Defensive Qi – our energetic immune system
Weiqi & Lungs
In my previous post (which you can find here), I briefly mentioned the Weiqi 卫气. I call it the Guardian Qi, it is though usually referred to as Defensive Qi. The character 卫 means to guard or protect, but it is also used in words related to health or hygiene.不卫生 (Bù wèishēng, where 不is the negation of the word wèishēng, hygiene) means unhealthy or unhygienic. It was fascinating the kind of articles I got doing a brief search with the word 不卫生, all of them mentioning not cleaning one’s mobile is unhygienical!
Anyway, back to the Weiqi.
It flows under the skin in the space between the skin and the muscles, because it is coarser than the Nutritive Qi and thus it cannot enter the channels. The Defensive Qi is the first barrier we have when the body is attacked by external germs. When the Defensive Qi is strong, our body can better withstand viruses, germs, and the like. On the other hand, when this barrier is weak or there are “leakages”, whatever attacks our body from the exterior has a greater change to penetrate deeper and thus affect our internal system.
Besides protecting us from exterior “evil”, the Defensive Qi also regulates our body temperature and hydration and it is responsible for the opening and closing of the pores, thus controlling the sweating.
If you are sweating a lot during daytime without having made any physical efforts, chances are that your Defensive Qi is weak and is failing to keep the pores closed.
If you tend to feel easily cold, it might be that a weak Defensive Qi is not able to warm the skin and muscles.
The Qi in our body moves thanks to the action of the internal organs. The Lungs are the commander of the Defensive Qi and they are charged with spreading it under the skin.
Wait, why to you write the name of the organs with a capital letter?
Good question!
It is to differentiate the anatomical organ from the meaning given to an organ by the Traditional Chinese Medicine. The organ according to TCM is a combination of functions rather than anatomical structures. Having a problem with Yin or Yang organ according to TCM does not necessarily mean that you have a problem in the anatomical organ. If your TCM doctor says you have a Kidney deficiency for example (the Kidneys are a Yin organ) and you go to check your kidneys, your “usual doctor” is likely to tell you that there is no problem with your kidneys!
The way TCM looks at diseases is very different from Western medicine, and it cannot be “translated” one-to-one.
The Lungs are the most delicate organs in TCM because they are in direct contact with the exterior via the airways. A strong Lung-Qi means the Lungs are doing their job of protecting us and we are then less prone to get colds, among other things.
The Lungs love to stay humid and hate dryness, thus habits such smocking can affect the Lungs because tobacco is hot in nature and dries the liquids of the Lungs.
Maybe this is an additional reason to stop smocking ;p.
Disclaimer: everything I write about TCM is to share some knowledge and to raise awareness but please be aware that it is an oversimplification for the sake of communication, and it is not meant as a cure. If you have any health issue you want to solve with TCM, please consult a TCM practitioner. While most qigong exercises are harmless no matter the health issue, some food recipes or treatment I will mention, might have the opposite effect if you do not have the syndrome I write about. Thus, please take my TCM posts with a grain of salt and do not rush to do things without consulting a TCM doctor.