not like to be massaged because it hurts and it makes it very pain now someone that's Yin exercise usually a pale bluish face it's kind of like a bluish tone bluish purple tone because no circulation compared to someone that has no fire and that's really fatigued and has no energy there tone is gonna be pale and their face is gonna be pale because they have no fire no heat so no color it is also going to be puffy face and swollen tongue because if there is no fire the water circulation in the body is not going to happen and we're gonna have some water retention happening often edema and swelling that's chronic not acute Jung deficiency is usually not always but usually something that is more chronic why while the Yin excess can be chronic or acute more often and again nothing is totally one way or the other this is just comparing those two good alright let's continue now let's talk about again that homeostasis line and now we have Yin deficiency meaning not enough cooling system so we are down no cooling system the AC is broken so we feel hot or we have too much fire too much heat excess Yang in our body and we need to clear that up while the Yin deficiency will need to nourish and boost it back up to the line right so it's a very different treatment so the difference here that we can look at is a Yin deficiency which has no AC no cooling system is small heat symptom while the young excess all this excess fire is big heat symptom what does that mean when we compare the symptoms the Yin deficiency because it's a deficiency it's gonna have smaller symptoms while the Yang excess will have big symptoms so let's see what does that look like Yang excess person and the Yin deficiency person love cold drinks because of course they are hot they want cooling drinks right but the Yang excess is gonna go gulp gulp while the Yin deficiency is gonna sip sip sip see the big symptoms gulping versus the small symptoms sipping the person that's Yang excess just like some Simon Cowell here will have a red face so the whole face is red in general while the Yin deficiency only has red cheeks not the whole face just red cheeks okay the Yang excess is very restless cannot sit down shaky leg body that cannot stop while the person that's Yin deficiency is not necessarily moving but they're very anxious inside with in their mind in their body the Yang excess feels hot all the time all day all the time while Yin deficiency only feels hot in the evening and at night because night time it's Yin time well so the Yang excess person is gonna sweat a lot all the time while the Yin deficiency person usually sweats at night the Yang excess is gonna have a red tongue and so is the Yin deficiency because they both have heat but the excess can have excess meaning a yellow coat on the tongue more on the tongue right an extra yellow coat while the Yin deficiency has nothing its deficient so it has no coat and sometimes can be cracked so that's how we compare the two because we are gonna treat them differently can Yang excess lead to Yin deficiency absolutely it can can you have both yes we're just comparing and differentiating but yes you can have both that's it for me today I hope the Yin-Yang theory was made easy for you to grasp review and enjoy in this course if you want more go and check out the Facebook page daily fun post videos every day I create them all myself so go ahead and check them out check out obviously anything on the website for a lot of resources more courses videos PDF and lots of online continuing education as well for all the acupuncture professionals so go to acuproacademy.com if you want more stuff in the meantime have a fantastic day and keep rocking it using TCM!