Metabolic disturbances are wide and varied but all stem from the spleen and stomach.
In Chinese Medicine, the spleen is actually the pancreas but since the spleen and pancreas share a blood supply, disharmony of the pancreas can reflect in the spleen area.
Overwork, poor diet, lack of exercise, congenital factors and invasion of external climactic states can all cause disharmony of the spleen and or stomach.
Stomach qi is responsible for rottening and ripening consumed foods, and descends the food qi downwards.
The spleen is responsible for separating the clear and turbid, transforming and transporting the fluid and food qi, sending the clear qi up to the head, heart and lungs for the production of blood and the generation of flesh.
Both stomach and spleen qi can be depleted by overwork or a poor diet, but that is where the similarities stop.
The stomach loves moisture and abhors dryness but is commonly affected by heat. When stomach qi becomes deficient, it fails to descend properly and thus pools and becomes stagnant.
This stagnation of qi can cause either a buildup of fluid, which generates phlegm characterized by loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and frontal headaches as well as systemic signs such as phlegmy discharges or it can cause heat.
Heat in the stomach manifests with a strong appetite, a red face and nose, desire for cold drinks, acid reflux and a burning pain in the epigastrium. Heat can burn the fluid and cause it to congeal, causing phlegm-heat or it can burn the yin of the stomach which leads to a poor appetite, the feeling of hunger but then nausea when food is presented, slight thirst with desire to drink small drinks, night sweating and the loss of the tongue coating, usually in patches. Poor sleep can accompany this also.
Long term stomach deficiency and the subsequent stagnation can lead directly to blood stagnation in the stomach or the heat can congeal the blood with the same consequences. Stomach fire, stomach yin deficiency can both correspond to ulcerations, gastritis and generalized GERD (gastroesophageal reflux Disease) whilst blood stagnation is correspondent to malignant growths in the stomach.
Spleen disharmony tends toward qi deficiency also however this creates another scenario where fluid is not moved or transformed, leading to the accumulation of dampness (think fluid or fat) and the failure for clear qi to rise to the head, flesh or heart and lungs. Deficiency of blood is a common long term consequence as is muscle wasting and poor mental faculties ie difficulty concentrating or thinking.
Spleen qi deficiency is characterized by fatigue, poor appetite, loose stools and can be accompanied by spontaneous daytime sweating and shortness of breath.
Damp can further complicate the above with expectoration of phlegm, usually white in colour from any part of the body, putting on excess amounts of fatty weight and sweating alot, often with a damp, musty odor.
Further to spleen qi deficiency is spleen yang deficiency which consists of the above symptoms plus the feeling of cold.
The spleens final point is spleen qi sinking which is characterized by organic prolapse, something which is seen in chronically weakened patients after years of chronic disease (akin to overwork). This is the failure of the upbearing spleen qi to hold the organs in their rightful place.
All spleen disharmonies may be accompanied by digestive upsets including pain (particularly where damp is involved) bloating and borborygmus. Tenesmus is the feeling of incomplete bowel evacuation and this is common where damp is present, usually damp-heat.
Spleen qi corresponds to chronic fatigue, diabetes (some forms, particularly type 2 but this can also be stomach fire), prolapse, colitis, other bowel diseases and digestive problems below the stomach and muscle wasting syndromes.
All of the above syndromes, spleen and stomach included can be primary from the reasons listed above, or secondary to liver disharmonies which stagnate the qi and invade the stomach and spleen, interfering with their proper function, kidney disharmony which is often congenital at a young age and affects from birth (type 1 diabetes, muscular dystrophy are good examples) or can affect as one ages, long term consequences of trauma which interrupt the free flow of qi in the channels thus obstructing the livers function etc. And as a result of lung qi disturbance, brought about from severe or repeated external invasion of pathogenic factors into the lung.
